![]() 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). Like I mentioned earlier, short stories usually contain far fewer characters than novels. Build a small but distinct cast of characters But lurking among the dross may be that one rough diamond that makes all the rest worthwhile. 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. Keep a notebookįinally, keep a notebook in which to jot down stray observations and story ideas whenever they occur to you. (“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. Take a story or novel you admire and think about how you might rework it, changing a key element. 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. Experiment with writing promptsĮagle-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. So how do you find this “first heartbeat” of your own short story? Here are several ways to do so. ![]() 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. 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.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.It may arise out of a memorable incident in your own life.īut in most of these cases, it seems to me, the first heartbeat (the “throb,” as Vladimir Nabokov puts it) of a new story is similar: it’s a brief capsule premise that contains within itself the germ of a more complex and sophisticated narrative. 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 be suggested by a simple but powerful image that imprints itself on the mind. 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.Ī short story can begin life in all sorts of ways. If backstory is needed at all, it should come late in the story and be kept to a minimum. ![]()
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