how to write essay on short story

How to Write a Short Story: The Short Story Checklist

Rosemary Tantra Bensko and Sean Glatch  |  May 7, 2024  |  7 Comments

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.

How to Write a Short Story: Contents

The Core Elements of a Short Story

How to write a short story outline, how to write a short story step by step, how to write a short story: length and setting, how to write a short story: point of view, how to write a short story: protagonist, antagonist, motivation, how to write a short story: characters, how to write a short story: prose, how to write a short story: story structure, how to write a short story: capturing reader interest, where to read and submit short stories.

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 .

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:

https://writers.com/how-to-write-a-story-outline

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:

https://writers.com/character-development-definition

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.

Read more about writing effective conflict here:

What is Conflict in a Story? Definition and Examples

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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, styles , and underlying metaphors and implied motifs.

Your plot elements occur in the proper places according to classical Three Act Structure (or Freytag’s Pyramid ) 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.

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.

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:

https://writers.com/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.

Rosemary – Is there any chance you could add a little something to your checklist? I’d love to know the best places to submit our short stories for publication. Thanks so much.

Hi, Kim Hanson,

Some good places to find publications specific to your story are NewPages, Poets and Writers, Duotrope, and The Submission Grinder.

“ 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.”

Not just no but NO.

See for example the work of MacArthur Fellow Kelly Link.

[…] How to Write a Short Story: The Short Story Checklist […]

Thank you for these directions and tips. It’s very encouraging to someone like me, just NOW taking up writing.

[…] Writers.com. A great intro to writing. https://writers.com/how-to-write-a-short-story […]

Hello: I started to write seriously in the late 70’s. I loved to write in High School in the early 60’s but life got in the way. Around the 00’s many of the obstacles disappeared. Since then I have been writing more, and some of my work was vanilla transgender stories. Here in 2024 transgender stories have become tiresome because I really don’t have much in common with that mind set.

The glare of an editor that could potentially pay me is quite daunting, so I would like to start out unpaid to see where that goes. I am not sure if a writer’s agent would be a good fit for me. My work life was in the Trades, not as some sort of Academic. That alone causes timidity, but I did read about a fiction writer who had been a house painter.

This is my first effort to publish since the late 70’s. My pseudonym would perhaps include Ahabidah.

Gwen Boucher.

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3.7–Sample Analysis of a Short Story

Travis Rozier and R. Paul Cooper

How to Read this Section

This section contains two parts. First, you will find the prompt. The prompt is a very important element in any writing assignment. Don’t be fooled by the fact it is short! Even though it is a short document, it highlights and makes clear every element you will need to complete the given assignment effectively. When writing an essay, the prompt is where you will both begin and end. Seriously. Before you begin, familiarize yourself with the prompt, and before you submit your final draft, give the prompt one final read over, making sure you have not left anything out. When you visit the University Writing Center and Libraries, they can better help if you bring along the prompt. Both the Writing Center [1] and the Libraries [2] provide indispensable tools to aid students, so take advantage of their services.

The second part of this section contains a simulated student essay—the essay is not an actual student essay, but an essay written to demonstrate a strong student essay. The essay in this section is not meant to represent a “perfect” essay; it has its faults. However, this essay is an effective response to the given prompt. The “student” essay will be represented in a wide column on the left, and the grader’s commentary will be represented in a smaller column on the right. Use the example and the comments to help you think about how you might organize your own essay, to think about whether you will make similar—or different—choices.

Sample Prompt

Assignment Description: For this essay, you will choose a short story and write an analysis that offers an interpretation of the text. You should identify some debatable aspect of the text and argue for your interpretation using your analysis of the story supported by textual evidence.

Content: The essay should have a clear argumentative thesis that makes a debatable claim about the text. When analyzing the text, you should consider the elements of the short story discussed in class (plot, narration, character, setting, tone and style, theme, symbol, etc.). However, you should only analyze those elements that are important to understanding your interpretation of the text. You should also convey the implications of your specific claim about the text for how we might interpret the text as a whole. How does your argument shape the way we read meaning into the text?

Research Expectations: As this is not a research paper, you should use no more than two or three outside, scholarly sources, and these should be confined to historical, biographical, or literary context. In other words, they should not offer any analysis of the text itself. All the interpretative work in this paper should be produced by your own readings of the text in light of relevant contexts.

Format: All citations should adhere to current MLA 8 guidelines, and a Works Cited page including entries for the primary text and any secondary sources is also required. You will also be graded on form and correctness, so make sure you edit and proofread carefully for grammar, punctuation, etc.

Scope/Page Count: Word count should fall between 900–1200 words (3–4 pages).

Short Story Student Essay

Attribution:

Bowling, Hannah Elizabeth. “Short Story: ‘Blood for Blood’: Marital Conflict in ‘A Red Girl’s Reasoning.’” In Surface and Subtext: Literature, Research, Writing . 3rd ed. Edited by Claire Carly-Miles, Sarah LeMire, Kathy Christie Anders, Nicole Hagstrom-Schmidt, R. Paul Cooper, and Matt McKinney. College Station: Texas A&M University, 2024. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License .

Rozier, Travis, and R. Paul Cooper. “Short Story: Sample Analysis of a Short Story.” In Surface and Subtext: Literature, Research, Writing . 3rd ed. Edited by Claire Carly-Miles, Sarah LeMire, Kathy Christie Anders, Nicole Hagstrom-Schmidt, R. Paul Cooper, and Matt McKinney. College Station: Texas A&M University, 2024. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License .

• University Writing Center, Texas A&M University, 2021, https://writingcenter.tamu.edu/. ↵
• Texas A&M University Libraries, Texas A&M University, 2021, https://library.tamu.edu/. ↵

3.7--Sample Analysis of a Short Story Copyright © 2024 by Travis Rozier and R. Paul Cooper is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

How to Write a Short Story: 5 Major Steps from Start to Finish

by Sarah Gribble | 81 comments

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Do you want to learn how to write a short story ? Maybe you'd like to try writing a short story instead of a novel-length work, or maybe you're hoping to get more writing practice without the lengthy time commitment that a novel requires.

The reality of writing stories? Not every short story writer wants to write a novel, but every novelist can benefit from writing short stories. However, short stories and novels are different—so naturally, how you write them has its differences, too.

Short stories are often a fiction writer’s first introduction to writing, but they can be frustrating to write and difficult to master. How do you fit everything that makes a great story into something so short?

And then, once you do finish a short story you’re proud of, what do you do with it?

That's what we'll cover in this article, along with additional resources I'll link to that will help you get started step-by-step with shorts.

Short Stories Made Me a Better Writer

I fell into writing short stories when I first started writing.

I'd written a book , and it was terrible. But it opened up my mind and I kept having all these story ideas I just had to get out.

Before long, I had dozens of stories and within about two years, I had around three dozen of them published traditionally. That first book went nowhere, by the way. But my short stories surely did.

And I learned a whole lot about the writing craft because I spent so much time practicing writing with my short stories. This is why, whether you want to make money as a short story writer or experiment writing them, I think writing short stories is important for every writer who wants to become a novelist.

But how do you write a short story? And what do you do afterwards? I hope that by sharing my personal experiences and suggestions, I can help you write your own short stories with confidence.

Why Should You Write Short Stories?

I get a lot of pushback when I suggest new writers should write short stories.

Everyone wants to write a book. (Okay, maybe not everyone, but if you ask a hundred people if they’d like to write one, I’d bet seventy-something of them would say yes.) Anthologies and short story collections don’t make a ton of money because no one really wants to read them. So why waste time writing short stories when books are what people read ?

There are three main reasons you should be a short story writer:

1. Training

Short stories help you hone your writing skills .

Short stories are often only one scene and about one character. That’s a level of focus you can’t have in a novel. Writing short stories forces you to focus on writing clearly and concisely while still making a scene entertaining.

You’re working with the basic level of structure here (a scene) and learning to perfect it .

Short stories are a place to experiment with your creative process, to play with character development techniques, to dabble in different kinds of writing styles. 

And you're learning what a finished story feels like. So many aspiring novelists have only half-done drafts in drawers. A short is training yourself to finish.

2. Building contacts and readers

Most writers I know do not want to hear this, but this whole writing thing is the same as any other industry: if you want to make it, you better network.

When my first book, Surviving Death , was released, I had hundreds of people on my launch team. How? I’d had about three dozen short stories published traditionally by that time. I’d gathered a readership base, and not only that, I’d become acquainted with some fellow writers in my genre along the way. And those people were more than willing to help me get the word out about my book.

You want loyal readers and you want friends in the industry. And the way to get those is to continuously be writing.

Writing is like working out. If you take a ton of time off, you’re going to hurt when you get back into it.

It’s a little difficult to be working on a novel all the time. Most writers have one or two in them a year, and those aren’t written without a bit of a break in between.

Short story writing helps you keep up your writing habit , or develop one, and they make for a nice break in between larger projects.

I always write short stories between novels, and even between drafts of my novels. It keeps me going and puts use to all the random story ideas I had while working on the larger project. I've found over the years that keeping up the writing habit is the only way to actually keep yourself in “writer mode.”

All the cool kids are doing it. Stephen King, Neil Gaiman, Edgar Allan Poe, Kurt Vonnegut, Margaret Atwood . . . Google your favorite writers and they probably have a short story collection or two out there. Most successful authors have cut their teeth on short stories.

What is a Short Story?

Now that you know why you should be writing short stories, let’s talk about what a short story is. This might seem obvious, but it’s a question I’ve gotten a lot. A short story is short, right? Essentially, yes. But how short is short?

You can Google how long a short story is and get a bunch of different answers. There are a lot of different editors out there running a lot of different anthologies, magazines, ezines, podcasts, you name it. They all have slightly different definitions of what a short story is because they all have slightly different needs when it comes to providing content on their platform and meeting the expectations of their audiences.

A podcast, for instance, often wants a story to take up about thirty minutes of airtime. They know how long it takes their producers to read a story, so that thirty minutes means they’re looking for a very specific word count. An ezine might aim for a certain estimated reading time. A magazine or anthology might have a certain number of pages they’re trying to fill.

Everyone has a different definition of how short a short story is, so for the purpose of this series, I’m going to be broad in my definition of a short story.

What qualifies as a short story?

A short story word count normally falls somewhere between 1,000 words and 10,000 words. If you’re over ten thousand, you’re running into novelette territory, though some publications consider up to 20,000 words to be a short story. If you’re under a thousand words, you’re looking at flash fiction.

The sweet spot is between 2,000 and 5,000 words. The majority of short stories I’ve had published were between 2,500 words and 3,500 words.

That’s not a lot of words, and you’ve got a lot to fit in—backstory, world-building, a character arc—in that tiny amount of space. (A book, by the way, is normally 60,000 to 90,000 words or longer. Big difference.)

A short story is one to three scenes. That’s it. Think of it as a “slice of life,” as in someone peeked into your life for maybe an hour or two and this is what they saw.

You’re not going to flesh out every detail about your characters. (I normally don’t even know the last names of my short story characters, and it doesn’t matter.) You’re not trying to build a Tolkien-level world. You don’t need to worry about subplots.

To focus your writing, think of a short story as a short series of events happening to a single character. The rest of the cast of characters should be small.

How to Write a Short Story: The Short Version

Throughout this blog series, I’ll take a deep dive into the process of writing short stories. If you’re looking for the fast answer, here it is:

• Write the story in one sitting.
• Take a break.
• Edit with a mind for brevity.
• Get feedback and do a final edit.

Write the story in one sitting

For the most part, short stories are meant to be read in one sitting, so it makes sense that you should write them in one sitting.

Obviously, if you’re in the 10K range, that’s probably going to take more than one writing session, but a 2,500-word short story can easily be written in one sitting. This might seem a little daunting, but you’ll find your enthusiasm will drive you to the ending and your story will flow better for it.

You’re not aiming for prize-winning writing during this stage. You’re aiming to get the basic story out of your head and on paper.

Forget about grammar . Forget about beautiful prose. Forget about even making a ton of sense.

You’re not worrying about word count at this stage, either. Don’t research and don’t pause over trying to find the exact right word. Don't agonize over the perfect story title.

Just get the basic story out. You can’t edit a blank page.

Take a break

Don’t immediately begin the editing process. After you’ve written anything, books included, you need to take a step back . Your brain needs to shift from “writer mode” to “reader mode.” With a short story, I normally recommend a three-day break.

If you have research to do, this is the time to do it, though I highly recommend not thinking about your story at all.

The further away you can get from it, the better you’ll edit.

Edit with a mind for brevity

Now that you’ve had a break, you’re ready to come back with a vengeance. This is the part where you “kill your darlings” and have absolutely no mercy for the story you produced less than a week ago. The second draft is where you get critical.

Remember we’re writing a short story here, not a novel. You don’t have time to go into each and every detail about your characters’ lives. You don’t have time for B-plots, a ton of characters, or Stephen King-level droning on.

Short stories should have a beginning, a middle, and an end, though. They’re short, but they’re still stories.

As you edit , ask yourself if each bit of backstory, world building, and anything else is something your reader needs to know. If they do, do they need to know it right at that moment? If they don’t, cut it.

Get feedback

If this is your first time letting other people see your writing, this can be a scary step. No one wants to be given criticism. But getting feedback is the most important step in the writing process next to writing.

The more eyes you can get on a piece of writing, the better.

I highly recommend getting feedback from someone who knows about writing, not your mother or your best friend. People we love are great, but they love you and won’t give you honest feedback. If you want praise, go to them. If you want to grow as a writer, join a writing community and get feedback from other writers.

When you’ve gotten some feedback from a handful of people, make any changes you deem necessary and do a final edit for smaller issues like grammar and punctuation.

Here at The Write Practice, we’re huge fans of publishing your work . In fact, we don’t quite consider a story finished until it’s published.

Whether you’re going the traditional route and submitting your short story to anthologies and magazines, or you’re more into self- publishing , don’t let your story languish on your computer. Get it out into the world so you can build your reader base.

And it’s pretty cool getting to say you’re a published author.

That’s the short version of how to go about writing short stories. Throughout this series, I’ll be taking a more in-depth look at different elements of these steps. Stick with me throughout the series, and you’ll have a short story of your own ready to publish by the end.

A Preview of My How to Write a Short Story Series

My goal in this blog series is to walk you through the process of writing a short story from start to finish and then point you in the right direction for getting that story published.

By the end of this series, you’ll have a story ready to submit to publishers and a plan for how to submit.

Below is a list of topics I’ll be covering during this blog series. Keep coming back as these topics are updated over the coming months.

How to Come up With Ideas For Short Stories

Creative writing is like a muscle: use it or lose it. Coming up with ideas is part of the development of that muscle. In this post , I’ll go over how to train your mind to put out ideas consistently.

How to Plan a Short Story (Without Really Planning It)

Short stories often don’t require extensive planning. They’re short, after all. But a little bit of outlining can help. Don’t worry, I’m mostly a pantser! I promise this won’t be an intense method of planning. It will, however, give you a start with the elements of story structure—and motivation to get you to finish (and publish) your story. Read this article to see how a little planning can go a long way toward writing a successful story.

What You Need in a Short Story/Elements of a Short Story

One of the biggest mistakes I see from new writers is their short stories aren’t actually stories. They're often missing a climax, don't have an ending, or just ramble on in a stream-of-consciousness way without any story structure. In this article , I’ll show you what you need to make sure your short is a complete story.

Writing Strategies for Short Stories

The writing process varies from person to person, and often from project to project. In this blog , I’ll talk about different writing strategies you can use to write short stories.

How to Edit a Short Story

Editing is my least favorite part of writing. It’s overwhelming and often tedious. I’ll talk about short story editing strategies to take the confusion out of the process, and ensure you can edit with confidence.Learn how to confidently edit your story here .

Writing a Better Short Story

Short stories are their own art form, mainly because of the small word count. In this post, I’ll discuss ways to write a better short, including fitting everything you want and need into that tiny word count.

Weaving backstory and worldbuilding into your story without overdoing it. Remember, you don't need every detail about the world or a character's life in a short story—but the setting shouldn't be ignored. How your protagonist interacts with it should be significant and interesting.

How to Submit a Short Story to Publications

There are plenty of literary magazines, ezines, anthologies, etc. out there that accept short stories for publication (and you can self-publish your stories, too). In this article, I’ll demystify the submission process so you can submit your own stories to publications and start getting your work out there. You'll see your work in a short story anthology soon after using the tips in this article !

Professionalism in the Writing Industry

Emotions can run high when you put your work out there for others to see. In this article, I’ll talk about what’s expected of you in this profession and how to maintain professionalism so that you don't shoot yourself in the foot when you approach publishers, editors, and agents.

Write, Write, Write!

As you follow this series, I challenge you to begin writing at least one short story a week. I'll be giving you in-depth tips on creating a compelling story as we go along, but for now, I want you to write. That habit is the hardest thing to start and the hardest thing to keep up.

You may not use all the stories you're going to write over the next months. You may hate them and never want them to see the light of day. But you can't get better if you don't practice. Start practicing now.

As Ray Bradbury says:

“Write a short story every week. It's not possible to write 52 bad short stories in a row.”

When it comes to writing short stories, what do you find most challenging? Let me know in the comments .

For today’s practice, let’s just take on Step #1 (and begin tackling the challenge I laid down a moment ago): Write the basic story idea, the gist of the premise, as you’d tell it to a friend. Don’t think about it too much, and don’t worry about going into detail. Just write.

Write for fifteen minutes .

When your time is up, share your practice in the Pro Practice Workshop. And after you post, please be sure to give feedback to your fellow writers.

Happy writing!

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Sarah Gribble

Sarah Gribble is the author of dozens of short stories that explore uncomfortable situations, basic fears, and the general awe and fascination of the unknown. She just released Surviving Death , her first novel, and is currently working on her next book.

Follow her on Instagram or join her email list for free scares.

Work with Sarah Gribble?

Bestselling author with over five years of coaching experience. Sarah Gribble specializes in working with Dark Fantasy, Fantasy, Horror, Speculative Fiction, and Thriller books. Sound like a good fit for you?

81 Comments

! ! ! JACKPOT ! ! !

I mean it! Finally, after months and months of reading literally hundreds of blog posts and comments, I find that you have addressed the writing of short stories in a manner that is direct, practical, and clear.

It is not my intention to write TGAN. It never was.

I hope, rather, to entertain with short stories drawn from the experiences of my living. This post has illuminated a clear path through the (often valuable, genuinely valid, but – for me, anyway – not-directly-relevant) facts, experiences and anecdotes of other writers and would-be practitioners of the art that all seem focused on novel-length work.

I would encourage you to entertain the possibility of more posts on the art form and production of short stories.

Wow, Bob. That’s so good to hear.

Speaking of short story articles, have you read my book Let’s Write a Short Story? You might enjoy it! Check out letswriteashortstory.com.

The picture on how to write a short story is pretty much how I wrote my first one and have started my second. I had my first one critiqued, then revised it to the critters suggestions (they made perfect sense) and my story has improved considerably. I thought I was being lame on how I came to write them, but I see now, I accidentally stumbled on the formula for writing. Thanks Joe. I’m writing easier now.

Love that, Susan. Like Neil said, there is no formula. You have to write the story the way it wants to be written. But I find that I need structure to keep myself motivated and moving, so this process usually helps me stay focused. Glad you’re finding the writing process easier!

This is such a great post, Joe! I used to be primarily a short story writer but have been working on a novel for so long I feel as though I can’t remember how short stories work – but this brought it all back, and in a much better more clear cut manner than my old ways! I used to meander through a short story like a blind woman in the dark until I bumped into the ending – but I had a lot more time on my hands to do such meandering than I do now, so I’ll definitely give this technique a try!

I’ve done the same, Dana. However haltingly and messy my process has been, though, it usually follows this rough pattern I listed above. Has that been true for you as well?

I was always a “pantser” for stories, and would start with a concept or opening scene, and then feel my way through. It could take weeks to get a first draft. Then I’d edit. The first step of yours blew me away, the idea of writing a “story” without any pressure to make it great, to just get to the gist of it, is pretty brilliant. I often put so much pressure on myself to get it right on the page that it slows me down. I’m already at work (in my head) on part 1 of a story I’ve been meaning to rewrite, and I feel very confident about it thanks to your advice 🙂

There is nothing wrong with pantsing it! I would be labeled a “pantser” but as I tell every one, it only looks that way. Outlines form around character so quickly in my head, it seems to be unplanned, but that is not true. I always have an outline, I just don’t spend a lot of time on it. The important thing is to write to end before doing any re-writing!

I’ve never been a big fan of writing short stories. They’ve always seemed like “a good start on a novel-length story”.

But your outline for writing a short story has me rethinking that philosophy. I may just give it a try.

Thanks for a new idea on a Saturday morning!

DO IT! And let me know how it goes, Carrie. 🙂

Agreed! ….on a Saturday afternoon! Fabulous tips to try. Thanks, Joe.

Short stories are an important marketing tool for all writers. And so is flash fiction. Lee Goldberg, creator/head writer for Monk and several other TV mystery series, writes short stories and novels using the Monk character. I hate the TV show Monk, but loved the short story Mr. Monk and The Seventeen Steps in the Dec 2010 Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine. I plan to read some of novels. Lee Goldberg is an excellent writer. The stories and novels support the TV series and the TV series supports the short stories and novel.

If you plan to traditionally publish, published short stories can get you a better agent and open door that may otherwise stay shut.

If you plan to self-publish, free short stories using your characters can be a good way to turn non-fans in customers for your wears. Think on them as test for readers–but don’t think it while you are writing the story.

I play to use this strategy to publish my Old West book series.

Wow, this is a very creepy story, Tom! You should work on it!

Reading this post made me reflect on my own writing routine. I tend to do steps 1-5 in one sitting, pumping out ~2,500-3,500 words in an hour, which is usually all I have for a short story. It’s the editing that definitely takes up the most time. I give it a day before going back and seeing how I can optimize the plot and the finer details.

The number one motivating factor for me to finish writing is my initial interest and excitement of the original idea for the story itself. A wasted story is such a shame, after all.

Impressive Patrick. I could do Steps 1-3 in one sitting, but breaking it into scenes, and especially the research, take me a lot of time.

Scrivener is a great tool for breaking it into workable chances. My second most favorite thing about it!

Agreed Cynthia! Have you seen my review of it? https://thewritepractice.com/scrivener

I had the exact same experience! I need to learn about the word count goals. My favorite feature is the ability to move scenes around and then read it as one long document without actually moving anything.

I am new at it, but look forward to learning more! Great review!

How to write short story? For me he only way is to order it on custom essay writing services reviews pa . To write something you need to be creative person, and it’s not about me 🙁

Love this post! Your first point, write the entire story, is great piece of advice. I say this all this time, “Write the story from beginning to end before doing any re-writing!”

Research being the #5 is great! I don’t find many other writer’s agreeing with on this. They will insist on doing the research upfront. I will see them a year later and ask how the project is going and the answer will be, “I’m still doing research.” I call it The Blackhole of Research and many writers get sucked it. I fell into it once myself when working on a play based on Shakespeare’s Sonnets. I got caught up it wanting to know if Shakespeare wrote the sonnets or not. I never wrote the play. The research thoroughly obscured what I believe would have been an interesting musical. For my series of novel set in the old west, I’m using a time line of events with scant details. I found I need this for the storytelling. But that is it.

I agree with you 100% about Scrivener. It has a bit of learning curve, but is worth it. I started to using it on my last story and now am using it to edit my novel. You can rearrange your scenes any way you want and then read is if it was a continuous document, but without changing the original order of scenes. Valuable in the editing process. It made me happy!

The Only Story They’ll Ever Read. This is excellent advice. It is where many talented writer’s fail.

How I Write Short Stories It takes me about 30 hours to do a draft of a story and then three times that to edit. If I have a real deadline (Not the self imposed kind) I can write it in 8 hours or less and edit it in 12.

I have learned that all I have to do is start writing and a story will emerge. Every time I do a writing prompt, I end up with a story. Every time I write for practice or to take a break from another project, I end up with a story. They are not always good.

Something unusual about me. I hate writing first drafts and love, love, love re-writing them.

How is that “unusual?” I know lots of people who enjoy rewriting over first drafts…? (There’s always someone who believes their “strange” in their habits. You must be from a small town or something lol

Once again, Joe, you cut through all the garbage that’s usually out there about writing to make the process simple. I especially like the idea of doing research after fleshing out the story. I was doing research before starting and I drove myself into a sticky mess. Thank you for pointing out the obvious – even though it wasn’t obvious to me.

I was alone, sitting next to a window on a commercial flight paid for by another who I was convinced cared little for my well being while offering an all expense paid year in a foreign land, no strings attached accept the one holding the sword of Damocles.

One thing I would add, and it’s the best practice I’ve picked up over the years, is to start with the ending. So for number #3, I would suggest come up with both the open and close and fill in the rest.

Thank you so much for this post. It finally got me started on a short story I have been wanting to write for more than a year. Writing down the basic story helped me see the story first.

Thank You… the guide is helpful. Our Lecturer gave an assignment she obliged that we must write a short story in our Journal but i think with your guide i’m going to make it great in the procedure of writing my short story…Thank Alot.

Thank you for this guide! My son is in eighth grade and assigned to write a short story in his honors English class. He’s very analytical and excelling in science and math. He does well in English but this short story has him flummoxed. He keeps saying he doesn’t know how to write a story, which is perplexing because throughout elementary school he wrote long, imaginative stories well above his grade level.

He desperately wants to write this short story but It’s as if his analytical mind has blocked access to his imagination and creativity. What served him well as a child has been squashed by puberty and the inevitable march to maturity. Oh, the sadness.

I just have a feeling though your guide will provide the structure he’s seeking and reopen the pathway to his creativity. It’s still there. We see it all the time. Your guide is organized around the process with time frames to boot! What more could an analytical mind want.

Thank you so much for this post. Sometimes the story gets lost while spending time researching. I always believed the story benefited from a little brewing time before taking on a life outside of my mind. I see now that I’ve been missing out on the valuable steps that can take place once the story is down and the transformation that can take place to form a short story. Your advice is elegant in it’s simplicity.

Great post, but I have one question though to the numer 5.

What am I supposed to research? Research for what? I just don’t understand this.

To me you research for different things. Location and setting of the storiy, maybe it in La Havana, Cuba you should know they speak Spanish, they were in a economy regression so the building are not painted. Maybe one character has some type of illness (PTSD, Lupus, etc.) You would have to know how would that influence how they act, are perceive or look in a story. If he has PTSD he may have flashback’s, or deprecion, ect.

Maybe is a historical fiction you need to know how people acted in that time, what they wore, what was happening, etc.

It give you a better understanding of what is happening. So what you write is believed or make senses.

Thanks for breaking this process down into simple steps! I naturally tend to sit down and spill out the whole story but often don’t know where to go from there. Your post gives me guidelines on how to approach the editing process that I know my work needs.

The best part is your distinction between “the story” and “the short story”. Knowing that makes it so much easier to write that first draft – without agonizing over a sloppy beginning or the overly vague details that require more research.

What a great way to get into your writing with the confidence that you’ll know how to make it better later!

Wow! You make it sound soo easy. Got a load of stories at different stages and feel I should try your steps.

Thanks, Mwai Gichimu http://www.creativeheritage.org

I didn’t realize until fairly recently that short stories were . . . well, so short. I typically write fanfiction that would be consider more of a novella at least 40,000 words. I actually don’t like reading short stories less than 7 chapters and/or 10,000 words. I don’t know I just like more meat on my books than the typical 7 chapter deal.

A Day in the Life of the Samurai.

It was an ordinary day — in the life of the samurai, that is. Samurai and heir to the Hagi residential, Kento Kadesheke, was engaged in a duel with his well recognized, self esteemed master.

“Dodge,” commanded his brain as he curled into a ball and escaped a fatal blow by what marked his people, the sword. Then he leapt up and swished his sword here and there, in defence. Next, he went all-out in a sword batting contest with his master. This gave his time to regain his breath. Now, as many know, the more experienced mostly comes on top, so was the case here. Tired and impatient, Kento tried to disarm his master and opponent. His master expected it and dodged it, not so long before launching a barrage of sword hits, disarming Kento.

Per the rules, disarms end battles, so Kento bowed and fetched his sword. He asked “What did I do wrong, milord,” His master smiled and gently said ” Nothing but thou were a bit impatient,” he added “I can see quick and great improvement,” Now all of this was said in Japanese, but I daren’t mention in imagined sesquipedalophobia

The importance of step six cannot be overstated. I think a second pair of eyes is essential for editing. For example, this non-sentence is from Joe’s promo for his book: http://letswriteashortstory.com/why-short-stories/ “Even more importantly, to practice deliberately have to put your writing skills to the test.” See what I mean?

“Run Isola!”

Isola’s mother yelled over the wind. Isola’s heart was pounding, and she felt as if she might faint. Her brown hair whipped fast, stinging her face. Her mother was rushing her into the safe house. They prepared it a month before when they heard about the Vortex Storm. The name was fitting because there was a big whirl of dark, ravenous clouds. They seemed to eat the whole sky.

“Where is Will and Dad?” Isola asked. “I thought they were coming with us!”

“I am going to get them,” Isola’s mother answered. “Just go and get there before you get hurt!”

She turned and went back to the house while Gloria went toward the safe house.

The wind was so strong, Isola felt as if it would lift her and pick her off her feet. Debris flew everywhere. Other people in her neighborhood were gathering belongings, children, pets, and driving away to the community safe house. Isola was tempted to follow them.

Isola finally made it to the safe house. Its interior was located underground and the door were made of steel. Underground Isola knew there were also steel bars to support the roof the steel ceiling. The lock on the door was located inside. Her father was a construction worker so getting the materials to build it was easy. Isola’s mind flashed back to the time her father stayed up for weeks at a time making sure everything was secure. When she asked if she could help or see what he was working on, he simply told her that it wasn’t time yet. Whatever that meant.

Isola began to open the door, when she heard familiar voices behind her.

“Isola! Watch out!”

Relief comforted her heart for a moment. It was Will’s voice, and he was okay. He’s head popped out around the corner. His brown curly hair waving on his face in the harsh wind. But, that relief was replaced with panic when she saw a big massive tree branch about to fall. On her.

Maybe it wasn’t a good idea to build a safe house by a tree Isola thought. Maybe it wasn’t a good idea to build a safe house, period.

That was all Isola had time to think about before the tree branch fell, and she was forced back by some invisible force. It felt like a hand grabbing her. She stumbled backwards and bumped into something.

Or someone.

“Isola, what are you crazy? You just stand there watching it fall on you, and do absolutely nothing while the branch almost crushes you!”

She turned around to the look to who was speaking to her. And a concerned, upset, face was peering down back at her. Her father. Despite her father scolding at her, she was relieved to see he was okay. Her mother came running in after them.

“Are you okay? What happened?” She turned to Isola’s father. “Mark.”

Mark put a hand on his wife’s arm. “Anna, she’s fine” He started toward the safe house again. “Let’s just hurry and all go inside-” Mark stopped.

“What? What is it?”

Isola followed to where he was staring. The tree branch was on top of the safe house. Blocking the only entrance inside.

Mark shook his head. Swore a few latin words. Anna shot daggers at him covering Will’s ears.

Will looked to me with eyes of confusion. I shrugged.

“Why are we going in here? Why don’t we go in with the other kids and adults?” Will asked.

Will spoke with an accent that his mom said came from his father. When he said ‘adults’ he pronounced it adoolts He pulled his mother’s hands off his ears.

“Will-” His father said will a warning tone in his voice.

“There is a branch on blocking the door. Besides, everybody else is going!” Will argued.

“They don’t want to go to the Community safe house, Will.” Isola told him.

“But, all my friends are there! I wanna go too!” Will whined.

“We have a safe house right here.” Anna said ignoring Will.

Isola made a motion to the safe house which was still stable, but had an impossible entrance. She opened her mouth to say something sarcastic but her mother must of saw the expression on her face because she held up her hand.

“That is enough Isola.” Her mother yelled over the wind. “You have been complaining about this the whole time, and show no appreciation for what your father is doing for you-”

“Dad what are you doing?” Will interrupted.

Gloria and her mom turned around to see what Will was talking about. Mark was pushing the branch-or at least trying to-off the entrance. Anna looked to Will and Isola.

“Come on, don’t just stand there, go help out your father!”

They didn’t need to be asked twice. They all went over and helped Mark push the branch. They pushed, pulled, lifted, but the branch didn’t move more than a couple of inches. But, even by then they were all tired and each second they stayed outside was each second to their death.

Mark reached through one of the openings of the branch and opened the door. “Will or Gloria, one of you can fit in here. Try to go through.”

Will crosses his arms. “No way! I want to go to the Community safe house. Besides you guys could lock us in there and go without us so you can go have fun.” Will stared at his mom and dad with accusing eyes. He had his jaw set in way that showed he wasn’t going to budge.

“Will” His father said angrily.

Isola started toward the entrance. “I’ll go, if you won’t go. Let’s just get in before we get hit by one of those meteorites.” She pointed to the sky. It was darker now blocking out so much sun, the light detectors triggered on the street lights for night time.

Isola started in, going feet first, having a little of a hard time getting in. When she felt her feet touch the ground she called up.

“Okay I’m in!”

There was no response. She looked up to see if anyone was looking in but she saw no one there.

“Mom? Dad?”

She heard something up there that sound like arguing, then panic, and then a moment of silence.

“Isola, are okay down there?” Her mom asked.

“Yeah, what are you guys waiting for?”

“We are going to the Community shelter.”

Isola didn’t know whether to laugh or scream.

“Isola, don’t worry you can wait down there-”

“Wait here? No!” Isola said shaking her head. “Bring me up with you guys.”

“The branch is stuck here, and plus we are running out of time, we are going to see if we can make it-”

Isola heard her father’s voice in the background. She only caught a few words and sentences like: ‘he said’ and ‘not good idea’ and ‘listen’

“I don’t care about what Jem thinks, we are leaving.” Isola heard her mom say.

And the door shut.

Isola heard screams outside. She heard some of Will’s screams, mixed with her mother’s, and other screams of children, frightened animals, and other people. She didn’t want to think about going out there. She knew she couldn’t. So, when the door shut Isola locked the door and went to the furthest corner of the room.

There were blankets, food, water, first aid items, and a radio there. The food and water was packed into four different black book bags. Looking at them made her feel anxious and worried. They’ll be okay. Everything is fine. She thought. When she still didn’t feel any better, she said out loud, “It’s okay. Everything is fine.” Even she knew the words sounded empty and unconvincing.

She wasn’t hungry at the moment. Fatigue washed over Isola so suddenly, that she felt dizzy. Grabbing her blanket from the corner she moved the rest of the items by the door. After, she walked to the corner, sat putting her knees up to her chin, and wrapped the blanket around herself, over her head and ears. She tried to huddle as far as she could into the corner. She wanted to be as far away from the screams as possible. Isola shivered. Though it wasn’t against the cold.

( For more or the rest of the story email me at [email protected] ) 🙂 Tell what you think.

This has been incrediably helpful! Making myself put off researching wasn’t something I would have thought would make a big difference but it really has.

I might be a bit late to the party…my 15 mins.

———- Hugh set the knife against his knee and started sawing through the skin.

As the pain coursed through his nerves, he lost his grip. “Damn bugs,” he hissed as his fingers failed to listen to his brain.

Laying his head against the cold metal of the bathtub, Hugh swore he could feel the lowjack implant in his spinal cord thrumming. A few moments later, the door opened on rusty hinges, allowing the light from the rest of the apartment in.

A falsetto voice spoke from the doorway. “Human, you have sustained an injury to your right knee. Medical personnel have been summoned.”

Hugh turned suddenly, knocking the knife to the floor. “Don’t you dare let those butchers in here!” Sitting up, he started to sob. “I’ve got nothing left for them to take.”

A six foot tall mechanical figure strode calmly into the room. “Human, I’m going to freeze you until the medical personnel arrive.” A green light started blinking in its eye socket. “Do not be alarmed, it is for your own safety.”

Hugh was half way out of the bathtub before the lowjack cut off any control he had over his body.

The android moved to the tub, and gingerly picked Hugh up, moving him through the spacious apartment to a chair by the front door.

“I will be in stasis until they arrive,” the android stated.

Hugh couldn’t detect any difference from a few moments ago. The android stood stone still, the only difference an irregular pattern to the blinking green light.

Waiting a full minute to ensure the thing wasn’t aware, Hugh tried moving his hand. The fingers twitched.

i have a short story , would it be too late to post here , i need some opinion

I opened my eyes to see a dark shadow in my bedroom, it looked like a figure of a man. I had been thinking a lot about my uncle Herbert who had died in the first world war ,l was stunned! Could he be the person on my bed? To stunned to talk to him l recalled speaking to a medium early on in the day about Herbert he came through and said he wondered what his life would have been like if he had lived he died aged 26 . I looked more closely at this figure on my bed then he said come on Pam get up!! We’re on holiday now!!! Pew!!!

Thanks for the great advice Joe Bunting. What I read, helps me know what’s ahead of me to be a writer. I love how you explained about it being hard to finish a story, when you are in the middle of the story. As to rowing a boat to an island. I’ve started stories, got to the middle and didn’t know where to go. Now I know that’s common to happen. I’ll close at this point and get started writing something that I wrote in High School that others loved. Thanks again for inspiring me with what you wrote.

Rick Olmsted

Nice blog here. I think this would be more helpful in my writing career. But if you really need a professional to write a children short story for you, I would recommend a gig I use on Fiverr https://www.fiverr.com/sophiebrown/write-kindle-children-bestseller-book-for-publishing

This is a great intro in short story writing! Usually the only writing I do is assignments and essays. I’ve been toying with the idea of writing a story for a while and this post provided great motivation. So here it is.. my first 15 minute attempt at putting ideas down in words.

The time had come to meet face to face with her biggest rival. She had never met her before but the stories were enough for her to realise the threat that she posed. The environment wasn’t one which forged the women together, to bond. It promoted rivalry. Only the fittest would survive the night and walk away with cash in the hand. Tonight was the same as every other night. It started out with the usual routine. She would meticulously apply her make up to accentuate her pale blue eyes. Her greatest asset, or at least that’s what they told her. The blackness of the eyeliner was unforgiving; no amount of it could cover up the turbulent storm brewing in her blue eyes. Her reflection showed no hint of the emotions she was trying to deny. Her hair was down around her shoulders, glistening from the heat in the room. The air was muggy despite it being a cool night. She looked around the room wondering how her life had brought her to be here in this moment. The walls were as red as bitten lips, that’s what they reminded her of. The other girls were getting impatient that she had taken so much time in the one mirror, which covered the wall above the alcove. There was barely enough room for all four of them to get ready in there. Bags of make up, shoes and dresses, if you could call them that, were scattered at their feet. The buzz of the dryer in the adjoining room reminded her that there was work to be done. Fresh sheets and towels needed to be put out in the rooms before the men arrived. This job gave her a reprieve from being in that suffocating red room. She left the girls to decide on the dresses they would wear tonight.

I was fine, good in fact, realizing that I was stuck in a rut of step 1, Telling my stories. I can do step two, even three. Now I’m lost at step four: I’m writing a short story, not a novel. I’m stopping here; lost my interest, for the moment.

Tara is unhappy with her life. She always has been. No one ever understood why. Tara comes from a great home, with a great family; yet she always seemed to be downtrodden and meloncholic. At 21 Tara isn’t even doing things that her peers enjoy. This should be the time in her life where fun, adventure and discovery are a must. Tara doesn’t follow crowds, has no real friends to speak of and is always quiet; except if called on in a class setting. John and lydia French, tara’s parents have sought help for her from many professionals, and none have been able to point out a diagnoses to fit tara’s personality flaws. There was a time once when tara was younger perhaps four or five when she was at summer camp. She showed light in her eye and a possibility of hope glimmered that maybe she had found her niche. The latter part of that camping trip showed the worst side of tara yet. It seemed she regressed even more than when she arrived. Fisher is a guy who grew up with tara and has know her and her family for many years. He has concocted this plan to attempt to court tara with these simple steps that he has been putting together to turn who he sees as the love of his life into a more loving and joyful human being. The first step was to be seen accidently by tara at more than one occation during her day. Of course it’s not accidental, he’s planned the whole thing, but in fisher’s mind maybe tara never got the attention she needed. On Saturdays tara frequents the same internet cafe near her University, then she goes running at a nearby park, following this she heads back to campus. Fisher was sure to be seen by tara in all but the last place her home, so as not to seem to creepy. He pb believes he may have saw tara grin or smirk once or maybe, he just wants to make her happy so badly that he imagined it. He did this for three saturdays, then finally askds tara to the movies. To his surprise tara says yes. Fisher is ecstatic. They schedule their date for the following week. Fisher picked tara up on time from her dorm and they stap for a street car meal before heading to the movies. He excorts her home and when he reaches in for a kiss tara scream can be heard throughout the city. Campus security arrives and tara is take

Sarah was shaking over the little table staring at her coffee. Her eyes looked as black s the liquid in the cup. She couldn’t speak, it was too much for her at the moment. Besides apart of maybe weak squick nothing else would come out from her mouth. She was so scared to go back home but she couldn’t stay in this coffee shop forever. Sarah didn’t have any idea what to do. She quit her job without finding the new one, all of her savings were gone already so she couldn’t really afford to move right now. But she also couldn’t face her landlord from hell and his crazy family. It was like the worst nightmare.

Sarah moved in to this house thinking it’s going to be a lovely place to live. She would share it with two friends and probably rent the third bedroom to another familiar face. At least that was the plan. The landlord was white with black hair and spoke good English. She assumed he was an English man. After seeing the place with her two mates they made the decision instantly. Paid cash for deposit to black haired man and received the keys. When asked for receipt he said he will provide it next time as he had no receipt book on him. Fair enough.

A few days later Sarah, Daniel and Becky lived together in the lovely semi-detached house with good sized garden. The trio opened some beers and decided to celebrate their new nest completely unaware of what is yet to come…

love your book! Keep on the good job

“Do you think Petraeus will like the red hood, or the blue hood?” Charlene aksed her brother, “or is the yellow one better? Hmm… the orange one is also very appealing. What do you think, Eustace?”

“I think you should just take one and go see him before it gets late, sister.” He sighed, annoyed.

The tall brunnette, turned around to face her brother. Why was she even asking him that kind of stuff anyway? He’s a boy, he wouldn’t care one bit. “If you are going to be such a ogre, why should I even ask?”

“I wish I could understand that too, you know.” he said, preparing himself for the trip. Lifting his simple dark brown hood from the floor, he sat down to fix his boots. “But I personally think I am not the best person to help you change the color of a piece of cloth, Charlene. It’s just a piece of cloth, you do not have to make such a big deal about it.”

She groaned angrily, while taking the red one.”I do not understand what is your probllem, really.”

“Guess what? Me neither.” he laughed as he ran through the door. Eustace could hear the angry blabbing of her sister, but decided to ignore.

(UGH IM SLOOOOOOOW!!!)

Wanted Child (FULL VERSION)

The siren’s screaming to the neighbors, waking them from their peaceful slumber. The red and blue lights blinding everyone who looks in its way. A little girl, not later of the age of 9, being carried out of a home in the arms of a police officer. Her crying silencing everything else to the man’s ears. The child clutching onto his navy-blue shirt, begging for the awful image out of her head. He looks at the girl in pain, wishing for a miracle to break through. He sighs and looks forward, his face a mask of pain. He looks around and spots a woman with her back turned to her, talking to one of the girl’s neighbors. He approaches her and acknowledges her. “Corrine,” he started. The woman turns around and lightly nods. “Chief Jacob Ray.” She states, concern written in her strained voice. She is a lawyer working on a case where she is defending a man who was framed for the murder of his brother. She might have been yelling at a court trial. She spoke, “What do you need? Poor child. She didn’t deserve to witness that.” She is right. She never deserved to witness such a horrible thing. “I need a blanket for her. And, also, give her water.” He looks down at her to see her asleep. He sighs and looks back at the woman. “She will stay with me until we find her a home.” She slightly widened her eyes, looking at Jacob confusedly. She replied, “Are you sure you can take care of a child? Jacob, you don’t have anyone else to help take care of this girl.”

She stopped when she heard the girl sighing. She looked at her with both pain and hope for her. Jacob also had hope. Hope that her life was going to change for the better and not for the worse. “I’ll go get the blanket and water.” He heard Corrine say. He didn’t acknowledge her, to let her know that he heard her. She sighed in content and walked away, yelling for a blanket and water. He looked down at her. Her blue eyes fluttered open, looking around. She looked up at him and smiled. She let go of her shirt and hugged him. His eyes widened slightly as she hugged him. His eyes slowly went back down as she started crying. He started shushing her, whispering that it is all over. That she doesn’t have to worry anymore. He was going to make sure of it. He was going to be on a hiatus to take care of her. A few moments later he hears a distant voice saying, “Here we go dear.” Corrine’s voice makes the girl look up. She sniffs and wipes her eyes, muttering a quick thank you while doing so. Corrine looks at the poor girl in despair and calmly says, “Drink. You must be thirsty.” Corrine holds a glass up, showing her that she has something for her to drink. The little girl nods, agreeing with the woman. Corrine gives the glass to her, holding it to her lips. The little girl drinks happily, sighing in content with the refreshing feeling, soothing her parched throat. Jacob asks, “So, what’s your name?” The girl stops drinking and looks at the man. She replies, “Elly, but my real name is Elizabeth. My parents used to call me “Elly”, but after their.” She stops, closing her eyes

This is all I have and I am writing 2 different versions. One is for a short story contest and one is for publishing (which is this one)

I love writing short stories. I believe what turns me on to the format is the fact that it makes for quick reading. At the same time, you can get so much out of it like you would a novel.

I do think I’ve been writing short stories the wrong way. It takes me a couple of weeks to get a story down. Most of it is due to time constraints. But I have tools to lessen that time. And I’m so worried about getting it right the first time that I miss the point of the process. It takes diligence and patience to write a great story.

I will take these tips to heart and work as hard as I can to write the best stories possible.

This story is about Rafa, a five-year-old boy born during the final years of Israel’s wandering in the wilderness. His father, Duriel, is a Levite who serves the tabernacle. His mother, Ronit, has just died. His older sister, Miriam, is ten years old.

Duriel is a bitter, heartbroken man. His wife is dead. His firstborn is a girl, and his only son will never be a man, have a family, or serve the tabernacle. There will be no one to continue his lineage. He feels that God has ruined his life, and it angers him. He is often critical, unkind, and angry at home, especially with his young daughter, who is desperately and imperfectly performing her dead mother’s duties: cooking food, caring for the household, and tending Rafa.

Rafa has Down’s Syndrome. He doesn’t understand death and believes his mother has abandoned him. He thinks she’s hiding somewhere in the camp. He keeps running off to find her, which causes stress and anger for his family and his Levite relatives.

Miriam cooks the meals, cares for the household, and tends Rafa while her father is at the tabernacle. Miriam is also learning to spin and weave. Her grandmother, a former slave in Egypt, is a master weaver. She is going blind and feels a desperate urgency to teach her granddaughter everything she can before she can no longer see. Miriam is caught between her grandmother’s insistence that she spend her time weaving and keeping track of Rafa. Her friends complain that she’s always working and never has time for fun.

One night, after Duriel has lost his temper and spanked Rafa, Miriam comforts him in bed. She tells him that their mother lives with Adonai. Rafa’s father has impressed both his children that Adonai lives in the tabernacle, the place where Moses speaks with Adonai. Miriam falls asleep, but Rafa doesn’t. He now knows where his mother is, and he leaves the house to find her.

Rafa wanders through the camp, unsure of where to go. When he sees torchlight, he follows it to the tabernacle. The guards are not at the door. Rafa parts the curtains and looks inside. A man’s voice tells him to come in. When he enters the Holy of Holies, he sees a shining man, Adonai, sitting on the ark. The man holds out his arms, and Rafa comes running to him. The man puts Rafa on his lap and asks what he wants. Rafa says he wants his mother.

The man calls Ronit. She appears in a pillar of light. Laughing and crying for joy, she gathers Rafa into her arms, carries back into the light, and they both disappear.

Adonai summons Moses and Duriel. They both come to the tabernacle. Moses enters; Duriel stands outside the door. Adonai tells Moses how to handle the situation. Duriel is not to be punished because Rafa entered the tabernacle. Instead, Duriel is to be relieved of his work for one year to spend the time mourning for his wife and son, caring for his mother, and comforting his daughter, Miriam. If he humbles himself sufficiently, Adonai will receive his service again, give him a woman to love, and more children, including sons to carry on his family line.

When Moses comes out of the tabernacle, he carries Rafa’s body wrapped in a new woolen blanket. Duriel recognizes the blanket as something his wife was making when she died. It had lain unfinished in their tent since her death. He examines it. The blanket is now completely finished. Taking his son’s body in his arms, Duriel falls to his knees sobbing. Moses lays his hands on Duriel’s head and begins blessing him.

Suddenly, there was a strange noise outside. Clare tiptoed across the creaky floor. She looked from behind the curtains. Strange shadows lurked from the misty town. They were unlike anything she’s ever seen before. As tall as a telephone booth but the limbs were strange… the legs were lean while the arms were strong. Clare lit a torch and went downstairs to investigate. The door slowly creaked open and into the ghostly streets she went.

There was suddenly a crack of lightning, and behind her, were the shadows. She ran as fast as her little legs could carry her but they were fast. She jumped into a nearby bush and waited. She saw the go into a tree. She decided to follow along. Pure curiosity powered her.

“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh!….” She whispered screamed as she fell down a big hole.

She saw some vines in front of her. Her heart was racing. What was she going to see, a mystical land, an evil lair or the centre of the earth? She pushed aside the vines and thoughts and gaped at what she saw. Everything was unspeakable, she had to get out of this nightmare. Left was right, up was down, good was bad. She couldn’t breathe. Where was the exit? What is this place? Why did the men go here? Why? Why? Why?! She was trapped in her own thoughts and in the world.

She woke up. “It was too real..” She muttered.

Clare opened the curtains and screamed. Her heart was thumping hard and her brain was numb. Her eyes were frozen. Little did she know that this was just the beginning of mass terror and horror. Would she live or would she die? That is the question that remains unanswered…

Ignore this

The first time I noticed her was a rainy day. She was sitting in a chair and talked to herself. I was so curious about her who behaved strangely. I thought she was a weird person, but I wanna know her stories. I was sure she had a story, at least one. I said” Hi, you are beautiful.” She answered” My mom always says that, but she is gone.” “Where is she?” She said with a sweet smile” She is there. ” She pointed to her heart with small and thin hands.”In my heart and my dream.”

In a moment, I remembered that I was so jealous when I saw my friends and their mom hold hands. I understood this girl who missed her mom. But I thought her mom had a good reason to leave. We all have a reason when we make a choice. Sometimes we think only for ourselves. Sometimes we choose to sacrifice for love. Sometimes we are selfish. But no matter what decisions we have made, we still have hope and belief, and we have to.

I told the girl” Your mom lives happily. Your mom loves you.” She said” I always know that, but when will she be bak to see me ? I only wanna see her.” I said” She is already on her way to look for. She needs time.” The girl smiled like an angel.

But I lied to her, I have to.

She sought refuge in all except what she knew she could possibly thrive at. The fears, the shaky voice, the anger in her eyes and the misery in her soul. Nothing could begin to explain to the world how tortured and jaded her spirit had become. She never asked for this and loathed those who felt she could learn to live life differently.

How does one learn to live life? Is it in the way we were raised? Is it the choices we make? Is it how we perceive things? She was not raised like this. No one would make choices to feel like this and perception is reality, no? If her scars were on the outside instead of on the inside, she would be immediately raced to a hospital. The room would fill with doctors and nurses scurrying to make her lively. But the scars remained on the inside so the world did not see the wounds. The pain remained unseen and the rush for help was nowhere to be found.

Dying was the answer. Of course! She’d read the bubbly bullshit quotes about death being a permanent solution to a temporary problem. Who is to say it’s temporary? Cancer may be temporary. A patient may go into remission but no one judges them for feeling like death may be a better way. Why would she be judged? Demons are revolting things to handle and some, like the girl, simply cannot handle them alone. Would one allow their child to be tormented by another person, or would they help them? Why didn’t they help her? Why were her bullies not confronted?

This was a short short story I wrote that was submitted for a contest. It had to be 150 or less….

She could not explain the feeling she got when she saw him, and he touched her. Every time she tried, the words would just fall out in random order.

One day as they were laying on a blanket watching the drifting clouds, she looked at him and whispered, “I love you.” As he smiled he said, “I know you do,” his hand gripping hers tighter. “No, I mean I really love you. Do you remember when you were a kid and you would swing? The feeling you got in your tummy the higher you went,if there were a million pterodactyl-sized butterflies in there?” He rolled to his side and said, “Yes, that was the best feeling as a kid.” She smiled and said, “That’s the way I feel about you.” He reached over and sighed as he placed his lips to her forehead and whispered, “I love you.”

Short stories, to me, are the perfect literary form. The most amazing way to get across complex and critical concepts without bogging stories down with unnecessary melodrama. I’m actually looking at putting together an anthology-type short story periodical in the next few months. Anyone who’d be interested in being printed, maybe, shoot me a message nmoo651 (at) aucklanduni (dot) ac (dot) nz

It’s a dark night, unknown figure runs across the cold wet streets, flooded by intense rain. There’s a curfew, and this character is breaking it. Running across the stone alleyways and switching corners so swiftly is easy to mistake them for a shadow. Look. An officer. The figure expertly knocks them out by hitting when they are not looking, then hides the body Faster now, the hooded figure is speeding in the darkness, remember why they’re here. They have to escort a parcel across the country in a relay manner, and the figure is an amateur, and want to succeed they’re first true test. Everything’s going fine currently Until they slip. Makes a clanky noise as they fall and attracts numerous guards to their location, but before they can reach, hides in a crate. That was close. But his leg is hurt after the fall, and he is know limping, still needing to deliver his package to the other side of this county. Behind them by a couple 100 meters, a man of somewhat authority walks past. in his hand, a revolver. He enters the area where the figure knocked out an officer and hid him, and easily finds where the figure hid him, as he has dealt with his kind before. The figure creeps into an empty restaurant, where the server greets him happily. The figure asks for a map of this county, something they should have probably had earlier, but hey! They’re an amateur. The server in exchange asks for the figure’s name, to which they respond ‘Max’ after glancing at a Maximum Voltage sign. Max escapes by climbing onto the roof via ladder inside. authority guy returns, and hears Max above, and shoots server (NOO), and climbs up. He shoots max, and max almost falls off the tall building, saved by grabbing onto a gutter flowing with water. AG (authority guy) points gun “give me the parcel” Max puts it slowly into the gutter he’s holding on, and it drifts off. AG makes a break for it, trying to get the parcel before it falls, while max jumps off, landing on another ladder outside an adjacent building. When Ag opens the Parcel, he finds nothing (Ha ha!). Max continues to Victory! –Just a draft, and I apologize for any grammar mistakes.–

I found your “How to Write a Short Story from Start to Finish”, very useful. I represent a self-publishing company, Notion press and this information means a lot to our network of writers, to whom we will be sharing it. We also have similar useful content on our academy page. Please feel free to check out and get in touch with us. https://notionpress.com/academy/definitive-guide-on-how-to-write-a-novel/

A fish fought so hard not to know me. I fought harder to know him. We spent hours at our contest. When exhaustion had taken us both, we acquiesced. As he boarded the boat it was apparent his bravery and powerful fight was over and all I had to do was claim victory.

It was a victory that was sour to me. Something inside of my old self changed with meeting this fish. I loved that fish and our fight, it was just what I wanted. What was unexpected was the emotion of caring that poured out afterwards. I lack the skill of caring, not having any experience in how to care or being cared for will do that to a man. Hard life living without those things.

I held him gently in the water for what seemed like eternity, he got his strength back, thrashed and swam away.

goodby and hello, I said.

You have a great idea here, I think you can extend this idea into a short story. I like your style of writing, easy to understand.

This is rough idea I’ve been playing around with. Let me know what you think I can do to make it better. Thanks.

Ariala was led into the throne room of her own castle to face the man who had just taken over. He was a tall, broad-shouldered man in heavy metal armor. His long blonde hair was left to hang loosely around his body and his eyes were so dark that they seemed black to her.

“Hello Princess, we meet again.”

“I’d say it’s a pleasure to see you again Prince Demitri, but I was taught not to lie.”

“Charming as ever I see. Not to worry…I’ll change that little attitude of yours soon enough. For now…there’s something I want you to watch.”

Ariala watched as her father, the true King, was dragged into the room. He looked so battered and it broke her heart to see her father’s strength reduced to this. He had bruises covering his face and she was fairly certain one of his arms was broken.

“Why are you doing this? We have never done anything against your family or your kingdom…”

“You have not…true…but your father here has angered me greatly by denying me the one thing I wanted from him.”

“What might that be?”

“You, dear Ariala. I requested your hand in marriage…he refused.”

“So you decide that taking over my home is somehow going to make me want to marry you?”

“It doesn’t matter if you want it or not…I will marry you and you will do as you are told or suffer the consequences.”

“I will most certainly not be marrying you and nothing you can do to me will change my mind.”

“I was afraid you might be this way. Men…”

The soldiers holding her father up dropped him to the floor and pulled their swords, and she watched in horror as they ran their swords through her father’s body. As they pulled back she tried to go to his side but Demitri grabbed her by the waist and pulled her against his body causing her to lash out at him, kicking and hitting any part of him she could reach. He raised a hand to cradle the back of her neck and began squeezing gently, applying more and more pressure until she lost enough air to blackout. He handed her limp body to one of the castle’s royal guards.

“Take her to her chambers for now. Perhaps when she wakes she will be less unpleasent.”

The guard carried her to her bed and was soon joined by his Captain. “We need to get her out of here before it’s too late, Sir.”

“I know, and I have a plan for that. Do you remember John?”

“He’s the one that was always by her side when they were kids right?”

“Aye, that’s him.”

“What about him?”

“He’s the leader of a small band of mercenaries now…and they happen to be in the city below us right now.”

“You’re going to hire them to get her out of here?”

“No…I’m going to tell him that she’s in danger and I need him to help me get her away from this place as soon as possible. In the meantime…guard her door and let no one enter this room.”

“I will protect her, Sir…with my life is I must.”

“I’d rather it not come to that. I will be back as quickly as I can…hopefully with a plan.”

The Captain had faithfully served the Sky Kingdom’s royal family since he was a boy. His father had been the Captain of the Royal Guard at that time and he frequently followed the man to learn all he could from him…now his King was dead and his Princess was in danger. He kept the hood of his cloak up over his face as he slipped into the Queen’s Garden to meet with a man he never actually thought he’d see again.

“Why would the Captain of the Royal Guard want to meet with me in the middle of the night?”

He froze in mid-step as a soft baritone voice sounded out of the darkness, carefully lowering his hood to reveal his heavily greying hair. “Hello again, John. You seem to have done quite well for yourself, being the leader of a mercenary band now.”

“No thanks to you, of course…convincing the King to ship me off to be a squire to some low-level knight…that wasn’t very nice of you.” The man slid out of the shadows like he was a part of them. His jet black hair fell in a soft curtain to his shoulders while his bright blue eyes seemed to pierce the Captain like a spear.

“You were gettig too close to her. We couldn’t risk having her fall in love with someone of such low birth.”

“You mean because I was born a bastard right? What exactly do you want from me?”

“The Princess is in grave danger…and I am hoping you still care enough to help her.”

The man’s gaze sharpens at those words and his voice takes on a darker edge. “What kid of danger?”

“Sky Castle has been overtaken and the King has been killed…in front of her. The man responsible wants to force her to marry him to cement his new role here but she is defiant and I fear he will hurt herto get what he wants. I can get her out of the castle through one of the secret passages…but I cannot get her off the plateau without being caught. I am too well-known here.”

“If you can get her to the Royal Stable at midnight…my men and I can take care of her from that point.”

“Take her to Obsidian Castle in the North. Our allies there will help her.”

“I will take care of her, you have my word…whatever that’s worth to you.”

“When it comes to her…I know I can trust you to keep her safe. I will have her in the stable at midnight, her personal gryphon doesn’t have wings but it will follow her wherever she goes.”

“Wait…she still has that little guy? The blue panther with the bright little tail?”

“He’s not so little anymore…he’s quite large actually, and that tail is a thing of beauty. He’s one of the rare type that have no wings but he’s as loyal as they come…at least to her.”

“Good, she’ll need all the protection she can get. I will see you at midnight…stay safe Captain.”

“You as well, John.”

Later that night four men in dark cloaks were lurking in the shadows behind the Royal Stables, though one of them was clearly unable to remain still for long as the curly blonde begand shifting restlessly from one foot to the other. “Why are we hanging around here at this time of night anyway? This is boring.”

“I told you already. We’re here to help my childhood best friend escape from danger.”

“Right…but who is he?”

“You’ll see soon enough now stay still.”

“Gentlemen, good to see you made it here safely.”

“Same to you, Captain.”

“Wait…the Captain of the Royal Guard? HE’s your friend?”

“Of course not…don’t be ridiculous. The two of us can barely tolerate each other.”

“Wait…then who…?”

“John?”

“Hello again, Princess. Miss me?”

“John!” Ariala ran into the waiting arms of her friend, wrapping her arms around him and crying softly. “Why did you leave me?”

The dark haired man glared at the Captain before responding to her. “I was sent away little one…they wouldn’t let me go say goodbye to you. I thought they would tell you but it seems I was mistaken.”

“Captain? Is that true?”

“Yes, Princess…I’m afraid so.”

“Why?”

“You were getting too close…you father worried that you two would fall in love.”

Ariala took in a deep breath as she turned to face the Captain, planning to give him a piece of her mind, but the darker man placed a hand over her mouth with an amused smirk. “As much as I’d love to watch you verbally berate the man…I’m afraid we haven’t got the time right now. We have to get you out of here before they realize you’re gone.”

“I assume you have a plan already?”

“Of course…but first…” He snapped his fingers and her bright blue gryphon came out of his hiding spot, his tail fanning out in his happiness at seeing his favorite human. The princess wrapped her arms around the it’s neck and then laughed happily as John lifted her up onto it’s back. “You do realize I can do that on my own right?”

“I know…but it gave me an excuse to hold you for a moment.”

“You’ve never needed an excuse for that before, John.”

“Uh…John, perhaps we should get moving now?”

“Right you are my friend. Everyone mount up so we can get down the side of this plateau and down into the forest.”

The four men mounted their own gryphons. John had a hawk and panther gryphon, the curly blonde had a cheetah based gryphon, the auburn haired man ahd a lion and eagle gryphon, while the last man had a massive tiger based gryphon to bear his muscular body. Once they were all mounted they urged their gryphons over the stone wall around the castle grounds and began searching for the least treacherous path down the side of the plateau without going near the main road that led away from the castle. They ended up by the edge of the upper part of Queen’s Lake near the top of the waterfall that fell into the lower lake. “We’ll have to make our way down from here.”

“Can’t we just fly down?” The antsy blonde was, well, still antsy. The princess watched the man fidget every few minutes and constantly shift position. He reminded her of some of the village children withhow they had too much energyu to remain still for very long…most adult grew out of that but this one clearly hadn’t done so.

“We could…if we want to risk our gryphons breaking a wing trying to maneuver the dense branches with us on their backs.”

“Which we don’t…so we have to let them climb down this way.”

“Correct. You alright little one?”

“I’m fine…not the first time we’ve come down this way…remember?”

“How could I forget? You shoved me over the edge of the falls.”

“You were being a jerk…you deserved it.”

“I did…but it was still cold that day.”

“You lived.”

The other men all seemed to be amused at hearing about their leader’s childhood with her so she decided that she would share more stories once they were out of the danger zone. “I’ll tell you boys some more embarassing stories later.”

“You will not.”

“I will too…and you can’t stop me…you never could.”

“I’m a lot stronger now little one.”

“I can see that.”

The way her eyes roamed his figure left him feeling like she could see right through him and he heard more than one of his men snort softly in amusement as his face turned red. The princess gave them all a saucy little grin before mounting her gryphon.

That’s as far as I’ve gotten on it so far. Let me know what you think.

I have written short stories that I’ve worked on or kept in my keep file for up to 2 years. I didn’t know how to write a short story, but kept trying now I don’t think I could write another 300 page novel again if my life depended on it. However, I find my new love (Short Stories) thriller, horror difficult to sell to magazines or enter in competitions…I’m obsessed and won’t stop writing them!!!! Anyone know more about this Kindle Short Story Section?

I’ve been challenged (by a writing instructor) to write a short story of about 500 words or one full page. This seems a bit constraining to me, but I’d welcome any tips.

Morgan’s Fiasco

Our dinky rented room on the edge of Ohio U’s campus was really the basement level of an old frame house built into the side of a hill. Gabe, the rather eccentric old lady who owned the place lived above us in the rest of the house. We had our own entrance, so whatever went on in there was pretty much up to my roommate, Morgan, and me. One evening in the semi darkness of our room, I was trying to study by the dim light of a gooseneck lamp over our ancient second hand desk. George Shearing was issuing forth some soothing sounds on our 45 record player. Suddenly, Morgan, lying across the bottom bed of our double bunks, suddenly broke the silence by blurting out of nowhere, “We can fix that!” My muttered and obviously disinterested response was, “Hunh?” His convoluted answer increased in volume and conviction as he addressed the fact that our ceiling was made up of old, gray, tongue and grove wood slats. It was similar to many old porches built in the 1930’s, and was, indeed, rather ugly for a bedroom. His brilliant inspiration was that we could make up a huge batch of paper mache from strips of torn newspaper soaked in a mix of water and flour, and coat the ceiling it it. When it dried, we could roll on some of that fancy new Kem-Tone paint. “It’d lighten the place up – we’d have a great looking room at almost no cost,” he enthused. Dumb me. I went along with it, little guessing the horrific outcome of our folly. After a day’s hard work, and not getting too much paint or flour mix dripped around the room, it did look pretty good. At least it was brighter. The next night as I lay in my upper bunk trying to get to sleep, I could still smell the freshness of our beautiful new ceiling just a foot or so above my head. Suddenly I heard a funny noise close at hand. “Skritch, scratch, skritch . . .” My eyes popped wide open with the sudden realization of what I was hearing. Rats! There were rats attracted to the flour in our paper mache mix and they were between our ceiling and the floor above trying their best to get at it. I was off that bunk in a bound, pummeling and yelling incoherently at my hapless roommate who had no idea what it was all about. Needless to say, I spent a wakeful night trying to sleep on the floor, keeping one eye open in case of a “break through.” Some rat baits were set out next morning, and no further gnawing was heard for a couple days. But the worst was yet to come. Try to imagine the putrid aroma of one or more dead rats who met their demise in the confined space between the floors of our rooming house. It took weeks for the smell to dissipate, and just about that long for me to forgive Morgan’s creative genius.

I just got an idea – a spin off from my Fall Contest Short Story. But I’m afraid to write it here. I might expel all the “juice” and then not write it all out.

Oh, gosh! You had me quaking and looking over my shoulder. What visuals! What imagination! What suspense and…. horror! Good job. Did you do that all in just 15 minutes??? If so, I have no hope.

I can’t seriously take writing advice from a man that hasn’t yet grasped the situational spelling of your.

‘You don’t have to follow your scene list exactly, but they definitely help you work through your story, especially if your writing over multiple sittings.’

Those pesky grammar slip-ups happen to the best of us. It’s fixed now. Thanks for pointing it out!

“So they lived happily ever after,” finished Ms. Taslahm. Heather Giron yawned. The one thing that was worse than cleaning the poop of the old brown mare the school owned, a scrawny one that was called Marigold, was listening to Ms. Taslahm’s long, boring tales of this and that that were supposedly supposed to help them during life, like they had for A+ student from more than 100 years ago, Briar Rose, who later became Sleeping Beauty, or wishful Ella, who later became well-known Cinderella. Heather, really, didn’t see anything in her future that may lead her to a wonderful fortune and a story of her own. But that was okay. She didn’t exactly mind. It wasn’t as if she was expecting a wonderful fortune such as someone… Heather cast a side-glance at Savannah Rivers. Savannah Rivers was an annoying, pesky know-it-all of a girl. She had curly black hair and perfectly glossed lips. She had tanner, richer skin than most people in the village, and always wore beautiful, colorful gowns, a obvious contrast to Heather’s dull ones. Today, Savannah’s gown was a pale pink, and it matched her lip gloss and eyeshadow on her heavy lidded gray eyes. Noticing Heather watching her, Savannah smacked her lips and smiled the beautiful princess smile that all the boys fell for. She flashed it at Heather, who returned it with a big, exaggerated motion of someone flipping her hair, a.k.a. Savannah. Sincere Roque leaned over and laughed. Sincere Roque was one of Heather’s’ friends. He had a unique combination of eyes, 1 amber and 1 green. He loved acting. He had honey-colored hair and exactly 14 freckles…not that Heather noticed. Savannah shot them a frown then turned again, listening to Ms. Taslahm as she described the next task they were going to take. “After all, you never know when you’ll get your fortune, or your clue, that with the right knowledge can lead you write to your prince or your damsel in distress.” Kaden Kidd, Sincere’s best friend and ‘Prank Master in Training’ (as Sincere called it), raised his hand. Kaden’s family all had the same dark eyes and black, straight hair. Most of Kaden’s family, though, had pale, white skin, but Kaden had the opposite. He had bronze skin, which he was quite proud of. “Yes, Kaden.” Ms. Taslahm said with a hint of exhaustion in her voice. “Did you ever have a prince, or were you ever ad damsel in distress?” Ms. Taslahm narrowed her eyes. “Yes once…with another girl. The prince swooped in to save us, but he could only take one. He took the other girl, and Wizard Foaly’s henchman, Todd Fincher, had to save me. It was the worst day of my life.” Ms. Taslahm buried her face in her hands. Kaden snickered. “Isn’t that Old Todd from the Village Block. I thought he was Ms. Taslahm’s brother, not husband.” Now Heather had a question. Do you really have to be a damsel in distress to get a prince or a fortune? And do you hafta get a fortune? Can’t we just live like this? While she debated if she should ask the question or not, she stretched on her tree stump. Yes, tree stump. The villages’ school was so small and poor, that they couldn’t afford desks or chairs for everyone, proper lunch, or actual books so the students could read along with the teacher. All this was because of the School Overseer. He was a greedy old man, and whenever the payings came for the teachers and school, he often just took it himself. His office was a dream, and the only reason the teachers stayed teaching was because the loved and felt sorry for the kids. Heather just couldn’t see why. She felt sorry for herself now, and just thinking about it made the boring, fidgety ache come back. And a bit sorry for Ms. Taslahm. But she still tortured Heather everyday and night, and no matter what Ms. Taslahm did or feel was going to change that. Finally, Heather raised her hand, ignoring the snickers coming from Savannah’s side, and the fact that her ripped, tattered sleeve of one of her 5 dresses was growing short. “Yes?” Ms. Taslahm looked more than a bit annoyed. “Do you have to be a damsel in distress to get a prince and a fortune? And what’s so important about a fortune?” Silence settled around the class. Now Ms. Taslahm looked like she was going to go bonkers. “YES! YOU HAVE TO GET A PRINCE TO BE A PRINCESS AND TO GET A FORTUNE, AND YOU HAVE TO BE A DAMSEL IN DISTRESS TO BE A PRINCESS! WHERE HAS YOUR HEAD BEEN THESE LAST TWO YEARS HEATHER GIRON! AND YOU KNOW WHAT HAPPENS IF YOU DON’T GET A FORTUNE, GIRON! YOU END UP A SLAVE OR A TIRELESS WORKER, GETTING NO MONEY, WITH A LUNATIC OF A HUSBAND. YOU FALL OF THE TREE OF LIFE. YOU BECOME GOD’S LAUGHINGSTOCK! AND THEN YOU DIE!” Ms. Taslahm’s face became red and splotchy. Then, her voice softened. “I really hope you guys learn and listen to everything that I teach…it’ll help, a lot. Now, excuse me for a sec…” After Ms. Taslahm got out of hearing range, Sincere whooped and Kaden patted my back. “Congrats, Heather, you won. You made her blow big-time!” Dimly, Heather remembered the contest the boys and Heather had made. Whoever made their teacher ‘blow’, won. But that was by far the last thing on her mind. Is life really like that. You get a prince, you win, if not, you lose and perish…wow. Heather rubbed her temples as the full force of life slammed into her, and as she did, her strawberry blond hair swooped around her, covering her in what seemed like a safe, copper, veil, away and away from reality and, well, life. Away and away. (Comments, Suggestions?)

Life could be hard most of the times and it could be horrible. The worst thing about it though, is that people come and go. Living in the moment, we are all blissfully ignorant to the fact that maybe one day, the person in front of us could be a thousand miles away. We don’t usually think about it. What we usually think about is the future we could have with that one person together. We are hopeful that no matter what happens, we’ll always stay the same. We start building that perfect image of the future and how it would be with that one person beside us, but we always seem to forget that, in fact, people do come and go.

To me, it was great shock when that one person left me. I was very close to her: we were practically sisters. I had known her since we were kids. We grew up together; in fact, I can’t remember what my life was like before her. Both our parents believed that we are inseparable, and they made me believe it. What I didn’t know was the fact that they knew. They knew that one day she could leave me. They knew that in all honesty we weren’t inseparable. Most importantly, they knew that people come and go.

We were in the same middle school. We would go to school together and laugh along the way. She would pull me from my arm and drag to the school ground. Life was merrily moving on and we were mere kids living our lives. The last day of middle school – I remember it clearly- the sun was shining brightly in the sky. It was one of those hot, burning days. We were heading back from school, racing through the tree shades and laughing. Obviously, the excitement of the vacation hyped us up. If only I had paid attention at that time, I would’ve seen that my friend’s steps lacked their usual bounce and her smile lacked the usual sparkle. Thinking back to it again, I realized that her dreadlocks fell dead on her shoulders and gently swayed with the heat-filled wind. Her shoulders were slightly hunched with the weight of the news she had carried.

I was too excited to notice any of those little details, and I should’ve. We pranced all the way to our houses (we lived beside each other). As we were used to, we both ran through my front door as soon as it was opened. On the inside wasn’t what I expected. Mrs. and Mr. Sullivan were in the living room. It wasn’t something out of the ordinary though; they were always over at our house. Their faces, I will never forget the solemn look they had on their faces. Mom ushered me and Nancy into the house hurriedly. We both threw our bags next to the couch. There was tension in the air and I could feel it.

“What’s wrong?” I asked as I sat on an armchair. The adults present all looked at one another sharing worried glances. Nancy walked slowly to her parent’s side and clasped her hands together. She sat at the edge of the couch with her head hung low and feet bouncing fast. She was nervous, I could tell.

“There’s something we need to discuss…” Mom moved her gaze towards Mrs. Sullivan motioning for her to start.

Mrs. Sullivan swallowed nervously and cleared her throat. “We know you and Nancy are such great, close friends,”

“And we know we’ve always dreamt of you two growing together,” Mr. Sullivan continued.

“But there are some times when things don’t always go the way we wanted them to,” my father laid a gentle hand on my shoulder. I looked at him confused then turned to everyone.

“I don’t get where this is going.” My voice was shaky fearing what they could say.

“Mr. and Mrs. Sullivan have gotten a new job opportunity in France-”

“Well, that’s great! They’ve always wanted that!” I interrupted my mother and beamed at the Sullivans.

“Yeah, it is, honey, ” my mom smiled sadly, “but…”

“But what?”

“We’re going to France, Lee.” Nancy spoke for the first time. I was very proud of the Sullivan couple for finally reaching their goals. However, it took me a few seconds to actually comprehend what she had just said. Slowly, the smile was erased from my face.

“No…” One word. Only one word, but it was packed with emotions. Tears burned my eyes. I covered my mouth in shock as my gaze raced from person to another, searching for a sign that this isn’t true. This isn’t happening! But they all watched me with sad faces and guilt.

“No, this can’t be happening. This can’t be happening!” I got up to my feet with thoughts racing through my head. “What about our high school years together? We’ve always wanted to go to high school together! It is an experience that cannot be relived any time! What about the parties and sleepovers we were gonna have? Huh? How are we gonna do that now when we’re thousands of miles apart?”

“It wouldn’t be that bad, you know we can chat over the internet.” She tried saying weakly as the tears ran don her face.

“Chat over the internet? You and me both know that isn’t going to happen! Or have you forgotten about Cassandra?” She took in a sharp breath at Cassey’s mention. “You promised you won’t leave me the same way she has!”

“I don’t have a choice!” She was on her feet by now.

“Sure you do! You can stay here!”

“And leave my parents? Lee, you know I can’t live without them!”

“So that’s it? You’re actually going to leave me?” Both our eyes were bloodshot. The adults just sat there, barely holding their tears.

“I guess that’s it.” A second’s pause passed before we embraced each other. Our sobs were loud as we held onto each other. We slowly slid onto the ground; the adults soon joined us.

That moment I would never forget. The moment my best friend left me behind. It was the moment I realized how hard life could be. You truly never know someone’s value until they’re taken away from you. Even through the heartbreaks and break-ups I’ve went through in high school and college, nothing was worse or more painful than that one moment.

People come and go, that’s the way life is. They always leave an imprint of themselves behind, but their memories last long.

People will always come and will always go, but their memories will last long and strong.

The river was our life, yet it was our death. If it wasn’t for the current, and the water of the river, our crop fields would be nothing more than dry, dusty, useless plains. But the river was a deathtrap, after we would get a great harvest, the river would flood our small town, destroying houses, building, and lots of the crops. Livestock would die, and our villagers would be killed. As the main farmer, I tried to make a wall or a levee on the branch of the river that flows next to my lush crop field, but every time, the river would wash over, breaking the wall and destroying everything, I was determined not to let that happen. On July 2, just three months away from harvest, I got up at 5:00 AM, tired, and sleepy, being up 30 minutes earlier than usual. I’ve thought of moving to Italy or Israel, but even if I sold the crop field I wouldn’t make it, and the citizens here would die without me. I sighed, it was a hard life, but at least my wife and family was with me, well most of them. Last year My son moved to Greece, and my daughter, was killed by the flood. The grief follows me everywhere, my other kid is too young to remember them. I also fought with the guilt of my daughter’s death, if I just tried a little bit harder, got up a little bit earlier, I could have saved her, but I didn’t and now it’s too late. I sat there for a second and wiped a tear from my cheek, for her, I will stop the flood and make sure nobody else must suffer the pain and grief I have, NOBODY. I got up and got dressed. I looked in the mirror, and could barely recognize the man in it. I had calices, and wrinkles, and grey hair. My hair was messed up, my boots dirty, and my clothes ripped and torn, I don’t care how I look anymore, after her death, I quit caring about my looks, I just got up and left. Hygiene wasn’t a number one priority either, I barely brushed my teeth, and took a shower every one or two weeks. I didn’t care much for food either. Every morning I would get up, drink a cup of coffee, eat a slice of bread, and an egg. Then in the afternoon, I would retire to the house, my wife would cook something, then I’d drown my sorrows and burdens in whiskey. But to the current task, I was as determined as ever, and wasn’t going to waste any time. My servant would be tending to the farm all day, while I worked on the river. I grabbed a stale piece of bread, and shoved it in my mouth, barely noticing its terrible taste and its staleness. I skipped having a coffee or anything else. I went outside, the sun wasn’t up yet, but there was a faint red line the west, signaling that it was coming soon. I mounted my horse, and rode to the supply store. Once in town, I stopped at the store and bought tons of bricks, I paid for it, and left, determined to waste no time. By the time, I got back to the farm, the sun was up, and it was around 6:30. I had already wasted too much time. I went to the river and started putting the bricks together. I left a hole in the bottom, so the farm could still get water. I grew tired and tired, when eventually, after lugging a heavy brick, I fell, and I heard a crack. The pain was fierce, like I was getting stabbed with a million needles at once, and it kept going, the pain was sharp and searing, and it was in my back. I couldn’t move, I tried calling for help, but my mouth wouldn’t cooperate, I started seeing stars, and eventually, everything went black, and my head fell down hard, hurting more.

WIFES PERSPECTIVE

I asked the servant if he’d seen him, and he said, “I reckon I haven’t, seems a bit suspicious to me. Tell me if you have, he still owes me some money.” He started chuckling, but when he saw my solemn face, he quieted and got a somber look, “I hope you find him, good day ma’am.” He tipped his hat and kept milking a cow. I don’t know what to think, but eventually, I saw some bricks, then I saw a huge rock laying by it. When I realized, it wasn’t a rock, it was my husband! I nearly fainted, and choked back a sob, the pain of my daughter’s death became all too real again. I looked at him, he was breathing, but he wasn’t moving at all, his eyes were closed, he looked as if he was in another dimension and he looked like he was falling away, I gagged, and chocked back another sob. I ran up the hill and called for the servant to get the medic, and told him the situation, he complied, and I rushed back to my husband.

Everything was black, I was completely numb, and all feeling and heat went right out of my body, everything was cold, and I began to shiver inside my skin, then the memories came… I just exited the barn when I heard the screaming, it was oddly familiar, and I felt like I should know, the voice was tugging at me, when I remembered with a sickening nature, it was my daughter! I tried to run to her, at least my brain did, but my body wouldn’t comply. I was stuck there, helpless and my daughter screaming. What’s happening? I began to move when I heard the familiar gushing, the sound of the waves, and the river, it was flood season! Oh, no, my daughter, she must be there! I started sprinting, when I was stopped short. The gushing got louder, and louder, then BAM! The river exploded with an ear-cracking sound, like it did every year, except this year was different, the river noises were mixed with the screaming of my daughter, and I tried to run, but I was engulfed in water. I swam with all my might against the strong current to get to my daughter, but I couldn’t, I tried for a little bit, then, became tired, and couldn’t do anything, I had to use all my strength just to stay above water so I wouldn’t drown. I hoped that maybe the current would push my daughter to me, but I abandoned it when my daughter was pulled deep into the gushing, overflowing, imploding river, I then realized that this would be the end if I didn’t do something, so I swam as hard as I could, but after I moved a few feet, my arms burned, my legs roared with pain, and my body screamed for me to stop, but my brain told me to move forward, but I couldn’t, not one bit, my body shut down, and I couldn’t move, I sank to the bottom, and abdicated all hope of being able to rescue my daughter, Don’t worry, they’re going to find her, I just know it! The optimistic part of my brain said. But the rational part of my brain knew it wasn’t possible, and soon the rest of my mind agreed, and I felt defeated, like someone had come and took a huge chunk right out of my body and left it there. And I began to hope they wouldn’t save me either, so I could be with my daughter and live in eternal peace, then I could apologize that I wasn’t man enough to save her. I was at the bottom of the water, and I felt like paper, with no soul in me, and the water moved me, until I passed out.

The memories kept coming, one of my daughters funeral, one when my son left, one when me and my wife got married, and I let them come, until the second part of the daughter catastrophe came, then I began to fight, I didn’t want to see another atrocity, I wouldn’t let it happen, but the memory flood in anyways and I gave up.

I woke up, the water was gone, and the river was flowing like normal, I was accompanied by many medics, when one of them yelled, “He’s awake!” and they cheered, I would be cheering too, if I wasn’t the one about to die, almost nobody survived the flood, even if we recovered them, we could not get them to live, and some people would wake up, but die in the hospital. “We need to get him to the hospital immediately!” A medic with a white jacket and a red cross yelled, whom I assumed was the head medic. “No!” I yelled, and coughed up seawater, “My, daughter,” I got out and then the pain attacked me again. The doctor got a solemn look, and it looked like my wife choked back a sob, “I’m sorry to inform you of this, but we recovered your daughter and brought her back to life, but she was paralyzed, and soon died from a stroke.” I tried to be tough, but it wouldn’t happen, and began to sob, the doctor patted me on my back, and said, “I’m terribly sorry, but we are going to take you to the hospital, and our flood prevention donors are going to pay for her wedding and your medical bills.” I wanted to resist, I wanted to stop them from taking me to the hospital, I wanted to do something, anything, but it wouldn’t happen, and I let them take me, with the pain attacking me, fiercely, and I felt like I was imploding, I sighed, and fell asleep.

I woke up, finally away from the terrible memories, I attempted to sit up, but pain seared through me, and the pain engulfed me. I choked back a sob, the memories making the pain all too real again. I attempted to sit up again, when I realized I wasn’t where I was when I fell. I was in a hospital, the same one I was in when my daughter died, my first thought was that this was another memory, but I thought better of it when more pain seared through me. Then, I couldn’t move my right arm, or my left leg, and most of my body wasn’t responding, and it and the pain were threatening to engulf me. I tried to sit up, but all that happened was another searing pain, I cried out in agony. Then, the doctors came rushing to me. “I can’t move.” I managed to get out through gritted teeth, just with that little amount of talking, I felt tired, and more pain came. The doctor looked though some papers, then examined, me, and looked at a device, “Oh, dear.” He said, which made me feel a big scared. “What happened?” I managed again, the doctor looked at me, sighed, then talked, “When you were lugging that brick you fell, assuming because you were tired, and you landed on your arm wrong, which broke it, but when you fell, the brick fell on your back, breaking it, and,” he took a deep breath, then said, “making you paralyzed.” He left with a solemn look as I let that sink in, he had to be wrong, I tried to move, but couldn’t and tried to remain calm, but screamed inside my brain, fear, and pain attacked me, and me not being able to take it. I laid there, not knowing what to do or think, I was paralyzed, I’ll never be able to prevent the floods. I felt defeated, I surrendered, abdicating my chances of stopping the flood, and inside my mind, I was dying, I couldn’t take it, and pain seared through my body. Then, with a start, I awoke, and got ready to get to work.

Hi Everyone, Just getting started here and it looks like a wonderful spot to become a better writer. I like the forum setting also to exchange ideas and get input from others. Speaking of input, I have had a certain novel that I have wanted to write for a long time. I have a site and am starting to make a home for it and other works but it’s a sweeping storyline spanning years.I see my first lesson is to write a short story instead. I am not sure that I can pare this one down to a story in that amout of words and time.

So I would love some advice. Should I choose a subject from the list that was given to me or do a “partial ” story choosing a specific time frame, happening, or incident that could have a beginning and end derived from the book I want to write later? Thank you for any ideas and/or advice! Kathie

Gabriel García Marquez has a short story, “monologue of Isabel watching rain in Macondo”, which was originally part of a novel (like a chapter or something) but he decided he wasnt gonna use it, even tho he had already written it. So I’m guessing he wrote each chapter like a new short story, almost. His style is kinda difficult to copy, so maybe thats not a good example. Perhaps it doesnt really matter what you write, as long as you write it. Looking forward to reading some of your stuff, short or long 😀

This is my 15 minute writing practice. Usually, I do a lot more detail and something along the lines of romance, but for some reason I had a small idea of it having to do with a robotic girl and I just expanded onto it as I went along. I hope you like it! I’d like to know your thoughts on it too, what I did good and what I need to work on. If you have any interest in contacting me, just let me know. Thanks!

“When she was little, she never touched a Barbie doll like the other girls. She never thought about makeup. She was different. She read constantly. She learned to write stories at the age of 7. She could calculate the answers to basic Algebraic equations when she was 9. She didn’t just want to learn, it was as if she needed to learn. So that’s why I wasn’t surprised when the doctors told me she did.

Whenever I’d go over to her house and visit her, she’d be listening to music with her earbuds in while she did something like a puzzle on the floor. She’d never hear me walk in. But as soon as I asked her, say, maybe a mathematical question, all focus was on me and she’d be determined on getting the correct answer. She was strange. I never understood her ways or why she was the way she was, but I accepted it. I accepted her. I didn’t realize I’d be accepting an it.

I got the call on Wednesday morning around 3 A.M.. It was an officer from the police department. I was confused and scared. What could possibly be wrong? A million things. A million things could be wrong. I asked every question I could think of or manage to get out of my mouth, but all I could get for an answer from whoever it was on the other line was: “Come down here and see for yourself.” So I went down there to the police station. When I arrived I was wondering why we weren’t somewhere such as a hospital already. As I walked in, I knew why. For Lilith, we don’t need a hospital, we need a mechanic.

Lilith was sitting in a chair while uncertain medics, police officers, mechanics, and many others were surrounding her. At a distance her father was holding her mother in her arms as she cried, I’d expect him to, but he wasn’t. He was just staring at his daughter, a blank expression across his face. I ran over to them, only a few of the million questions I had, spilling out of my mouth. I couldn’t get a response from either.

I turned and barged into the crowd of people surrounding Lilith. “Lilith!” I screamed. No response from her, no movement, no words spoken, nothing. It’s as if there was a switch on her and it was turned off. I pushed through the crowds and they obliged, allowing me near her until I was on my knees crying as the wires that were strewn out of her knees lay twisted and coiled on the floor around me. What happened to her? What happened to my best friend?

To answer that question for you, the government persuaded her father that it was the right thing to do. That it’d be alright. That’d it’d be safe, for them to experiment on his daughter. They had a theory that if they somehow rearranged body parts and substituted wires and motors and such for things like organs and tissues, later in life the average human would be invincible. They’d be capable of learning anything. They’d be capable of learning everything. But Lilith, she learned everything already by the age of 19. What else was there for her to do? Her life goal was to do such and she’d done it. Her body was shutting down. She needed to know more, her robotic body needed it. Her mechanical mind needed stimulated by something.

Although she was mostly robotic, she was also partially human. She had one of the most humane things, emotion. And she was suffering as she grew weaker everyday. Literally dying to know more. As the robotic part of her began to give up, so did the human part. She gave up. She didn’t want to be just an experiment, and she definitely didn’t want to give any result to the scientists who thought this would be alright, that it was successful. So she let them know that it failed as she slashed through the wires and circuits inside her, turning off all parts of her, both motorized and mortal.”

I am currently working on a collection of short stories. It is in the beginning stages but the process is by far the most enjoyable part. I have about two thousand words completed so far. I roughly have spent about 5 hrs. The tips in this site have given me a clear path to creating a great story.I just want it to be able to relate to the reader grammatically. That’s my main concern but doing research is part of the journey.

Amazing tips. I have written a mystery novella with twist in the end. When I started it I intended it to be a short story but it got stretched to 46 pages of length. It’s available on my blog. You may check it and feedback will be highly appreciated http://neuriverse.blogspot.in/

Sarah, The most challenging part of writing a short story is having an idea from personal experience. Having a general idea of it as a slice of life. But what is the theme? You get a sort of theme in what you want the story to communicate. You write bits and pieces but the biggest challenge is making all fit together. Particularly you want a series of actions and you want the reader to think of the theme naturally occurring out of accumulated flow of the story. Larry B.

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Last updated on Oct 29, 2023

How to Write a Short Story in 9 Simple Steps

This post is written by UK writer Robert Grossmith. His short stories have been widely anthologized, including in The Time Out Book of London Short Stories , The Best of Best Short Stories , and The Penguin Book of First World War Stories . You  can collaborate with him on your own short stories here on Reedsy .  

The joy of writing short stories is, in many ways, tied to its limitations.  Developing characters, conflict, and a premise within a few pages is a thrilling challenge that many writers relish — even after they've "graduated" to long-form fiction.

In this article, I’ll take you through the process of writing a short story, from idea conception to the final draft.

How to write a short story:

1. Know what a short story is versus a novel

2. pick a simple, central premise, 3. build a small but distinct cast of characters, 4. begin writing close to the end, 5. shut out your internal editor, 6. finish the first draft, 7. edit the short story, 8. share the story with beta readers, 9. submit the short story to publications.

But first, let’s talk about what makes a short story different from a novel. 

The simple answer to this question, of course, is that the short story is shorter than the novel, usually coming in at between, say, 1,000-15,000 words. Any shorter and you’re into flash fiction territory. Any longer and you’re approaching novella length . 

As far as other features are concerned, it’s easier to define the short story by what it lacks compared to the novel . For example, the short story usually has:

• fewer characters than a novel
• a single point of view, either first person or third person
• a single storyline without subplots
• less in the way of back story or exposition than a novel

If backstory is needed at all, it should come late in the story and be kept to a minimum.

It’s worth remembering too that some of the best short stories consist of a single dramatic episode in the form of a vignette or epiphany.

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A short story can begin life in all sorts of ways.

It may be suggested by a simple but powerful image that imprints itself on the mind. It may derive from the contemplation of a particular character type — someone you know perhaps — that you’re keen to understand and explore. It may arise out of a memorable incident in your own life.

For example:

• Kafka began “The Metamorphosis” with the intuition that a premise in which the protagonist wakes one morning to find he’s been transformed into a giant insect would allow him to explore questions about human relationships and the human condition.
• Herman Melville’s “Bartleby the Scrivener” takes the basic idea of a lowly clerk who decides he will no longer do anything he doesn’t personally wish to do, and turns it into a multi-layered tale capable of a variety of interpretations.

When I look back on some of my own short stories, I find a similar dynamic at work: a simple originating idea slowly expands to become something more nuanced and less formulaic. 

So how do you find this “first heartbeat” of your own short story? Here are several ways to do so. 

Experiment with writing prompts

Eagle-eyed readers will notice that the story premises mentioned above actually have a great deal in common with writing prompts like the ones put forward each week in Reedsy’s short story competition . Try it out! These prompts are often themed in a way that’s designed to narrow the focus for the writer so that one isn’t confronted with a completely blank canvas.

Turn to the originals

Take a story or novel you admire and think about how you might rework it, changing a key element. (“Pride and Prejudice and Vampires” is perhaps an extreme product of this exercise.) It doesn’t matter that your proposed reworking will probably never amount to more than a skimpy mental reimagining — it may well throw up collateral narrative possibilities along the way.

Keep a notebook

Finally, keep a notebook in which to jot down stray observations and story ideas whenever they occur to you. Again, most of what you write will be stuff you never return to, and it may even fail to make sense when you reread it. But lurking among the dross may be that one rough diamond that makes all the rest worthwhile. 

Like I mentioned earlier, short stories usually contain far fewer characters than novels. Readers also need to know far less about the characters in a short story than we do in a novel (sometimes it’s the lack of information about a particular character in a story that adds to the mystery surrounding them, making them more compelling).

Yet it remains the case that creating memorable characters should be one of your principal goals. Think of your own family, friends and colleagues. Do you ever get them confused with one another? Probably not. 

Your dramatis personae should be just as easily distinguishable from one another, either through their appearance, behavior, speech patterns, or some other unique trait. If you find yourself struggling, a character profile template like the one you can download for free below is particularly helpful in this stage of writing.   

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A story is only as strong as its characters. Fill this out to develop yours.

• “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman features a cast of two: the narrator and her husband. How does Gilman give her narrator uniquely identifying features?
• “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe features a cast of three: the narrator, the old man, and the police. How does Poe use speech patterns in dialogue and within the text itself to convey important information about the narrator?
• “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor is perhaps an exception: its cast of characters amounts to a whopping (for a short story) nine. How does she introduce each character? In what way does she make each character, in particular The Misfit, distinct?

He’s right: avoid the preliminary exposition or extended scene-setting. Begin your story by plunging straight into the heart of the action. What most readers want from a story is drama and conflict, and this is often best achieved by beginning in media res . You have no time to waste in a short story. The first sentence of your story is crucial, and needs to grab the reader’s attention to make them want to read on. 

One way to do this is to write an opening sentence that makes the reader ask questions. For example, Kingsley Amis once said, tongue-in-cheek, that in the future he would only read novels that began with the words: “A shot rang out.”

This simple sentence is actually quite telling. It introduces the stakes: there’s an immediate element of physical danger, and therefore jeopardy for someone. But it also raises questions that the reader will want answered. Who fired the shot? Who or what were they aiming at, and why? Where is this happening?

We read fiction for the most part to get answers to questions. For example, if you begin your story with a character who behaves in an unexpected way, the reader will want to know why he or she is behaving like this. What motivates their unusual behavior? Do they know that what they’re doing or saying is odd? Do they perhaps have something to hide? Can we trust this character? 

As the author, you can answer these questions later (that is, answer them dramatically rather than through exposition). But since we’re speaking of the beginning of a story, at the moment it’s enough simply to deliver an opening sentence that piques the reader’s curiosity, raises questions, and keeps them reading.

“Anything goes” should be your maxim when embarking on your first draft. 

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From pacing to character development, master the elements of short fiction.

By that, I mean: kill the editor in your head and give your imagination free rein. Remember, you’re beginning with a blank page. Anything you put down will be an improvement on what’s currently there, which is nothing. And there’s a prescription for any obstacle you might encounter at this stage of writing. 

• Worried that you’re overwriting? Don’t worry. It’s easier to cut material in later drafts once you’ve sketched out the whole story. 
• Got stuck, but know what happens later? Leave a gap. There’s no necessity to write the story sequentially. You can always come back and fill in the gap once the rest of the story is complete. 
• Have a half-developed scene that’s hard for you to get onto the page? Write it in note form for the time being. You might find that it relieves the pressure of having to write in complete sentences from the get-go.

Most of my stories were begun with no idea of their eventual destination, but merely an approximate direction of travel. To put it another way, I’m a ‘pantser’ (flying by the seat of my pants, making it up as I go along) rather than a planner. There is, of course, no right way to write your first draft. What matters is that you have a first draft on your hands at the end of the day. 

It’s hard to overstate the importance of the ending of a short story : it can rescue an inferior story or ruin an otherwise superior one. 

If you’re a planner, you will already know the broad outlines of the ending. If you’re a pantser like me, you won’t — though you’ll hope that a number of possible endings will have occurred to you in the course of writing and rewriting the story! 

In both cases, keep in mind that what you’re after is an ending that’s true to the internal logic of the story without being obvious or predictable. What you want to avoid is an ending that evokes one of two reactions:

• “Is that it?” aka “The author has failed to resolve the questions raised by the story.”
• “WTF!” aka “This ending is simply confusing.”

Like Truman Capote said, “Good writing is rewriting.”

Once you have a first draft, the real work begins. This is when you move things around, tightening the nuts and bolts of the piece to make sure it holds together and resembles the shape it took in your mind when you first conceived it. 

In most cases, this means reading through your first draft again (and again). In this stage of editing , think to yourself:

• Which narrative threads are already in place?
• Which may need to be added or developed further?
• Which need to perhaps be eliminated altogether?

All that’s left afterward is the final polish . Here’s where you interrogate every word, every sentence, to make sure it’s earned its place in the story:

• Is that really what I mean?
• Could I have said that better?
• Have I used that word correctly?
• Is that sentence too long?
• Have I removed any clichés? 

Trust me: this can be the most satisfying part of the writing process. The heavy lifting is done, the walls have been painted, the furniture is in place. All you have to do now is hang a few pictures, plump the cushions and put some flowers in a vase.

Eventually, you may reach a point where you’ve reread and rewritten your story so many times that you simply can’t bear to look at it again. If this happens, put the story aside and try to forget about it.

When you do finally return to it, weeks or even months later, you’ll probably be surprised at how the intervening period has allowed you to see the story with a fresh pair of eyes. And whereas it might have felt like removing one of your own internal organs to cut such a sentence or paragraph before, now it feels like a liberation. 

The story, you can see, is better as a result. It was only your bloated appendix you removed, not a vital organ.

It’s at this point that you should call on the services of beta readers if you have them. This can be a daunting prospect: what if the response is less enthusiastic than you’re hoping for? But think about it this way: if you’re expecting complete strangers to read and enjoy your story, then you shouldn’t be afraid of trying it out first on a more sympathetic audience. 

This is also why I’d suggest delaying this stage of the writing process until you feel sure your story is complete. It’s one thing to ask a friend to read and comment on your new story. It’s quite another thing to return to them sometime later with, “I’ve made some changes to the story — would you mind reading it again?”

So how do you know your story’s really finished? This is a question that people have put to me. My reply tends to be: I know the story’s finished when I can’t see how to make it any better.

This is when you can finally put down your pencil (or keyboard), rest content with your work for a few days, then submit it so that people can read your work. And you can start with this directory of literary magazines once you're at this step. 

The truth is, in my experience, there’s actually no such thing as a final draft. Even after you’ve submitted your story somewhere — and even if you’re lucky enough to have it accepted — there will probably be the odd word here or there that you’d like to change. 

Don’t worry about this. Large-scale changes are probably out of the question at this stage, but a sympathetic editor should be willing to implement any small changes right up to the time of publication. 

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How to Write a Short Story

Writing a short story may seem like an easy or simple task, but crafting an engaging and compelling piece of short fiction takes skill and practice. In this guide, we will explore the key elements that go into writing an effective short story, including developing characters, crafting a plot, using narrative techniques, and revising and polishing your work. By the end, you’ll have a solid understanding of the short story writing process and be ready to draft your own tales.

What is a Short Story?

Before diving into the how-tos of writing short fiction, it’s important to understand exactly what constitutes a short story. At its most basic, a short story is a brief work of prose fiction that is shorter in length than a novel. But there are some key distinguishing characteristics of short stories versus longer works of fiction:

• Length  – Most short stories range from 1,000 to 7,500 words, though some can be shorter or a bit longer. Anything over 15,000 words is generally considered a novella or novel.
• Single focused plot  – Short stories focus on one core conflict or storythread, without subplots. The narrative is more tightly-woven than a novel.
• Few main characters  – There are usually only a handful of major characters rather than dozens or more. Background on characters is limited.
• Swift pacing  – Events move at a brisker clip since there is less time/space. Exposition and backstory are kept to a minimum.
• Condensed context  – Less emphasis is placed on extensive descriptions of setting or character backgrounds. Context is revealed through events.

Remember that these are guidelines rather than hard rules. Experimental or creative stories may play with conventions. The key point is that short stories aim to packs a narrative punch within a tighter, more focused scope than a novel.

Developing Ideas and Premises

When drafting a short story, one of the first steps is coming up with a core idea or premise to build the narrative around. Here are some effective techniques for generating initial story concepts:

Brainstorming Prompts  – Use writing prompts, either from online lists or ones you generate yourself, as a springboard. Things like “A woman finds $5,000 that isn’t hers” can spark ideas.

Personal Anecdotes  – Draw on interesting real-life experiences , people you know, odd things that happen to you and turn them into fictional tales.

Research Topics  – Browse news stories, history facts, current events for intriguing details or social issues to explore.

Reader Challenges  – Propose a narrative challenge, like “A story told through instant messages” to ignite creativity.

Mindmaps/Freewriting – Jot down any concepts, images, or questions without filtering, as these nonlinear methods stimulate new connections.

The premise should present a central conflict or character decision that neatly sets up the story’s focus and stakes. Keep tweaking ideas until you land on one with potential layers to unpack.

Creating Characters

Short stories hinge upon vibrant, multilayered characters. Take time to craft appealing protagonists and supporting cast through character profiles addressing:

• Basic Details – Describe appearance, mannerisms, and background details.
• Motivations and Goals  – What drives this character? What do they want deep down?
• Flaws and Contradictions  – No one is one-dimensional. Give characters nuanced weaknesses or inconsistencies.
• Perspective and Voice  – How do they view themselves and others? What is their tone/speech patterns like?

Round out profiles by exploring each character’s dynamic with others, life experiences shaping them, and how they change through the story. Even side characters should feel authentic to avoid flat stock figures.

Plotting the Story

Short stories require tight, elevated storylining with a beginning, middle, and end. Develop the narrative arc by:

Identifying the Central Conflict  – What dramatic question or problem fuels the narrative drive?

Outlining Key Scenes  – Map the rising action, pivotal climax/turning point, and resolution of the central conflict.

Scheduling Reveals  – Parcel out contextual details and backstory judiciously, saving mysteries for climactic moments.

Foreshadowing Effectively  – Drop subtle hints that heighten foreboding, tie into later beats, and optimize surprises without logical leaps.

Crafting Satisfying Closures  – Resolve critical narrative strands while leaving room for interpretation or further questions. Avoid pat or simplistic endings.

Use this scheme to stay grounded, yet leave room for organic discoveries in the first draft. Continually assess if scenes refine character or propel plotting forward efficiently.

Structuring Your Story

While short story structure is adaptable, many classics follow reliable models that help maintain pace and audience engagement. Consider opening with:

• In Medias Res  – Throw readers directly into the action/conflict without extensive setup.
• Character in Dilemma  – Pose a thought-provoking choice, want, or obstacle for protagonists up front.

Additional effective structural techniques include:

• flashbacks  – Punctuate scenes with limited retrospectives that add nuance, not confusion.
• dual timelines  – Layer two storylines, with climaxes aligning fruitfully versus disjointedly.
• Frame narratives  – Bookend the central tale with another sequence setting context or posing implications.

The structure should unfold purposefully yet economically, without dragging or wasted space. Maintain suspense and curiosity right up through a resonant closure. Functional plots serve characters and themes over arbitrary story beats.

Refining Your Revision Process

The initial draft gets the raw content on paper, but the real crafting happens in rewriting and refinement. Hone the story by:

• Reading aloud  – Hear where language/pacing/tone feels awkward versus fluid and absorbing.
• Getting feedback  – Consult critique partners to flag ambiguities, weak areas, emotional impacts, and logical gaps
• Self-editing  – Cut excess flab while tightening prose, trimming redundant lines, sharpening dialogue/action, and finessing flow.
• Replotting  – Restructure scenes, timelines, reveals, and conclusion as needed based on editorial insights and storytelling impact.
• Polishing prose  – refine phrasing, vocabulary, sentence variation, vivid descriptions, evocative metaphor upon subsequent drafts.

Leave revisions to simmer, then revisit with fresh eyes later. The goal is a dynamic, cohesive end product where every element elevates the narrative and reader experience.

Publishing and Promoting Your Story

After polishing your story to a fine sheen, explore options for featuring your work:

• Submit to literary journals – Research submission guidelines for print and online publications.
• Self-publish eBooks /paperbacks – Easy-to-use platforms host and distribute your work digitally and in print.
• Create a blog/website – Post stories and build an audience through promotion on social networking platforms.
• Enter writing contests – Competitions offer exposure, potential awards, and craft feedback opportunities.
• Pitch to anthologies/magazines – Inquire about one-off story reprint/syndication opportunities in specific publications or annual collections.

Always maintain professionalism with editors and respect revision/acceptance policies. View initial publications as a learning experience and resume builder toward higher impact placements. Networking widens your supporter base as well.

Examples of Classic Short Stories

To help understand the range, depth and mastery possible within the short form, explore acclaimed works like:

• “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson – A chilling glimpse into blind social conformity and ritual with an unforgettably jarring climax.
• “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman – A feminist examination of postpartum depression and oppressive gender roles through a haunting first-person narrative.
• “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” by Joyce Carol Oates – A psychological thriller following the manipulation and downfall of a naive teenage girl.
• “The Monkey’s Paw” by W.W. Jacobs – A cautionary tale imbued with Gothic suspense sparked by a family’s fateful wishes upon a mystical talisman.
• “Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin – A poignant exploration of familial bonds, the ravages of addiction, and the universal language of jazz seen through two troubled brothers.

Studying classics like these spotlights concise yet immersive storytelling , economic character development, mastery of voice , and the heights short fiction can reach when approached with vision and skill.

That covers the essentials for crafting compelling short stories that entertain audiences and advance your writing practice. Keep experimenting and learning with each new story drafted. Above all, believe in your ability to meaningfully distill life’s complexities into vivid glimpses of truth through short fiction.

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Story Analysis: How to Analyze a Short Story Step-by-Step

Table of contents

Have there been times that you have read a short story in class and tried to analyze its meaning by deep-diving into the text to understand it better? If yes, this article is for you.

Short stories are relatively much shorter and less complex than most novels or plays. But that does not mean that they don’t require an in-depth analysis of what is written in the text and what messages the author of the book intends to convey to its readers.

In this article, you will learn how to analyze a short story step-by-step, along with the essential elements of a short story.

What are the Elements of a Short Story

In order to analyze a short story step-by-step, it is important to know the basics of story analysis. Let’s take a look at the five key elements of a short story.

Characters (both major and minor) are what bring life to a story. Writers use them to transcend important messages throughout the plotline.

Every character has a purpose, a particular personality, and a developmental arc. To analyze these characters for your short story, you must have the answer to the following questions:

• Who is the plotline’s protagonist?
• Do you have your antagonist? If yes, who is it? What antagonistic qualities do they have?
• Are the characters dynamic (changing) or static (unchanging)?
• How does the author describe the character's appearance, personality, mindset, and actions?
• What are your thoughts, feelings, or opinions about the characters?
• What is the relationship between all the characters?

People get invested in fictional characters, relate to them, and see them as real individuals with real personalities, going through real hardships in life.

That's the key motive of the author, and that's what needs to be analyzed.

Setting or Theme

The setting of a short story depicts the theme of the plot through key metaphors. It revolves around three important points:

• Circumstances

This also aids the flow of the plotline, distinguishes the characters, influences viewpoints, and creates an aura for your story.

Even if a story is placed in a historic time and place, from when and where it was originally written, it can influence the entire context of the narrative.

Many stories would seem different and altered if their original setting was changed completely and is thus very crucial in interpreting the concept of the story.

Thus, try to assess how the setting affects the story and how it motivates its characters. Analyze why the author has chosen this particular setting, how the readers respond to it, as well as if there’s any symbolic meaning behind it.

The plotline makes a story by giving it a pattern and a structure to the events that are about to happen. Identifying and analyzing these plotlines will help in giving insights into the explanation of the story.

In short stories, the plot is majorly centered around one important character and their actions, or around one key experience that impacts the story greatly.

Usually, a short story plot has one major storyline, unlike novels, which have multiple trajectories of storylines. Thus, short stories are easier to analyze.

Authors use symbolism to convey messages poetically or indirectly, through their stories, making them more interesting and complex pieces.

Symbolism is depicted using a physical object or even a person to be an abstract idea. For example, a dove represents love and peace and a storm represents hostility and turmoil.

Symbolism can also be used as a metaphor in the narrative, such as life is a roller coaster which portrays life to have its ups and downs.

Similarly, in short story novels, authors symbolize certain conflicts and important issues by using a metaphor or a simile in their story. For example, in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, the officials dismantled the coronations of Caesar's statues, foreshadowing their plan to topple him.

Lastly, the reason you are reading the short story is to identify what you have learned from it and what the moral of the narrative is.

Even though short story novels are crisp, interesting, and entertaining, there is always a life lesson behind each of them. This moral is implied to help the readers understand the author’s perspective, what they want to convey, and what lesson you should learn from the text.

How to Analyze a Short Story Step-by-Step

Now that we know the major elements that are involved in crafting an exceptional story analysis, let's take a look at five tips for how to analyze a short story step-by-step.

Read and summarize

As you prepare to analyze the short story assigned to you, it is recommended to read and re-read it multiple times. Since it is a short story, you’ll have plenty of time to understand all the details included within the story and the context of the plot.

To analyze the book, divide the narrative into sections. Read each of these sections and write down key points and essential details that are related to these portions of the story. As you do that, summarize your interpretation of the plot into a more understandable and easy piece.

Brainstorm and take notes

While reading the text, if you come across an interesting subplot, a challenging character arc, or even a major theme that isn't showcased through the text, make it a point of writing them down.

These notes will be your crutch as you begin analyzing your short story for your class assignment. Taking notes brings organization to your thoughts and ideas, as well as gives you proper knowledge about every detail you find in the short story.

Brainstorm multiple ideas and write down the concepts that you find fascinating while reading the book. Always pay close attention to the details to understand the purpose of the text, as well as the author’s point of view on multiple important situations or events.

Here’s an interesting video by Jesse on how to take notes while reading

Identify crucial concepts

Identifying important concepts in the short story, such as the main conflict that helps with creating the primary argument for the thesis statement, the characters’ personalities, their defining traits, the choices they make, and also the point of view of the narrator.

The point of view is an essential aspect of the storyline as it creates a lens for the reader to understand and analyze themes, details, characters, and important events in the story.

While examining these concepts, you will realize the intention of the author, how the story was significant to them, and why they made certain choices while writing the short story.

Similarly, exploring the literary devices of the short story, such as the setting, mood, tone, and style of the text, will help further in analyzing the plotline in a more notable way.

Include examples and evidence

When you state an argument in your story analysis, it is always better to back it up with credible sources and accurate evidence. For example, you can paraphrase or directly quote a sentence from your assigned story to claim your point.

However, quotations cannot become evidence unless it is explained how it proves the claims that are being made.

Having good sources for your story analysis gives you a higher level of authority over the book that you are writing about and also makes it easier for the reader to understand the author’s perspective.

Craft the thesis statement

It is important to make sure that all the points that have been made for the analysis tie together and ultimately support your thesis.

Keep in mind that the thesis for your short story should not just summarize the plot, and neither should it be a review of the book. Your thesis statement should be an interpretation of the text or an argument that is based on the storyline.

Writing a quality analysis for short stories requires a solid thought process, an organized structure , and the ability to dive deep into the literary meaning of a text.

Here, you understand and think through the author's perspective of the book and why they have chosen to write their thoughts and ideas through this narrative.

Hence, to know how to analyze a short story step-by-step for your class assignments and also score high, you need proper guidance, key steps, and other tips and tricks that put your analysis at the front of the line. This article is here just for that!

If you still find yourself to be stuck, reach out to our analytical essay writing service . Our team of professional writers are experts in analyzing stories and will help you deliver a 100% original short story analysis written from scratch.

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Short Story Writing for Students and Teachers

What Is a Short Story?

The clue is in the title!

Short stories are like novels only…well…shorter! They contain all the crucial elements of fully developed stories except on a smaller scale.

In short story writing, you’ll find the key story elements such as characterization, plot development, themes explored, etc., but all within a word count that can usually be comfortably read in one sitting.

Short stories are just one of many storytelling methods; like the others, they help us derive meaning from our world.

How Do Short Stories Differ From Novels?

The reduced scale of a short story explains most of the differences the form has with longer forms such as novels.

Short stories usually have a tighter focus on a single main character and rarely shift between perspectives the way we often find in longer works of fiction.

Space is of the essence in this form, so long passages of exposition are usually avoided and the story starting at the last possible moment.

In purely numerical terms, short stories can be anywhere between about 1,000 to around 20,000 words or so, though many would consider even 10,000 too long.

A short novel clocks in at around 60,000 words, with word counts between 20-60,000 words being taken up by that red-headed stepchild of prose, the novella.

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How to Write a Short Story

Good storytelling is an art. But, luckily it’s a craft too and, like any craft, the skills and techniques can be learned by anyone.

In this article, we’ll first take a look at some ways to kickstart the short story writing process, before taking a look at some of the structural considerations essential for students to understand before they write their short stories.

We’ll also explore some simple practical activities that will help students to draw on their creative resources and personal experiences to help bring their stories to life.

Finally, we’ll look at some general tips to help students put a final polish on their masterpieces before they share them with the world.

How t o begin a story

Create a Dramatic Question

The first thing a student needs to do when writing a short story is to create a dramatic question. Without a dramatic question, readers will have no motivation to read on as there will be no story .

This dramatic question can take many forms, but as it will be the driver of the plot, it will be the single most important element of the story.

Take the movie Rocky as an example. In it, an aging journeyman boxer, Rocky Balboa, answers two dramatic questions:

1. Will Rocky find love?

2. Can he become the Heavyweight Champion of the World?

Often the dramatic question is of this will she/won’t she type. But, whatever form it takes, there must be some obstacles put in the way of answering it.

These obstacles can come in the form of an external obstacle, such as an antagonist or a negative environment, or the form of an internal obstacle, such as heartbreak or grief.

This is the conflict that creates the crucial element of suspense necessary to engage the reader’s interest.

Whatever form a student’s dramatic question takes, it will provide the plot impetus and how the student will explore their story’s theme.

Practice Activity: Identify the Dramatic Question

It is good practice for students to attempt to identify the dramatic question any time they read a book or watch a movie. Ask the students to think of some classic or popular books and movies that they are already familiar with. Can they extract the major dramatic question from each?

Find Inspiration in the World Around

One of the most common complaints from students, when asked to write a short story, is that they don’t know what to write about. This is the age-old curse of writer’s block.

Figuring out what to write about is the first hurdle students will need to overcome. Luckily, the inspiration for stories lies everywhere. We just need to help students to know where to look.

As writers, students must learn to see the world around them with the freshness of the eyes of a young child. This requires them to pay close attention to the world around them; to slow things down enough to catch the endless possibilities for stories that exist all around.

Luckily, we have the perfect activity to help our students to do this.

Practice Activity: Breathe Life into the Story

We can find stories and the details for our stories everywhere.

Students need to tune their ear to the fragments of stories in snatches of overheard daily conversations. They need to pay enough attention to catch their own daydreaming what-ifs on the bus to school or to keep an eye out for all those little human interest stories in the local newspaper.

Once the living details of life are noticed, students need to capture them quickly by recording them in a journal. This journal will become a great resource for the student to dip into for inspiration while writing their stories.

Those half-heard conversations, those anecdotes of street life witnessed through a bus window, the half-remembered dreams scribbled down while gulping down a rushed breakfast. All these can provide jumping-off points and rich detail for a student’s short story.

Outline and Prepare

Preparation is important when writing a short story. Without a doubt. There is, however, a very real danger of preparation becoming procrastination for our student writers.

Students must learn to make their preparation time count. The writing process is much more productive if students invest some time in brainstorming and organizing their ideas at the start.

To organize their short story, students will need to understand the basic elements of structure described in the next section, but the following activity will first help them to access some of the creative gold in their imaginations. The discipline of structure can be applied afterward.

Practice Activity: Dig for Nuggets

For this activity, give each student a large piece of paper, such as a leaf from an artist’s sketchbook, to brainstorm their ideas. Employing a large canvas like this encourages more expansive thinking.

Instruct students to use colored pens to write sentences, phrases, and fragments, even doodles. Anything that helps them to dump the contents of their mind onto the paper. This is all about sifting through the rubble for those nuggets of gold. Students shouldn’t censor themselves, but instead, allow their mind’s free reign.

To help your students get started, you can provide them with some prompts or questions as jumping-off points. For example:

• What is your basic premise?
• What is the story about?
• Who are your main characters?
• Where is your story set?  

Encourage students to generate their own questions too by allowing their minds ample room to roam. Generating new questions in this way will help them gather momentum for the telling of their tale.

SHORT STORY WRITING STRUCTURE

Even getting off to a great start, students often find themselves in difficulties by the middle of their story, especially if they haven’t achieved a firm grasp of structure yet.

The main elements students will need to master are plot, theme, and character development.

In this section, we’ll take a look at each of these in turn.

Plot refers to the events of the story. This is the what of the tale. It’s useful for students to understand the arc of the plot in five sections: exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution.

Exposition: This is the introductory part of your story. It should introduce the reader to the central characters and orientate them to the setting.

Rising Action: Here the student begins by introducing the central dramatic question which will be the engine of the story. A series of obstacles must be placed in the way of the main character that will increase suspense and tension as the story moves forward toward the climax.

Climax: The climax is the dramatic high point of the story. This is where interest peaks and the emotions rise to their most intense.

Falling Action: Now the conflict is resolving and we are being led out to the story’s end.

Resolution: The central dramatic question has been answered, usually in either a happy or tragic manner, and many loose ends are tied up.

Practice Activity: Instruct students to use the five-part plot structure above to map an outline for their tale before writing .

If the plot consists of the series of events that constitute the story, then the theme refers to what those events mean.

The theme of a story is the underlying message of the story.

What is the ‘big idea’ behind all the action of the plot? This is open to a certain amount of interpretation on the part of the reader, but usually, a little reflection by the student writer will reveal what the events of the plot mean to them.

If, as described in the introduction, stories are how we derive meaning from the world, the theme will reveal the writer’s perspective on things.

Practice Activity: Organize students into groups and ask them to list their Top 5 movies or books of all time. Instruct them to briefly outline the main plot points using the plot structure above. When they’ve completed that, instruct the students to discuss what they think the main themes of each of the works of fiction were.

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Character Development IN SHORT STORY WRITING

No doubt about it, characterization is essential to the success of any short story. Just how important characterization is will depend on whether the story is plot-driven or action-driven.

In the best writing, regardless of genre or length, the characters will be at least plausible. There is a lot that students can do to ensure their stories are populated with more than just cardboard cutouts.

One effective way to do this is to reveal a character through their actions. This is the old show, don’t tell trick at work.

A good short story writer will allow the character to reveal their temperament and personality through their actions.

For example, instead of merely describing a character as putting a mug on the table, perhaps they bring it down with a thud that betrays their anger.

Another great way to reveal character is in the use of dialogue. How characters speak to each other in a story can reveal a lot about their status, mood, and intent, etc.

Our students must learn to draw complex characters. Archetypes may serve us well in some contexts, but archetypes are not real people. They are caricatures. If our students want to people their fictional world with real people, they need to create complex, even contradictory characters, just like you and I are.

If their characters are too consistent, they are too predictable. Predictability kills suspense, which in turn kills the reader’s interest.

Practice Activity: Reveal Mood through Action

For this simple activity, provide the students with a list of emotions. Now, challenge the students to concoct a short scene where a character performs an action or actions that reveal the chosen mood.

To start, you might allow the students a paragraph in which to reveal the emotion. You might reduce this to just a sentence or two as they get better at it. Remind students that they need to show the emotion, not tell it!

HOW TO POLISH AND REFINE A SHORT STORY

Now students have already had a look at how to begin and how to structure a story, we’ll take a look at a few quick tips on how they can polish their stories generally – especially during the editing process.

Write Convincing Dialogue:

For students, investing time in learning how to write great dialogue is time well spent.

Not only is well-written dialogue great for revealing character, but it will break up intimidating walls of text too.

Dialogue is a great way to move the story forward and to provide subtle exposition.

 As mentioned earlier, journals are the perfect place to dump interesting snatches of conversation that become a valuable resource for writing convincing dialogue – except, of course, if you are passing through North Korea or the like!

Vary Sentence Length:

 When finished with their first drafts, encourage students to read their work out loud when editing and rewriting.

Often, students will be surprised to realize just how regular the rhythm of their sentences has become.

Like musicians, writers have chops. It’s easy to fall back on the same few favored structures time and again. Students can do a lot to spice up their writing simply by varying sentence lengths.

Shorter sentences are pacier and punchier while longer sentences can slow things down, calming the reader, then, boom!

Varying sentence length throughout a story prevents the writing from becoming stale and monotonous.

Punctuation:

As with varying sentence length above, the rhythm of a story can be altered through the choice of punctuation.

Students can think of punctuation as musical notation marks. It’s designed to help the reader understand the composer’s intention for how it is to be read and interpreted.

Students should understand punctuation as an imperfect but effective tool. Its use affects not only the work’s rhythm but also the meaning.

It is well worth the student’s time to perfect their use of punctuation.

To Conclude                                                  

There are a lot of moving parts to short stories.

From the nuts and bolts of grammar and punctuation to crafting a plot and exploring big thematic ideas, mastering the art of short story writing takes time and lots of practice.

With so much ground to cover, it’s impossible to address every aspect in a single unit of work on short story writing.

Be sure to offer students opportunities to see the short story in action in the work of accomplished writers, as well as opportunities to practice the various aspects of short story writing mentioned above.

Draw attention to writing best practices when they appear even in work unrelated to the short story.

Lots of time and plenty of practice might just reveal a latter-day O. Henry or Edgar Allen Poe sat in one of the desks right in front of you.

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Short Story Analysis: How to Write It Step by Step [New]

Have you ever tried to write a story analysis but ended up being completely confused and lost? Well, the task might be challenging if you don’t know the essential rules for literary analysis creation.

Our specialists will write a custom essay specially for you!

But don’t get frustrated! We know how to write a short story analysis, and we are willing to share some tips with you.

Below you will find some tips that will help you:

• to analyze the story while reading;
• to put the findings in words;
• to edit and polish your work.

Our team listed the essential guide for writing an analysis of a short story. Check it out to nail your paper!

• 👣 How to Analyze a Story
• ✒️ Methods of Story Analysis
• ✍️ Analysis Format
• 📜 Proofreading Tips
• 📝 Analysis Example

👣 How to Analyze a Short Story Step by Step

Have you ever felt confused analyzing short stories for your school or college assignment? Not this time! We have prepared for you a step-by-step guide on how to analyze a short piece of writing quickly and effectively. 

Step 1: Read Smart

The key to smart reading is to be critical. Criticism can be positive or negative. In your short story analysis, you need to have confidence in your own views of the work, regardless of the author’s reputation or whatever anyone else thinks.

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The bottom line with literary criticism is that there are no right or wrong answers. As long as you back everything up with evidence, you can still attain a top grade if you take the opposite view to the author, your teacher, or the best student in your class.

But your reading needs to be methodical.

Step 2: Analyze & Find Examples

After you read the short story, you need to summarize it in your own words in no more than two sentences. This way, you will ensure that you’ve grasped its main idea.

Next, read the story one more time, paying attention to its literary elements, such as allusion, figurative language, plot, symbolism , etc. Analyze how they help the author convey the intended message. In addition, find relevant examples, quotes, or important passages that you can cite in your essay afterward.

Step 3: Create an Outline

Outlining is a crucial aspect of essay writing. It will help you understand how you can link all the facts to support the thesis statement and the paper’s arguments. Your short story analysis outline should look the following way: 

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• Introduction of the work (the author and title)
• A short summary of the story
• Thesis statement
• Topic sentence
• Example from the text
• Analysis of the example
• Restated thesis
• Summary of main points
• Concluding statement

If you need help outlining your short story analysis, try our free essay outline generator .

Step 4: Write Your Short Story Analysis

Now, it’s time to start drafting your essay. Here’s how to do it:

• At the beginning of your short story analysis, indicate the work’s title and the author’s name. Next, provide background information that may be helpful for understanding the story. End your introduction with an analytical thesis statement , clearly stating your evaluation of the text.
• Then, create body paragraphs based on your outline, including topic sentences and supporting examples.  
• In the concluding paragraph , restate your thesis statement and highlight the important points you have made throughout the essay, giving the reader a feeling of closure. 

Step 5: Revise and Proofread

Last but not least, proofread your short story analysis. It will help you to avoid grammatical mistakes, spelling errors, and typos.

If you have questions regarding your essay’s format or topic, it is always a good idea to ask for help from your teacher or classmate. Their experience and insights can help you adjust your analysis and improve its overall quality. 

✒️ How to Analyze a Short Story: 6 Methods

When analyzing a short story, it is essential to examine all its main elements. In the following sections, we will discuss how to analyze the plot, characters, setting, themes, point of view, and style in detail.

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Analyzing the Plot

For the first sitting, focus on the sequence of events that takes place throughout the story.

An analysis of a short story’s plot is easy because, unlike novels, which can contain multiple plotlines, short stories usually have only one.

To make the process even easier, here are some questions that you can ask yourself as you read:

• Does the plot hold your interest from beginning to end?
• What are the most important events, and why?
• Is plotline realistic?
• Are there any parts of the plotline that seem irrelevant to the main story?
• Does the plot deal with external conflict, internal conflict, or both?
• What is the moral of the story?

Next, you can look at the way the author portrays the characters in the story.

Short stories will not have many characters and often center around one main character, known as the protagonist.

Analyzing Characterization

Wondering how to analyze characters in a short story? The best way is to ask these questions:

• Who is the protagonist?
• How effectively does the author describe the characters’ actions, appearance, and thoughts?
• What are your feelings towards the characters?
• Does the way the characters speak give you any information about their personality?
• Do the characters change throughout the story?
• If the story contains minor characters, are they necessary and effective?

Alongside plot and characters, there is a third element that is a crucial part of any story:

Analyzing the Setting

Short stories are usually set in a single location and period, but some do have more than one.

These questions will help you master the setting :

• How does the author describe the location of the events?
• Does the story take place in the past, the present, or the future (or all three)?
• What are the broader circumstances surrounding the story’s setting?
• Does the setting play an essential role in the story?
• Do the place and time in which the author lived and worked affect the location and period in which the story is set?
• Has the author successfully given you a feeling of really being in the story’s setting?

Your next read-through might require some creative thinking and detective work as you consider the ideas, messages, or lessons behind the story.

Analyzing Themes

Analyzing a theme is your chance to stand out. While some themes are apparent and intended by the author, it is also possible to find more obscure ones. Even the author may not have been aware of them.

Answer these questions, and you’ve nailed the theme:

• What is the central theme? Are there any others?
• How is the theme conveyed?
• If the author is using the story to deliver a particular message, are you convinced by it?
• What does the theme reveal about the author?

Now you’re confident you understand the author’s message and can explore it in your short story analysis. Not so fast! You need to think about who is telling the story.

Analyzing the Point of View

Analyzing the point of view will give a more in-depth insight into all of the previous aspects you have dealt with. So ask yourself:

• Who is narrating the story?
• Does the author use a consistent point of view?
• Is the narrator telling the truth?
• Does the author have the same mindset as the narrator?
• Would the story be different if it were narrated from another point of view?

Finally, you need to look at the way the author uses language to tell the story.

Analyzing the Style

Ask the following questions when analyzing style :

• What is the author’s tone? Humorous? Serious? Sarcastic? Sentimental?
• Does the author use any unusual words or phrases? What effect do they have?
• Is there anything in the story – an object, for example – that has any special meaning?
• Does the author’s use of literary devices affect your enjoyment of the story in any way?
• What would the story be like if the author used a different style?

By now, you should be familiar with analyzing a short story and have enough great ideas to produce an A+ essay . Look again at the set question, and decide on the main direction you want your literary criticism essay to take.

Because now it’s time to wipe the dust off that keyboard:

✍️ Short Story Analysis Format

To get how to write a short story analysis step by step, you have to keep in mind the two golden rules:

• Your essay must be focused on the set question.
• Your opinions are only valid if you can support them with evidence.

Divide your work into three sections:

• Introduction (about 10% of the total word count)
• Main body (about 80% of the total word count)
• Conclusion (about 10% of the total word count)

Start with an Introduction

Your introduction should consist of one or two paragraphs that outline your statement of intent. You do not need to provide any evidence to back up your assertions at this stage – save that for the main body.

Here are the ingredients for a perfect introduction:

• An engaging opening line that captures the reader’s interest.
• The title of the short story and the name of the author.
• A brief outline of the main points and arguments that you intend to make.

Provide Arguments

Any story analysis has to list your points with proof. The main body is used to set out your case in detail and provide evidence to support it. Each paragraph should deal with a different point and follow a logical order that develops your overall argument.

Your main body is ready for the beach when it has:

• A persuasive and articulate argument.
• Evidence and quotes from the short story and external references, where appropriate, to support your case.
• Acknowledgment of any competing arguments to provide balance.
• Clear and concise language, with no repetition or irrelevant material.
• A clear focus on the set question.

Finish with a Bang

A conclusion ties everything together and briefly sums up your response to the set question. Like the introduction, it should be only one paragraph long and should not contain any new arguments, information, or evidence. If you can’t get rid of excessive fullf in your text, we’d suggest trying to use a paragraph shortener .

To finish your essay with a bang, you will need:

• A summary of the ideas that you have presented in the main body.
• Acknowledgment of any issues that need to be considered in the future.
• A powerful closing statement that encapsulates your overall position.

Once you have finished writing your literary analysis essay, the best thing you can do is take a break. When you return to review what you have done, it will be with a refreshed mind.

You’ve had fun criticizing the author. Now it’s time to look in the mirror:

📜 Short Story Analysis: Proofreading Tips

As usual, good things come in threes. Break your review down into these stages:

• Content editing
• Copy-editing
• Proofreading

For the first of these, you need to look at your essay as a whole and consider:

• Does your essay deal exclusively with the set question?
• Does your introduction accurately preview the content of the main body?
• Does each paragraph in the main body follow a logical order?
• Does your essay contain any repetition, inaccuracy, or irrelevant material?
• Does your conclusion successfully sum up your argument?
• Are your references accurate and appropriate?
• Will your reader find your essay to be enjoyable, easy to understand, and persuasive?

Once you are happy with your essay’s content, you can review it in more detail to deal with the text’s accuracy and consistency.

Reading carefully, line by line, ask yourself:

• Is your language as clear and concise as possible?
• Are your grammar and spelling correct?
• Have you presented acronyms, abbreviations, capitalization correctly and consistently?
• Are your quotations and references in the correct format?
• Are there any other formatting issues with your document?

Take another break, then review your essay one last time . Use your spellchecker, then print off a copy and read slowly and carefully, line by line. Hopefully, there won’t be too many errors by this stage but think of this process as a final polish to make your work really shine.

📝 Short Story Analysis Example

We have prepared an analysis example of the short story “The Last Leaf” by O. Henry. You can use it to find inspiration and see how everything works in practice. 

In O. Henry’s “The Last Leaf,” a sick artist named Johnsy sees hope fading with each falling leaf outside her window. She is convinced that she will die when the last leaf falls. But two things stand against her despair: Behrman, an old, seemingly failed artist, and Sue, Johnsy’s loyal friend. This story shows how the actions of Johnsy’s companions become her lifelines, proving that art and friendship can blossom even in the direst circumstances. 

Behrman’s sacrifice is one of the key themes in the story. O. Henry devotes much of his story to describing Behrman, a loser who drinks too much gin and lives a mostly wasted life. He appears to have no family and has not produced any notable work despite identifying himself as an artist: “Behrman was a failure in art. Forty years he had wielded the brush without getting near enough to touch the hem of his Mistress’s robe.” Despite Behrman’s never being successful in his craft, the realistic painting of a leaf he created before his death saved Johnsy’s life. 

Friendship is another important motif in the story. Sue and Johnsy are more than just good friends; they are like sisters. Sue’s care and support have also played a key role in helping Johnsy recover. When Johnsy asks Sue to leave, Sue says, “I’d rather be here by you.” And she is actually there for Johnsy, caring for her in the worst moments of her life. 

“The Last Leaf” reminds us that even when darkness creeps in, the power of art and friendship can bring light. Through Behrman’s final masterpiece and Sue’s unwavering support, Johnsy finds her way back from the brink. This simple story leaves readers with a powerful message: even in the darkest times, hope can be a driving force that can save a human life.

📚 Short Story Analysis Topics

• Analysis of Faulkner’s A Rose for Emily .
• Discuss the clues that suggest the unreliability of the narrator in E. A. Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher .
• Describe the stylistic devices James Joyce uses in his short story Araby .
• Irony and double denouement in O. Henry’s The Gift of the Magi .
• Analysis of A&P by John Updike .
• Interpret Raymond Carver’s message in his story What We Talk About When We Talk About Love .
• Examine the theme of the short story The Yellow Wall-Paper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman .
• Analyze the rhetoric means used in Edith Wharton’s The Other Two .
• Literature analysis of Shirley Jackson’s short story The Lottery .
• The impact of gender and racial stereotypes in Sweat by Hurston.
• Discuss August Wilson’s presentation of conflicts in the short story Fences.
• Symbolism in Ernest Hemingway’s Hills Like White Elephants .
• Describe the rhetoric techniques Nathaniel Hawthorne uses in his short story The Birth-Mark .
• The Minister’s Black Veil by Nathaniel Hawthorne analysis.
• Analyze the social issues presented in Toni Bambara’s The Lesson .
• Explore the central theme of the story Alien by Riley Brett .
• Social problems of women and role of racial differences in Kate Chopin’s Desiree’s Baby .
• Discuss the central ethical dilemma presented by Sarah Hall in Theatre 6 .
• Analysis of A Clean, Well-Lighted Place by Ernest Hemingway .
• Examine the techniques Edwidge Danticat uses to paint a picture of life in Haiti in A Wall of Fire Rising .
• Discuss the core idea of The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien.
• Literary devices in The Dinner Party short story by Mona Gardner .
• Analyze the author’s message in Lore Segal’s The Arbus Factor .
• Interpret the meaning of symbols in Rip Van Winkle by W. Irving .
• The meaning of setting in The Boarder by Isaac Bashevis Singer .
• Describe the different layers of meaning presented in Joyce Carol Oates’ Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?
• Analyze the tone of the story The Masque of the Red Death by Edgar Allan Poe .
• Allegory in The Devil and Tom Walker short story by Washington Irving .
• Analyze the main female character of the short story A Good Man Is Hard to Find by Flannery O’Connor.
• Discuss the rhetoric used by Guy de Maupassant in The Necklace .
• Examine the symbols in Mr. Green by Olen Butler.
• Explore the main theme of James Joyce’s The Dead .
• Interpret the meaning of the dolls in a short story Barbie-Q by Sandra Cisneros
• Symbolism in A Jury of Her Peers by Susan Glaspell .
• Analyze the core idea of Jack London’s To Build a Fire .
• The conflict between the expectations and reality in Jamel Brinkley’s A Family .
• Examine the message E. Hemingway includes in his short story The Killer .
• Discuss the stylistic means used by Anton Chekhov in Sleepy .
• Describe the ideas O. Henry uses to present the moral lesson in The Last Leaf .
• Analysis of The Outcasts of Poker Flat by Bret Harte .
• Psychologism and mystique in W. W. Jacob’s The Monkey’s Paw .
• Analyze the symbols in the story A Worn Path by Eudora Welty .
• Describe how William Faulkner presents a theme of revenge in Barn Burning .
• Interpret creativity Kate Chopin’s The Storm .
• Discuss the techniques E. A. Poe uses to create the suspense in the short story Cask of the Amontillado .
• Cathedral by Raymond Carver analysis .
• The issues of stereotypes and isolation in Margaret Atwood’s Lusus Naturae .
• Magic realism in The Secret Miracle by Jorge Luis Borges .
• Interpret the meaning of symbols used by Flannery O’Connor in Good Country People .
• Technology development and its effect on human in Ray Bradbury’s The Veldt .

So, now you know how to analyze a short story step by step. A flawless piece of work will be a pleasure for your reader to behold! Share the page with others who may find it useful. And thanks for reading it!

Learn more on this topic:

• How to Write a Literary Analysis Essay Step by Step
• How to Write an Analysis Essay: Rules for a Good Analysis
• Case Study Analysis Example + How-to Guide
• Literary Analysis Essay Topics Ideas
• How to Write a Film Analysis Essay
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Take risks and tell the truth: how to write a great short story

Drawing on writers from Anton Chekhov to Kit de Waal, Donal Ryan explores the art of writing short fiction. Plus Chris Power on the best books for budding short story writers

T he first story I wrote outside of school was about Irish boxer Barry McGuigan. I was 10 and I loved Barry. He’d just lost his world featherweight title to the American Steve Cruz under the hellish Nevada sun and the only thing that could mend my broken heart was a restoration of my hero’s belt. Months passed and there was no talk of a rematch, so I wrote a story about it.

My imagined fight was in Ireland, and I was ringside. In my story I’d arranged the whole thing. I’d even given Barry some tips on countering Steve’s vicious hook. It went the distance but Barry won easily on points. He hugged Steve. His dad sang “Danny Boy”. I felt as I finished my story an intense relief. The world in that moment was restful and calm. I’d created a new reality for myself, and I was able to occupy it for a while, to feel a joy I’d created by moving a biro across paper. I think of that story now every single time I sit down to write. I strive for the feeling of rightness it gave me, that feeling of peace.

It took me a while to regain that feeling. When I left school, where I was lucky enough to be roundly encouraged and told with conviction that I was a writer, I inexplicably embarked on a career of self-sabotage, only allowing my literary ambitions to surface very sporadically, and then burning the results in fits of disgust. Nothing I wrote rang true; nothing felt worthy of being read.

Shortly after I got married my mother-in-law happened upon a file on the hard drive of a PC I’d loaned her (there’s a great and terrifying writing prompt!). It contained a ridiculous story about a young solicitor being corrupted by a gangster client. I’d forgotten about the story, and about one of its peripheral characters, a simple and pure-hearted man named Johnsey Cunliffe. My wife suggested giving Johnsey new life, and I started a rewrite with him as the hero; the story kept growing until I found myself with a draft of my first finished novel, The Thing About December . I didn’t feel embarrassed, nor did I feel an urge to burn it. I felt peace. I knew it wouldn’t last, and so I quickly wrote a handful of new stories, and the peace didn’t dissipate. Not for a while, anyway.

So a forgotten short story, written somewhere in the fog of my early 20s, turned out to be the making of my writing career. Maybe it would have happened anyway, or maybe not, but I think the impulse would always have been present, the urge to put a grammar on the ideas in my head. Mary Costello, author of The China Factory , one of the finest short story collections I’ve ever read, says: “Write only what’s essential, what must be written … an image or a story that keeps gnawing, that won’t leave you alone. And the only way to get peace is to write it.”

I know that in this straitened, rule-bound, virus-ridden present, many people find themselves with that gnawing feeling, that urge to fashion from language a new reality, or to get the idea that’s been clamouring inside them out of their imagination and into the world. So I’ve put together some ideas with the help of some of my favourite writers on how best to go about finding that peace.

Don’t worry

In a short story, the sentences have to do so much! Some of Chekhov’s stories are less than three printed pages; a few comprise a single brief paragraph. In his most famous story, “The Lady with the Dog”, we are given a detailed account of the nature, history and motivations of Gurov within the first page, but there is no feeling of stress or overload. Stephen King’s 2010 collection Full Dark, No Stars is a masterclass in compression and suspense. My colleague in creative writing at the University of Limerick, Sarah Moore Fitzgerald, is, like me, a novelist who turns occasionally to the short form. Sarah considers short stories to be “storytelling’s finest gifts. In the best ones, nothing is superfluous, their focus is sharp and vivid but they can be gloriously elliptical too, full of echoes.” The novel form, as I’ve heard Mike McCormack say, offers “a wonderful accommodation to the writer”, but the short story is a barren territory. There’s nowhere to hide, no space for excess or digression.

My wife asked me once why this worried me so much. I’d just published my first two novels and had embarked on a whole collection of short stories, A Slanting of the Sun . She’d come home from work to find me curled up in a ball of despair. “Every sentence worries me,” I whined. “None of them is doing enough .” “Don’t worry about how much they’re doing until all the work is done,” she said. “Get the story written, and then you can go back and fix all those worrisome sentences. And the chances are, once the story exists, you won’t be as worried about those sentences at all. They’ll just be. ”

Ah. I can still feel the beautiful relief I felt at her wise words. Life is filled with things to worry about. The quality of our sentences should be a challenge and a constant fruitful quest, a gradual aggregation of attainment. But creativity should always bring us at least some whisper of joy. It should be a way out of worry.

One of the concepts my colleague Sarah illuminates is that of a “draft zero” – a draft that comes before a first draft, where your story is splashed on to your screen or page, containing all or most of its desired elements. Draft zero offers complete freedom from any consideration of craft or finesse.

Kit de Waal, who recently published a wonderful collection, Supporting Cast , featuring characters from her novels, offers this wisdom on getting your story from your head on to your page or screen: “Don’t overthink but do overwrite. Sometimes you see a pair of gloves or a flower on the street or lipstick on a coffee cup and it moves you in a particular way. That’s your prompt right there. Write that feeling or set something around that idea, you don’t know what at this stage, you’re going off sheer muse, writerly energy, so just follow it. And follow it right to the end – it might be a day, a week, a year. Overwrite the thing and then sit back and ask yourself, ‘Where is the magic? What am I saying? Who is speaking?’ When you’ve worked that out, you have your story and you can start crafting and editing.”

Your draft zero is Michelangelo’s lump of rough-hacked marble, but with David’s basic shape. It is the reassuring existence of something tangible in the world outside of your mind , something raw and real, containing within its messy self the potential for greatness. And the best way to make it great is to make it truthful.

Be truthful

I don’t mean by this that you need to speak your own truth at all times or to draw only on your own lived experience, but it’s important to be true to our own impulses and ambitions as writers; to write the story we want to write, not the story we think we should write. That’s like saying things that you think people want to hear: you’ll end up tangling yourself in a knot of half-truths and constructed, co-opted beliefs. You’ll be more politician than writer, and, as good and decent as some of them are, the world definitely has enough politicians.

Your own experiences, of course, your own truth, can be parlayed into wonderful fictions, and can by virtue of their foundation in reality contain an almost automatic immediacy and intensity. Melatu Uche Okorie’s debut collection, This Hostel Life , is drawn from her experiences in the Irish direct provision system as an asylum seeker. The title story in particular has about it a feeling of absolute truthfulness, written in the demotic of the author’s Nigerian countrywomen; while another story, “Under the Awning”, feels as though it might be an oblique description of events witnessed or experienced first-hand by the author.

You might as well do exactly what you want to do, even (or especially) if it’s never been done before. You have nothing to lose by taking risks, with form, content, style, structure or any other element of your piece of fiction. Rob Doyle , a consummate literary risk-taker, exhorts writers to “try writing a story that doesn’t look how short stories are meant to look – try one in the form of an encyclopaedia entry, or a list, or an essay, or a review of an imaginary restaurant, sex toy, amusement park or film. Have people wondering if it’s even fiction. Mix it all up. Short stories can explore ideas as well as emotions – huge ideas can fit into short stories. For proof, read the work of Jorge Luis Borges . In fact, I second Roberto Bolaño’s advice to anyone writing short stories: read Borges.”

Bend the iron bar

“When the curtain falls,” said Frank O’Connor of the short story, “everything must be changed. An iron bar must have been bent and been seen to be bent.” One of the first short stories to break my heart was O’Connor’s “ Guests of the Nation ”. It has been described as one of the greatest anti-war stories ever written, and one of the finest stories from a master of the form. Its devastating denouement closes with this plaintive statement from the shattered narrator: “And anything that happened to me afterwards, I never felt the same about again.” This line contains within it an entreaty to short story writers to reach for that profound moment, that event or epiphany or reversal or triumph; to arrive within the confines of their story at a moment that will have a resonance far beyond its narrow scope.

Another great literary O’Connor, this time the novelist Joseph, who teaches creative writing at the University of Limerick, says that “to me every excellent short story centres around an instant where intense change becomes possible or, at least, imaginable for the character. Cut into the story late, leave it early, and find a moment.” Joseph quotes the closing words of one of his favourite short stories, Raymond Carver’s “Fat”: “It is August. My life is going to change. I feel it.”

The moment of course needn’t be in the ending, and the end of a story doesn’t necessarily have to be incendiary or revelatory, or to contain an unexpected twist. Mary Gaitskill ’s story “Heaven” describes a family going through change and trauma and loss, and iron bars are bent in almost every paragraph, but its ending is memorable for the moment of relief it offers, in a gently muted description of the perfect grace of a summer evening and a family gathered for a meal. “They all sat in lawn chairs and ate from the warm plates in their laps. The steak was good and rare; its juices ran into the salad and pasta when Virginia moved her knees. A light wind blew loose hairs around their faces and tickled them. The trees rustled dimly. There were nice insect noises. Jarold paused, a forkful of steak rising across his chest. ‘Like heaven,’ he said. ‘It’s like heaven.’ They were quiet for several minutes.”

Listen to your story

“Beer Trip to Llandudno”, Kevin Barry’s masterpiece of the short form, from his 2012 collection Dark Lies the Island , is another story that has remained pristine in my consciousness since I first read it. Part of the magic of that story, and of all Barry’s work, is its dialogue: the earthy, pithy, perfectly authentic exchanges between his characters. When I asked Kevin about this, he said: “If you feel like you’re coming towards the final draft of a story, print it out and read it aloud, slowly, with red pen in hand. Your ear will catch all the evasions and the false notes in the story much quicker than your eye will catch them on the screen or page. Listen to what’s not being said in the dialogue. Very often the story, and the drama, is to be found just underneath the surface of the talk.”

Such scrupulous attention to the burden carried by each unit of language and to the work done by the notes played and unplayed can make a story truly shine. Alice Kinsella is an accomplished poet who recently turned her hand to the short form in great style with her sublime account of early motherhood, “Window”. “Poetry or prose,” Alice says, “the aim is the same, to make every word earn its place on the page.”

Ignore everything

And as self-defeating as this sounds, here’s a final piece of advice: once you sit down to write your story, forget about this article. Forget all the advice you’ve ever been given. Free your hand, free your mind, cut yourself loose into the infinity of possibility, and create from those 26 little symbols what you will. We came from the hearts of stars. We are the universe, telling itself its own story.

Donal Ryan is a judge for the BBC national short story award with Cambridge University. The shortlist will be announced on 10 September and the winner on 19 October. For more information see www.bbc.co.uk/nssa .

Books for budding short story writers By Chris Power

If short story collections occupy a minority position on publishers’ lists, books about the short story are an even scarcer commodity. In the 1970s the academic Charles E May published Short Story Theories , which he followed up in 1994 with The New Short Story Theories . These volumes, out of print but easy enough to find second-hand, collect some of the key texts about short fiction, from Edgar Allan Poe’s 1842 review of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Twice-Told Tales , to Elizabeth Bowen’s tracing of Guy de Maupassant and Anton Chekhov’s influence, and Julio Cortázar’s brilliant lecture Some Aspects of the Short Story (“the novel always wins on points, while the story must win by a knockout”).

Frank O’Connor’s The Lonely Voice (1963) studies 11 great story writers, from Ivan Turgenev to Katherine Mansfield, and argues that the quintessential short story subjects are outsiders: “There is in the short story at its most characteristic something we do not often find in the novel – an intense awareness of human loneliness.” O’Connor’s assertiveness makes disagreeing with him part of the fun. As his countryman Sean O’Faolain wrote: “He was like a man who takes a machine gun to a shooting gallery. Everybody falls flat on his face, the proprietor at once takes to the hills, and when it is all over, and you cautiously peep up, you find that he has wrecked the place but got three perfect bull’s-eyes.”

I have a similar relationship with George Saunders’s remarkable study of seven classic Russian short stories, A Swim in a Pond in the Rain , published earlier this year. I don’t buy the overarching argument about fiction generating empathy, but this is a book stuffed with arresting observations and practical tips from a master craftsman. His 50-page close reading of Chekhov’s 12-page “In the Cart” is jaw-droppingly good.

Steering the Craft by Ursula K Le Guin isn’t specifically about short stories, but she could certainly write them, and her clear, practical advice is invaluable to anyone wanting to learn about two of the form’s prerequisites: rhythm and concision.

My last recommendation isn’t a book at all, but the New Yorker: Fiction podcast . Appearing monthly since 2007, each episode features a writer reading a story from the magazine’s archives and discussing it with fiction editor Deborah Treisman. These conversations are a wonderful education in how stories work. I strongly recommend Ben Marcus on Kazuo Ishiguro (September 2011), Tessa Hadley on Nadine Gordimer (September 2012), and ZZ Packer on Lesley Nneka Arimah (October 2020), a discussion which moves between craft, fairytale and motherhood.

• Short stories
• Raymond Carver
• Stephen King
• Anton Chekhov
• Jorge Luis Borges
• Mary Gaitskill
• Kevin Barry

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How to Write a Short Essay

Last Updated: January 17, 2024 Fact Checked

This article was co-authored by Christopher Taylor, PhD . Christopher Taylor is an Adjunct Assistant Professor of English at Austin Community College in Texas. He received his PhD in English Literature and Medieval Studies from the University of Texas at Austin in 2014. There are 12 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 113,543 times.

Essay writing is a common assignment in high school or college courses, especially within the humanities. You’ll also be asked to write essays for college admissions and scholarships. In a short essay (250-500 words), you will need to provide an introduction with a thesis, a body, and a conclusion, as you would with a longer essay. Depending on the essay requirements, you may also need to do academic or online research to find sources to back up your claims.

Picking a Topic and Gathering Research

• If you have any questions about the topic, ask your instructor. If your essay doesn't respond to the prompt, you likely won't receive full credit.

• If you're writing an essay for an in-class test or for an application, tailor the essay to the given prompt and topic. Quickly brainstorm a few ideas; for example, think of positive things you can say about yourself for a college-entrance essay.
• For example, the topic “depression in American literature” is far too broad. Narrow down your topic to something like “Willie Loman’s depression in Death of a Salesman .”
• Or, you could write about a narrow topic like “the increase in the USA’s national debt in the 1950s” rather than a broad topic like “the American economy in the 20th century.”

• Depending on the field in which you’re writing the essay—e.g., hard sciences, sociology, humanities, etc.—your instructor will direct you towards appropriate databases. For example, if you’re writing a high-school or college-level essay for your English class, visit online literary databases like JSTOR, LION, and the MLA Bibliography.
• If you're writing the essay for a college or graduate-school application, it's unlikely that you'll need to include any secondary sources.
• If you're writing a timed or in-class essay, you may not be able to find research articles. But, still do draw information from texts and sources you've studied both in and out of class, and build from points made in any provided reading passages.

• If you’re writing about current events or journalism topics, read articles from well-known news sites like CNN or the BBC.
• Avoid citing unreliable websites like blogs or any sites that have a clear bias about the topic they’re reporting on.

Composing the Essay

• If you write the essay without outlining, the essay will be poorly organized.

• This thesis statement is far too weak: “ Death of a Salesman shows the difficulty of living in America after WWII.”
• Instead, hone your thesis to something like: “Arthur Miller uses Death of a Salesman to show that the American Dream is materialist and impractical.”

• So, avoid beginning the paragraph by writing something like, “Since the beginning of time, all people have been consumed with the desire for their father’s approval.”
• Instead, write something like, “In the play Death of a Salesman , Willie Loman’s sons compete for their father’s approval through various masculine displays."
• Then, you can say, "To examine this topic, I will perform a close reading of several key passages of the play and present analyses by noted Arthur Miller scholars."

• In a short essay, the conclusion should do nothing more than briefly restate your main claim and remind readers of the evidence you provided.

• So, take the example about Death of a Salesman . The first body paragraph could discuss the ways in which Willie’s sons try to impress him.
• The second body paragraph could dive into Willie’s hopelessness and despair, and the third paragraph could discuss how Miller uses his characters to show the flaws in their understanding of the American Dream.

• Always cite your sources so you avoid charges of plagiarism. Check with your instructor (or the essay prompt) and find out what citation style you should use.
• For example, if you’re summarizing the inflation of the American dollar during the 1930s, provide 2 or 3 years and inflation-rate percentages. Don’t provide a full-paragraph summary of the economic decline.
• If you're writing an in-class essay and don't have time to perform any research, you don't need to incorporate outside sources. But, it will impress your teacher if you quote from a reading passage or bring up pertinent knowledge you may have gained during the class.

• If no one agrees to read the essay, read over your own first draft and look for errors or spots where you could clarify your meaning. Reading the essay out loud often helps, as you’ll be able to hear sentences that aren’t quite coherent.
• This step does not apply to essays written during a timed or in-class exam, as you won't be able to ask peers to read your work.

• It’s always a mistake to submit an unrevised first draft, whether for a grade, for admissions, or for a scholarship essay.
• However, if you're writing an essay for a timed exam, it's okay if you don't have enough time to combine multiple drafts before the time runs out.

Condensing Your Essay

• So, if you’re writing about Death of a Salesman , an article about symbolism in Arthur Miller’s plays would be useful. But, an article about the average cost of Midwestern hotels in the 1940s would be irrelevant.
• If you’re writing a scholarship essay, double-check the instructions to clarify what types of sources you’re allowed to use.

• A common cliche you might find in an essay is a statement like, "I'm the hardest working student at my school."
• For example, this sentence is too verbose: “I have been a relentlessly stellar student throughout my entire high school career since I am a seriously dedicated reader and thoroughly apply myself to every assignment I receive in class.”
• Shortened, it could read: “I was a stellar student throughout my high school career since I was a dedicated reader and applied myself to every assignment I received.”

• Avoid writing something like, “Willie Loman can be seen as having achieved little through his life because he is not respected by his sons and is not valued by his co-workers.”
• Instead, write, “Arthur Miller shows readers that Willie’s life accomplishments have amounted to little. Willie’s sons do not look up to him, and his co-workers treat him without respect.”

• For example, if you’re trying to prove that WWII pulled the USA out of the Great Depression, focus strictly on an economic argument.
• Avoid bringing in other, less convincing topics. For example, don’t dedicate a paragraph to discussing how much it cost the USA to build fighter jets in 1944.

Short Essay Template and Example

Expert Q&A

• When composing the text of your essay, resist the temptation to pull words from a thesaurus in an attempt to sound academic or intelligent. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0
• If your high school or college has an online or in-person writing center, schedule an appointment. Taking advantage of this type of service can improve your essay and help you recognize structural or grammatical problems you would not have noticed otherwise. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0

You Might Also Like

• ↑ https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/common_writing_assignments/research_papers/choosing_a_topic.html
• ↑ https://monroecollege.libguides.com/c.php?g=589208&p=4072926
• ↑ https://www.utep.edu/extendeduniversity/utepconnect/blog/march-2017/4-ways-to-differentiate-a-good-source-from-a-bad-source.html
• ↑ https://www.grammarly.com/blog/essay-outline/
• ↑ https://writingcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/thesis-statements/
• ↑ https://libguides.newcastle.edu.au/how-to-write-an-essay/essay-introduction
• ↑ https://lsa.umich.edu/sweetland/undergraduates/writing-guides/how-do-i-write-an-intro--conclusion----body-paragraph.html
• ↑ https://mlpp.pressbooks.pub/writingsuccess/chapter/8-3-drafting/
• ↑ https://www.trentu.ca/academicskills/how-guides/how-write-university/how-approach-any-assignment/writing-english-essay/using-secondary
• ↑ https://patch.com/michigan/berkley/bp--how-to-shorten-your-college-essay-without-ruining-it
• ↑ https://writing.wisc.edu/handbook/style/ccs_activevoice/
• ↑ https://wordcounter.net/blog/2016/01/26/101025_how-to-reduce-essay-word-count.html

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Narrative Essays

Narrative: The spoken or written account of connected events; a story

Narrative Introductions

The introduction of a narrative essay sets the scene for the story that follows. Interesting introductions—for any kind of writing—engage and draw readers in because they want to know more.

Since narratives tell a story and involve events, the introduction of a narrative quite often starts in the middle of the action in order to bring the reader into the story immediately, as shown in examples 1, 3, and 5 below. Other effective introductions briefly provide background for the point of the story—often the lesson learned—as in 4 below and the first example on the reverse side.

Below are some strategies for writing effective openings. Remember your introduction should be interesting and draw your reader in. It should make your audience want to read more. If it's a person , begin with a description of the person and then say why that person mattered. If it's an event , begin with the action or begin by reflecting back on why the event mattered, then go into the narrative.

• "Potter...take off!" my coach yelled as I was cracking yet another joke during practice.
• Why do such a small percentage of high school athletes play Division One sports?
• It was a cold, rainy night, under the lights on the field. I lined up the ball on the penalty line under the wet grass. After glancing up at the tied score, I stared into the goalkeeper's eyes.
• My heart pounds in my chest. My stomach full of nervous butterflies. I hear the crowd talking and names being cheered.
• Slipping the red and white uniform over my head for the first time is a feeling I will never forget.
• "No football." Those words rang in my head for hours as I thought about what a stupid decision I had made three nights before.
• "SNAP!" I heard the startling sound of my left knee before I ever felt the pain.
• According to the NCAA, there are over 400,000 student-athletes in the United States.

Narrative Story

• Unified: Ensure all actions in your story develop a central idea or argument.
• Interesting: Draw your readers into your scene(s), making them feel as if they're experiencing them first-hand.
• Coherent: Indicate changes in time, location, and characters clearly (even if your story is not chronological).
• Climactic: Include a moment (the climax) when your ending is revealed or the importance of events is made clear.
• Remember the 5 W's : Who? What? When? Where? Why?
• Write vividly : Include significant sensory information in the scene (sight, sound, touch, smell, taste) to make readers feel they are there
• Develop " Thick Descriptions "

Clifford Geertz describes thick descriptions as accounts that include not only facts but also commentary and interpretation . The goal is to vividly describe an action or scene, often through the use of metaphors, analogies, and other forms of interpretation that can emote strong feelings and images in your readers' minds.

"The flatness of the Delta made the shack, the quarters, and the railroad tracks nearby seem like some tabletop model train set. Like many Mississippi shacks, this one looked as if no one had lived there since the birth of the blues. Four sunflowers leaned alongside a sagging porch. When the front door creaked open, cockroaches bigger than pecans scurried for cover [...] walls wept with mildew."

—from Bruce Watson's Freedom Summer

Narrative Checklist

• Does the story have a clear and unifying idea? If not, what could that idea be?
• If the story doesn't include a thesis sentence, is the unifying idea of the story clear without it?
• Is the story unified, with all the details contributing to the central idea?
• Is the story arranged chronologically? If not, is the organization of ideas and events still effective and clear?
• Do the transitions show the movement from idea to idea and scene to scene?
• Are there enough details?
• Is there dialogue at important moments?
• Is there a climax to the story—moment at which the action is resolved or a key idea is revealed?

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4.1: Introduction to Writing Your Story

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The Power of Story

“Tell me a story.” From children’s bedtimes to corporate boardrooms, stories have power to shape our dreams and fuel our imaginations. In his book Sapiens: A Brief History of Mankind, the historian Noah Yuval Harari argues that stories are what make us human: “Humans think in stories, and we try to make sense of the world by telling stories.”

Every culture around the world tells stories. These stories are a way to share ideas, experiences, beliefs, and cultural traditions. Stories teach, inspire, and create community.

Think about a story that matters to you. This could be a fictional story like a favorite book or a movie, or it real story like a family story or something that happened to you or a friend or someone you admire. Write a paragraph summarizing the story. Share your summary with a small group of peers. What purpose does your story serve? Does it inform? Persuade? Entertain? How do your readers connect with your story?

WHY Stories matter

Words have power. Liza Long, an English professor at the College of Western Idaho and one of the authors of this book, learned firsthand how powerful stories can be when she shared an essay about her struggles to parent a child who had mental illness after the tragic elementary school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut in 2012. The essay, published by Boise State University’s The Blue Review under the title “I Am Adam Lanza’s Mother,” went viral. One person who read the essay was Representative Tim Murphy (R-PA), a member of the U.S. Congress tasked with investigating the causes of Newtown and proposing ways to prevent future tragedies. Murphy reached out to Long, who testified about the urgent need for mental healthcare services at a March 2013 House Energy and Commerce Committee Forum, “After Newtown.”

Although many other experts shared their experiences, it was Long’s personal story of a sweet, kind, bright little boy who had been sent to jail four times because of his illness that really caught lawmakers’ attention. Four years later, in 2016, the Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act passed the House with a vote of 422 for and 2 against. Elements of this bill, including the creation of a new Assistant Secretary of Mental Health position, were incorporated into the bipartisan 21st Century Cures Act signed into law by President Obama in 2019. (For more ideas about writing for social change, see here—link to Writing for Social Change chapter).

“I thought I was alone,” she said when interviewed about the impact of her essay. “I soon learned that millions of other people were living my story.”

Long’s experience shows that powerful, well-told stories can connect our writing to our audience. Stories can be used in a variety of writing contexts—as stand-alone narratives that entertain, as “hooks” for persuasive essays, and as ways to illustrate concepts in essays written to inform.

What Is A Story?

What is a story? Stories have a beginning, a middle, and an end. We call this time order (or chronological order). Sometimes a story may use a flashback or skip around in time, but most stories follow a narrative arc, described by the 19th-century German novelist Gustave Freytag in five stages:

• Rising action
• Falling action
• Dénouement (or resolution).

Writers may be more familiar with these terms from studying short stories or novels. However, the same narrative arc applies to effective nonfiction stories. The journalist’s questions—who, what, when, where, how, and why—are useful to developing a story arc.

Key Characteristics of Narrative Writing

• Tells a story with a beginning, a middle, and an end
• Uses a subjective tone (not objective)
• Can use first or third person
• Uses descriptive language and imagery
• Often includes dialogue
• Makes a point

Essay Types within this Chapter

• Personal narrative essay
• Literacy narrative essay
• Narrative nonfiction essay

Short Story

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A short story is a brief work of fiction, typically focusing on a single incident or sequence of events. It aims to evoke a powerful mood or moment. With fewer characters and a concise plot , it often leads to a sudden revelation or twist. Renowned for their brevity and punch, short stories are popular in literature for their ability to deliver a memorable impact in a compact form .

What is a Short Story?

A short story is a brief narrative, typically under 7,500 words, focusing on a distinct event or a series of linked events. It features a concise structure with a clear beginning, middle, and end, and often concludes with a twist or significant revelation.

Key Elements of a Short Story

Short stories, despite their brevity, must contain several crucial elements to be effective and engaging. Understanding these elements helps both writers and readers grasp the essence of this literary form. Here are the key elements of a short story:

• The sequence of events in a story. In short stories, the plot needs to be concise and tightly focused on a central conflict.
• The time and place where the story occurs. The setting can establish the atmosphere and give clues about the characters and their lifestyles.
• Characters are the individuals who partake in the action of the story. Even in brief narratives, characters must be well-developed enough to be believable and relatable.
• The main problem or struggle that drives the story. Conflict is essential as it creates tension and interest, making the story dynamic.
• The underlying message or the big idea of the story. Themes often explore universal truths and may be implied rather than explicitly stated.
• The perspective from which the story is told, such as first-person, third-person limited, or third-person omniscient. This influences how the information is presented to the reader.
• The writer’s attitude toward the subject or the audience, reflected in the choice of words and details. Tone helps set the emotional context of the story.
• The distinctive way an author uses language, from word choice to sentence structure. Style can greatly affect the readability and mood of the story.
• Objects, characters, or actions that represent larger ideas. Symbolism adds depth to the narrative, offering layers of meaning to explore.
• The conclusion of the story where conflicts are resolved. In short stories, resolutions often come quickly and leave a lasting impact on the reader.

History of the Short Story

The short story as a literary form has evolved significantly over the centuries, reflecting changes in society, literary tastes, and cultural contexts. Here’s a concise overview of the development of the short story:

Ancient Origins

• The roots of the short story can be traced back to ancient oral storytelling traditions around the world. Fables, parables, and tales from ancient civilizations like Egypt, India, Greece, and Rome often contained elements found in modern short stories.

Middle Ages

• During the Middle Ages, collections of short stories became popular across Europe. Notable examples include “The Canterbury Tales” by Geoffrey Chaucer in England, a collection of linked tales told by a group of pilgrims, and “The Decameron” by Giovanni Boccaccio in Italy, featuring stories told by a group of nobles sheltering from the Black Plague.

17th and 18th Centuries

• The rise of the printing press and the growing literacy rate led to increased publication of short fictional works. In the 17th and 18th centuries, fairy tales and moral stories aimed at children and adults alike became widespread, popularized by authors such as Charles Perrault and the Brothers Grimm.

19th Century

• The 19th century is often considered the golden age of the short story. Writers like Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and later Anton Chekhov revolutionized the form by introducing complex characters and layered themes. Poe, in particular, is credited with defining the short story as a concise and focused narrative that aims to achieve a singular effect.

Early 20th Century

• The short story flourished in the early 20th century, particularly in America. Writers like Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and William Faulkner used the form to explore complex themes and experiment with narrative techniques. This period also saw the rise of literary magazines, which were instrumental in popularizing short stories.

Mid to Late 20th Century

• The mid to late 20th century saw diverse voices emerging in the short story genre. Writers from different backgrounds and countries, including Alice Munro, Gabriel García Márquez, and Raymond Carver, pushed the boundaries of the form, incorporating elements of magical realism, minimalism, and deep explorations of human psychology.

Contemporary Scene

• Today, the short story continues to be a vibrant part of literary culture, embraced by both established authors and new writers. Online platforms and literary journals have made it easier than ever to publish and disseminate short stories, helping to maintain the form’s popularity and relevance.

Types of Short Stories

Short stories come in various forms, each with unique characteristics and purposes. Here’s a look at some of the most prominent types of short stories:

• These stories focus on style, character development, and theme rather than on plot. Writers often explore complex human emotions and societal issues. Examples include the works of Alice Munro and James Joyce.
• These are categorized by the genre of fiction they belong to, such as mystery, horror, science fiction, or romance. They adhere to the conventions and styles of their respective genres. Famous genre authors include H.P. Lovecraft (horror) and Isaac Asimov (science fiction).
• Also known as micro-fiction, these stories are typically under 1,000 words. They deliver a concise narrative or concept, often with a punchy ending or twist. They require economy of words and typically focus on a singular moment or idea.
• Based on real incidents or personal experiences, these stories are often humorous or poignant. They are used to illustrate a point or moral and are commonly shared in casual or informal settings.
• Set in a time significantly before the time of writing, these stories weave fictional narratives around historical facts and figures. They aim to give cultural context and personal depth to historical events, as seen in works by Hilary Mantel.
• These stories defy logical narrative structures and explore bizarre or fantastical scenarios, often to highlight the absurdity of the human condition. Writers like Franz Kafka and Jorge Luis Borges are well-known for their contributions to this type.
• A simple story used to illustrate a moral or spiritual lesson, as told by Jesus in the Gospels. Parables use human characters and typically convey messages indirectly through allegory.
• A brief story that leads to a moral, often using animals as characters. Fables are intended to teach a lesson and often end with a maxim stating the moral directly. Aesop’s fables are the most renowned examples.
• Centered around a mystery and an investigator who solves it, detective stories focus on the process of deduction and the solving of the crime. Edgar Allan Poe and Arthur Conan Doyle have been influential in shaping this genre.
• A short, impressionistic scene that focuses on one moment or gives a trenchant impression about a character, idea, setting, or object. It’s often poetic in nature and is designed more to evoke a mood than to tell a traditional story.

How to Write a Short Story

Writing a short story involves several key steps to craft a compelling narrative. Follow these steps:

• Start with an Idea : Begin with a unique concept or theme that interests you and has potential for exploration.
• Develop Characters : Create memorable characters with distinct personalities, motivations, and conflicts.
• Outline the Plot : Outline the main events of your story, including the beginning, middle, and end, to guide your writing process.
• Create the Setting : Establish a vivid setting that enhances the atmosphere and supports the story’s themes.
• Write the Draft : Start writing your story, focusing on capturing the reader’s attention with an engaging opening and developing tension and conflict.
• Edit and Revise : Review your draft for clarity, coherence, and pacing, and revise as needed to strengthen the narrative.
• Add Dialogue and Description : Incorporate dialogue and descriptive language to bring characters and scenes to life.
• Polish the Prose : Pay attention to language, style, and tone, and refine your prose to create a polished final draft.
• Seek Feedback : Share your story with trusted readers or writing groups to receive constructive feedback and suggestions for improvement.
• Finalize and Submit : Make any final revisions and polish your story before submitting it for publication or sharing it with others.

Some Famous Short Stories

Short stories have often left as deep an impact on the literary world as full-length novels. Here are some famous short stories that have resonated with readers for their innovative narratives, compelling characters, and profound themes:

• A chilling tale about a small town’s annual lottery, this story is famous for its stunning and controversial conclusion, which reveals the dark undercurrents of human nature and societal traditions.
• This story is a classic example of Poe’s mastery of psychological horror. It narrates the intense, guilt-ridden paranoia of a man who murders an old man and is haunted by the sound of his still-beating heart.
• Known for its ironic twist endings, this sentimental story revolves around a young couple who sacrifice their most prized possessions to buy each other Christmas gifts, demonstrating the spirit of selflessness and love.
• This story is a masterclass in dialogue and subtext. It features a couple’s tense conversation at a train station in Spain, subtly revealing their strained relationship and the difficult decision they face about an impending abortion.
• A prime example of Southern Gothic literature, this story combines humor, religious themes, and shocking violence, exploring the complexities of morality and redemption.
• This story centers on Madame Loisel, who borrows a necklace to fit in with the upper class but loses it, leading to a life-altering consequence when she replaces it. The twist ending poignantly underscores the themes of vanity and deception.
• A powerful piece of early feminist literature, this story illustrates the detrimental effects of the suppression of women. It follows the descent into madness of a woman confined to her room under the guise of “rest cure” for her mental health.
• Originally published in “The New Yorker” in 1997, this story explores the complex romantic and sexual relationship between two cowboys over several decades, highlighting themes of love, isolation, and societal norms.
• This story is notable for its minimalistic style and the way it explores themes of isolation, connection, and the revelatory power of art. It concludes with a blind man teaching the narrator to “see” in a spiritual sense.
• The final story in Joyce’s collection “Dubliners,” this profound tale delves into themes of love, loss, and identity through the epiphany of Gabriel Conroy at his aunts’ annual dance and dinner in Dublin.

Short Story Ideas

Whether you’re a seasoned writer looking for a fresh spark or a beginner trying to tackle your first narrative, here are some engaging short story ideas that can serve as a starting point for your creative endeavors:

• A group of childhood friends opens a time capsule they buried 20 years ago, only to find an additional, mysterious item that none of them remembers placing inside.
• A person receives a voicemail from a loved one who passed away unexpectedly, revealing a secret that changes everything they thought they knew about their relationship.
• After a head injury, a character begins experiencing fragments of a parallel life in their dreams, leading them to uncover choices they never made and the life they might have had.
• An amateur artist discovers an unknown painting in their attic, signed by a famous artist. As they seek to uncover the painting’s origins, they unravel a family secret hidden for generations.
• A character becomes stuck in a virtual reality game where the digital characters begin to demonstrate unusually human traits, blurring the lines between game and reality.
• In a future where Earth is overcrowded, a family gets selected to start a new life on a recently discovered planet. As they settle in, they realize that the planet hosts peculiar and unexplained phenomena.
• A historian discovers a letter suggesting an alternative outcome to a well-known historical event. As they dig deeper, they find themselves caught in a dangerous conspiracy to rewrite history.
• In a world where all books are digitized, one person discovers the last existing physical library. Inside, they find a book that should not exist, capable of altering the reader’s reality.
• After returning from a vacation, a person realizes they’ve brought back more than just souvenirs: an alien entity that slowly begins to affect their perception of home.
• A character in witness protection starts a new life in a small town. When a local crime mirrors the one they fled from, they must decide whether to risk their safety to help solve it or keep their past hidden.

Examples of Short Story for Kids

Short stories for kids are designed to entertain, educate, and convey morals in a way that is engaging and easy to understand. Here are ten delightful short story ideas that can capture the imagination of young readers:

• A young girl discovers a magical garden that only appears in her backyard under the full moon. The plants and creatures she meets there teach her about nature’s cycles and the importance of conservation.
• Timmy finds an old, abandoned truck in the woods that turns out to talk and have feelings. Together, they go on adventures to clean up the forest and help other discarded vehicles find new purposes.
• Lilly wakes up to find she’s become invisible. At first, it’s fun to play tricks and wander unseen, but soon, she learns the value of being noticed and appreciated by her family and friends.
• A friendly dragon feels lonely because everyone is afraid of him. One brave child ventures out to meet him, and they become best friends, showing the village that appearances can be deceiving.
• A parrot in the zoo starts to give advice to other animals. Soon, animals from all over come to ask questions about their problems, learning lessons of wisdom, kindness, and practicality.
• Sally builds a rocket out of recycled materials and blasts off to meet moon creatures. She learns about their way of life and helps them solve a tricky problem, learning about teamwork and creativity.
• In a magical forest, a boy stumbles upon a chocolate tree, but learns that too much of anything is not good. Through his adventures, he learns the importance of moderation and sharing.
• A penguin at the North Pole is far from home and needs help. A group of Arctic animals come together to guide the penguin back to the South Pole, exploring themes of friendship and helping others.
• Hector builds a toy plane that comes to life and takes him on flying adventures. Each adventure teaches a lesson about different cultures and the importance of understanding and respecting others.
• A child with a big imagination sees shapes in clouds and claims she paints them at night. One evening, her friends join in, and they all paint the sky with dreamy cloud pictures, sparking creativity and collaboration.

Examples of Short Story Ideas for Students

Crafting short stories is an excellent way for students to explore their creativity and improve their writing skills. Here are some engaging short story ideas that can inspire students across various age groups:

• A story about a student who discovers a forgotten historical fact while studying for their final exam, leading to a surprising school-wide change.
• A group of friends decides to explore an abandoned house in their neighborhood, only to find a hidden basement that leads to an unsolved mystery from decades ago.
• During a school project, students are asked to write letters to their future selves. One student discovers a letter not from their class, but from someone claiming to be from the future.
• A class takes a virtual reality field trip back in time to ancient Egypt, but things go awry when the system malfunctions, leaving them to navigate history firsthand.
• The new student in school can predict things before they happen. Curious classmates try to discover how, leading to lessons about trust and the value of privacy.
• A student passionate about environmental issues finds a rare plant that can solve a major ecological problem but must decide whether its removal from its natural habitat is ethical.
• A student invents a machine to do homework, but it starts creating assignments that teach new, unintended lessons about creativity and the importance of hard work.
• After a student accidentally loses a poem they wrote for a national contest, they embark on a quest through the school to find it, uncovering small acts of kindness around every corner.
• A shy student enters an art contest to find the school’s new mascot design. Throughout the process, they learn about self-confidence and the importance of artistic expression.
• A student stays late at the library and discovers a hidden section of books that transport readers into the stories. They must navigate their way out of a fictional world using their real-world knowledge.

Examples of Short Story Ideas for Adults

Short stories for adults can delve into complex themes, present sophisticated narratives, and explore the intricacies of human relationships. Here are some thought-provoking short story ideas that cater to an adult audience:

• While cleaning out an attic, a person finds an old journal belonging to a mysterious ancestor, whose life story challenges their understanding of their family history.
• A café at a busy city intersection becomes a place where characters from different walks of life share pivotal moments of their lives, revealing the unseen connections between strangers.
• After purchasing an antique mirror, a character starts seeing visions of a past era, leading them to uncover a century-old mystery that mirrors their current life in unexpected ways.
• A family receives a posthumous email from a deceased relative that includes a final wish or confession, which challenges the family’s memories and perceptions of their loved one.
• A character gains the ability to experience what their life could have been like had they made different choices through parallel universe experiences, prompting deep self-reflection.
• Workers on the night shift at a secluded factory start to experience strange occurrences that challenge their sanity, bonding them as they uncover the factory’s dark history.
• Residents of a retirement home band together to solve a mystery when one of their own goes missing, revealing secrets and forging unexpected friendships.
• An expatriate struggling to adapt to a new country finds a collection of letters at a local flea market that tell a story mirroring their own, offering comfort and insights.
• A high school reunion brings together old classmates, where unresolved issues resurface, and a long-hidden truth about their past is finally revealed.
• A character receives a mysterious offer to redo a single day of their life, leading to unexpected consequences and a deeper understanding of what truly matters.

Creative Writing Short Story Examples

Creative writing in the form of short stories allows writers to explore diverse themes and unique storytelling techniques. Below are examples of creative short story ideas that can inspire and challenge writers to craft compelling narratives:

• The day unfolds in reverse, starting from the evening and ending in the morning. The protagonist must navigate the day’s challenges backwards, revealing a crucial decision that could change everything if made differently.
• In a monochrome world, a rebellious artist discovers the secret to stealing colors from one object to paint others. This power brings vibrancy but also unexpected consequences to the community.
• In a future where all books are banned, the owner of the last existing bookstore struggles to keep it hidden. When a curious teenager discovers it, both of their lives change as they fight to preserve the remnants of literature.
• A lonely lighthouse keeper starts hearing voices in the wind, telling tales of lost sailors and distant shores. These stories lead him on a surreal journey to reconcile his past and reshape his future.
• A gifted painter can create paintings that change the viewer’s emotions. As her fame grows, she must decide whether to use her power for personal gain or for the greater good.
• A journalist with the ability to see everyone’s past lives uncovers a series of crimes committed across different lifetimes by the same soul. The investigation becomes personal as past connections to the criminal emerge.
• A renowned glassmaker creates a set of windows that, when assembled correctly, reveal the location of a hidden treasure. Treasure hunters must decode the symbolic images in the glass to find the wealth.
• A character starts receiving messages in their dreams from an alternate version of themselves, offering guidance and warnings. They must decipher these dreams to prevent a looming disaster.
• A librarian discovers that her library is a sanctuary for characters who have escaped from their books. She battles to keep the characters safe from a mysterious force that wants to silence them forever.
• A struggling composer inherits an old, seemingly ordinary violin that plays memories instead of music. With each note, he unravels family secrets and the true significance of his inheritance.

Examples of Funny Short Stories

Funny short stories can provide delightful entertainment and showcase the lighter side of life. Here are some humorous short story ideas that blend comedy with clever storytelling:

• A town’s annual pudding contest leads to a hilarious series of events when the prized recipe goes missing. The suspects? A mischievous grandma and her overly competitive bingo club.
• A bumbling alien crash-lands into a family’s attic, and their attempts to help it repair its ship while keeping its presence a secret lead to a series of comedic misadventures.
• A dog lover agrees to cat-sit for a friend, only to find out that the cat is a master escape artist. Cue a weekend of cat chases, with a healthy dose of feline trickery.
• A witch with notoriously poor aim in her spellcasting attends a prestigious wizarding school. Her magical mishaps create chaos in classes but eventually save the school from an unforeseen threat.
• Two neighbors compete in a weight-loss challenge, resorting to increasingly absurd and sneaky tactics to outdo each other, only to bond over their mutual dislike of dieting.
• A job seeker experiences the most chaotic interview imaginable, involving a spilled coffee, a fire drill, and an unexpected encounter with a CEO’s pet parrot—all recounted with a twist of fate at the end.
• A newly-turned zombie finds himself inconveniently turned into a vegetarian, struggling hilariously with his cravings for grains instead of brains.
• A grandmother accidentally reveals her past as a disco queen during a family dinner, leading to a series of funny stories and a renewed interest in disco dancing within the family.
• A time traveler goes back to the 90s to relive the best days of his youth but accidentally ends up in the 1890s, where his modern slang and habits cause amusing confusions and anachronisms.
• An Uber driver picks up a runaway bride, resulting in a cross-town adventure involving wedding crashers, a chase sequence, and unexpected new friendships.

Examples of Short Story with Dialogue

• The Lost Key “I can’t find my key,” Sarah said, panic creeping into her voice. “Where did you last see it?” Jack asked, trying to calm her down.
• The Surprise Visit “Surprise!” shouted Mark as he burst into the room. “What are you doing here?” Emily exclaimed, her eyes wide with shock and delight.
• The Secret Picnic “I’ve planned a surprise picnic,” whispered Alex, a mischievous grin on his face. “But how did you manage this?” Maria asked, her eyes sparkling with excitement.
• The Mysterious Package “What’s in the package?” Sarah asked, curiosity getting the better of her. “Open it and find out,” replied Tom, a hint of mischief in his voice.
• The Birthday Bash “Happy birthday!” sang the crowd as balloons filled the room. “I can’t believe you remembered,” Sarah said, tears of joy welling up in her eyes.
• The Unforgettable Trip “This is the best vacation ever,” exclaimed Anna, taking in the breathtaking view. “I’m glad we decided to come here,” replied Mark, a smile spreading across his face.
• The Unexpected Encounter “What are you doing here?” gasped Lily as she bumped into her childhood friend. “I was in town and thought I’d surprise you,” replied Jake, a twinkle in his eye.
• The Hidden Treasure “I think we’re getting close,” whispered Mike, excitement tingling in his voice. “Let’s keep searching,” said Emily, her eyes scanning the room for clues.
• The Culinary Disaster “I can’t believe I burned the cake,” groaned Sarah, dismayed by her cooking mishap. “It’s okay, we can order pizza instead,” laughed Tom, trying to lighten the mood.
• The Reunion “I’ve missed you so much,” whispered Rachel, tears streaming down her face. “I missed you too,” replied Alex, pulling her into a tight hug.

Examples of Great Modern Short Story Collections

• “Tenth of December” by George Saunders This collection explores themes of humanity, empathy, and the absurdity of modern life through a series of inventive and poignant stories.
• “Interpreter of Maladies” by Jhumpa Lahiri Lahiri’s collection delves into the experiences of Indian immigrants and their families, examining themes of identity, cultural displacement, and the search for connection.
• “Her Body and Other Parties” by Carmen Maria Machado Machado’s collection is a blend of horror, fantasy, and surrealism, exploring themes of sexuality, gender, and the female experience in contemporary society.
• “Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned” by Wells Tower Tower’s debut collection features stories that are darkly humorous, yet deeply compassionate, offering insight into the complexities of human relationships and the struggles of modern life.
• “This Is How You Lose Her” by Junot Díaz Díaz’s collection centers on the experiences of Yunior, a Dominican-American man navigating love, loss, and identity in contemporary America, with raw honesty and emotional depth.
• “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love” by Raymond Carver Carver’s minimalist style and keen observation of human nature are on full display in this iconic collection, which explores the complexities of love and relationships.
• “Difficult Women” by Roxane Gay Gay’s collection features diverse, multifaceted female characters grappling with issues of trauma, resilience, and empowerment, offering a powerful exploration of womanhood in modern society.
• “You Know You Want This” by Kristen Roupenian Roupenian’s debut collection gained widespread attention for its provocative and unflinching exploration of contemporary relationships, desire, and power dynamics.
• “Heads of the Colored People” by Nafissa Thompson-Spires Thompson-Spires’ collection offers a satirical and incisive look at race, identity, and social dynamics in modern America, with stories that are both humorous and thought-provoking.
• “The Refugees” by Viet Thanh Nguyen Nguyen’s collection explores the experiences of Vietnamese immigrants and refugees, addressing themes of displacement, memory, and the complexities of cultural identity in the modern world.

A short story is a brief work of fiction that typically focuses on a single event, character, or theme, and can be read in one sitting.

How long is a Short Story?

Short stories vary in length, but they typically range from 1,000 to 7,500 words, making them shorter than novels but longer than flash fiction.

What makes a good Short Story?

A good short story captivates readers with compelling characters, engaging plot, vivid imagery, and a satisfying resolution within a limited word count.

What are the elements of a Short Story?

The key elements of a short story include characters, setting, plot, conflict, theme, and narrative point of view, all contributing to its overall impact.

How do you start a Short Story?

Start a short story with a captivating opening line or scene that grabs readers’ attention and sets the tone for the narrative, drawing them into the story.

What are some famous short stories?

Famous short stories include “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe, and “The Gift of the Magi” by O. Henry.

How do you write dialogue in a short story?

Write dialogue in a short story by using quotation marks to indicate spoken words, attributions to identify the speaker, and formatting to enhance readability.

What is the difference between a Short Story and a novel?

A short story is shorter in length and focuses on a single event or character, while a novel is longer and allows for more extensive development of plot and characters.

How do you end a Short Story?

End a short story with a resolution that provides closure to the main conflict or theme, leaving readers satisfied and reflecting on the story’s meaning.

What are some tips for writing a Short Story?

Tips for writing a short story include starting with a strong idea, focusing on a single theme or conflict, editing ruthlessly to maximize impact, and seeking feedback from others.

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How to Write Better Stories in 2024 [7 Point Storytelling Structure]

The Storytelling Method that I taught a ton of individual storytellers and brands to help reach their growth goals.

Write what you mean. Speak from the gut, heart, and mind — combined strategically.

This is one of the most difficult things I’ve ever written. I’m about to teach you the basics of my storytelling method, that I’ve created over the 15 or so years that I’ve worked as a marketing writer, author and storytelling coach. I want this to be fun. I want this to be crystal clear. I want this to be inspiring.

Oohh.  Shudders . Exciting.

At the moment I’m writing this, I’m reading and responding to feedback from a WhatsApp group chat with esteemed former colleagues on the following question:

“If there was one thing you would like to learn from me when it comes to writing, what would that be?”

Turns out, these marketing and communication professionals that know me and my work like none other, would like to learn the following from me: how to keep writing fun, how to keep it interesting for yourself and others, and how to make sure stories are not just read or heard, but rather felt and experienced.

That’s exactly what you’ll learn here: how to write stories that are Felt, Remembered and then turned into Action — in a fun, fast and effective fashion . You will be able to use the basics you learn to base any and all communications on. Blogs, books, presentations, e-mails , even social posts — all can follow the below principles and steps.

Strap in, sharpen your pencil, and enjoy the ride.

In this article

Human storytelling and the five principles that make a story good, preparation, qlsd and 7-point structure: the 10-minute secret to awesome storytelling, the seven-point storytelling structure, fun writing (and strict editing), the seven-point strategic storytelling structure infographic summary, getting the most out of your content marketing efforts.

Let’s start off with some good news: if you’re reading this, you’re probably human.

That means it’s embedded in your DNA that you know how to communicate with other humans really, really well. You have it ingrained in your body, the structure of your brain and how you naturally think, to make sense of events and the world in the form of stories. And to listen to and tell stories. That’s great and a better place to start from than 99.99% of all other living things on this planet.

You know that a story has  a beginning, a middle and an end . In business writing this basic structure translates to  need, solution, result.

You know there’s some form of a  tension arc  built in to a good story. And you know that that tension needs to be  felt . What else do you know about storytelling already?

We can summarize what makes a story a good story for humans in the following five points:

1. A good story is told with calm confidence If only so you don’t distract from your main message. To be able to have fun with your audience and to really draw them into your story . To be able to be convincing at all: why should I trust you if you’re showing me that you don’t?

Confidence is based on preparation, and authenticity — knowing and trusting what you’re talking about. And confidence radiates from a clear structure, saying no more than necessary, and relaxed body language — both physically and on paper.

2. A good story is made to be understood. Make sure your main message or thought is worked out well enough to be intelligible to an intelligent 12-year-old. Check to see if it is. For example, with your significant other/partner who is a layman in your field. Or with an actual intelligent 12-year-old.

Build a structure that allows you to convey your main message clearly, based on a tension arc: from beginning, to change in the middle, to end. Omit any unnecessary background information — this is a very important one.

And make your language as simple and as visual as possible. Paint your story. Make us hear the background music, and smell the morning coffee.

3. Made to be remembered. Make   sure your story stirs up a feeling. In order to do that, tap into the feeling that’s driving you to write the story in the first place. I’m purposefully listening to Mayra Andrade’s song ‘Lua’ as I’m writing this. Mayra Andrade is the Cape Verdean singer of our generation who’s taken over the torch from Cesaria Evora as well as Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald. Listening to her sing makes me want to simply close my eyes and smile.

I hear the sunrise in her voice, and the Atlantic Ocean gently caressing the beach in São Vicente. Her music reminds me of how to make someone feel the story that you’re telling in their belly — even if they don’t understand your language.

Make your story a real story — with a main character — that is recognizable to your target audience. In order to do that, do the preliminary work of QLSD (more on this in a minute). What affects your audience? What is their frame of reference? What challenges or problems do they have to achieving their goals and what do they not yet know?

Have you asked them? I have. It takes less than two minutes to do so.

4. Tells your audience something new To stand out and be remembered, it is important for our brain that a message is new, or at least an element of that message. What’s new for your target audience? What don’t they know yet? What’s a new way of looking at a familiar problem that many of them haven’t tried yet? There’s always something new to be discovered, no matter how well we know our subject. Including if the subject is ourselves.

I want you to have fun writing, and to achieve that I want to challenge you to keep challenging yourself to renew your way of approaching writing . Turn your subject on its head. Literally, if you can. Approach it sideways, or through the eyes of a child. Approach it through the eyes of an alien visiting this planet. Have fun and allow yourself to find a new perspective.

This is what will help you to find new and inspiring ways of telling your stories continuously. Try writing in a different language for once. Doesn’t matter if you publish it. Try to have fun with rap or poetry, as an experiment. One of every 100 repetitions of the same thing may be ‘interesting’, but 1 out of 100 experiments will be a fundamental breakthrough.

5. Sets people in motion. Inspiring people is great — but what you actually want from your Stories is for them to help you achieve your goals as well as helping other people achieve theirs. That means you want to get people moving.   But this is only possible if you also offer them a clear call-to-action.

Literally tell them what they can do, if they care and want to know more about what you are saying. Or if they have become convinced of your vision.

And this in turn is only possible if your own goals are very clear to begin with.

All of the above; clear goals, clear structure, knowing what your audience needs and wants — come from proper preparation. Which can literally be done in ten minutes, total. Excluding research.

In my story method, I assume you’ve already done any and all research that you might need to tell your story. I assume you already have all the knowledge and insights you want to share, at your disposal.

Preparation in my story method consists primarily of aligning the purpose of your story with the higher purpose you’re working towards — as well as the purpose or goals of the one who’s supposed to be reading or hearing your story; your audience.

What do you want to achieve with this story and how does it help you achieve your primary goal, your team goal or your company mission? Do you have strategic marketing or communication goals or do you work in an organization that has them? If so, how does this story contribute to those?

Do you have a strong Inbound Marketing Strategy in place? How do you integrate storytelling throughout the journey?

What is the feeling that you have around your subject, which you’re going to tap into to connect to your audience with? What emotion or sensation is driving you right now, this minute? What goals do people in your audience have? What are they feeling? How does the story you’re telling help them get there?

So much of writing and storytelling is actually about listening.

QLSD in my method stands for asking Questions, Listening, Summarizing and Delving deeper. This is a practice that you can train every day in common conversation, and that you get taught in psychology courses or in training to be a journalist. It’s a basic life skill and something you need to develop in yourself to become a better communicator and storyteller.

How to do that? It’s pretty simple, actually. Practice listening actively and with intent. Listen with your ears, but also with your eyes, your gut — and your mouth:

“[Sorry to interrupt, but] if I understand you correctly, what you’re basically saying is: ‘…[summarize what you’re getting from the other person here]..’. Would you say that’s an accurate way to state/summarize what you’re saying? What would you add or change? Why?”

Try this, or a variation of this wording, and give people back what you understand from what they’re saying, to check and improve your understanding of them. Trust me, it’s a game-changer in life in general.

Now, how to build your story using that preparation and the QLSD technique? Here’s the framework I use — I even used it for this blog post— that I advise you to use in preparing to write your story and building its basic structure.

Notice that the first two questions are for you and summarize the above preparation; points 3–5 you literally put on paper to start building out your story.

This is the Seven-point Strategic Storytelling Structure:

• What is the subject I’m writing about?
• What is the purpose of this story and how does it connect to my higher purpose and the goals of my audience? Did I ask them? [No more than 1–2 lines preferably.]
• What is the main thought I want to share about the subject, and what’s the connected emotion? [-> Summarize this as the first draft for your title . Your title should tell people What this is about, Who this is for, and what you’re Promising]
• What is my ‘hook’ or intro ? A ‘hook’ in storytelling is one to five lines with a new fact, a short story or anecdote; something that connects to the emotions you want to tap in to.
• What are my three supporting thoughts? [Summarize these as draft sub-headers] What three points do I want to make to support my main argument/thought? What is a logical following order that builds your argument, and builds toward your goal of;
• Conclusion and Call-to-action (CTA). [If it makes sense or seems necessary; summarize your main thought and how you arrived at it, and:] literally tell the reader or listener what it is they can do if they are inspired.
• [Short summary, for publishing, Search Engine Optimization and social sharing purposes]

Now, to actually write.

The above 10-minute preparation and structure make it possible to write a good blog article in 20 minutes. I know, I’ve timed it.

Writing should be fun. For effective, fast and enjoyable writing I recommend a variant of the Yoopie method, from Joep Luycx at the Joepie Academy.

You can read more about the Yoopie method and how I apply it myself, here . The basis of this part of my method is that you de-couple freely writing down what you think and feel — from editing, which comes later.

After writing freely, edit strictly Only starting after having actually written your story, can you be really critical of your writing. The most important thing here is to try to find the perspective of your reader or listener.

Read your first version, and continuously ask yourself: would this ‘click’ for the target group I have in mind?

Imagine that you are that specific person; your colleague, your boss, that customer you know reasonably well and on a personal level. If you’re them: do you get it? Can you follow it?

In addition, there are some basic tricks you can apply to improve your writing.

Are you using words that are (superfluously ->)  too  long or complex? Consider replacing all words with more than three syllables with something shorter. Are you using sentences that are too long and complicated? Two lines per sentence is a lot.

I recommend paragraphs of up to three to five lines, alternated with one-sentence paragraphs. White space is the written variant of silence and exudes calm and tranquility.

Finally — and you can check this with or without outside help: is your story correct, both in terms of content and structure, grammar and spelling? Does it read or listen away easily? And, perhaps more important than that:

Is it authentic and is the feeling you wanted to convey in it? If so; congratulations. Your story is ready to be shared.

If you do is up to you.

Next step after that: collecting data and feedback on the reception of your story by your intended audience by — you guessed it: QLSD.

And so the cycle of your growth continues.

Want to write more and better stories? Give our AI-powered generator tool a go. 

Strategic Storytelling is just one piece of the entire Content Marketing puzzle.

For instance, you can write a great piece of content and distribute it far and wide, but if it’s not tailored to your audience and not matching a key word that people search for, it will never be as effective as it could be.

Our Strategic Storytelling Checklist sits within a Growth Storytelling Framework. You can access it here for free . No signup needed.

Go forth and create the best possible content and tell your best stories.

We will be here to support you however we can. You can ask us any question in our LinkedIn group .

What are key elements to consider for writing better stories? Key elements include a compelling plot, well-developed characters, engaging dialogue, a consistent point of view, vivid settings, and a narrative that builds tension and interest.

How can a writer develop strong characters in a story? To develop strong characters, give them distinct voices, backgrounds, motivations, and flaws. Characters should evolve throughout the story and be relatable to the reader.

What role does the setting play in a story? The setting establishes the backdrop and mood of a story, provides context for the characters’ actions, and can influence the plot’s direction and the characters’ development.

How can a writer build an engaging plot? Build an engaging plot by introducing a clear conflict or challenge, developing a narrative arc with rising action, climax, and resolution, and keeping the readers invested with twists or surprises.

What is the importance of dialogue in story writing? Dialogue advances the plot, reveals character traits, provides exposition, and adds realism. It should be concise, purposeful, and reflect each character’s unique voice.

How does point of view impact story writing? Point of view determines through whose eyes the story is told, affecting how readers perceive events and characters. Consistency in point of view is crucial for clarity and immersion.

What techniques can be used to create suspense in a story? Techniques include foreshadowing, withholding information, creating dilemmas, and using time constraints. Suspense keeps readers engaged and eager to know what happens next.

How important is the story’s structure? A well-defined structure, with a beginning, middle, and end, helps in organizing the plot coherently, ensuring a smooth flow and logical progression of events.

Can reading other works improve story writing skills? Yes, reading widely exposes writers to different styles, genres, and storytelling techniques, offering inspiration and insight into effective writing practices.

What is the role of revision in writing better stories? Revision is crucial for refining the story, improving clarity, fixing plot inconsistencies, enhancing character development, and polishing the overall narrative.

How does understanding your audience improve story writing? Understanding your audience helps tailor the story’s tone, style, and content to their preferences and expectations, making it more engaging and relatable for them.

What is the significance of the story’s opening in capturing reader interest? A compelling opening is crucial as it sets the tone, introduces the setting or characters, and hooks the reader’s interest, encouraging them to continue reading.

How can a writer effectively use conflict in a story? Conflict, whether internal or external, drives the plot, creates tension, and develops characters. It should be integral to the story and lead to meaningful resolutions.

What role does pacing play in story writing? Pacing controls the rhythm and flow of the story, affecting how quickly events unfold. It should vary depending on the narrative needs to maintain reader engagement.

How can writers create vivid and memorable settings? Use descriptive language and sensory details to create vivid settings. The setting should contribute to the story’s mood and provide a backdrop that influences the characters’ actions.

What are effective ways to conclude a story? An effective conclusion resolves the main conflict, provides closure to the characters’ arcs, and leaves a lasting impression, whether it’s conclusive or open-ended for interpretation.

How can a writer use themes and motifs to enhance a story? Themes and motifs add depth and layers to a story, allowing readers to connect with larger ideas or recurring elements that resonate beyond the narrative.

What is the importance of showing versus telling in story writing? “Show, don’t tell” involves using actions, thoughts, senses, and dialogue to convey a story, making it more immersive and allowing readers to experience the narrative actively.

Can experimenting with different genres improve story writing? Experimenting with different genres can expand a writer’s skills, provide new perspectives, and inspire creative approaches to characters, plots, and settings.

How does feedback from others benefit story writing? Feedback from readers or writing groups can provide new insights, highlight areas for improvement, and offer diverse perspectives that enrich the story writing process.

Author bio:

Over the past 10+ years as a copywriter, author, consultant, and coach, he’s helped dozens of Brands, Teams, and individual human beings to grow their sense of motivation and focus, but also their reach, engagement, and revenue— through the power of their own story. You can find Erwin on LinkedIn and on his website .

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• Where to Sell Short Stories: 7 Places That Pay

Jackie Pearce

Where to Sell Short Stories

Why you should sell your short stories, building a writing resume, networking opportunities, exposure to a greater audience, testing the market, how much you can make with your short stories, how to submit your short stories, 1. amazon kdp, 2. the threepenny review, 3. poets & writers, 4. one story, 5. clarkesworld magazine, 6. east of the web, 7. flash fiction online, what to do next.

If you are a writer trying to grow your career or start to make money from your craft, you most likely have wondered where to sell short stories.

Venturing into the realm of selling short stories not only broadens your audience but also propels your writing career to new heights.

This guide will walk you through why you should consider selling your short stories in the first place, some tips to submission, and then dive into actual places to submit your short stories.

If you are trying to make it as a writer, or at least trying to make some side income from it, you should consider selling your short stories.

Most likely, if you already have been writing them for some time, there are people who would pay to read them. It is simply a matter of finding platforms and publications that will pay for your stories.

Some other reasons you might want to consider selling your short stories:

For any writer who wants to get paid for their writing or eventually become a full-time author , you will want to have some published pieces in your portfolio. It is a way to show people that you are a serious writer and it can prove that other people should invest in your art, too.

You never know who will read your short story and want to work with you. You might even be hired for things like ghostwriting or other writing opportunities.

Most writers have a small following online, but when you are published in new marketplaces, you have the chance of reaching even more readers.

Ideally, you will choose places to publish your writing that have the greatest reach to new audiences, but in the beginning you might not be able to be as picky as you will later on.

If you are considering writing a longer book, selling and testing how a short story does can help confirm whether it’s a good path to pursue or not.

Many successful books (and even movies) have started as a short story that became popular.

Generally, it’s not incredibly easy to make money with short stories. Do not expect to become rich overnight.

However, with a practical mindset and a determined attitude, you can often start to make some money and get the word out about your work.

You could make anywhere from a few bucks to a thousand dollars. Generally “pro” rates start at $0.08 per word, if that gives you any context into how much you can make.

Yes, it’s more common that you will find opportunities for less money, but also almost every famous author out there started by selling their short stories. It is more about what you do with your growing audience and your stories that can have a huge impact on your career down the line.

Some writing contests, anthologies, or publications may have specific submission guidelines or themes that writers find interesting or challenging. Selling a short story to meet these requirements can be a way to participate in such opportunities.

One thing you will want to particularly note is that most websites have rules about whether they will accept stories published in other publications before or not. Some publications want the first rights to your story, and some will accept stories you have published before. That is something you will want to take seriously and keep an eye out for.

You will want to double-check (and even triple-check any submission guidelines before entering so you are not automatically disqualified from consideration. Some publications have rigid rules, and some have looser rules, so do your research before submission.

The Amazon KDP program is a great place for writers to put their short stories and get paid.

As a book seller, you can earn up to 70% of royalties, depending on the publishing option you choose from them. This program also offers publishing option for a wide variety of genres, which is not something you will always find from various publishers.

For example, some magazines will only publish particular kinds of genres and stories.

Amazon also has the biggest book market in the world, but you will still have to work hard to get your short story to stand out.

The Threepenny Review is a literary magazine that generally publishes essays, fiction, non-fiction, poetry, memoirs and more.

They have various word count preferences for each of the type of stories they choose to publish, but they do pay for pieces they publish.

On the higher end, they can pay $400 pier piece, and for shorter ones (such as poems) $200.

Poets & Writers have a few various ways to help writers make money.

One option is to pitch directly to the magazine, which you can do through their submission guidelines page.

After that, they also have a subscription you can join to keep on top of various short shorty contests and other opportunities for other paid writing gigs.

If you are looking to publish a short story, you have probably come across One Story as an option.

They only have a short window of time where they accept submissions, but they do pay $500 for 25 contributors copies.

Check out their submission page to stay on top of when the next opening is happening.

Clarkesworld Magazine mainly focuses on publishing short stories in the science fiction and fantasy world, but they also consider art, non-fiction, and other types of short stories, as well.

They currently pay $0.12/word, which is on the higher end of platforms that pay for short stories.

Following the science fiction genre, East of the Web is currently accepting short stories that are at least 7.000 words. They currently have over 100,000 mobile devices that have their short story app installed, which can be good for your story to help reach a wider audience.

At the time of writing this, they are currently paying $0.05 per word to publish stories, but they are open to submissions of previously published stories, which not all places do.

If you love writing short stories that are between 500-1000 words, you will want to check out the Flash Fiction Online submission guidelines.

With Flash Fiction Online, you can expect to make $60 per accepted story.

Struggling to make money with your writing and want to make your career recession-proof?

You won’t want to miss out on our Recession-Proof Writing Guide! This will give you the steps you need to make sure you are building a writing career that can handle any economic situation.

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Happy Mother's Day 2024: Best Short And Long Essay Ideas On Mother's Day In English For Students

Mother’s Day essay in English: Every year, on the second Sunday in May, people around the world celebrate Mother's Day to honour the incredible women who have nurtured and cared for us. This year, Mother's Day falls on May 12th . It's a special occasion where children, partners, and family members express their love and appreciation for their mothers through gifts, cards, and other heartfelt gestures. Mother's Day is a wonderful opportunity to recognise and thank mothers for their endless efforts, sacrifices, and unconditional love. This day is celebrated in over 50 countries across the globe .

With the celebration of Mother's Day 2024 just around the corner, educational institutions host Mother's Day Speech and Essay writing competitions to encourage students' growth in knowledge and boost their self-assurance in effective self-expression. So, if you are looking for long and short Mother's Day essay ideas in English, then read on. 

Mother's Day 2024: Tips for writing an essay on Mother's Day

Writing an essay about Mother's Day is a wonderful way to show love and appreciation for moms everywhere. In this essay, we'll talk about how to write a great essay about Mother's Day using easy words. We'll cover topics like why moms are special, how to plan your essay and the importance of saying thank you. So, let's start writing and celebrate our amazing moms!

• Choose a Topic: Decide what aspect of Mother's Day you want to write about. It could be about your own mom, the history of Mother's Day, or why mothers are important.
• Plan Your Essay: Think about what you want to say in your essay. Make a list of points you want to include, like why you appreciate your mom or how Mother's Day is celebrated.
• Write an Outline: Organize your thoughts into an introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion. This will help you stay focused and make sure you cover everything you want to say.
• Use Simple Language: Write in a way that is easy to understand. Avoid using complicated words or phrases.
• Tell a Story: Share personal experiences or stories about your mom to make your essay more engaging and heartfelt.
• Express Gratitude: Take the time to thank your mom for all she does. This can be done throughout your essay or in a dedicated section.
• Edit and Revise: Read through your essay and make any necessary changes. Check for spelling and grammar errors to make sure your essay is clear and polished.
• Share Your Essay: Once you're happy with your essay, share it with your mom or others to spread the love and appreciation for mothers everywhere.

Also Read; Mother's Day Speech Ideas

500 words essay on Mother's Day

Mother's Day is a special day celebrated all around the world to honour and appreciate mothers and mother figures. It's a day filled with love, gratitude, and recognition for the incredible role that mothers play in our lives.

Every second Sunday of May, we celebrate Mother's Day , a special occasion dedicated to honouring the remarkable women who fill our lives with love and care. It's a day when we pause to recognise the often-overlooked contributions of mothers and express our heartfelt gratitude for all they do.

The origins of Mother's Day date back to 1908 in the United States . After the passing of her own mother in 1905, a woman named Anna Jarvis was inspired to create a day dedicated to honouring the tireless efforts and sacrifices of mothers everywhere. In May 1908, she organised the first official Mother's Day celebration in Grafton, West Virginia, laying the foundation for what would become a beloved annual tradition.

Mother's Day has since become a cherished tradition, observed on different dates depending on the country. However, no matter when it's celebrated, the sentiment remains the same: to show our appreciation for the unconditional love and care that mothers provide.

Mothers are extraordinary individuals who devote themselves to their families. They are our first teachers, guiding us through life's ups and downs with patience and wisdom. From the moment we are born, mothers nurture us, protect us, and teach us valuable lessons about kindness, compassion, and resilience.

One of the most beautiful aspects of Mother's Day is the opportunity it provides to express our gratitude. Whether through heartfelt words, handmade cards, or thoughtful gifts, we take this day to show our mothers just how much they mean to us. It's a chance to say "thank you" for all the sacrifices they've made and all the love they've given.

Mother's Day is also a time for reflection, a moment to pause and appreciate the unique bond between a mother and her child. It's a bond forged through countless shared moments, laughter, tears, and triumphs. No matter where life takes us, our mothers remain a constant source of love and support, cheering us on every step of the way.

For some, Mother's Day may be a bittersweet occasion, especially for those who have lost their mothers or who are unable to be with them. However, it's also a time to honour their memory and celebrate the legacy of love they left behind. Their presence may no longer be physical, but their influence and guidance continue to shape our lives in profound ways.

Beyond biological mothers, Mother's Day also celebrates all mother figures, including grandmothers, aunts, sisters, and guardians who play maternal roles in our lives. These women may not have given birth to us, but they have nurtured us with the same love and care as any mother would.

In addition to honouring individual mothers, Mother's Day is an opportunity to recognise the collective strength and resilience of mothers everywhere. Mothers are the backbone of families and communities, often juggling multiple roles and responsibilities with grace and determination. Their unwavering love and dedication enrich the lives of those around them, leaving an indelible mark on society as a whole.

As we celebrate Mother's Day, let us not forget to show our appreciation not just today, but every day. Let us cherish and honour the incredible women who have shaped us into the people we are today. And let us strive to emulate their love, compassion, and strength in everything we do.

300 words essay on Mother's Day

Mother's Day is a special day celebrated to honour and appreciate mothers all around the world. It's a time to show love and gratitude to the women who have cared for us, nurtured us, and supported us throughout our lives.

On this day, we take the opportunity to express our thanks to our mothers for everything they do for us. From the moment we are born, mothers are there to hold us, feed us, and comfort us. They are our first teachers, teaching us valuable lessons about life, love, and kindness.

Mother's Day is a chance to celebrate the unconditional love that mothers give to their children. They sacrifice so much for us, putting our needs before their own and always being there when we need them. Whether it's a hug when we're feeling sad or a word of encouragement when we're facing a challenge, mothers are always there to support us.

This day is not just about biological mothers; it's also a time to recognise and appreciate all mother figures in our lives. This includes stepmothers, grandmothers, aunts, and other women who play a maternal role. Their love and guidance shape us into the people we are today, and Mother's Day is a chance to thank them for their contributions.

Celebrating Mother's Day can take many forms. Some people may choose to give gifts, such as flowers or cards, to show their appreciation. Others may spend quality time with their mothers, sharing memories and creating new ones together. However we choose to celebrate, the most important thing is to let our mothers know how much they mean to us.

200 words essay on Mother's Day

Mother's Day is a special day when we celebrate and honour the love, care, and sacrifices of mothers all around the world. It's a time to show appreciation for everything our moms do for us every day.

Every second Sunday of May, we celebrate Mother's Day, a special occasion dedicated to honouring the remarkable women who fill our lives with love and care. It's a day when we pause to recognise the often-overlooked contributions of mothers and express our heartfelt gratitude for all they do.

The origins of Mother's Day date back to 1908 in the United States. After the passing of her own mother in 1905, a woman named Anna Jarvis was inspired to create a day dedicated to honouring the tireless efforts and sacrifices of mothers everywhere. In May 1908, she organised the first official Mother's Day celebration in Grafton, West Virginia, laying the foundation for what would become a beloved annual tradition.

Since then, Mother's Day has grown into a worldwide celebration, with people from different cultures and backgrounds coming together to pay tribute to mothers and mother figures. It's a day filled with flowers, cards, gifts, and special gestures to show appreciation for the unconditional love and support that mothers provide.

Mothers play a crucial role in our lives from the moment we are born. They are always there to comfort us when we're sad, cheer us on when we succeed, and support us through life's challenges. Their love is unconditional and knows no bounds.

On Mother's Day, we take the opportunity to express our gratitude to our moms. This can be through heartfelt cards, thoughtful gifts, or simply spending quality time together. It's a chance to make our moms feel special and loved, just like they make us feel every day.

But Mother's Day isn't just about our own mothers. It's also a time to recognise all mother figures in our lives, whether they're grandmothers, aunts, sisters, or friends. These women play important roles in shaping who we are and deserve our appreciation too.

100 words essay on Mother's Day

Mother's Day is a special day in May when we honour and thank mothers for their love and care. It started in 1908 in the United States by Anna Jarvis to appreciate mothers' hard work. Since then, it has become a worldwide celebration with gifts and flowers. It's a time to remember the important role mothers play in our lives and to show them how much we appreciate them. So, let's take this day to thank and celebrate all the amazing mothers who make our lives better every day

Bhupinder Singh is a Principal Executive in Content Management. He writes about historic events, art and culture for SEO. His interests include Artificial intelligence tools like Chatgpt, midjourney, and generative AI, along with an avid passion for cricket. In his free time, you will find him discussing MS Dhoni-Sachin Tendulkar and IPL.

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Five Books That’ll Fit Right Into Your Busy Schedule

A s much as I love falling into a book and letting it consume an entire day, my free time doesn’t always arrive in uninterrupted stretches. Instead, it might be sprinkled throughout a hectic schedule: 10 minutes while I’m waiting at the doctor’s office, another 15 minutes riding the train, 30 minutes before falling asleep. These pockets of idle time could be spent scrolling on TikTok or answering emails, but I find that they are perfect for sneaking in reading—particularly short-story and essay collections, which you can enjoy in starts and stops.

Last month, I revisited the Pulitzer-winning volume Interpreter of Maladies , by Jhumpa Lahiri, and its intimate vignettes of the Indian diaspora. Lahiri’s short fiction focuses on characters, young and old, confronting the pangs of assimilation and alienation; each narrative conjures a rich and vivid world of its own. I decided that a concrete, achievable task would be tackling one story every night. They welcomed me in for a brief stay before releasing me to a dinner reservation, to my unfinished laundry, or to sleep. When reading starts to feel impossible, turn to books that you can work through at your own pace. These five titles can be consumed over days, weeks, or even months—ready for you whenever you want to dive back in.

Cooking as Though You Might Cook Again , by Danny Licht

In the time it takes to boil water for pasta, you can finish several of Licht’s delightful hybrid recipe-essays. The 78-page zine-like book encourages home cooks to view the task of preparing a meal not as a chore but as an act of emotional nourishment. Just as Licht prompts his readers to slow down and appreciate the process of assembling ingredients and letting them meld, his conversational language is best savored unhurriedly. The instructions for the simple Italian-ish dishes—a pot of beans, a creamy lemon risotto, pasta with braised chuck roast—cultivate an intuitive and meditative approach to putting food on the table. “Cooking does not need to be a race to the table, and it does not need to have an upper limit on what is possible or what is delicious or even what is beautiful,” Licht writes. “Instead, it can be a drama in parts, each act vital, and each giving way to the next. It can be like life itself.”

Cursed Bunny , by Bora Chung, translated by Anton Hur

Squeamish readers beware, because no one does body horror like Chung. Her frightening stories force you to sit in discomfort: A family seeks revenge on an unscrupulous businessman through a supernatural bunny lamp that destroys everything around it; a woman begins taking birth-control pills, but they fertilize a surreal, immaculate pregnancy, and she’s forced to look for a husband; a boy escapes Promethean torture at the hands of a monster, only to be further abused by the people who rescue him. For some, the subject matter may actually necessitate taking breaks. Thankfully, moving through the collection at a measured pace allows Hur’s straightforward translation—and the macabre scenarios that Chung creates—to feel fresh on every visit.

[ Read: You can read any of these short novels in a weekend ]

Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self , by Danielle Evans

Deliberately reading Evans’s 2010 debut allows the collection’s tenderness and warmth to wash over you the same way a conversation with an old friend does: Secrets are divulged, and old memories start to creep into the present. Her best stories—“Snakes,” “Virgins,” “Harvest,” and “Robert E. Lee Is Dead”—focus on the complicated and intense relationships between young women, many of whom are Black. Evans’s characters betray and uplift one another, sometimes simultaneously, and are infused with humor and generosity. Some of her plots deal with major coming-of-age milestones, like a first pregnancy or the end of high school. But in her deft hands, a night at the club or a summer with Grandma can also be a defining moment, one whose weight might not be realized until much later.

The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat , by Oliver Sacks

During his career as a neurologist, Sacks studied people with the most curious brain abnormalities, such as Dr. P., the titular man who could not accurately identify objects (or other humans). This collection of neurological case studies moves beyond clinical descriptions and focuses on the humanity of Sacks’s patients. The 24 essays are grouped by theme—“Losses,” “Excesses,” “Transports,” and “The World of the Simple”—but they don’t have to be read chronologically, as they are all discrete accounts. Sacks combines explanations of psychological theory, as well as snippets of dialogue between him and his subjects, to create nuanced portraits of people facing extreme medical challenges. What may be abnormal for much of the audience is normal for Sacks’s patients, and seeing through their eyes generates a renewed recognition of the tenacity of the human spirit—a feeling worth sitting with.

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Seventeen Syllables and Other Stories , by Hisaye Yamamoto

Yamamoto’s 1988 collection captures the dignity and disillusionment of the Japanese community in America during and after World War II. Together, the stories create a snapshot of a group during a transitory phase in the United States. But reading them separately, as singular narratives, allows for a greater appreciation of the ordinary people who lived through this sweeping and weighty moment in history. The title story, “Seventeen Syllables,” highlights how the realities of immigration—such as a language barrier and shifting cultural norms—contribute to the divide between a mother and a daughter. Despite being written in the second half of the 20th century, Yamamoto’s stories about anti-Asian racism, sexual harassment, and generational estrangement transcend their period; they could easily be transplanted to the current day, thanks to her ability to make the mess of daily life resonate across the decades.

This Mother's Day, share a heartfelt message with these 30 quotes about mothers

Celebrating mothers and motherhood has been a tradition for centuries, even before Mother's Day was officially created. It dates back to  the ancient Greeks and Romans who held festivals for Rhea and Cybele, the mother goddesses, the History Channel reports. Today, the holiday continues to honor mothers and mother figures.

While you might think that you show your mother love for everything she does throughout the year, the second Sunday in May serves as another chance to do so. And how you display your gratitude could vary depending on your love language .

If you're a fan of words of affirmation, here are some quotes to share – or write on a card – this Mother's Day.

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Mother's Day, motherhood quotes

• "I realized when you look at your mother, you are looking at the purest love you will ever know." – Mitch Albom , "For One More Day"
• "Mama was my greatest teacher, a teacher of compassion, love and fearlessness. If love is sweet as a flower, then my mother is that sweet flower of love." – Stevie Wonder
• "A mother is your first friend, your best friend, your forever friend." – Amit Kalantri , "Wealth of Words"
• "Mother's love is peace. It need not be acquired, it need not be deserved." – Erich Fromm
• "Mother is a verb. It's something you do. Not just who you are." – Cheryl Lacey Donovan , "The Ministry of Motherhood"
• "Acceptance, tolerance, bravery, compassion. These are the things my mom taught me." – Lady Gaga
• "A mother's love is patient and forgiving when all others are forsaking, it never fails or falters, even though the heart is breaking." – Helen Rice
• "A mother's love is more beautiful than any fresh flower." – Debasish Mridha
• "When your mother asks, 'Do you want a piece of advice?' it's a mere formality. It doesn't matter if you answer yes or no. You're going to get it anyway." – Erma Bombeck
• "All that I am or ever hope to be, I owe to my angel mother." – President Abraham Lincoln
• "I wondered if my smile was as big as hers. Maybe as big. But not as beautiful." – Benjamin Alire Sáenz , "Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe"
• "Sometimes the strength of motherhood is greater than natural laws." – Barbara Kingsolver , "Homeland and Other Stories"
• "A mother is she who can take the place of all others but whose place no one else can take." – Gaspard Mermillod
• "I can imagine no heroism greater than motherhood." –   Lance Conrad , "The Price of Creation"
• "To describe my mother would be to write about a hurricane in its perfect power. Or the climbing, falling colors of a rainbow." – Maya Angelou
• "A mother's arms are more comforting than anyone else's." – Princess Diana
• "My mother is my root, my foundation. She planted the seed that I base my life on, and that is the belief that the ability to achieve starts in your mind." – Michael Jordan
• "There's no way to be a perfect mother and a million ways to be a good one." – Jill Churchill
• "Being a mother is an attitude, not a biological relation." – Robert A. Heinlein , "Have Space Suit—Will Travel"
• "Mothers and their children are in a category all their own. There's no bond so strong in the entire world. No love so instantaneous and forgiving." – Gail Tsukiyama , "Dreaming Water"
• "When you are a mother, you are never really alone in your thoughts. You are connected to your child and to all those who touch your lives. A mother always has to think twice, once for herself and once for her child." – Sophia Loren
• "Once you’re a mom, you’re always a mom. It’s like riding a bike, you never forget." – Taraji P. Henson
• "The world, we'd discovered, doesn't love you like your family loves you." – Louis Zamperini
• "The woman who is my best friend, my teacher, my everything: Mom." – Sandra Vischer , "Unliving the Dream"
• "Mothers possess a power beyond that of a king on his throne." – Mabel Hale
• "The influence of a mother in the lives of her children is beyond calculation." – James E. Faust
• "But behind all your stories is always your mother's story, because hers is where yours begins." – Mitch Albom , "For One More Day"
• "My mother sacrificed her dreams so I could dream." – Rupi Kaur
• "Mother's arms are made of tenderness, and sweet sleep blesses the child who lies within." – Victor Hugo
• "No language can express the power and beauty and heroism of a mother’s love." – Edwin Hubbel Chapin

Looking for inspiration? 50 positive quotes for peak motivation

Just Curious for more? We've got you covered

USA TODAY is exploring the questions you and others ask every day. From " Who was the oldest Golden Girl? " to " What is the smallest country? " to " What's May's birthstone? " − we're striving to find answers to the most common questions you ask every day. Head to our  Just Curious section  to see what else we can answer.