How to Write a Short Story in 6 Steps

If you're a new writer, starting your career with a novel might not be the best idea. 

Instead, starting with short stories can help you progress much faster. In this article, we'll explore a proven six-step process for writing a compelling short story.

The six steps include reading and studying short stories, generating a winning idea, narrowing your scope, employing a classic story structure, offering a satisfying ending, and editing rigorously. 

You can learn proven fiction writing techniques and gain confidence and momentum by following these steps.

Key Takeaways

• Starting your writing career with short stories can help you progress much faster than starting with a novel.
• The six steps to writing a compelling short story include reading and studying short stories, generating a winning idea, narrowing your scope, employing a classic story structure, offering a satisfying ending, and editing rigorously.
• Permit yourself to be bad at reading short stories at first, and treat your first efforts as learning experiences.

The Importance of Starting Small

Starting your career with a novel could be a huge mistake if you are a new writer. Instead, it is recommended that you start with short stories. 

Short stories allow you to face many of the same obstacles and dilemmas that you would face when creating fiction of any length. 

They also help you to learn proven fiction writing techniques and gain confidence and momentum.

One of the biggest benefits of starting small is that it allows you to refine your skills and get better at writing. 

You can learn from your mistakes and improve your writing with each story you write. It is important to give yourself permission to be bad at reading short stories at first. 

Your first efforts are not likely to match the quality of the best short story writers in history, but treat your first efforts as learning experiences.

Another benefit of starting small is that it helps you to narrow your scope. Short stories require you to pack an emotional wallop with dramatically fewer elements. 

You need to establish a character status quo in just one scene that also bears the weight of what it is you're trying to say about their life before whatever happens in your story. 

You can tighten your story by eliminating scenes that merely get your characters from one place to another. The goal is to get to a resounding ending by portraying a poignant incident that reveals your story and its point.

Employing a classic story structure is also crucial when writing a compelling short story. Plunge your character into terrible trouble as soon as possible. 

Everything your character does to try to get out of that trouble makes it only worse until the predicament appears hopeless. Finally, everything your hero learns from trying to get out of the terrible trouble is used to succeed in the end.

Offering a satisfying ending is the final step to writing a compelling short story. It can't seem forced or contrived or give the impression the story has ended too soon. 

A great short story ending can be emotionally moving. Readers enjoy being educated and entertained, but they never forget being emotionally moved.

Step 1: Read and Study Short Stories

To begin writing a compelling short story, the first step is to read and study as many great short stories as possible. Familiarizing yourself with the best in this genre will help you to learn proven fiction writing techniques and gain confidence and momentum.

Start by reading the work of modern-day masters like Brett Lott, and then move on to classic short stories such as "The Tell-Tale Heart" and "The Fall of the House of Usher" by Edgar Allan Poe, "The Gift of the Magi" and "The Ransom of the Red Chief" by O. 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 "The Most Dangerous Game" by Richard Connell.

Don't be discouraged if your first attempts at reading short stories are not up to the quality of the best short story writers in history. 

Permit yourself to be bad at reading short stories at first, and treat your first efforts as learning experiences. Eventually, you will refine your skills and get better at it.

Reading short stories will help you to recognize the elements of a winning idea, which is the second step to writing a compelling short story. 

Fiction writing is about your story, well told, and compelling story ideas are all around you. Learn to recognize the germ of an idea, and ask yourself "what if" questions about it. 

Create characters from people you know, but be sure to mix and match their characteristics. Write your first draft to simply get down the basics of your story without worrying about grammar, cliches, redundancies, or anything but the plot.

The third step to writing a compelling short story is to narrow your scope. Short stories must pack an emotional wallop with dramatically fewer elements than a full-length novel. 

Establish a character status quo in one scene, and eliminate scenes that merely get your characters from one place to another. 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. 

Plunge your character into terrible trouble as soon as possible, and everything your character does to try to get out of that trouble makes it only worse until the predicament appears hopeless. 

Then, everything your hero learns from trying to get out of the terrible trouble he uses to succeed in the end.

The fifth step to writing a compelling short story is to offer a satisfying ending. The ending should not seem forced or contrived, or give the impression the story has ended too soon. 

A great short story ending will emotionally move readers, like the ending of "The Ride" where the porch light and every light in the house are on to welcome the prodigal son home.

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 edit and revise your story until it is the best it can be.

Step 2: Generate a Winning Idea

Recognize the Germ

To come up with a compelling story idea, you need to train yourself to recognize the germ. This could be a person, a problem, some tension, or 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.

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'll wind up with a character with recognizable traits but no one who can be assumed to be your soul model.

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.

Step 3: Narrow Your Scope

When writing a short story, it is important to remember that it is not a novel. A short story should have a narrow scope, containing only about two percent of the words in a novel. 

To achieve this, you must pack an emotional punch with dramatically fewer elements. 

The best short stories establish a character's status quo in often only one scene, which bears the weight of what you are trying to say about their life before the events of the story.

To narrow your scope, you can try the following techniques:

• Combine characters where possible to avoid unnecessary complexity.
• Write just enough description of settings or characters to trigger the reader's imagination.
• Eliminate scenes that merely get your characters from one place to another.
• Focus on portraying a poignant incident that reveals your story and its point.

By employing these techniques, you can ensure that your short story is focused and impactful, leaving a lasting impression on your readers.

Step 4: Use a Classic Story Structure

To write a compelling short story, it is essential to employ a classic story structure. This approach involves four simple steps, as recommended by Dean Koontz in his book "How to Write Best-Selling Fiction."

The first step is to plunge your character into terrible trouble as soon as possible. This trouble can be life or death in a thriller or emotional in a love story. 

Regardless of the genre, it should be the worst trouble you can conjure for your character.

The second step is to make everything your character does to try to get out of that trouble only worse. This builds tension and keeps your readers engaged.

In the third step, the predicament appears hopeless. This is where your character hits rock bottom and the reader wonders how they will ever get out of the situation.

Finally, in the fourth step, everything your hero learns from trying to get out of the terrible trouble is used to succeed in the end. 

This is where the story reaches its climax and the reader experiences a satisfying resolution.

It is crucial to avoid wasting precious reading of real estate setting up your plot or providing a lot of backstories. 

Give your readers just enough to make them care about your main character, then get to the problem, quest, challenge, or danger that drives your story.

Readers enjoy being educated and entertained, but they never forget being emotionally moved. Therefore, it is essential to offer a satisfying ending that is not forced or contrived. 

An excellent example of a great short story ending is the modern-day version of The Prodigal Son called "The Ride."

Remember, when you finish writing, the real work has just begun. It's time to edit your story as if your life depends on it. This requires taking off your perfectionist cap while writing so you can focus on the plot. You can always edit and revise it all you want later.

Step 5: Offer a Satisfying Ending

The ending of your short story should be satisfying and not seem forced or contrived. It should not give the impression that the story has ended too soon. 

A great short story ending can be seen in a modern-day version of the prodigal son called "The Ride." In this story, 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.

Step 6: Edit Rigorously

The final step in writing a compelling short story is to edit it thoroughly. This is where you refine your work and make it the best it can be.

You should approach the editing process with a critical eye. Be prepared to make significant changes to your story.

Start by reading through your story and making note of any areas that need improvement. Look for inconsistencies in the plot, weak character development, and awkward sentence structure.

Once you've identified these areas, begin making changes to strengthen your story.

It's important to be ruthless during the editing process. Don't be afraid to cut entire sections if they don't add to the story, or to rewrite entire paragraphs to improve clarity.

Keep in mind that every word counts in a short story, so make sure that each sentence is necessary and contributes to the overall story.

After you've made your initial edits, read through your story again and make additional changes as needed. Pay attention to the flow of the story.

Make sure that each scene builds on the one before it. Also, make sure that your characters are consistent throughout the story, and that their actions and dialogue are believable.

Finally, have someone else read your story and provide feedback. This could be a friend, family member, or writing group member.

Take their feedback seriously, and be open to making additional changes based on their suggestions.

PS: Here are 59+ Creative Writing Prompts to Inspire your Next Story.