by Mingus Casey
Tearaway Online, 2006
Short stories are a good way to practice creative writing. If you like writing stuff, you’ve probably already written a few short stories. If you haven’t tried, it can be fun and feels good to express yourself. This is just some advice that I’ve gotten from various sources that I think might help you to write better. There is no formula for writing, every guideline I present here can be ignored, but I hope what I’m saying will help you write better.
There’s a saying, write what you know and write what you don’t. If you’re a regular reader of - then you are probably in school, school and home life is a great setting for young peoples fiction, as is a complete fantasy land.
Write what you want and don’t be afraid to do it and don’t be afraid of criticism, the best way to get good at writing is lots of practice.
Brainstorm! A little bit of action is good. Think about what is going to happen. Have a goody and a baddy; maybe lots of people in between good and bad. Try writing poetry about the characters. Make up some imaginary people and play twenty questions with them. Create a challenge for your characters to meet. Have a goody and a baddy; maybe lots of people in between good and bad.
Think about these things for your characters, play twenty questions with the following ideas and make up an imaginary person, and then maybe make up a story involving them. Relating the character to the theme of the story and making their actions, words and thoughts support each other so the character feels like a real person is a good thing to do. Good stories have well developed characters that feel real, it helps to introduce the main characters early in a story.
Biggest Fear and Greatest hope
Weird quirks
Emotions and feelings and personality and beliefs?
Interactions and relationships
Role in story?
Do it case by case, every character is different.
Antagonist? Protagonist? Somewhere in between?
Physical characteristics, clothing? Eye colour, hair, build, face, ethnicity, shape, age
What does the character do in the story?
Do the characters words actions and thoughts support each other?
Position in Society
Biggest Fear and Greatest hope
Family life
Weird quirks
Tastes – in clothing, style
Problems/Challenges – why is your character doing what they are doing?
Past, present and future… Your character has a history
Make the reader care about the characters, use emotional words and explain physical sensations, make emotional contact with the reader, and remember that each character perceives the world slightly differently.
Readers want your characters to feel like real people, they want them to act in character, to be real, and to be interesting.
There are a lot of different stock character types out there, a lot of them seem quite stereotypical, honest thief, femme fatale, crooked cop, chances are if you have seen a character in a movie they probably fit a certain type, quite often there is a protagonist, the main character, who the reader often supports, and an antagonist who tries to make the protagonists life difficult.
Making the main character a nice person is often a good thing to do; a nice main character is more likeable.
Having interesting characters is good, the more you know about them the more realistic they will feel as you write about them.
One of the things that takes a good story into being a great story is good themes, a metaphor for life in some way, a personal experience, there are a lot of ways to do this, some common themes are love, sex, war, crime, conflict, betrayal, relationships, politics, there are as many themes as there are ways for people to interact.
Time - Past? Present? Future?
Location – Real or Fictional?
Remember to describe the world and what makes it different, writing is rendering a virtual world, or sometimes the shadow of the real world. Description is important, the reader only sees what you show them, so make sure they see the little things like the weather and the buildings and the colours and tastes and smells and sounds and everything else that adds to your setting.
Where does the story start?
A lot of plots follow the basic outline of a likeable main character up against difficult odds who ultimately achieves the goals through his own efforts.
It helps if the odds are quite difficult and the character has no choice but to solve the problem through their own efforts.
Brainstorming is great for making plots, and a tough situation for the characters often makes for a better story.
There is generally a goal, it helps if it’s something the character really wants, and it helps if it’s difficult, but try not to make it too far fetched or impossible, just something that would be difficult that will make the main character feel satisfied when they accomplish it, if you can make the reader feel the struggle that the main character has been through the reader will feel a lot more satisfied with the story.
You will feel more satisfied too afterwards if you make the character really struggle.
Be polite; the idea of a critique is to give constructive criticism to improve writing. There is always room for everyone to get better.
Foreshadowing, tension and opposition, edit lots, remove nulls, try different perspectives, (first, second and third), in English prose terseness is desirable so edit while retaining the flow and quality of the story.
This is not the be all and end all guide to writing short fiction; the way to get better is to read and write lots.
If you want more help with short fiction try talking to your English teacher and asking them for help.
http://mzbworks.home.att.net/what.htm
http://www.voidspace.org.uk/cyberpunk/aphorisms_writing.shtml
http://www.wirewd.com/cybrpunk/cpwritin.html
http://english.unitecnology.ac.nz/resources/units/short_story/analysing.html
http://www.newi.ac.uk/englishresources/workunits/ks3/genre/shortstory.html
http://lbarker.orcon.net.nz/FAQ2.html
http://www.newi.ac.uk/englishresources/workunits/ks4/lit/essayadvice.html
http://www.newi.ac.uk/englishresources/workunits/ks4/poetry/buzzwords.html
http://www.critters.org/resources.html
http://www.authors.org.nz/
http://www.bookcouncil.org.nz
http://www.starchamber.com/paracelsus/elvish/elvish-in-ten-minutes.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fictional_character