Writing - Short Story Writing. Advice?
@SometimesINovel (102)
Accord, New York
February 14, 2016 10:00am CST
So. I'm a writer that's always written long works. Novellas and Novels. Every time I attempt writing a short story, it ends up becoming a novella. And now, a few friends of mine are going to be collecting short stories for submission for their publishing company they are working on. This isn't due until June, but I know that if I can't wrap my head around this short story writing, I won't be able to get it done in time.
The limit is five thousand words.
For all you writers out there, do you have any advice for me? I've already started the piece, and am already thinking of ways to expand the story (ugh)! Help me out? How do you go about writing short stories? Is it easy? Difficult? What would you recommend?
11 people like this
10 responses
@msiduri (5687)
• United States
14 Feb 16
Funny you should ask. My short stories are all over the place. My shortest is about 250 words. My longest is 11,000. (Yes, that's the correct number of 0s. *sigh*)
The only thing I could suggest is to start with a single sentence, a theme you wish to explore.
Write your hook from that. Write your ending from that, then write your climax from that, etc. Yeah, it's pain in the rear end way to do it, but can help keep the word limit down and keep the subplot from creeping in.
3 people like this
@SometimesINovel (102)
• Accord, New York
15 Feb 16
@msiduri
I'll try doing some brainstorming with that idea in mind. Thanks!
1 person likes this
@irishidid (8688)
• United States
15 Feb 16
I thought that way but after writing a book full of short stories I found it is easier than you think. Some of the others have given good advice.
1 person likes this
@irishidid (8688)
• United States
15 Feb 16
@SometimesINovel What's funny is that I tend to write very tight so I have a difficult time getting to a certain word count. In some respects it is a good thing but in others not so good! LOL
1 person likes this
@SometimesINovel (102)
• Accord, New York
15 Feb 16
@irishidid
As I keep trying at it, it is getting a LITTLE easier. It'll probably take a lot of reworking to get it under 5k, though.
1 person likes this
@SometimesINovel (102)
• Accord, New York
15 Feb 16
@irishidid
I guess we all have our challenges, huh?
@CaptAlbertWhisker (32507)
• Calgary, Alberta
16 Feb 16
When I use my imagination , I end up writing a novella or a novel. In able for me to write a short story, I just make an exaggerated version of my personal experience and I just rename the real life people with different names to make it fictional.
@SometimesINovel (102)
• Accord, New York
15 Feb 16
@WorDazza
Definitely. I've been writing as simply as I can to avoid going overboard on detail or adding unneeded things.
1 person likes this
@JudyEv (325759)
• Rockingham, Australia
15 Feb 16
I have trouble writing TO that length. I mostly write short short stories. You've had some good suggestions. WorDazza has suggested no sub-plots and no flowery prose. Keep description to a minimum. Mostly I write my story then go back and keep cutting out and cutting back till I get to the word count I want. Good luck.
@Bluedoll (16774)
• Canada
15 Feb 16
a solution or a short shorter story about scene one? I dunno.
Scene 1:
"What are you doing?"
Blue was not a writer but always aspiring to be.
"I'm writing one scene," replied the real writer.
"Is that like in a movie that is really made up of many scenes spliced together to form a movie?"
The television in the background flickered suddenly as there was a scene change. The next scene took place in a different room.
"Is there a point to this," asked the writer?
"A short story is one scene?"
end of scene 1
Scene 1:
"What are you doing?"
Blue was not a writer but always aspiring to be.
"I'm writing one scene," replied the real writer.
"Is that like in a movie that is really made up of many scenes spliced together to form a movie?"
The television in the background flickered suddenly as there was a scene change. The next scene took place in a different room.
"Is there a point to this," asked the writer?
"A short story is one scene?"
end of scene 1
@KristenH (33351)
• Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio
15 Feb 16
Short stories tend to be a couple pages long. Seventeen magazine had a short story contest, which had to be 16 pages long. Think of a simple plot with few characters for word count around 500-5000 words. Dabbles are real short stories. I've done them in the past and haven't done them in a decade.
@oneoveralpha (434)
• Brookville, Pennsylvania
15 Feb 16
I've written a lot of flash fiction and often times my stories seemed almost like a joke. In the sense there was the set up, and then the punchline. That seems to work for very short pieces, of a few hundred words, but the idea should work for longer stories.
