Guidelines for Writing Short Stories

Top Selling Short Fiction Stories Contain Certain Elements

Jan 18, 2009

A writer needs to understand the structure of a short story to write one that will sell. Short stories are not just short books, they are their own literary forms.

Short story writers have a variety of approaches to crafting their stories, but most will follow a common formula. There are essential elements in every short story:

The writer can set these elements down as benchmarks in the story, bouncing ideas off them and structuring the story around them.

Characters

In a related article, Character Development in Fiction Writing, there are tips for developing characters. Generally in a short story there is one key character and one character through which the story is told. Sometimes these are the same character, in which case the story told is in the first person. Short stories are usually 1,000 to 2,500 words, which does not leave the writer much room to develop complex characters like those found in more lengthy fiction works.

It is still important to bring the character to life for the reader, however. If the reader does not identify with or believe the character, the story will not be successful. Using the 'show' and not 'tell' technique referred to in the above-referenced article, the writer can reveal the main character's personality traits without simply listing them. Giving the short story main character a strong personality trait is one way to give the reader something to identify with.

The Importance of Conflict

There needs to be some conflict in the story in order to move it forward. Why is the story being written? Is the clash occurring between the main character and another character? Or is the conflict with the main character and the environment or within him or herself? The conflict is what will bring the reader to the story and keep him or her hooked on it enough to read it to the end. The reader will want to know how the conflict is resolved.

Joseph Connor wrote in an article on a Website called Advice and Inspiration for Writing Short Stories that one thing short story writers need to understand is to get to the point quickly. Identify the conflict early in the story to hook the reader.

The trouble part of the story is the actual crisis of the conflict. This is the high point of the story, where decisions need to be made that will lead to the resolution of the crisis. The clash identified earlier in the story will naturally lead to the crisis. The writer at this point needs to have the key character do something that will keep the reader involved, and is important to the key character. It is key here to make sure that the action taken or decision made by the main character is in keeping with the personality of the character that has already been defined. The reader needs to believe that the character would actually behave in this way.

Turning Point

There must be a change in the circumstance of story as a result of the crisis. If there is no change, there is no story. The turning point does not have to be overly dramatic, but it will show the reader that the main character has learned something or the situation in the beginning of the story has changed in some way.

The author can take these four elements and weave them throughout a new short story or even go back to a previously written one and apply them to it. The end result could be a short story that was rejected before is now sold.

The copyright of the article Guidelines for Writing Short Stories in Writing Short Stories is owned by Janie Sullivan. Permission to republish Guidelines for Writing Short Stories in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.