Short stories are brief and powerful in their succinctness. Good short stories have well developed characters, story lines and settings just like a full length novel. They’re often a great starting point for beginning writers enrolled in their first creative writing courses. And they’re fun to write!
There are some notable differences between developing a novel and a short story. Here are some tips to keep in mind for short story writing:
Stick to a single simple idea – because your story is brief, you’ll want to follow a single idea or theme to its completion. Including too many twists and turns could confuse your reader – save these for longer works.
Don’t skimp on the basics – you need a beginning, middle and end as well as strongly developed characters, a setting – everything you would include in a novel. You may find yourself streamlining some of your concepts but all of the essential parts need to be there.
Stay with fewer characters – each new character adds more depth and complexity to your story. By focusing and honing in on just a few key subjects, you’ll be able to develop them more thoroughly in your short story.
Stick to a short time frame – a successful short story covers a short time frame thoroughly and in fine detail – you don’t want to be giving a brief overview of a character’s entire life. Paint a short story as you would a single scene from a screenplay – be as descriptive and as detailed as you can be about a brief passing of time. If these tips did not help you, I advise you to contact assignment writing services.
