How to write a short story book? Step by Step Guide

A short story is a fiction's writer laboratory space. You can experiment with characters, plots, ideas without the heavy lifting work which is part of a novel. Storytellers and fiction writers can make more mistakes. However, writing a story is not an easy task. It is a hard skill to master. Great short story writers include Agatha Christie, Jeffrey Archer, Anton Chekhov, Mark Twain, Virginia Woolf and George Saunders. Many novel writers have written short stories, before they wrote novels. Here are some tips on how to compose a short story.

Tips on Composing/ Typing a Short Story

There is no secret for composing, or writing a short story. However, it needs to have the following elements:

• A protagonist with a desire/ need such as becoming a fairy, otherwise how will the story move forward.
• A clear dilemma of the protagonist, we do not need a backstory on how the dilemma started, however, it is important on how the protagonist resolves it.
• A decision needs to be included in the story to make it swing along to how the protagonist solves his/ her issues.
• An ending is also important in a short story to make it exciting for the readers, for instance, in Freytag's Pyramid, the climax is when, the story reaches the peak. The readers also discover the results of the decisions made by the protagonist.
• How does the climax change the protagonist, is he/ she a different person now? Do they exhibit a different philosophy/ ideology?

Short stories also utilize the elements of fiction such as setting, plot, and a point of view. One needs to study these elements to understand these intricacies. A short story does not have sub plots, but only a single storyline. Subplots will pull it away from the realm of a short story to a novel, or a novella.

How to Write a Short Story Stepwise?

There are many ways to approach the ways to write a short story. However, this is a tried and tested method to craft a short story. Here is how to write a short story.

• Start with an idea: Generating an idea to begin with is the hardest to ponder over. But what will you write about?
• Originality should be in storytelling, not in your ideas: For instance, the premise of A Midsummer Night's Dream, and a Snow Maiden resemble each other lot. Two men, and two women in intertwined love triangles try to grapple with their feelings for each other amidst forest spirits, love potions and friendship. The way each story is penned down makes them different and distinct.

• An idea is a beginning: An idea only begins the story; you need to explore the angles of your story and then, envision something completely different. This makes the story completely different.

• Experiment with various genres and tropes: You are writing literary fiction; you need to pay heed to the narrative structures that culminate in the stories that are genre specific. You can practice your storytelling with these structures. You can make your story original by playing with ideas.

• Outline your characters: If you want to outline your characters, then, first outline your idea. You should think of the characters that can inhibit the protagonist's journey. Ask the following questions to yourself, when, outlining your characters such as what is my character's background, where do they come from? How did they get here, what does your character desire the most, it can be material, or conceptual, what is your character's flaw, what limitation prevents the protagonist from achieving his desire. How does your character think, speak and act?

In short stories, characters cannot be so many like novels, the more characters you include, the story will become longer.

• Write scenes which may have conflicts: After you have decided on the outline, start building scenes around conflicts. Each sentence in your story should relate to the protagonist's conflict. Conflict is the lifeblood of storytelling; without it the reader would not want to keep reading. It makes things interesting for the reader just like Edgar Allan Poe's short story: The Cask of Amontillado, we start at the beginning of the conflict. The protagonist of the story wants to seek revenge, in addition, write scenes around conflict, and in ways that connect with the story of the protagonist.

• Write the first draft of your story: The scenes you build around the conflict may be stitched around to make a complete story. You need to set writing notes which can become your first draft, in this way a complete story may be etched. It is like shovelling sand into a box to make castles.

• Revise your Draft: When revising a draft, you need to make sure, each word has an essential place in the story.

• The length of the story: The length of the short story should be 1000 to 7500 words.

Writing a short story is a journey of creativity with every detail playing a crucial role in crafting a narrative, you need to remember the rule of being patient, hopeful and do not let things bog you down. In addition, the more you write, the better you become, so start now because your short story will be only a few words away.