How to Write a Short Story in 6 Steps

hi Jerry Jenkins here talking about writing today I want to show you a proven six step process for writing a compelling short story way a short story had not a novel I'll have a video on doing that too but frankly the biggest mistake you could make as a new writer would be to start your career with a novel a novel should not be where you begin but rather where you arrive in fact starting your writing career with a novel would be like attending graduate school when you should be in elementary school there's a lot to learn and you'll progress much faster if you start small like with short stories you'll face many of the same obstacles and dilemmas and questions you'd face when creating fiction of any length and you'll learn to work with an editor and be critiqued and you just might get a quarter million cliches out of your system ideally you'll learn proven fiction writing techniques and gain confidence and momentum now before we dive in let me tell you about a free bonus at the end of this video a guide to help you overcome writer's block start your short story and most importantly finish it so stay with me to the end to get that special bonus all right the first step to writing a compelling short stories to read as many great ones as you can find and I mean dozens and dozens of them seriously especially the classics familiarize yourself with the best in this genre study what works for the experts then try to emulate their work soon enough you'll find your own voice and develop your own style where to start with the work of Brett Lott a modern-day master look him up online and dig in then google classic short stories and you'll run across several of my favorites the tell-tale heart by Edgar Allan Poe but fall of the House of Usher also by Poe the pit and the pendulum also by Poe the Gift of the Magi by oh Henry the Ransom of the red chief also by oh Henry the necklace by Guy de Maupassant the celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County by Mark Twain the lady and the tiger by Frank Stockton and one of my all-time favorites the most dangerous game by Richard Connell I'll leave that slide up for you for a bit if you want to jot those down but of course you can always pause this recording to now this may sound like strange advice but it's important give yourself permission to be bad at reading short stories at first reading the modern-day masters and the classics should inspire you to try your hand at this which is the point of this video but your first efforts are not likely to match the quality of the best short story writers in history but think about it you don't remember learning to walk either but you've seen toddlers do this they plop down dozens at times before they finally get the hang of it same with learning to ride a bike or dance or bake a cake just treat your first efforts as learning experiences and eventually you'll refine your skills and get better at it the second step to writing a compelling short story is to come up with a winning idea at its core fiction writing isn't about rules or techniques or someone else's idea it's about your story well told compelling story ideas are all around you so train yourself to recognize them here are three strategies to generating story ideas first learn to recognize the germ you might remember a person a problem some tension a time of fear ask yourself what if questions about it what if that had turned out differently what if I didn't have an alibi for a devastating accusation what if my loved one had died stories are born from such questions then create characters from people you know friends neighbors co-workers and relatives form the basis for the characters who inhabit your story but be sure to mix and match their characteristics you might use one's gender another's age and others looks another's tone of voice you name it you'll wind up with a character with recognizable traits but no one who can be assumed to be your soul model lastly get your story down write your first draft to simply get down the basics of your story without worrying about grammar cliches redundancies or anything but the plot you'll get back to it later so you can edit and revise it all you want but for now just get it down this requires taking off your perfectionist cap while writing so you don't slow yourself to a crawl trying to fix things as you go okay the third step to writing a compelling short story is to narrow your scope naturally there's a drastic difference between a full-length novel and a short story containing about two percent of a novels number of words a novel can accommodate decades and an extensive cast of characters subplots and all the rest a short story must pack an emotional wallop with dramatically fewer elements the best short stories establish a character status quo often only one scene that also bears the weight of what it is you're trying to say about his life before whatever happens in your story so here's how you can tighten your story if your main character needs a cohort or a sounding board don't give her two combined characters where you can avoid description of settings or characters as a separate element rather write just enough to trigger the theater of your readers mind eliminate scenes that merely get your characters from one place to another the reader doesn't care how they got there or they can assume it so you can simply write late that afternoon Jim met Sharon at a coffee shop we don't need to see him getting ready arranging a ride at cetera the goal is to get to a resounding ending by portraying a poignant incident that reveals your story and its point the fourth step to writing a compelling short story is to employ a classic story structure I endorse the approach Dean Koontz recommends in his book how to write best-selling fiction he suggests a simple four-step approach first plunge your character into terrible trouble as soon as possible second everything your character does to try to get out of that trouble makes it only worse until third the predicament appears hopeless and then finally everything your hero learns from trying to get out of the terrible trouble he uses to succeed in the end now of course terrible trouble means something different depending on your genre in a thriller it might be life or death in our love story the trouble might be emotional regardless it should be the worst trouble you can conjure for your character then it's crucial to avoid wasting precious reading real estate setting up your plot or providing a lot of backstory give your readers just enough to make them care about your main character then get to the problem the quest the challenge the danger whatever it is that drives your story I'll write the fifth step to writing a compelling short story is to offer a satisfying ending it can't seem forced or contrived or give the impression the story has ended too soon here's an example of a great short story ending in a modern-day version of the prodigal son called the ride a character calls his father and leaves a message that if he's welcome to return home his father should leave the front porch light on otherwise if he finds the porch light off he'll understand and tell his cab driver to just keep going the rest of the story is him telling the cabbie how deeply his life choices have hurt his family the story ends with the taxi pulling into view of his child at home only to find not only the porch light on but also every light in the house and more out in the yard on long extension cords that ending needed no elaboration we didn't even need to be shown the reunion the embrace the tears the talk the lights said it all that's the kind of ending you want you may have heard me say this before but readers enjoy being educated and entertained but they never forget being emotionally moved the sixth and final step to writing a compelling short story is to edit it as if your life depends on it when you've finished the writing the real work has just begun it's time to become a ferocious self editor put on your perfectionist cabin examine and revise every element of your story spelling grammar punctuation sentence construction word choice flow cliches redundancies you name it tightening adds power omit needless words also pour over the manuscript looking for ways to engage your readers senses and evoke their emotions all writing is rewriting do whatever you have to do to give yourself the best chance to succeed and remember what makes you a writer is learning when you've gone from making your story better to making it only different strive to recognize when you've hit on the best version all right that's it for today if you found this video helpful like it comment on it and share it you can also click the subscribe button below to be notified whenever I release a new writer training video now here's that free bonus I mentioned earlier click on the link on your screen to get my guide how to maximize your writing time this will help you overcome writer's block and eliminate distractions so you can not only start your short story but also stay motivated to stick with it until it's finished and as good as it can be all the best with your writing and I'll see you next time

Channel: Jerry B. Jenkins

Views: 289,478

Keywords: how to write a short story, short story ideas, writing a short story, how to write a short story for beginners

Id: urkCu0F7XCc

Length: 9min 51sec (591 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 09 2020