Short Story Theme

Every piece of writing must have a message or thread of meaning running through it, and this
theme is the skeleton or framework on which you hang your plot, characters, setting etc.

As you write, make sure that every word is related to this theme-every excess word is a word
that dilutes the impact of your story.

The best stories are the ones that follow a narrow subject line. Decide what the point of your
story is and even though it's tempting to digress, you must stick to the point otherwise you
end up with either a novel beginning or a mish-mash of ideas that add up to nothing.

Time Span for Your Short Story

An effective short story covers a very short time span. It may be one single event that is
momentous in the life of your main character or the story may take place in a single day or
even an hour. Try to use the events you depict to illustrate your theme.

Setting for Your Short Story

Because you have such a limited number of words to convey your message, you must
choose your settings carefully ... there's no room for free-loaders in a short story!

That doesn't mean you have to be trite or predictable when deciding on settings. For
example, some of the most frightening settings for thrillers are not cemeteries or lonely alleys,
but normal places where readers can imagine themselves.

Appeal to your readers' five senses to make your settings more real.

1. Have a clear theme. What is the story about? That doesn't mean what is the plot line, the
sequence of events or the character's actions, it means what is the underlying message or
statement behind the words. Get this right and your story will have more resonance in the
minds of your readers.
2. An effective short story covers a very short time span. It may be one single event that
proves pivotal in the life of the character, and that event will illustrate the theme.
3. Don't have too many characters. Each new character will bring a new dimension to the
story, and for an effective short story too many diverse dimensions (or directions) will dilute
the theme. Have only enough characters to effectively illustrate the theme.
4. Make every word count. There is no room for unnecessary expansion in a short story. If
each word is not working towards putting across the theme, delete it.
5. Focus. The best stories are the ones that follow a narrow subject line. What is the point of
your story? Its point is its theme. It's tempting to digress, but in a 'short' you have to follow the
straight and narrow otherwise you end up with either a novel beginning or a hodgepodge of
ideas that add up to nothing.

What is a Short Story?

A short story:

• Gets off to a fast start.

• Generally has a limited number of characters and scenes.
• Starts as close to the conclusion as possible.
• Frequently deals with only one problem.
• Uses only the detail necessary for understanding the situation.
• Usually covers just a short time period.
1. Get Started: Emergency Tips

Is your short story due tomorrow morning? Here are a few emergency tips. Good
luck!

If you are having trouble getting started, look out the window. The whole world is a
story, and every moment is a miracle.
-Bruce Taylor, UWEC Professor of Creative Writing

• Make lists. Sketch out the characters, plot, emotional tone, and so forth --
without slowing down to organize your ideas into sentences and paragraphs.
You might list things you associate with school, sensations you feel that make
you happy, or people that you admire. A story starts to develop around your
list, and if you change the words around (which will be a lot easier than
moving complete sentences and paragraphs around), the idea of the story
begins to change too.
• Develop a list of events. Think about distressing, unusual, or difficult periods
in your own life. Pick some of these events and write a paragraph about each
one.
• Try clustering. Choose a word that is your main subject, write it in the
middle of the page and circle it. For a few minutes, free-associate by writing
around your main word any word that comes to mind--action, image, part of
speech, or abstraction. Circle the words you have written and draw lines and
arrows between words that seem connected.

More Detailed Tips

For those of you who are looking for more long-term writing strategies, here are
some additional ideas.

• Keep a notebook. To R. V. Cassill, notebooks are "incubators," a place to

begin with overheard conversation, expressive phrases, images, ideas, and
interpretations on the world around you.
• Write on a regular, daily basis. Sit down and compose sentences for a
couple of hours every day -- even if you don't feel like it.
• Collect stories from everyone you meet. Keep the amazing, the unusual, the
strange, the irrational stories you hear and use them for your own purposes.
Study them for the underlying meaning and apply them to your understanding
of the human condition.

Read, Read, Read

Read a LOT of Chekhov. Then re-read it. Read Raymond Carver, Earnest
Hemingway, Alice Munro, and Tobias Wolff. If you don't have time to read all of
these authors, stick to Chekhov. He will teach you more than any writing teacher or
workshop ever could.
-Allyson Goldin, UWEC Asst. Professor of Creative Writing
 2. Write a Catchy First Paragraph

In today's fast-moving world, the first sentence of your short story should catch your
reader's attention with the unusual, the unexpected, an action, or a conflict. Begin
with tension and immediacy. Remember that short stories need to start close to their
end.

Summary: Good storytellers differentiate between a crisis (an emergency,

such as a car crash or an illness) and conflict (a clash of wills, a difficult moral
choice, or an internal mental struggle). Beginning authors often focus on the
exciting crisis rather than the conflict that makes readers care about the
characters enduring the crisis.

The spectacle...
The word spectacle, like "spectacles" (eyeglasses) or "spectacular" (something
worth looking at), implies that the author is showing what happens, rather than
simply telling about it.

Telling Showing
He got really mad.
"Get out," he said. I His eyes narrowed into slits, pinning me to the wall with
could tell he really their gaze. His voice was a hoarse whisper: "Get out!"
meant it.

Telling
All the kids knew that
Lucinda was the meanest kid in the
third grade. She was prissy and
cute; she wore bows in her hair and
shiny black shoes, and she thought
that meant she could get away with
anything. She never exactly scared
me -- but for some reason she
would always go out of her way to
torment me. I wasn't one of the
"cool" kids, and the few kids I knew
were just the guys I played chess
with during recess -- they weren't
really friends. Plus, I was clumsy.
So I was a good target. I was so
miserable and lonely, I could
hardly face going to class each day.
That little girl made my life a living
hell.
Showing
When she saw me, she stopped;
her ponytail bobbed threateningly.
She was after me again. At the sound
of the recess bell, I clutched my chess
set and dashed to freedom, eager to
win the daily tournament of outcasts.
Of course, I tripped in front of the
whole class. Tennis shoes and sandals
stepped around me and over me as I
scrambled after pawns and bishops.
And there was Lucinda, waiting for me
to notice her; she smiled, lifted her
shiny patent-leather shoe, and slowly,
carefully ground my white queen into
the pavement.

Both passages make the same point -- Lucinda is mean. In the first passage, the
author just expects us to believe him: "Lucinda was the meanest kid in the third
grade." In the second passage, we read a detailed account of Lucinda's behavior
(she has a habit of going "after" the narrator; she waits until she has the narrator's
attention before crushing his queen), and we can judge for ourselves.

I heard my neighbor through the wall.

Dry and uninteresting.
The neighbor behind us practiced scream therapy in his shower almost every
day.
The second sentence catches the reader's attention. Who is this guy who goes
in his shower every day and screams? Why does he do that? What, exactly,
is "scream therapy"? Let's keep reading...
The first time I heard him, I stood in the bathroom listening at our shared wall
for ten minutes, debating the wisdom of calling the police. It was very
different from living in the duplex over middle-aged Mr. and Mrs. Brown and
their two young sons in Duluth.

The rest of the paragraph introduces I and an internal conflict as the protagonist
debates a course of action and introduces an intriguing contrast of past and present
setting.

"It is important to understand the basic elements of fiction writing before you
consider how to put everything together. This process is comparable to producing
something delectable in the kitchen--any ingredient that you put into your bowl of
dough impacts your finished loaf of bread. To create a perfect loaf, you must
balance ingredients baked for the correct amount of time and enhanced with the right
polishing glaze." -Laurel Yourke

3. Developing Characters

Your job, as a writer of short fiction--whatever your beliefs--is to put complex

personalities on stage and let them strut and fret their brief hour. Perhaps the sound
and fury they make will signify something that has more than passing value--that
will, in Chekhov's words, "make [man] see what he is like." -Rick Demarnus

In order to develop a living, breathing, multi-faceted character, it is important to

know way more about the character than you will ever use in the story. Here is
a partial list of character details to help you get started.

• Name • Pets
• Age • Religion
• Job • Hobbies
• Ethnicity • Single or married?
• Appearance • Children?

• Residence • Temperament
• Favorite color • Something hated?
• Friends • Secrets?
• Favorite foods • Strong memories?
 • Drinking patterns • Any illnesses?
• Phobias • Nervous gestures?

• Faults • Sleep patterns

Imagining all these details will help you get to know your character, but your reader
probably won't need to know much more than the most important things in four
areas:

• Appearance. Gives your reader a visual understanding of the character.

• Action. Show the reader what kind of person your character is, by describing
actions rather than simply listing adjectives.
• Speech. Develop the character as a person -- don't merely have your character
announce important plot details.
• Thought. Bring the reader into your character's mind, to show them your
character's unexpressed memories, fears, and hopes.

For example, let's say I want to develop a college student persona for a short story
that I am writing. What do I know about her?

Her name is Jen, short for Jennifer Mary Johnson. She is 21 years old. She is a fair-
skinned Norwegian with blue eyes, long, curly red hair, and is 5 feet 6 inches
tall. Contrary to typical redheads, she is actually easygoing and rather shy. She
loves cats and has two of them named Bailey and Allie. She is a technical writing
major with a minor in biology. Jen plays the piano and is an amateur
photographer. She lives in the dorms at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. She
eats pizza every day for lunch and loves Red Rose tea. She cracks her knuckles
when she is nervous. Her mother just committed suicide.

4. Choose a Point of View

Point of view is the narration of the story from the perspective of first, second, or
third person. As a writer, you need to determine who is going to tell the story and
how much information is available for the narrator to reveal in the short story. The
narrator can be directly involved in the action subjectively, or the narrator might
only report the action objectively.

• First Person. The story is told from the view of "I." The narrator is
either the protagonist (main character) and directly affected by unfolding
events, or the narrator is a secondary character telling the story revolving
around the protagonist. This is a good choice for beginning writers because it
is the easiest to write.

I saw a tear roll down his cheek. I had never seen my father cry before.
I looked away while he brushed the offending cheek with his hand.
• Second Person. The story is told directly to "you", with the reader as
a participant in the action.

You laughed loudly at the antics of the clown. You clapped your hands
with joy.
 (See also Jerz on interactive fiction.)
• Third Person. The story tells what "he", "she," or "it" does. The
third-person narrator's perspective can be limited (telling the story from one
character's viewpoint) or omniscient (where the narrator knows everything
about all of the characters).
He ran to the big yellow loader sitting on the other side of the gravel
pit shack.
• Your narrator might take sides in the conflict you present, might be as
transparent as possible, or might advocate a position that you want your reader
to challenge (this is the "unreliable narrator" strategy).

Yourke on point of view:

• First Person. "Unites narrator and reader through a series of secrets" when
they enter one character's perceptions. However, it can "lead to telling" and
limits readers connections to other characters in the short story.
• Second Person. "Puts readers within the actual scene so that readers confront
possibilities directly." However, it is important to place your characters "in a
tangible environment" so you don't "omit the details readers need for clarity."
• Third Person Omniscient. Allows you to explore all of the characters'
thoughts and motivations. Transitions are extremely important as you move
from character to character.
• Third Person Limited. "Offers the intimacy of one character's perceptions."
However, the writer must "deal with character absence from particular
scenes."

5. Write Meaningful Dialogue

Make your readers hear the pauses between the sentences. Let them see characters
lean forward, fidget with their cuticles, avert their eyes, uncross their legs. -Jerome
Stern

Dialogue is what your characters say to each other (or to themselves).

Each speaker gets his/her own paragraph, and the paragraph includes whatever
you wish to say about what the character is doing when speaking. (See: "Quotation
Marks: Using Them in Dialogue".)

"Where are you going?" John cracked his knuckles while he looked at the floor.
"To the racetrack." Mary edged toward the door, keeping her eyes on
John's bent head. "Not again," John stood up, flexing his fingers. "We are
already maxed out on our credit cards."
The above paragraph is confusing, because it is not clear when one speech stops
and the other starts.
"Where are you going?" John asked nervously.
"To the racetrack," Mary said, trying to figure out whether John was too
upset to let her get away with it this time.
"Not again," said John, wondering how they would make that month's rent.
"We are already maxed out on our credit cards."
 The second example is mechanically correct, since it uses a separate paragraph
to present each speaker's turn advancing the conversation. But the narrative
material between the direct quotes announces for the reader's benefit exactly
what each quoted passage means. The result is a dry passage that does not
engage the reader. Why bother to think about what is going on when the author
is so busy telling you exactly what each line means?

Let's return to the first example, and show how paragraphs can affect the
meaning of the passage.
"Where are you going?" John cracked his knuckles while he looked at the
floor.
"To the racetrack." Mary edged toward the door, keeping her eyes on
John's bent head.
"Not again," John stood up, flexing his fingers. "We are already maxed out
on our credit cards."
In the above revision, John nervously asks Mary where she is going, and Mary
seems equally nervous about going.

But if you play a little with the paragraphing..

"Where are you going?"
John cracked his knuckles while he looked at the floor. "To the racetrack."
Mary edged toward the door, keeping her eyes on John's bent head. "Not
again."
John stood up, flexing his fingers. "We are already maxed out on our credit
cards."
All I changed was the paragraphing (and I changed a comma to a period.)

Now Mary seems more aggressive -- she seems to be moving to block John,
who seems nervous and self-absorbed. And John seems to be bringing up the
credit card problem as an excuse for his trip to the racing track. He and Mary
seem to be desperate to for money now. I'd rather read the rest of the second
story than the rest of the first one.

6. Use Setting and Context

Setting moves readers most when it contributes to an organic whole. So close your
eyes and picture your characters within desert, jungle, or suburb--whichever setting
shaped them. Imagining this helps balance location and characterization. Right from
the start, view your characters inhabiting a distinct place. -- Laurel Yourke

Setting includes the time, location, context, and atmosphere where the plot takes
place.

• Remember to combine setting with characterization and plot.

• Include enough detail to let your readers picture the scene but only
details that actually add something to the story. (For example, do not
describe Mary locking the front door, walking across the yard, opening the
garage door, putting air in her bicycle tires, getting on her bicycle--none of
 these details matter except that she rode out of the driveway without looking
down the street.)

• Use two or more senses in your descriptions of setting.

• Rather than feed your readers information about the weather,

population statistics, or how far it is to the grocery store, substitute
descriptive details so your reader can experience the location the way your
characters do.

Our sojourn in the desert was an educational contrast with its parched heat,
dust storms, and cloudless blue sky filled with the blinding hot sun. The rare
thunderstorm was a cause for celebration as the dry cement tunnels of the aqueducts
filled rapidly with rushing water. Great rivers of sand flowed around and through the
metropolitan inroads of man's progress in the greater Phoenix area, forcefully moved
aside for concrete and steel structures. Palm trees hovered over our heads and
saguaro cactuses saluted us with their thorny arms.

7. Set Up the Plot

Plot is what happens, the storyline, the action. Jerome Stern says it is how you set up
the situation, where the turning points of the story are, and what the characters do at
the end of the story.

A plot is a series of events deliberately arranged so as to reveal their dramatic,

thematic, and emotional significance. -Jane Burroway

Understanding these story elements for developing actions and their end results will
help you plot your next short story.

• Explosion or "Hook." A thrilling, gripping, stirring event or problem that

grabs the reader's attention right away.
• Conflict. A character versus the internal self or an external something or
someone.
• Exposition. Background information required for seeing the characters in
context.
• Complication. One or more problems that keep a character from their
intended goal.
• Transition. Image, symbol, dialogue, that joins paragraphs and scenes
together.
• Flashback. Remembering something that happened before the short story
takes place.
• Climax. When the rising action of the story reaches the peak.
• Falling Action. Releasing the action of the story after the climax.
• Resolution. When the internal or external conflict is resolve.

Brainstorming. If you are having trouble deciding on a plot, try brainstorming.

Suppose you have a protagonist whose husband comes home one day and says he
doesn't love her any more and he is leaving. What are actions that can result from
this situation?
 1. She becomes a workaholic.
2. Their children are unhappy.
3. Their children want to live with their dad.
4. She moves to another city.
5. She gets a new job.
6. They sell the house.
7. She meets a psychiatrist and falls in love.
8. He comes back and she accepts him.
9. He comes back and she doesn't accept him.
10. She commits suicide.
11. He commits suicide.
12. She moves in with her parents.

The next step is to select one action from the list and brainstorm another list from
that particular action.

8. Create Conflict and Tension

Conflict is the fundamental element of fiction, fundamental because in literature

only trouble is interesting. It takes trouble to turn the great themes of life into a
story: birth, love, sex, work, and death. -Janet Burroway

Conflict produces tension that makes the story begin. Tension is created by
opposition between the character or characters and internal or external forces or
conditions. By balancing the opposing forces of the conflict, you keep readers
glued to the pages wondering how the story will end.

Possible Conflicts Include:

• The protagonist against another individual

• The protagonist against nature (or technology)
• The protagonist against society
• The protagonist against God
• The protagonist against himself or herself.

Yourke's Conflict Checklist

• Mystery. Explain just enough to tease readers. Never give everything away.
• Empowerment. Give both sides options.
• Progression. Keep intensifying the number and type of obstacles the
protagonist faces.
• Causality. Hold fictional characters more accountable than real people.
Characters who make mistakes frequently pay, and, at least in fiction,
commendable folks often reap rewards.
• Surprise. Provide sufficient complexity to prevent readers predicting events
too far in advance.
• Empathy. Encourage reader identification with characters and scenarios that
pleasantly or (unpleasantly) resonate with their own sweet dreams (or night
sweats).
• Insight. Reveal something about human nature.
 • Universality. Present a struggle that most readers find meaningful, even if the
details of that struggle reflect a unique place and time.
• High Stakes. Convince readers that the outcome matters because someone
they care about could lose something precious. Trivial clashes often produce
trivial fiction.

9. Build to a Crisis or Climax

This is the turning point of the story--the most exciting or dramatic moment.

The crisis may be a recognition, a decision, or a resolution. The character

understands what hasn't been seen before, or realizes what must be done, or finally
decides to do it. It's when the worm turns. Timing is crucial. If the crisis occurs too
early, readers will expect still another turning point. If it occurs too late, readers will
get impatient--the character will seem rather thick. -Jerome Stern

Jane Burroway says that the crisis "must always be presented as a scene. It is "the
moment" the reader has been waiting for. In Cinderella's case, "the payoff is when
the slipper fits."

While a good story needs a crisis, a random event such as a car crash or a sudden
illness is simply an emergency --unless it somehow involves a conflict that makes
the reader care about the characters (see: "Crisis vs. Conflict").

10. Find a Resolution

The solution to the conflict. In short fiction, it is difficult to provide a complete

resolution and you often need to just show that characters are beginning to change in
some way or starting to see things differently.

Yourke examines some of the options for ending a story.

• Open. Readers determine the meaning.

Brendan's eyes looked away from the priest and up to the mountains.

• Resolved. Clear-cut outcome.

While John watched in despair, Helen loaded up the car with her belongings
and drove away.

• Parallel to Beginning. Similar to beginning situation or image.

They were driving their 1964 Chevrolet Impala down the highway while the
wind blew through their hair.

Her father drove up in a new 1964 Chevrolet Impala, a replacement for the
one that burned up.
 • Monologue. Character comments.

I wish Tom could have known Sister Dalbec's prickly guidance before the dust
devils of Sin City battered his soul.

• Dialogue. Characters converse.

• Literal Image. Setting or aspect of setting resolves the plot.

The aqueducts were empty now and the sun was shining once more.

• Symbolic Image. Details represent a meaning beyond the literal one.

Looking up at the sky, I saw a cloud cross the shimmering blue sky above us
as we stood in the morning heat of Sin City.

1. Location, location, location. Or, I could say, setting, setting, setting.

Whether you chose a physical locale that is exotic and compelling, a little-
known historical period, or an unusual background industry--making a
unique and intriguing choice will automatically transform your story. While
it is said that there's nothing new under the sun, placing your characters
in Turkey during a cataclysmic earthquake will give you a scrim against
which to sculpt a riveting story. The reader is already interested in a
topic that represents such overwhelming life drama. Or don't use Turkey,
if you feel it's too late to research the event. Pick up today's newspaper
and see what catches your attention. There's enough going on across the
globe that will provide a mesmerizing accompaniment to your basic plot
and characters. The research has already been done for you, in the main
in that tabloid's articles. Add a few details by searching online and you
will have a piece that no one else can possibly offer.

2. People are complex. Rather than inserting the generic burglar or

standard elderly female persona, try to remember that there are no
predictables when it comes to human personality traits. How about mixing
and matching characteristics for some surprises? For instance, why not
give us a little old lady burglar. But, for goodness sake, don't make her
cute. Most of us women over the age of 50 aren't that adorable or gray-
haired today. Think Lauren Hutton as the grandmotherly burglar or
Elizabeth Dole. Maybe your Dole figure is breaking into the Watergate
Apartments for information that will help a charitable organization like
the Red Cross.

3. People aren't cardboard. Character is too important a story element to

let go at combining disparate elements. Even if you use non-stereotypical
outer aspects of those who populate your tales, please also remember to
give these beings some depth. Assuming that you, as a real human soul,
have certain musings and motivations beyond the superficial, so should
your story's cast. While in real life, people might kill, there are generally
reasons beyond the "she insulted my hybrid roses" theme. Make us
believe that there is a strong enough reason here. Give us a mindset that
will chill us, if you like, but don't allow the readers' eyes to roll upward in
skepticism or disgust. People are interesting. Characters that aren't true
to life are boring.

4. Plot elements should be logical. Logical means that a person with an

everyday education might reasonably assume that a character such as you
describe, of this social class and gender, and in this setting, will take the
action that you, the author, have ordained. While a complex character
doesn't have to act exactly to type (see above) a complete absurdity will
be taken as such. Sure, you might want to manipulate the plot to give a
twist that will come out of left field, but if you do so, be sure that the
reaction is not, "Huh? No way." Too often a plot wrinkle rests on the
author's desire to wrinkle the plot and nothing more. Plot has to move
from the foundation of what has been set in motion at the start. A twist
intended to elicit an "oh! Wow!" not that "huh?" will be an unthought-of
surprise, not a dumb ploy.

5. Add yourself to the story. In other words, personalize the story to the
extent possible. That's what authorship, in the end, is about. Add your
own humor, your own sense of word usage, your own means of emotional
expression. A story is not simply backdrop, characters, and plot, it is a
work of, excuse the word, artistic creativity. Words are the writer's
canvas and the magic to be drawn across it is something individual and
heretofore unknown. Spread those colors as only you can. That is the
most essential ingredient in the mix.

Good writing.

G. Miki Hayden is a frequent contributor to national mystery

publications. Her novel BY REASON OF INSANITY features a
psychiatrist.

Steps:
1.
Choose a narrative point of view. You can write your story as if you were one of the
characters (first person), as a detached narrator who presents just one character's thoughts
and observations (third-person limited), or as a detached narrator who presents the thoughts
and observations of several characters (third-person omniscient). A first-person point of view
will refer to the central character as 'I' instead of 'he' or 'she.'

2.
Create a protagonist, or main character. This should be the most developed and usually the
most sympathetic character in your story.

3.
Create a problem, or conflict, for your protagonist. The conflict of your story should take one
of five basic forms: person vs. person, person vs. himself or herself, person vs. nature, person
vs. society, or person vs. God or fate. If you choose a person vs. person conflict, create an
antagonist to serve as the person your protagonist must contend with.

4.
Establish believable characters and settings, with vivid descriptions and dialogue, to create a
story that your readers will care about.

5.
Build the story's tension by having the protagonist make several failed attempts to solve or
overcome the problem. (You may want to skip this step for shorter stories.)

6.
Create a crisis that serves as the last chance for the protagonist to solve his or her problem.

7.
Resolve the tension by having the protagonist succeed through his or her own intelligence,
creativity, courage or other positive attributes. This is usually referred to as the story's climax.

8.
Extend this resolution phase, if you like, by reflecting on the action of the story and its
significance to the characters or society.

Tips:

There are many possible variations of this model, all of which allow for perfectly good short
stories.

Keep your diction concise, specific and active. For example, say "Steve ate the apple" instead
of "The fruit was eaten by someone."

Tips from eHow Users:

Don't get caught revising by Black Knight

Don't let all of your revisions stop you from writing. If you stop writing for a period of time, only
read enough to get the story going again. Any more and you will want to revise your whole
story and will never complete it.
Thanks. Your vote has been counted.Rate this tip:

Plot the story by eHow Friend

Planning a plot is crucial - it is the skeleton of the story. Then, fill in the plot framework with
characters, setting, dialog.

In Short – How to Write a Short Story

Getting started: your ‘ideasbox’

This can be a physical reality – a box full of newspaper clippings, photographs
and objects that have caught your eye – or simply a scrap of paper with a box
drawn on it and lots of jottings inside, things you’ve noticed,
mental notes for ideas and so on. In this case, start with watching Babyfather.
Most writers keep some sort of notebook or use the back of an envelope to
scribble ideas down in the heat of the moment. But you don’t even need
inspiration with an ideasbox because you can return to it at any time, randomly
select an object or newspaper article and use it to set a story in motion.

Example: Have a look at Joanne Harris’ story Class of

‘81 which opens with reference to a photograph, "You don't even need
setting the narrator’s story in motion. inspiration with an
ideasbox, use it to set
"There were twelve of us from that class of ’81. There a story in motion."
they are on the photo, from right to left as usual;
Hannah Malkin, Claire Corrigan, Anne Wyrd, Jane Beldame, Gloria Krone, Isabella
Faye. Bottom row; myself, looking impossibly young, then Morwenna Hagge,
Judith Weisz, Carole Broome, Dizzy McKelpie, in those coke-bottle glasses with
her messy red hair spilling over the collar of her uniform."

(The other thing to note here is the fun she has with names which give clues to
the characters’ personalities.)

"Get under the In fact, you don’t even have to think about a whole story here –
skin of a just write a paragraph about an object from your ideasbox. It
character." may be something as minor as a CD or a hat, but it’s important
to practice description. Keep a look out for the smallest things –
it’s these details that give writing a ‘truth’ and a bit of ‘personality’.

Exercise: Take any one of the characters from Babyfather, your favourite,
perhaps, or the one you find most intriguing, and describe how they’d behave on
a blind date. Perhaps you want to consider the scene beforehand as they prepare
for the date – this could include dialogue with a friend as they discuss how the
night should pan out, or their difficulty in choosing what to wear. Just think hard
about the character and how you expect them to behave given what you already
know about them. You could choose to send them on a blind date with a totally
unsuitable person, or in a totally unsuitable environment. How would they deal
with it? Try and get under the skin of the particular character. A simple scenario
like this could be the start to an entire story.
In Short – How to Write a Short Story

Plotting and planning

Plotting your story can be a daunting prospect and arguably unnecessary. It

really is up to you if you plan beforehand, or start, for example, with your
ideasbox and see what happens from there. Some writers prefer to let it all hang
loose. But there is a checklist to bear in mind here, and it goes something like
this: introduction; catalyst for change; conflict (some sort of struggle to
overcome); resolution.

Some stories begin with the catalyst for change, but usually they backtrack to
what happened beforehand.
Most great stories are about some sort of struggle which is overcome or not,
depending on the outlook of the writer. For example, a tragedy is about losing a
struggle, but a romance is often about finding some sort of positive resolution. In
a romance, the lovers get it together in the end, but usually the lovers have to
overcome some sort of obstacle to make it.
"Plotting can be
Try to think in these very basic terms – romance, tragedy daunting and
(ie, murder story) or comedy. It will give your story arguably
strength. Your reader will feel confident because they will unnecessary. Let it
recognise the format. The Greeks worked on these all hang loose."
principles – it’s classic stuff – and think of any story and
you’ll see that the struggle is there is some form or other. The struggle is
suspenseful; it holds the reader’s interest and encourages them to read on to the
end.

In Babyfather Beres struggles to recover from his collapsed marriage, (the

catalyst) but then he falls for his lawyer and begins
"Hold the reader's to woo her (the struggle), whatever happens in the end
interest and (and you’ll find out in the new series) will represent a
encourage them to resolution – either a happy ending if they get it
read to the end." together, or more sadness. Alternatively Beres could
return to his wife or decide that he is happier being a
single parent. Endings are difficult and it’s worth experimenting with lots of
different outcomes to your story.

Example: Some stories give the ending away before the story has even begun.
You might think this is dangerous – that it would put the reader off – but if it is
done cleverly it can work very well. In her story Now you see her… Meera Syal
reveals the ending in the first sentence, which cunningly creates intrigue:

"Looking back, it was sort of inevitable really that Mum went into Sukhbir’s star-
spangled MDF painted wardrobe and didn’t come out again. Not my fault she
went in, you understand, because that was her job, as the podgy assistant to the
even podgier Sukhbir the Surprising (Magic N Mimicry for the Over Sixties), but
who was to know she would vanish into thin air leaving behind a handful of
sequins and a Vick’s inhaler?"

Exercise: Sit down after you’ve watched an episode of Babyfather and think how
the plot worked. Boil it down to around 8-10 bulleted points then use these points
to come up with your own scenario.

<< How to get started Finding a plot >>

In Short – How to Write a Short Story

Flesh for skeletons

Some short stories are described as ‘plot-driven’ (the thriller is the best
example of this), while others are described as ‘character-driven’. The former
entices the reader to the end with suspense and twists of fate while the latter
appeals to the reader’s sympathy for the fictional characters. But the characters
and their story, or plot, totally depend on each other.
"Characters are
important because
If you think about Babyfather, the characters are very
we can identify
important – we can identify with them, even if we don’t
with them."
agree with everything they do! It is mainly because of the
characters that you want to keep watching the series.

There are all sorts of things you can do to give your characters ‘flesh’ even before
you start writing your story. Now, I’m not suggesting that you take up stalking,
"It's the character but spend a day observing a friend or colleague or
that really keeps somebody in your family, then write a diary of their day.
our interest" What were they wearing (sounds obvious but sometimes
you’d be surprised what you notice – a calculator watch or
unusual makeup says a great deal about a person); what made them smile; what
phrases did they tend to repeat? Dialogue is important in making your characters
seem true to life.

Example: Nick Hornby’s story NippleJesus has a first person or ‘I’ narrator (very
popular in contemporary short story writing) – in a sense, it is one long piece of
dialogue. (It’s actually a monologue, but I’m trying not to get overly technical
here!) The narrator, Dave, a night-club bouncer turned art-gallery attendant,
gives a very personal response to his experience of the art scene. Here’s a
snippet.

"The thing is, this gallery’s like the normal sort of gallery for the first few rooms –
pictures of fruit and all that, and then it starts to go weird. First we went through
a couple of rooms where the pictures aren’t pictures of anything, just splodges,
and then when we get to our bit, the new exhibition, there aren’t many pictures
at all. There are bits of animals all over the place, and a tent, and ping-pong balls
floating on air currents, and a small house made of concrete, and videos of
people reading poetry. It looks more like a school open day than an art gallery.
You know, biology here, science there, English over at the back, media studies
next to the toilets..."

Any of us can go to an art-gallery, and although this story does have a plot, all
about one particular painting (and a very good plot it is too), it is our character,
narrator in this case, that really keeps our interest. If you read the story as an
article in a newspaper it wouldn’t be half as entertaining.

Exercise: This is good for practising dialogue which is an art in itself. If you’re
worried about dialogue why not spend a couple of hours in a café and take notes
of the snippets of conversation that you hear? You’ll soon get an ear for the
rhythm and style of different people’s chat.

Out and about: painting your setting

Landscapes – both interior and exterior – give a strong sense of atmosphere to

any short story. They make a story ‘real’. Strong characters and a good plot
would be wasted if they floated around in an empty space – well, you’d end up
with a cast of ghosts.

"Although they were Sometimes, landscape comes first. London is popular

deep in the waist-high with writers as a landscape in which to set a story.
corn, here it was Brixton in South London says it all as the setting for
scythed flat." Babyfather.
Example: Nick Hornby’s story NippleJesus must have required a few visits to an
art gallery. This is an extract from Maeve Haran’s short story Mysterious Ways
published in Magic. Here the author has used her setting – a rural scene – to
suggest fecundity and sensuality making the romantic scene even sexier.

"He led her, in the bright white moonlight, towards a stile and into the field
beyond. She was half across the stile when he lifted her, laughing, and carried
her through the burgeoning corn.
She could feel the ripening ears caress her skin like the soft touch of a feather.

Almost mid-way through the meadow he stopped and slid her down. Anne looked
about her, awestruck. Although they were deep in the
"She has used her
waist-high corn, here it was scythed flat, as though a
setting to suggest
chamber had been fashioned, secret, and protected from
fecundity and
prying eyes."
sensuality."
Exercise: Get on a bus and jump off when you see something that interests you
– maybe a park or an unusual shop. Write a few pages about the place. This work
may well end up in one of your stories at a later date, or it may just be a useful
exercise.
Theme and style

These tend to emerge as you are writing – or, once again, they may be the
reason for writing the story in the first place. Don’t worry about them too much.
Trust your instinct. Just remember that a theme, like jealousy, gives purpose to
your story, and style gives an extra depth or personal trademark to what you are
writing.

"Style gives an extra The central themes in Babyfather are straightforward

depth or personal enough: fatherhood and what it’s like being black in
trademark to what Britain. A strong combination, nonetheless.
you are writing."
For style you can experiment a little. But try not to
confuse the reader, always remember, clarity is a beautiful thing!

Example: Dave Eggers’ story After I was Thrown in the River and Before I
Drowned is narrated by a dog. This is a character/narrator choice, but the theme
also allows some strong ideas (eating, running, chasing squirrels, dealing with
humans) to emerge. Of course style is important to pull the whole thing off.
What’s great about this story is the humour it allows.

"I can eat pizza. I can eat chicken. I can eat yogurt and rye bread with caraway
seeds. It really doesn’t matter. They say,
‘No, no, don’t eat that stuff, you, that stuff isn’t for you, it’s for us, for people!’
And I eat it anyway, I eat it with gusto, I eat the food
"Narration by a dog
and I feel good and I live on and run and run and look
allows for some
at people and hear their stupid conversations coming
strong ideas to
from their slits for mouths and terrible eyes."
emerge."
Exercise: Take a colour – like Picasso took blue – and fill your story with it. I
don’t mean use the word ‘blue’ whenever possible, but imply it through
connection – summer sky, jeans, swimming pools etc. This will feel laboured but
it’s a way of getting in the habit of making connections. Helen Dunmore once
wrote a story about a lighthouse and the colours red and white appeared
regularly in various guises – blood, clean sheets, types of food.

Theme and style

Reading is essential to anyone who wants to write. Find some short stories you
really enjoy and ask yourself why. What makes them work for you? Write some of
your favourite bits down and keep the extracts in a special place or a notebook to
refer to when you are doing your own work. You’ll find it spurs you on to greater
things.

The other important thing is to find out as much as you can about writing and
writer’s experiences. ‘How to…’ books aren’t to be snubbed. The ‘Teach Yourself’
series (including creative writing, and how to write a novel) published by Hodder
& Stoughton are really good.

Everyone who is genuinely interested in writing should think about setting up a

small library of reference books. A good dictionary is obviously crucial and maybe
something to check your grammar against, the BBC Skillswise site is a great
place to start. (Don’t forget, though, the rules are there to be broken
sometimes.) Other books, maybe books you’ve used for research, will begin to
gather on your shelves.

Some websites to check out include:

BBC Arts Books - for interviews and general interest in writing.

Guardian Unlimited books pages - for the latest on books.
Skillswise - for help on grammar and spelling.

Writing the Short-Short Story

by Marg McAlister

The short-short story has been likened by some as being closer to writing a poem than
a story. And that makes sense -- every word has to be packed with power; every line
has to move the story along.

The opening paragraph is the most important one in a short story. Use it to hook your
readers and draw them into the ongoing drama of your story.

In the opening lines, you have to do the following:

• Set the scene

• Introduce the main character
• Reveal the main character's mood, approximate age, his/her goal or problem
• Show that something interesting is about to happen

Begin with a character and let this person take you where they want to go -- then
when the story is written, edit, shape and tighten your prose.
Decide whose story this is. Choose one viewpoint and stick to it.

Don't force your characters to speak words that sound out of character or engage in
actions that don't suit their personality.

Avoid detailed descriptions of setting -- give the reader a quick 'snapshot'. A few
powerful words or phrases can do a lot of work.

Use the same approach to describe the character's appearance. Use words that trigger
the reader's imagination and let him/her fill in the gaps -- e.g. "She had a loose-
limbed, healthy outdoor look about her".

Try to avoid plots that hinge on a coincidence or a misunderstanding that could be

cleared up if the characters would just talk to each other. (You have to be a very good
writer to pull this off so the reader is satisfied.)

Very short stories are a bit like jokes: they build up to a twist or a punchline. The
difficult part is playing fair with the reader in having all the clues there, without
making the outcome too obvious.

Show that your character has grown or changed in some way -- she has a new
understanding of people or of herself; she has learned a lesson; she has changed her
attitude. NOTE: If your character comes to realise something important, make sure
she comes to this realization through a strong piece of action or a powerful lesson --
not through a weak, "Oh, my goodness, I never thought of it that way before -- silly
me!"

Appeal to your reader's emotions. We all identify with loss, sorrow, disappointment,
frustration -- make sure that emotions are powerful elements in your story.

Make every word of dialogue count -- avoid aimless 'how are you today?' type
exchanges; let actions take the place of words on occasions. And remember there's no
need to TELL as well as SHOW -- for example, if you write,

"Marcia was really angry at his words. Her face grew scarlet with rage as she yelled,
"I can't believe you said that! Get out of here!'
then you've wasted ten words. You could simply have said:
Marcia's face grew scarlet with rage. "I can't believe you said that! Get out of here!"
When it's time to edit, remember that every word has to move the story forward. Yes,
I know I've already said that -- but it's worth saying a hundred times, because one of
the hardest things a writer can do is cut words. You have to be tough. Cut out
whatever is unnecessary; poorly expressed; overly detailed. In a very short story, it's
more likely to be what you've cut out that sells your work than what you've left in.

STUDY YOUR MARKET. This seems painfully obvious, but so many writers just
can't be bothered. The finalists of this short story competition, for example, are being
judged by Eva Lewicki, the assistant editor of That's Life! Therefore it would make
sense to study the magazine -- and their fiction specials in the newsagents. There are
other magazines that also publish the short-short story of 900 words -- read as many
as you can!
 Writers' Resources  
Rules and Tools for Writing Short Stories, Or
Why Good Fiction is Better Than Bad Fiction
You may not wish to follow these rules as you write your own stories, but 
you should at least be aware of them, and know that if you're not following 
them, you are not following them by choice. If you do find yourself following 
them, it won't be by choice. It will be because you are writing well.

If you don't believe that art should have rules, then think of what follows as a 
set of standards, or a collection of common sense. If what follows doesn't 
make sense to you, then you may be a very good writer, but you are not a 
short­story writer in any sense I understand.

About style
Show 'em, don't tell 'em.

Stay in control: outline your story, and follow your outline.

Stay in control: don't be controlled by your outline. Allow yourself to be 
surprised by your characters and what they do. Write to find out what 
happens next.

If those last two items seem to contradict one another, you're right, so find the 
rule that works best for you, but remember that the desired result is the same: 
a story that presents an ironic combination of inevitability and surprise. 
However you get there, you must end with a satisfying, strongly constructed, 
seamless story.

Be selective. Edgar Allan Poe, one of the principle architects of modern short 
fiction, insisted that every element, every word even, of a short story must 
contribute to the harmonious whole. Poe was right. Put into the story only 
those elements of character, plot, and setting that are relevant to what the 
story does. Anything else is fat. Be selective, and select no fat. And be sure to 
edit out anything you put into the story just to show off. As Faulkner said, 
delete "your darlings."

Being selective is especially important when you're writing autobiographical 
fiction or even just writing from personal experience (which is inevitable). 
Remember that what was significant to you may not be relevant to the story. 
If that's the case, save it for another story where it will fit better.

Watch your step with point of view. A good rule for point of view in short 
stories is one is enough. Multiple points of view are okay, but the more you 
have the harder it is to do it right. The hard­and­fast rule is that whenever 
you're in one point of view, that's the only point of view you're in.

Write strong. Verb constructions are stronger than noun constructions. The 
active voice is stronger than the passive voice. Every noun does not need an 
adjective. Reexamine every adverb and throw away at least half of them, 
especially those that end in "ly," and almost all of the ones that end in "ly" to 
modify how a character has just said a line of dialogue.

Keep writing strong. Choose strong words: short, Anglo­Saxon words are 
much stronger than long, Latinate words. Choose the right word, and not, as 
Mark Twain cautioned us, "its second cousin." Write lean, because extra, 
unnecessary words get in the way and weaken your story.

Avoid the habitual past, and get right to the direct, moving action. A story has 
to hit the ground running. The first sentence in the story should be the best 
sentence in the story.

End the story gloriously. The last sentence in the story should be the best 
sentence in the story.

Have I just contradicted myself? Can there be more than one best sentence in 
a story? Maybe not mathematically, but you should try for it, and you should 
throw in another at the climax, and a few more during the buildup of tension. 
Let your story be peppered with best sentences.

Irony is a major ingredient of writing at the sentence level. It means surprise. 
Use surprising, unexpected words and put them together in original ways 
that mean even more than they say.

Caution: don't overwrite. Don't write fancy. Watch out for five­dollar words. 
It's a thin line, but don't show off, even when your fingers are dancing on the 
keys, celebrating the pleasure of words. How do you write with the grace of 
Fred Astaire without being a showoff? Perhaps the best advice comes from 
Hemingway: be honest. And be honest more consistently than Hemingway.

Reexamine the last sentence of every paragraph, the last paragraph of every 
scene, and the last scene of every story. Does it just summarize what's already 
been shown in the action? If so, dump the summary. End your paragraphs, 
scenes, and stories with action, not reflection.
 
 About Structure
Tell a story. Something has to happen to someone. That may seem to go 
without saying, but remember that a story without plot is like a meal without 
food.

The story starts at the beginning. It must hit the ground running. (Have I said 
that before?) The first sentence in the story must be the best sentence in the 
story. Don't begin with a weather report unless the weather is essential to the 
plot. Watch out for one character alone for too many pages at the beginning of 
the story; you (or your character) may get lost in thought and forget to have 
something happen.

Remember Chekhov's loaded rifle. Applying that rule to short stories, if 
there's a loaded rifle in an early scene, it must go off in or before the last scene 
of the story. Conversely, if a bomb goes off at the end of the story, chances are 
that bomb is in large measure what the story's about, and it must be planted, 
ticking, early in the story.

Don't be overly predictable. Surprise. Irony is an essential ingredient of plot 
construction. Irony at the plot level is the unexpected event that makes perfect 
sense. Make the reader react with "AHA!"­not with "Duh." or "Huh?"

The beginning of a story has to make the reader want to read the middle of 
the story. The well­worn phrase that wears well is, "Hook 'em with curiosity, 
and hold 'em with conflict."

Conflict is an absolute necessity of fiction short or long. Otherwise, what's the 
difference? The short story assumes there are obstacles to overcome, 
differences to reconcile, winners vs. losers, good guys vs. bad guys, inner 
struggles, arguments, fistfights, car chases, or merely difficult decisions. Mild 
or major, the conflict is at the heart of both character and plot. And 
somewhere in the plot, this conflict often results in a significant shift in the 
balance of power.

Which means: stories are about change. When we say "something happens to 
someone," we're talking about a change.

Often­­perhaps more often than just often­­that change is the result of a 
choice. A character must make a choice, and because of that choice, the 
character changes.

Built into that last statement is the concept of consequence. Consequence 
makes all the difference when it comes to plot. Vladimir Nabokov's 
wonderful, simple example shows the difference between a plot and a mere 
sequence of events. The latter: "The King died and the Queen died." The 
former: "The King died, and the Queen died of grief." A plot is not just a 
sequence of events: A, then B, then C, then D. A plot says B happened as a 
result of A, and that because of B, C had to happen, which led (surprisingly or 
inevitably or both) to D, and so on. Until:

Climax! Need I say more?

More: Resolution, or reverberation, or relaxation. Stories usually let the reader 
relax a bit after the climax. That's kind of them, but the story shouldn't just 
roll over and go to sleep. Keep the story alive to the end, and make the last 
sentence the best one in the story.
 
I've now said all I care to say about the theory of short fiction. These rules that 
I've just listed, and many more that I haven't, have served the art form for 
millennia, since stories were first swapped around the primal campfire. They 
have withstood history, human fads and fashions, and even television (don't 
get me started), and they will survive far into the future, regardless of how 
technology may complicate the way stories are distributed from mind to 
mind.

About truth
Be significant. The reason stories are important is because they're about 
what's important. That doesn't mean that all stories must be about love and 
death (although the finest stories are about one or the other and the finest of 
all are about both). But they must be about things that matter. The things that 
happen to your characters have to be important to the reader, because they're 
important to you, because they're things that matter in terms of the human 
condition.

Significance is important for its entertainment value: desire, danger, quest, 
and change. 

Significance is also important for its moral value: we create art in order to 
make this a better planet for ourselves, our fellow human beings, and our 
fellow species. If you don't believe that, or if you think it's too grand a 
challenge, let me go further and say that all we do in life is for that purpose, 
and art (in this case writing short fiction) is but a concentrated effort in the 
grand cause.

Lighten up. Have fun with your writing. You should indeed write about 
matters that are socially significant, but avoid sermons, and remember that 
fiction is primarily about people, not about ideas.

Speaking of significance, things that are not significant are laundry lists (a 
generic term not always referring to clothing), weather reports, and stories 
about writers. Also gratuitous sex. Sex is fine (you better believe it), but it 
must be important to the story and its plot and its theme and its characters, 
and not there just for the fun of it. The act itself, in the story, has to have a 
reason to be there in terms of fiction: it illustrates a character, or better yet, 
advances the plot by changing a relationship.

Respect your reader's intelligence. Imagine that your reader is at least as 
intelligent as you. Don't explain your story; if you're afraid your reader won't 
get it, you need to do some rewriting. Don't tell your reader what to think; 
persuade your reader to think a certain way by how you write.
ï Avoid gimmicks. Don't overpunctuate!!!!! 

Write with authority; that's why you're called an author. That means, as we've 
been told forever, write about what you know about. Writing about what you 
know about does not mean you can't set your stories in foreign lands you've 
never visited, or far­off planets, for that matter. It means that what the story is 
really about is its emotional content, the part that comes from within you, and 
that's something you can't lie about. Write what you know, and tell the truth.

Do research so you won't be embarrassed by mistakes, but don't let research 
turn your lively fiction into a dull catalog of facts.

Use your imagination, and lie. But even then, tell the truth about it. 
Remember that a story about a struggle between blobs and robots, set on 
Pluto in 2356, is really about human life on Earth today.

Don't be afraid of the dark. I encourage you to write about troublesome 
things. That doesn't mean you can't write about love and laughter, but you 
should also realize that all good stories about relationships are about the 
problems in relationships, and that all humor comes from pain and suffering.

Respect your characters. Stories are about people, not about symbols. You and 
your reader must spend time with these characters, so make them individual 
and interesting. Love these people, even the rotters; they have a lot to tell you. 
Show (don't tell) what they're like, and let them speak and think for 
themselves. Let your readers draw their own conclusions about these people; 
if you've shown the characters in action, you don't have to worry about how 
the reader will judge them.

Dialogue has to sound like real people talking. They may be outrageous 
people, and they may say outrageous things, but only the dullest people 
speak in cliches, and the dullest people are seldom worth writing or reading 
about. Another thing that real people don't do is pack their conversations full 
of plot information.

Read your words aloud. Be prepared to be embarrassed, and if you're 
embarrassed because something sounds phony, you have some rewriting to 
do.
All writers rewrite. 

Your motto shall be: LET ME ENTERTAIN YOU

Creative short stories need not all look alike, but they do all share a basic
structure that makes them "work": they're readable, entertaining or profound.
This involves learning certain basic skills that support all successful writing.
Once these skills are developed, one may want to explore various ways of
using them, or even of breaking the rules; but as all serious artists know, one
must know the rules before they can be broken.

*The Passionate First Draft*

In the first place, the writer must have both passion and patience. When you
write, you leave the territory of the mundane. The first draft of your story need
not follow any rules necessarily, but should be an outpouring of words.
Believe in what you are writing. Explore the interior realm, and pull words from
your grief, pleasure, happiness, anger and pain. Describe concretely and
specifically what you see with the inner eye, how you feel, what matters to
you.

Don't write out of a sense of duty. Good writers do not try to teach a lesson, or
to be socially or politically correct. It is far too easy to censor our good writer,
to mentally project our mothers or other relatives looking over the shoulder. A
first draft should lie on the page spontaneously, buzzing with the joy of
creative energy, regardless of form or quality of content. As one learns to
write, stories will tend to shape themselves in the first draft, since the basic
rules become basic to one's nature, but beginner's needn't worry if the first
draft is messy. Learning to write a short story that works is like learning
anything else: a child rides a bike shakily at first, and scrawls his name with
huge and awkward letters. It is the same with the art of short story writing.

*Revisions*

After you write a first draft, it is a good idea to let the story sit for a while, a few
days or even weeks. It is easy to love one's own writing in the same way that
we can each put up with our own singing, even when others cannot! Wait a
while.

When you come back to the story for its first revision, start to notice a few
things. Does the story have the basic elements? Does it have a believable
plot? What is the theme, or the point of the story? Are the characters real?
How does the plot build to the point of tension wherein everything is resolved
in the denouement? Is the conclusion satisfying?

*The Basic Elements*

Plot. This refers to the premise and action that takes place in a story. A
traditional plot involves conflict, and there are all kinds of conflicts that can be
used. These include, conflicts between people, interior conflicts regarding
decisions, conflicts between obligation and desire, or even good versus evil.
Be aware of the conflicts in your story. Do they support and move the plot
forward? Is the plot believable in terms of character motivation?

Theme. The theme refers to the point you are expressing in the story. This
might be very subtle. Does the point come across as a natural outgrowth of
the plot, or does it seem forced or "preachy"? Stories that work express
themselves without the feeling of didacticism, or that one is being taught a
moral lesson; rather, the lesson of the story sits within the plot and
development of character naturally, and therefore powerfully.

Characters. In stories that work, the characters are more than cardboard
caricatures with wooden hands. When you look at your first draft, consider
character motivation. Do they react reasonably in proportion with the traits you
have granted them? Do they speak naturally, or does the dialogue sound like
an actor reading lines? It might be a good idea to make up a history for your
characters, known only by you, which isn't necessarily expressed in the story.
A writer should know more about each character than he or she tells. This
gives each character an aura of mystery and believability.

Denouement. This French word refers to the way the conflicts in the plot
comes to a pique and are concluded. The short story that works handles this
with care, since this is usually the point where the implicit theme stands or
falls. Do the conflicts resolve or not resolve themselves in the story? If we are
left hanging, not knowing whether the conflicts have gone in either direction,
the story usually doesn't work.

Conclusion. How does the story conclude? Has the character changed in any
way? Has he learned or not learned from the resolution of conflict?

*Tightening Things Up*

Once you establish these elements in your short story, go through and scratch
out every word, paragraph or page that does not contribute to them. You may
have a wonderful description of a city on the second page which has nothing
to do with the story. Be brutal. Scratch it out. You might have a brilliant quip
on page four, or some allusive alliteration on page six, that do not contribute
to the basic elements. Do away with them. Believe it or not, the story actually
works better without them, is easier for others to read, and becomes a
powerful vehicle of artistic expression. A short story is not a novel; it is more
like a poem, where every word and sentence counts. You make each word
count by deleting extraneous material.

Don't be afraid to revise. You are the creator, the writer, and you have it in
your power to produce something beautiful. This means revision. A story that
works does not just "happen", but it is the fruit of rewriting and revision.