For those who have never forayed into short story writing!

For the purposes of this collection, a short story is a short piece of narrative prose of no longer than 3 000 words and no shorter than 1 500. It has a beginning, a middle, and an end. Traditionally, short stories have included some cathartic action, leading to a denouement and then the end. These days, that is not necessarily the case.

“A slice of life” type piece can as easily be categorised as a short story as a traditional Roald Dahl twister. Many short stories have a twist in the tail, a sudden and unexpected turn of events which result in an unexpected ending. This is cool, but beware, it’s not as easy as you might think and can lead to suspiciously “neat” endings which are not very satisfactory.

When thinking about your short story remember some key things:

1. It’s short.
2. So keep the action to what is totally necessary to make your point.
3. This of course means you need to know what your point is.
4. Even if your piece is a slice of life, ambient piece, you still need to know exactly what it is that you are trying to get across.
5. Leave absolutely everything out that does not lend itself directly to the action or the point.
6. Use clever, intense detail in description to avoid long winded explanations.
7. Dialogue is not necessary.
8. If you are going to write dialogue into your story, read it aloud back to yourself to check for nuance. Does it actually sound like something someone would say?
9. Cut to the chase. 3 000 words is not that long!

So, with those general pointers under your belt, maybe go and do some reading of short stories if you are not familiar with the form, or have never written one before.

There is a series of short fiction out called The Urban Series, which is a great way for you as a young writer to see how other inexperienced writers have handled the form:

The Urban Series of short fiction is for sale online!
Click Here for Urban One
Click here for Urban Two
Click here for Urban Three

David Chislett