Как написать short story на английском - Правописание и грамматика

Рекомендации по написанию истории на олимпиаде по английскому языку (школьный тур)

Пример задания

Write a short story.

Start your story with the following sentence:

It was Katia’s 20^th birthday.

Use the following sentence at the end of your story:

In the end it was her best birthday ever!

Remember to:

include a title;
describe events in an interesting way;
include elements of direct a speech;
include description of feeling and emotions.

Write 120 words. 50 минут!

Вот так выглядит задание по письму.

1. Обязательно придумай и запиши название истории. Не будет заглавия, иначе потеряешь балл.

2. История должна содержать минимум 3 абзаца: введение, основная часть и заключение. Каждый абзац должен начинаться с красной строки.

Первый абзац должен начинаться с предложения, которое дано в задании. Что писать далее?

Кто

Что делает

Где

Опиши место, где все происходит

Опиши настроение героя

Второй абзац должен содержать яркое необычное цепляющее событие. Элементы прямой речи обязательны (1-2 реплики)!

Третий абзац должен заканчиваться предложением, которое дано в задании. До этого необходимо логически завершить историю и описать настроение героя после события.

Upset расстроенный	Happy веселый
Bored скучающий	Pleased довольный
Tired усталый	Excited взволнованный
Busy занятой	Surprised удивленный
Angry злой	Friendly дружелюбный
Cross сердитый	Funny смешной
Sad грустный	Glad радостный

Помни!

Обязательно нужно использовать средства логической связи, которые выделяются запятыми:

First,…	Сначала,…
Next,…	Потом, …
Then,…	Затем,…
Later,…	Позже,…
Finally, …	В конце концов,…
Suddenly,…	Вдруг,…
One day,…	Однажды,…
In the end	В конце концов…

Обязательно используем линкеры для того, чтобы связывать слова в предложение:

and	и
but	но
because	потому что
so	поэтому

Обязательно используем Past Simple или Past Continuous. (прошедшее время) при написании истории.

V ed/2 was/were +Ving

Обязательно используем прилагательные и наречия для того, чтобы сделать историю интереснее.

quickly	быстро
slowly	медленно
very	очень
rather	довольно таки
too	слишком
sadly	печально
patiently	терпеливо
unexpectedly	неожиданно
nervously	нервно
quietly	тихо
happily	счастливо
strange	странный
exciting	захватывающий
enjoyable	радостный
huge	огромный
awful	ужасный
fantastic	фантастический

Обязательно посчитай количество слов. Их должно быть 120

(108-132). Помни! Два предложения из самого задания не входят в подсчет. А вот заглавие, которое ты придумал сам, входит в твою копилку.

Обязательно проверь истории на грамматические и лексические ошибки. Перечитай ее еще раз.

Обязательно должно быть 6 пунктов:

1. Название

2. Первое предложение из задания

3. Интересное событие

4. Прямая речь

5. Эмоции героя

6. Последнее предложение из задания

Тогда получишь все 3 балла!!!

Как оформить прямую речь?

Схемы предложений с прямой речью:

Слова автора в начале

The postman said, “I will deliver this letter tomorrow.”

She asked, “Do you feel comfortable here?”

Слова автора в конце

“I will not accept his apology,” she said.

(Сначала местоимение, потом глагол)

“My brother is a student,” said David.

“Please help me,” begged the man.
(Сначала глагол, потом имя или существительное)

The best birthday

It was Katia’s 20^th birthday. Her friends and I were meeting at Mamma Mia’s, her favorite Italian restaurant, for a special birthday dinner. She was excited. She got to the restaurant at exactly 7 o’clock. She looked around, but no one had arrived yet.

Then the restaurant quickly filled up with customers, but no one of them was Katia’s friends. “Where are they?” she thought. She decided to call her best friend Isa. She didn’t answer, so she called John and Alex. “What’s going on?” Katia wondered nervously.

At 8 o’clock Katia went home sadly. Her friends had forgotten her birthday. She felt lonely. She opened the front door. Suddenly, the lights went on and all her friends jumped up and shouted joyfully. She was so happy! In the end it was her best birthday ever!

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For many writers, the short story is the perfect medium. It is a refreshing activity. For many, it is as natural as breathing is to lungs. While writing a novel can be a Herculean task, just about anybody can craft—and, most importantly, finish—a short story. Writing a novel can be a tiresome task, but writing a short story, it’s not the same. A short story includes setting, plot, character and message. Like a novel, a good short story will thrill and entertain your reader. With some brainstorming, drafting, and polishing, you can learn how to write a successful short story in no time. And the greatest benefit is that you can edit it frequently until you are satisfied.

Sample Short Stories

1
Come up with a plot or scenario. Think about the concept of the story, what the story is going to be about and what is going to happen in the story. Consider what you are trying to address or illustrate. Decide what your approach or angle on the story is going to be.^[1]
- For example, you can start with a simple plot like your main character has to deal with bad news or your main character gets an unwanted visit from a friend or family member.
- You can also try a more complicated plot like your main character wakes up in a parallel dimension or your main character discovers someone else’s deep dark secret.
2

Focus on a complicated main character. Most short stories will focus on one to two main characters at the most. Think about a main character who has a clear desire, or want, but who is also full of contradictions. Do not simply have a good character or a bad character. Give your main character interesting attributes and feelings so they feel complicated and well-rounded.^[2]

Making Characters that Pop:
Finding Inspiration: Characters are all around you. Spend some time people-watching in a public place, like a mall or busy pedestrian street. Make notes about interesting people you see and think about how you could incorporate them into your story. You can also borrow traits from people you know.
Crafting a Backstory: Delve into your main character’s past experiences to figure out what makes them tick. What was the lonely old man like as a child? Where did he get that scar on his hand? Even if you don’t include these details in the story, knowing your character deeply will help them ring true.
Characters Make the Plot: Create a character who makes your plot more interesting and complicated. For example, if your character is a teenage girl who really cares about her family, you might expect her to protect her brother from school bullies. If she hates her brother, though, and is friends with his bullies, she’s conflicted in a way that makes your plot even more interesting.

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3
Create a central conflict for the main character. Every good short story will have a central conflict, where the main character has to deal with an issue or problem. Present a conflict for your main character early in your short story. Make your main character’s life difficult or hard.^[3]
- For example,
  maybe your main character has a desire or want that they have a hard time fulfilling. Or perhaps your main character is trapped in a bad or dangerous situation and must figure out how to stay alive.
4

Pick an interesting setting. Another key element of a short story is the setting, or where the events of the story are taking place. You may stick to one central setting for the short story and add details of the setting to scenes with your characters. Choose a setting that is interesting to you, and that you can make interesting for your reader.^[4]

Tips on Crafting a Setting:
Brainstorming descriptions: Write the down names of your settings, such as “small colony on Mars” or “the high school baseball field.” Visualize each place as vividly as you can and jot down whatever details come into your head. Set your characters down there and picture what they might do in this place.
Thinking about your plot: Based on your characters and the arc of your plot, where does your story need to take place? Make your setting a crucial part of your story, so that your readers couldn’t imagine it anywhere else. For example, if your main character is a man who gets into a car crash, setting the story in a small town in the winter creates a plausible reason for the crash (black ice), plus an added complication (now he’s stranded in the cold with a broken car).
Don’t overload the story. Using too many settings might confuse your reader or make it hard for them to get into the story. Using 1-2 settings is usually perfect for a short story.
5
Think about a particular theme. Many short stories center on a theme and explore it from the point of view of a narrator or main character. You may take a broad theme like “love,” “desire,” or “loss,” and think about it from the point of view of your main character.^[5]
- You can also focus on a more specific theme like “love between siblings,” “desire for friendship” or “loss of a parent.”
6
Plan an emotional climax. Every good short story has a shattering moment where the main character reaches an emotional high point. The climax usually occurs in the last half of the story or close to the end of the story. At the climax of the story, the main character may feel overwhelmed, trapped, desperate, or even out of control.^[6]
- For example, you may have an emotional climax where your main character, a lonely elderly man, has to confront his neighbor about his illegal activity. Or you may have an emotional climax where the main character, a young teenage girl, stands up for her brother against school bullies.
7

Think of an ending with a twist or surprise. Brainstorm an ending that will leave your reader surprised, shocked, or intrigued. Avoid obvious endings, where the reader can guess the ending before it happens. Give your reader a false sense of security, where they think they know how the story is going to end, and then redirect their attention to another character or an image that leaves them shocked.

Creating a Satisfying Ending:
Try out a few different endings. Outline a few different endings you could use. Visualize each option and see which ones feel more natural, surprising, or fulfilling. It’s okay if you don’t find the right ending right away—it’s one of the hardest parts of the story to write!
How do you want your readers to feel when they finish? Your ending is the last impression you’ll leave on your reader. How will they feel if your characters succeed, fail, or land somewhere in the middle? For example, if your main character decides to stand up to her brother’s bullies but gets scared at the last second, the readers will leave feeling like she still has a lot of soul-searching to do.
Stay away from cliches. Make sure you avoid gimmick endings, where you rely on familiar plot twists to surprise your reader. If your ending feels familiar or even boring, challenge yourself to make it more difficult for your characters.
8
Read examples of short stories. Learn what makes a short story successful and engaging for your reader by looking at examples by skilled writers. Read short stories in several genres, from literary fiction to science fiction to fantasy.

Notice how the writer uses character, theme, setting, and plot to great effect in their short story.

You may read:
- “The Lady with the Dog” by Anton Chekhov^[7]
- “Something I’ve Been Meaning to Tell You” by Alice Munro
- “For Esme-With Love and Squalor» by J.D. Salinger^[8]
- “A Sound of Thunder” by Ray Bradbury^[9]
- “Snow, Glass, Apples” by Neil Gaiman
- «Brokeback Mountain” by Annie Proulx^[10]
- “Wants” by Grace Paley
- “Apollo” by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
- “This is How You Lose Her” by Junot Diaz
- “Seven” by Edwidge Danticat

1
Make a plot outline. Organize your short story into a plot outline with five parts: exposition, an inciting incident, rising action, a climax, falling action, and a resolution. Use the outline as a reference guide as you write the story to ensure it has a clear beginning, middle, and end.^[11]
- You can also try the snowflake method, where you have a one-sentence summary, a one-paragraph summary, a synopsis of all the characters in the story, and a spreadsheet of scenes.
2
Create an engaging opening. Your opening should have action, conflict, or an unusual image to catch your reader’s attention. Introduce the main character and the setting to your reader in the first paragraph. Set your reader up for the key themes and ideas in the story.^[12]
- For example, an opening line like: “I was lonely that day” does not tell your reader much about the narrator and is not unusual or engaging.
- Instead, try an opening line like: “The day after my wife left me, I rapped on the neighbor’s door to ask if she had any sugar for a cake I wasn’t going to bake.” This line gives the reader a past conflict, the wife leaving, and tension in the present between the narrator and the neighbor.
3
Stick to one point of view. A short story is usually told in the first-person point of view and stays with one point of view only. This helps to give the short story a clear focus and perspective. You can also try writing the short story in third person point of view, though this may create distance between you and your reader.^[13]
- Some stories are written in second person, where the narrator uses “you.” This is usually only done if the second person is essential to the narrative, such as in Ted Chiang’s short story, “Story of Your Life” or Junot Diaz’s short story, “This is How You Lose Her.”
- Most short stories are written in the past tense, though you can use the present tense if you’d like to give the story more immediacy.
4

Use dialogue to reveal character and further the plot. The dialogue in your short story should always be doing more than one thing at a time. Make sure the dialogue tells your reader something about the character who is speaking and adds to the overall plot of the story. Include dialogue tags that reveal character and give scenes more tension or conflict.^[14]

Quick Dialogue Tips:
Develop a voice for each character. Your characters are all unique, so all of their dialogue will sound a little different. Experiment to see what voice sounds right for each character. For example, one character might greet a friend by saying, “Hey girl, what’s up?”, while another might say, “Where have you been? I haven’t seen you in ages.”
Use different dialogue tags—but not too many. Sprinkle descriptive dialogue tags, like “stammered” or “shouted,” throughout your story, but don’t make them overwhelming. You can continue to use “said,” in some situations, choosing a more descriptive tag when the scene really needs it.
5
Include sensory details about the setting. Think about how the setting feels, sounds, tastes, smells, and looks to your main character. Describe your setting using the senses so it comes alive for your reader.^[15]
- For example, you may describe your old high school as “a giant industrial-looking building that smells of gym socks, hair spray, lost dreams, and chalk.” Or you may describe the sky by your house as “a blank sheet covered in thick, gray haze from wildfires that crackled in the nearby forest in the early morning.”
6
End with a realization or revelation. The realization or revelation does not have to be major or obvious.

It can be subtle, where your characters are beginning to change or see things differently.

You can end with a revelation that feels open or a revelation that feels resolved and clear.^[16]
- You can also end on an interesting image or dialogue that reveals a character change or shift.
- For example, you may end your story when your main character decides to turn in their neighbor, even if that means losing them as a friend. Or you may end your story with the image of your main character helping her bloodied brother walk home, just in time for dinner.

1
Read the short story out loud. Listen to how each sentence sounds, particularly the dialogue. Notice if the story flows well from paragraph to paragraph. Check for any awkward sentences or phrases and underline them so you can revise them later.
- Notice if your story follows your plot outline and that there is a clear conflict for your main character.
- Reading the story aloud can also help you catch any spelling, grammar, or punctuation errors.
2

Revise the short story for clarity and flow. With short stories, the general rule is that shorter is usually better. Most short stories are between 1,000 to 7,000 words or one to ten pages long. Be open to cutting scenes or removing sentences to shorten and tighten your story. Make sure you only include details or moments that are absolutely essential to the story you are trying to tell.^[17]

Parts to Delete:
Unnecessary description: Include just enough description to show the readers the most important characteristics of a place, a character, or an object while contributing to the story’s overall tone. If you have to clip out a particularly beautiful description, write it down and save it—you may be able to use in another story!
Scenes that don’t move the plot forward: If you think a scene might not be necessary to the plot, try crossing it out and reading through the scenes before and after it. If the story still flows well and makes sense, you can probably delete the scene.
Characters that don’t serve a purpose: You might have created a character to make a story seem realistic or to give your main character someone to talk to, but if that character isn’t important to the plot, they can probably be cut or merged into another character. Look carefully at a character’s extra friends, for example, or siblings who don’t have much dialogue.
3
Come up with an interesting title. Most editors, and readers, will check the title of the story first to determine if they want to continue reading.

Pick a title that will intrigue or interest your reader and encourage them to read the actual story.

Use a theme, image, or character name from the story as the title.^[18]
- For example, the title “Something I’ve Been Meaning to Tell You” by Alice Munro is a good one because it is a quote from a character in the story and it addresses the reader directly, where the “I” has something to share with readers.
- The title “Snow, Apple, Glass” by Neil Gaiman is also a good one because it presents three objects that are interesting on their own, but even more interesting when placed together in one story.
4
Let others read and critique the short story. Show the short story to friends, family members, and peers at school. Ask them if they find the story emotionally moving and engaging. Be open to constructive criticism from others, as it will only strengthen your story.
- You can also join a writing group and submit your short story for a workshop. Or you may start your own writing group with friends so you can all workshop each other’s stories.
- Once you get feedback from others, you should then revise the short story again so it is at its best draft.

Add New Question

Question

How do I create a good title?

A tip is to write your title after writing your story, then choose a sentence or word that relates to the plot in some way, or a play on words with the last or first sentence in your story. It is very important to choose a good title, because it often is the first thing a potential reader sees before deciding to read the whole story.
Question

This is my first time writing a short story, and unlike my friends, I do not have a lot of experience. My words are not very intriguing compared to theirs. Is it okay to use common words and not very rare words?

Yes, of course! «Common» words can sometimes be more effective when writing a story than «rare», unusual words, as they are easier to understand. A short story will only be difficult to read if it is filled words that are rarely used or heard of. Focus on the characters, the setting and the flow of the story, rather than how to embellish it with fancy words.
Question

Is it best to type or write it by hand?

Each writer is different. Some writers may prefer to type their story, as they can easily delete words, and typing may be faster. Other writers prefer to write their story by hand, as although it can be tiring and more time-consuming, writing in a notebook gives a sense of comfort and enjoyment.

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Article SummaryX

If you want to write a short story, first decide on the central conflict for your story, then create a main character who deals with that problem, and decide whether they will interact with anyone else. Next, decide when and where your story will take place. Next, make a plot outline, with a climax and a resolution, and use that outline to create your first draft, telling the whole story without worrying about making it perfect. Read the short story out loud to yourself to help with proofreading and revision. To learn more about how to add details to your story and come up with an interesting title, keep reading the article!

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Thanks to all authors for creating a page that has been read 4,642,179 times.

Reader Success Stories

Ann Clemmons

Mar 16, 2017

«It reminded me of using a rising action, and winding down to the conclusion. I’ve been writing for children and…» more

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Лексическое оформление текста — максимум 3 балла:

3 балла— используемый словарный запас соответствует поставленной коммуникативной задаче; практически нет нарушений в использовании лексики; правила сочетаемости не нарушены;

2 балла — используемый словарный запас в целом соответствует поставленной коммуникативной задаче, однако встречаются отдельные неточности в употреблении слов (1–2 неточности);

1 балл — использован ограниченный словарный запас и/или часто встречаются нарушения в использовании лексики, некоторые из них могут затруднять понимание текста (3–4 неточности);

0 баллов — крайне ограниченный словарный запас не позволяет выполнить поставленную задачу.

Грамматическое оформление текста — максимум 3 балла:

3 балла — используемые грамматические структуры соответствуют поставленной коммуникативной задаче; практически отсутствуют ошибки;

2 балла — имеется ряд грамматических ошибок, не затрудняющих понимание текста (не более 2);

1 балл — многочисленные ошибки элементарного уровня или ошибки немногочисленны, но затрудняют восприятие текста (3–4 ошибки по разным грамматическим темам);

0 баллов — грамматические правила не соблюдаются, многочисленные грамматические ошибки затрудняют понимание текста.

Пунктуация и орфография — максимум 2 балла:

2 балла — правила пунктуации и орфографии соблюдены, допущено не более 2 негрубых ошибок;

1 балл — правила пунктуации и орфографии соблюдены, допущено не более 3 негрубых ошибок;

0 баллов — правила пунктуации и орфографии многократно нарушены.

Стилевое оформление текста — максимум 2 балла:

2 балла — стиль текста соответствует указанной целевой аудитории и указанному жанру;

1 балл — стиль текста в целом соответствует указанной целевой аудитории и указанному жанру;

0 баллов — стиль текста не соответствует указанной целевой аудитории и указанному жанру.

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Getting Your Wording Just Right

Paraphrasing is a natural part of the writing process as it helps you clarify your thinking and suit your words to your audience. Using a Paraphrase Tool helps structure and streamline this work, and our paraphrase tool offers 20 modes, many of them free, for accomplishing just this. The 20 modes we offer are diverse, including a summarize tool, a free grammar checker, a mode to simplify text, and a sentence shortener. There are sentence rephrasers and paraphrase rephrase tools, and we pride ourselves on having both, since our reword generator accounts for context at both the sentence and paragraph levels.

When you google paraphrase you will get a variety of results, from a free Paraphrase Tool, to an article spinner, to a general phrase tool, and it can be hard to determine which of these rephrase tools will best help you complete your work. If you simply need to get a word rephrase, that is, reword only small elements within the sentence, many tools will suffice, but there is the risk that you end up with a tool that does not consider context and produces very awkward and ungrammatical sentences. Rephrasing is very much an art, and we’ve built our paraphrase bot to produce the most correct results in 20 modes in over 100 languages, making it the best paraphrasing tool at an exceptionally low cost. So whether you need to paraphrase deutsch, paraphrase greek, or paraphrase bahasa melayu, the next time you think, I need something to paraphrase this for me, you’ll know where to turn.

From Keywords to Paragraphs

Generating paragraphs with unique ideas can be challenging, and too often writers get stuck at this stage of the writing process. With our paragraph tool, you can enter keywords and let our AI generate paragraphs for you, so that you can have something to work with, refine the output, and become more engaged in your writing.

A paragraph generator creates links between your ideas, such that the output is sensible, unique, and stimulating, very close to what you would expect a thoughtful human paragraph writer to produce.

Paragraph makers are nice, but what about a short story generator? Because our AI is generalized, it serves a story generator, an essay generator, a poem generator, and much more. To generate compelling stories, you should provide the story generator with useful keywords from which it can develop plot elements, including characters, setting details, and any situational information. To generate reasonably good essays, you should likewise provide the essay maker with details around argumentative positions and any other pertinent ideas. If you more specifically want an introduction paragraph generator or conclusion paragraph generator, you can provide starter text and keywords that will best enable our essay creator to produce them.

You may well ask, “is this essay generator free?” Everything on this site is free within a 3-day trial, so you can test and develop confidence in our products. You may also be wondering where this is an essay automatic writer or if it will take a while to get results. All results appear within a matter of seconds, so you can move through your work as quickly as possible.

You may have professional needs for creating paragraphs as well, such as those needed for cover letter. Most of the time a cover letter template includes information that is not relevant to you; by using your own keywords, we can produce cover letter examples that are relevant to your use case and often require very little editing. By using this service, you can also learn how to write a cover letter and achieve the cover letter format you need.

Plagiarism Checker Free

Like everything else on our site, you can check plagiarism free within a trial, which is a great opportunity for those who want to check a paper for plagiarism without committing to paying before they see results. This free plagiarism checker is great for students and clearly indicates how to check for plagiarism by highlighting areas of similarity between the two texts. Just to be sure you are not accidentally plagiarizing, be sure to check all of your paraphrases as well.

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Writing a story. Написание истории

Для того, чтобы написать рассказ или историю, нужно следовать небольшому плану, а также использовать фразы для связи предложений, чтобы было понятно, о чем идет речь, и сохранить логичность истории.

План:

Гдекогда и с кем случилась история;
Что произошло в начале;
Чем все закончилось;
Какой итог, как чувствовали себя герои.

Времена для истории из прошлого.

При рассказе истории и перечисления действия один за одним (Я встал, подошел к окну, взял тетрадь — все действия идут за друг другом). В таком случае мы используем Past Simple.

Не wrote the letter, put it in the envelope, left it on the table and went out. — Он написал письмо, положил его в конверт, оставил на столе и ушел.

2. Если мы хотим добавить процесс, сказать, что действие длилось долгое время — Past Continuous.

She was drinking coffee when I came in. — Она пила кофе, когда я пришел.

3. Если нам нужно вернуться в истории назад — Past Perfect.

Malfoy had done the work by the time his friend returned. — Малфой закончил всю работу к тому времени, когда вернулся его друг.

4. Если мы хотим рассказать о привычках, которые были в прошлом, мы можем использовать конструкцию Used to / Didn’t use to.

People used to ride a horse. / They didn’t use to have cars. — Люди раньше ездили на лошадях. У них раньше не было машин.

5. Для того, чтобы высказать предположения о прошлом, о том, что кто-то возможно что-то сделал, мы используем модальные глаголы must (более вероятно) might could (менее вероятно) + have + v3

She must have passed the exam. — Она скорей всего сдала экзамен.

Useful expressions

Linkers

at first/first – вначале
then — затем
next — следом
later — позже
later on — попозже
after that — после этого
afterwards — впоследствии
a few seconds/minutes/hours/days later -пару секундминутчасов спустя
after 10 minutes/ half an hour/ a while — после 10 минут, получаса, какого-то времени
finally — в итоге
at the end of -в конце (чего-то)
in the end — в конце концов

Пример истории

When Amy finished reading the email, she thought “It can be true!’. She was sitting in her bedroom with her laptop and she was drinking a can of cola. She almost dropped it as she was so shocked!

Six months before she had entered one of her paintings into a competition. She used to paint when she was younger, but she had given it up until she saw the competition and thought “I know I will start painting again”. She waited patiently for the results but after a few months she gave up. But then the email arrived in her inbox. At first, she thought “This must be a mistake”, when the email said she had won 500 euros. But then she phoned the competition organiser to check it was real. The organiser confirmed she had won. “Wow” thought Amy, “I must be quite good at painting a turtle.”

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The short story is a fiction writer’s laboratory: here is where you can experiment with characters, plots, and ideas without the heavy lifting of writing a novel. Learning how to write a short story is essential to mastering the art of storytelling. With far fewer words to worry about, storytellers can make many more mistakes—and strokes of genius!—through experimentation and the fun of fiction writing.

Nonetheless, the art of writing short stories is not easy to master. How do you tell a complete story in so few words? What does a story need to have in order to be successful? Whether you’re struggling with how to write a short story outline, or how to fully develop a character in so few words, this guide is your starting point.

Famous authors like Virginia Woolf, Haruki Murakami, and Agatha Christie have used the short story form to play with ideas before turning those stories into novels. Whether you want to master the elements of fiction, experiment with novel ideas, or simply have fun with storytelling, here’s everything you need on how to write a short story step by step.

The Core Elements of a Short Story

There’s no secret formula to writing a short story. However, a good short story will have most or all of the following elements:

A protagonist with a certain desire or need. It is essential for the protagonist to want something they don’t have, otherwise they will not drive the story forward.
A clear dilemma. We don’t need much backstory to see how the dilemma started; we’re primarily concerned with how the protagonist resolves it.
A decision. What does the protagonist do to resolve their dilemma?
A climax. In Freytag’s Pyramid, the climax of a story is when the tension reaches its peak, and the reader discovers the outcome of the protagonist’s decision(s).
An outcome. How does the climax change the protagonist? Are they a different person? Do they have a different philosophy or outlook on life?

Of course, short stories also utilize the elements of fiction, such as a setting, plot, and point of view. It helps to study these elements and to understand their intricacies. But, when it comes to laying down the skeleton of a short story, the above elements are what you need to get started.

Note: a short story rarely, if ever, has subplots. The focus should be entirely on a single, central storyline. Subplots will either pull focus away from the main story, or else push the story into the territory of novellas and novels.

The shorter the story is, the fewer of these elements are essentials. If you’re interested in writing short-short stories, check out our guide on how to write flash fiction.

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Flash Fiction: Writing the Short-Short Story

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Write 1–3-page flash fiction in this online course with Barbara Henning, drawing on classic, poetic & experimental elements. Read the form’s masters.

How to Write a Short Story Outline

Some writers are “pantsers”—they “write by the seat of their pants,” making things up on the go with little more than an idea for a story. Other writers are “plotters,” meaning they decide the story’s structure in advance of writing it.

You don’t need a short story outline to write a good short story. But, if you’d like to give yourself some scaffolding before putting words on the page, this article answers the question of how to write a short story outline:

How to Write a Story Outline

How to Write a Short Story Step by Step

There are many ways to approach the short story craft, but this method is tried-and-tested for writers of all levels. Here’s how to write a short story step by step.

1. Start With an Idea

Often, generating an idea is the hardest part. You want to write, but what will you write about?

What’s more, it’s easy to start coming up with ideas and then dismissing them. You want to tell an authentic, original story, but everything you come up with has already been written, it seems.

Here are a few tips:

Originality presents itself in your storytelling, not in your ideas. For example, the premise of both Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Ostrovsky’s The Snow Maiden are very similar: two men and two women, in intertwining love triangles, sort out their feelings for each other amidst mischievous forest spirits, love potions, and friendship drama. The way each story is written makes them very distinct from one another, to the point where, unless it’s pointed out to you, you might not even notice the similarities.
An idea is not a final draft. You will find that exploring the possibilities of your story will generate something far different than the idea you started out with. This is a good thing—it means you made the story your own!
Experiment with genres and tropes. Even if you want to write literary fiction, pay attention to the narrative structures that drive genre stories, and practice your storytelling using those structures. Again, you will naturally make the story your own simply by playing with ideas.

If you’re struggling simply to find ideas, try out this prompt generator, or pull prompts from this Twitter.

2. Outline, OR Conceive Your Characters

If you plan to outline, do so once you’ve generated an idea. You can learn about how to write a short story outline earlier in this article.

If you don’t plan to outline, you should at least start with a character or characters. Certainly, you need a protagonist, but you should also think about any characters that aid or inhibit your protagonist’s journey.

When thinking about character development, ask the following questions:

What is my character’s background? Where do they come from, how did they get here, where do they want to be?
What does your character desire the most? This can be both material or conceptual, like “fitting in” or “being loved.”
What is your character’s fatal flaw? In other words, what limitation prevents the protagonist from achieving their desire? Often, this flaw is a blind spot that directly counters their desire. For example, self hatred stands in the way of a protagonist searching for love.
How does your character think and speak? Think of examples, both fictional and in the real world, who might resemble your character.

In short stories, there are rarely more characters than a protagonist, an antagonist (if relevant), and a small group of supporting characters. The more characters you include, the longer your story will be. Focus on making only one or two characters complex: it is absolutely okay to have the rest of the cast be flat characters that move the story along.

Learn more about character development here:

Character Development Definition: A Look at 40 Character Traits

3. Write Scenes Around Conflict

Once you have an outline or some characters, start building scenes around conflict. Every part of your story, including the opening sentence, should in some way relate to the protagonist’s conflict.

Conflict is the lifeblood of storytelling: without it, the reader doesn’t have a clear reason to keep reading. Loveable characters are not enough, as the story has to give the reader something to root for.

Take, for example, Edgar Allan Poe’s classic short story The Cask of Amontillado. We start at the conflict: the narrator has been slighted by Fortunato, and plans to exact revenge. Every scene in the story builds tension and follows the protagonist as he exacts this revenge.

In your story, start writing scenes around conflict, and make sure each paragraph and piece of dialogue relates, in some way, to your protagonist’s unmet desires.

4. Write Your First Draft

The scenes you build around conflict will eventually be stitched into a complete story. Make sure as the story progresses that each scene heightens the story’s tension, and that this tension remains unbroken until the climax resolves whether or not your protagonist meets their desires.

Don’t stress too hard on writing a perfect story. Rather, take Anne Lamott’s advice, and “write a shitty first draft.” The goal is not to pen a complete story at first draft; rather, it’s to set ideas down on paper. You are simply, as Shannon Hale suggests, “shoveling sand into a box so that later [you] can build castles.”

5. Step Away, Breathe, Revise

Whenever Stephen King finishes a novel, he puts it in a drawer and doesn’t think about it for 6 weeks. With short stories, you probably don’t need to take as long of a break. But, the idea itself is true: when you’ve finished your first draft, set it aside for a while. Let yourself come back to the story with fresh eyes, so that you can confidently revise, revise, revise.

In revision, you want to make sure each word has an essential place in the story, that each scene ramps up tension, and that each character is clearly defined. The culmination of these elements allows a story to explore complex themes and ideas, giving the reader something to think about after the story has ended.

6. Compare Against Our Short Story Checklist

Does your story have everything it needs to succeed? Compare it against this short story checklist, as written by our instructor Rosemary Tantra Bensko.

How to Write a Short Story: The Short Story Checklist

Below is a collection of practical short story writing tips by Writers.com instructor Rosemary Tantra Bensko. Each paragraph is its own checklist item: a core element of short story writing advice to follow unless you have clear reasons to the contrary. We hope it’s a helpful resource in your own writing.

Update 9/1/2020: We’ve now made a summary of Rosemary’s short story checklist available as a PDF download. Enjoy!

Click to download

How to Write a Short Story: Length and Setting

Your short story is 1000 to 7500 words in length.

The story takes place in one time period, not spread out or with gaps other than to drive someplace, sleep, etc. If there are those gaps, there is a space between the paragraphs, the new paragraph beginning flush left, to indicate a new scene.

Each scene takes place in one location, or in continual transit, such as driving a truck or flying in a plane.

How to Write a Short Story: Point of View

Unless it’s a very lengthy Romance story, in which there may be two Point of View (POV) characters, there is one POV character. If we are told what any character secretly thinks, it will only be the POV character. The degree to which we are privy to the unexpressed thoughts, memories and hopes of the POV character remains consistent throughout the story.

You avoid head-hopping by only having one POV character per scene, even in a Romance. You avoid straying into even brief moments of telling us what other characters think other than the POV character. You use words like “apparently,” “obviously,” or “supposedly” to suggest how non-POV-characters think rather than stating it.

How to Write a Short Story: Protagonist, Antagonist, Motivation

Your short story has one clear protagonist who is usually the character changing most.

Your story has a clear antagonist, who generally makes the protagonist change by thwarting his goals.

(Possible exception to the two short story writing tips above: In some types of Mystery and Action stories, particularly in a series, etc., the protagonist doesn’t necessarily grow personally, but instead his change relates to understanding the antagonist enough to arrest or kill him.)

The protagonist changes with an Arc arising out of how he is stuck in his Flaw at the beginning of the story, which makes the reader bond with him as a human, and feel the pain of his problems he causes himself. (Or if it’s the non-personal growth type plot: he’s presented at the beginning of the story with a high-stakes problem that requires him to prevent or punish a crime.)

The protagonist usually is shown to Want something, because that’s what people normally do, defining their personalities and behavior patterns, pushing them onward from day to day. This may be obvious from the beginning of the story, though it may not become heightened until the Inciting Incident, which happens near the beginning of Act 1. The Want is usually something the reader sort of wants the character to succeed in, while at the same time, knows the Want is not in his authentic best interests. This mixed feeling in the reader creates tension.

The protagonist is usually shown to Need something valid and beneficial, but at first, he doesn’t recognize it, admit it, honor it, integrate it with his Want, or let the Want go so he can achieve the Need instead. Ideally, the Want and Need can be combined in a satisfying way toward the end for the sake of continuity of forward momentum of victoriously achieving the goals set out from the beginning. It’s the encounters with the antagonist that forcibly teach the protagonist to prioritize his Needs correctly and overcome his Flaw so he can defeat the obstacles put in his path.

The protagonist in a personal growth plot needs to change his Flaw/Want but like most people, doesn’t automatically do that when faced with the problem. He tries the easy way, which doesn’t work. Only when the Crisis takes him to a low point does he boldly change enough to become victorious over himself and the external situation. What he learns becomes the Theme.

Each scene shows its main character’s goal at its beginning, which aligns in a significant way with the protagonist’s overall goal for the story. The scene has a “charge,” showing either progress toward the goal or regression away from the goal by the ending. Most scenes end with a negative charge, because a story is about not obtaining one’s goals easily, until the end, in which the scene/s end with a positive charge.

The protagonist’s goal of the story becomes triggered until the Inciting Incident near the beginning, when something happens to shake up his life. This is the only major thing in the story that is allowed to be a random event that occurs to him.

How to Write a Short Story: Characters

Your characters speak differently from one another, and their dialogue suggests subtext, what they are really thinking but not saying: subtle passive-aggressive jibes, their underlying emotions, etc.

Your characters are not illustrative of ideas and beliefs you are pushing for, but come across as real people.

How to Write a Short Story: Prose

Your language is succinct, fresh and exciting, specific, colorful, avoiding clichés and platitudes. Sentence structures vary. In Genre stories, the language is simple, the symbolism is direct, and words are well-known, and sentences are relatively short. In Literary stories, you are freer to use more sophisticated ideas, words, sentence structures and underlying metaphors and implied motifs.

How to Write a Short Story: Story Structure

Your plot elements occur in the proper places according to classical Act Structure so the reader feels he has vicariously gone through a harrowing trial with the protagonist and won, raising his sense of hope and possibility. Literary short stories may be more subtle, with lower stakes, experimenting beyond classical structures like the Hero’s Journey. They can be more like vignettes sometimes, or even slice-of-life, though these types are hard to place in publications.

In Genre stories, all the questions are answered, threads are tied up, problems are solved, though the results of carnage may be spread over the landscape. In Literary short stories, you are free to explore uncertainty, ambiguity, and inchoate, realistic endings that suggest multiple interpretations, and unresolved issues.

Some Literary stories may be nonrealistic, such as with Surrealism, Absurdism, New Wave Fabulism, Weird and Magical Realism. If this is what you write, they still need their own internal logic and they should not be bewildering as to the what the reader is meant to experience, whether it’s a nuanced, unnameable mood or a trip into the subconscious.

Literary stories may also go beyond any label other than Experimental. For example, a story could be a list of To Do items on a paper held by a magnet to a refrigerator for the housemate to read. The person writing the list may grow more passive-aggressive and manipulative as the list grows, and we learn about the relationship between the housemates through the implied threats and cajoling.

How to Write a Short Story: Capturing Reader Interest

Your short story is suspenseful, meaning readers hope the protagonist will achieve his best goal, his Need, by the Climax battle against the antagonist.

Your story entertains. This is especially necessary for Genre short stories.

The story captivates readers at the very beginning with a Hook, which can be a puzzling mystery to solve, an amazing character’s or narrator’s Voice, an astounding location, humor, a startling image, or a world the reader wants to become immersed in.

Expository prose (telling, like an essay) takes up very, very little space in your short story, and it does not appear near the beginning. The story is in Narrative format instead, in which one action follows the next. You’ve removed every unnecessary instance of Expository prose and replaced it with showing Narrative. Distancing words like “used to,” “he would often,” “over the years, he,” “each morning, he” indicate that you are reporting on a lengthy time period, summing it up, rather than sticking to Narrative format, in which immediacy makes the story engaging.

You’ve earned the right to include Expository Backstory by making the reader yearn for knowing what happened in the past to solve a mystery. This can’t possibly happen at the beginning, obviously. Expository Backstory does not take place in the first pages of your story.

Your reader cares what happens and there are high stakes (especially important in Genre stories). Your reader worries until the end, when the protagonist survives, succeeds in his quest to help the community, gets the girl, solves or prevents the crime, achieves new scientific developments, takes over rule of his realm, etc.

Every sentence is compelling enough to urge the reader to read the next one—because he really, really wants to—instead of doing something else he could be doing. Your story is not going to be assigned to people to analyze in school like the ones you studied, so you have found a way from the beginning to intrigue strangers to want to spend their time with your words.

Where to Read and Submit Short Stories

Whether you’re looking for inspiration or want to publish your own stories, you’ll find great literary journals for writers of all backgrounds at this article:

24 of the Best Journals Accepting Short Story Submissions

Learn How to Write a Short Story at Writers.com

The short story takes an hour to learn and a lifetime to master. Learn how to write a short story with Writers.com. Our upcoming fiction courses will give you the ropes to tell authentic, original short stories that captivate and entrance your readers.

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