Top 4 Tricks & Tips for Anyone Writing Their First Short Story

As an aspiring writer, you have a lot of passion for what you do – you want to express yourself through storytelling while also exploring your own inner identity. You have this inexplicable urge to portray human suffering, tragedy, and hardship through fiction. You also want to go the extra mile to connect with your readers and inspire them, which is an incredibly noble thing to do.

Now, you want to start small by writing short stories or even journal entries. You know that you have a lot of work ahead of you in terms of finding your voice and fleshing out your ideas. However, short story writing involves a lot of nuances, intricacies, and many other considerations, all of which can help you succeed and continue to improve as a writer.

With all that being said, here are four tricks and tips for writing short stories:

Tip #1 – Know that short stories and novels are not the same

In general, novels require a lot of world-building. They also usually adhere to the classical dramatic structure, which includes exposition, an inciting incident, rising action (a steady increase in tension), and a climax (followed by a brief denouement, or falling action). It goes without saying that novels, because of their format, take on a much different structure from short stories.

Okay, so now you're wondering, “What kind of structure should you apply when writing a short story?” Many professional writers will often provide you with conflicting answers to this question. However, many short stories tend to focus on a single character who's often dealing with problems that are irreconcilable.

Tip #2 – Your short story occurs at the end of a conflict

The tension within your story should already be approaching a crescendo as you begin writing. The main character is immediately confronted with a problem that they must address or resolve in some way. Your job is to get to the point and speed things up so that the plot itself is cohesive and contains multiple essential dramatic elements.

Tip #3 – Only include a minimal number of characters

As a rule of thumb, try to minimize the number of characters to three while writing your first short story. Each character is going to perform a specific role – you'll have a protagonist (the principal character), an antagonist (your villain), and a companion/protector (someone who helps defend the protagonist). I recommend that you combine multiple attributes and psychological complexions into your main character.

Tip #4 – Make your main character sympathetic

The reader will root for someone whom they admire (you realistically want them to view the main character favorably in some way). Your goal is to show the audience that your character is battling the forces of nature and other cosmic factors that are against them. The character's problem is something that they often can't control and will crush them if they don't do something about it. These are elements of fiction writing that evoke sympathy in practically every reader/audience member.

The Art of Short Story Writing

You're likely eager to begin writing short stories because it allows you to exercise and flex your creative muscle. However, your writing will flourish when you apply the methods and techniques that I described in this article to your writing. Remember, the best thing that you can do is to keep writing as much as possible – practice makes perfect!

Also, if you are interested in reading unique and captivating short stories, be sure to visit my writing blog: Nicholas Pappas at vocal.media.

Also, I encourage you to read my most recent short story. Depicting an extremely grim political outlook for the United States, the story is entitled “O'Sullivan's Law”