Tips for Writing a Short Story

I'm a writer and sometimes in my free time I like to write short stories. I mainly just write them for a warm-up exercise, but I noticed that people struggle with the plot. If you have trouble creating characters or twists in a stories plot, you're not alone. When I first started writing I would get writers block all the time. I felt like I was always drawing a blank. I've learned from my mistakes, so here are a couple of ideas you can incorporate into your next short story.

Draw inspiration from real life

I found that speaking from a truthful perspective is a good start. Writing a short story that actually happened to you is easier than making something up. Of course you have to change the names and location to keep it fictional, but overall it's a good way to get a nice plot. I often use things that happened in my life, and I just add to them to give me a solid foundation. The more you practice this style of writing, you can say good-bye to writer's block altogether.

Get to the point

Short stories should be short and they shouldn't exceed 1000 words. I've read some short stories that are like an excerpt from a novel. That's too long and your readers will stop reading your piece. I found that the "sweet spot" for short stories is about 500 words or less. You have to be quick and sum up the entire story in a short amount of time. I write a general outline to what happens to the characters, and I build off of that idea. Don't get caught up into making the story perfect right away, there's always time to tweak your content.

Start at the ending first

When I write short stories I always know the ending first. This is a great starting point for the story because you can give the story structure. I've had other writers tell me they start from the beginning, but I think it makes more sense to know the ending first. Choose which way works best for you, but make sure that you can fit all the pieces together. The ending is what the reader will remember the most, so make it count.

He's a character

Character building in a short story is essential for any author. Focus on character traits that you encounter in everyday life. This will make people relate to the characters more. If the character is in the inner city make them have mannerisms as such. You don't want a proper speaking character in an urban kind of environment, unless he's a geeky character. Try to use as many real life situations as possible to create authenticity. Often when writers are creating a character they don't research the way people act. Google and watch videos from people of all different types of ethnic backgrounds, so your writing is spot-on.