Short Story Writing Project: How do you get started?
February 15, 2008 by J.C. Hewitt
One of the differences between a short story and a novel is that the idea for a short story doesn’t have to be as complex. In the case of a novel, you will usually want to have a pretty good plan going in. You will want to know all about your protagonist and have a pretty clear idea of the plot. The reason for this is commitment. Before you commit to writing 50,000 words or more about a single topic, you will want to feel confident in your ability to finish.
In the case of a short story, your preparation does not have to be as thorough. It certainly CAN be. You are welcome to outline your stories and create character profiles in the same way that you would for a novel. Because the commitment for a short story is so much less though, you can feel free to sit down and just start typing away with whatever comes to mind. You only have to fill a few thousand words at the most, so you don’t have that much to lose.
There is, of course, a middle ground between starting with no preparation and starting with a full outline and character sketches. Most people, when they sit down to write a short story have some idea of where they are going. They might have a character in mind, a situation they have been thinking about or even a setting that they find particularly interesting. Many short stories begin as a “what if” question. For example:
- What if a man inadvertently found himself stranded in an unfamiliar city just after the end of a serious relationship and decided to hole up in a hotel until he could figure out what to do with his life?
- What if two women met in a Las Vegas bar and figured out that they were both in town to marry the same man?
- What if a couple traveling across country decided to pass the time by playing a game of ever-escalating dares?
From a simple what if question, you can build a story. You may decide to map out character histories or plots, or you may dive right into the writing. With a short story, any of these options are viable. You just have figure out what works for you.
Thanks for all your wonderful suggestions and help when it comes to writing! I wanted to add a note to your short story post – when one is writing a novel, there has to be some kind of resolution at the end (usually it’s best that one doesn’t kill off all the characters unless it’s a tragedy, though). In short stories, this is not so. One can choose to resolve the situation or just tell about it for a bit. Heck, you can even kill off all the characters at the end. That’s one of the fun things about short stories.
That’s all I wanted to point up. Thanks again for all of your wonderful posts!
Many of my short stories are actually the kernels of novels distilled to their most essential elements. To make the story flow, I might change the intended relationship between characters or strike huge sections of plot.
For example, I might have an idea to write a story about the relationship between a daughter and a mother. In a novel, that kind of family relationship provides a rich seam to mine. However, it might not work out so well in a short story. Maybe, as I work through the material, I see that a short story could evolve by focusing on the desires of the girl, perhaps she’s looking to change her life and her mother is holding her back. If I change the mother to an older friend, or even a stranger, I can remove some of the back story that can make a story bog down (but works well in a novel).
Of course, there’s nothing to say that one couldn’t write a story about a mother and a daughter. The point is to find that essential element and build around it, ruthlessly slice out anything that doesn’t belong. No matter how much you might love it.
This makes for a slow story writing process, but then I’m not in a hurry.