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endarkus-blog · 6 years ago

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How to Write a Great Fiction Short-Story

Writing is be a great hobby to undertake at any time during life, and it is extremely flexible, limited only by the imaginary plane within your mind. And within writing, the most common form; short stories. Short stories can be written for fun in a few nights, (or even one) or maybe you’ve found yourself having to write a story for a school assignment and have no idea how to begin. Either way, I’m here to help. I’ve been writing for over five years, this accompanied by my own fair share of research all over, will surely help you in whatever situation you find yourself in. And by the end of my little blog you will be able to write a basic short story that you have created.

STEP ONE.

Well for starters, what is your story about? A gripping love tale? A gruesome murder spree? A great battle between humans and a extra-terrestrial lifeform? The possiblities are endless, but here a few ideas for you.

Fan Fiction - do you love somebody on TV? YouTube? A celebrity? Write about them, just don’t do any privacy invasion!

Horror - monsters, ghosts, aparitions, maybe even take inspiration from a well known horror movie?

Science Fiction - (my favourite) your own fictional depiction of possible scientific advances and using them in a story, eg. Elysium.

Adventure - adventure stories are well, adventurous, almost always have characters facing danger, adding a sense of excitement for a reader.

STEP TWO

Okay, now that you have the frameworks for the house that is you short story, we need to develop character(s) and a setting. Who or what are the characters? Where and when are these characters? What is going to happen? What are they going to do? Is there going to be a murder? Danger? Make sure to remember:

Create a setting, make it match to your story idea. If you went with a medieval/fantasy adventure story, a castle would be a (cliche) good starting point. Sketching your setting is also helpful as you have a visual representation of what is actually going on.

Give your character(s) a personality. Create a mind map or brainstorm some ideas, create a character and put them to paper. Making them relatable is great for a reader because it adds a sense of realism. And stay consistent, the character(s) can change over time but don’t completely change the way they think/act.

If you have multiple characters, make them different! Not just physically but mentally! If one character is a middle-aged, introvert male, have an outgoing young female? (Of course the characters don’t have to be polar opposites like I just suggested).

STEP THREE

The above image accurately reperesents the most common, well-known and (in my opinion) easiest and best way to write a story. In the beginning of your story, you should introduce the setting and slowly introduce each character if you have more than one. However I would advise against naming them from head to toe immediatly, it is not crucial knowledge for a reader at the very start. Alot of writers including myself like to stretch out our character description. Perhaps beginning with what the character was wearing on that particular day? And a good way of showing mentality of a character rather than stating “John responded shyly..” you could say “S,s,s sorry,’ John replied.” Both of these sentences show that John is a shy person, however it is far more powerful to have an underlying shyness rather than coming out and saying that John is shy. Who is John anyway?

When I write a story, I sortof make it up as I go along. I have a rough plot outlined in my head, and as the story progresses I may think of better ideas or change what I already had planned. Writing is endless, don’t confine it to rules you’ve set for yourself. Anyway, after you’ve introduced the characters, setting, maybe the weather and time, you can begin creating an actual story. By this I mean what events are going to occur. For example in a novella I wrote recently called “The War Within the Fortress” two men from opposite sides of a medieval family feud are forced to work together despite the tension between them. In the beginning I (as said before) described them, and slowly added more and more. I then begun what I wanted to happen which I will sum up: the two men encounter a dangerous wild boar, one of the men is killed. And while that is extremely short, the story maxed out at about four-thousand words. Once again, you don’t have to stick to one idea, but a good story revolves around the main storyline.

When beginning to actually write your story, (if following the picture shown above) you would start to create a rising action/conflict. For example, the men being attacked by the boar was the rising action. This conflict could be anything, the husband cheats on the wife, the spaceships’ air supply is breached, the murderer strikes againe etc. This will then lead to the climax which is the highest point and perhaps highest point of conflict during the story. Example: the boar attack was the climax of my story. The climax could be anything, the wife might murder her husband, the murderer might be caught, the astronauts might get sucked into the sun. With writing the possibility is absolutely endless.

After the climax, things start to even out. The climax events finish and the responses and repercussions to what happened play out in the falling action. For example (once again) after one of the men is killed the man accompanying him returns to the castle to notify his family, with a great backlash due to the underlying tension between the two families. The wife might cover up her murder, the story might fast track through time and the murderer is still in prison, and maybe the spaceship crashes on earth ten years later and the technology is almost ancient compared to what humans had achieved in that time. The falling action is then followed by the resolution, in most cases this is where all of the loose ends are tied up, every little piece of the puzzle is accounted for and put back together. Did the husband’s wife have a friend that the wife had to murder too? Did the spaceship get put into an exhibit in a musem? Did the murder die in jail? Whatever it may be, make sure that every possible loose end is indeed tied up, this will create a satisfaction for readers knowing that they know everything that happened. (unless of course you plan on writing a series).

THE END

Thanks for reading my little blog post, (my first ever by the way). I hope that you learnt something and were able to create a fantastic product of whatever your heart desires, let me know if you want more. (probably not).

#writers #writing #howtowrite #howtowriteashortstory #howtowriteastory #reading #bookworm #booklover #bookblogger #books #howto #publishing #amwriting

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