So How Do You Write a Short Story? A Dissection

Other writers may do it differently

Photo by Filip Urban on Unsplash

I love writing short stories. And I don’t do it often enough. Mainly because these days my brain is too used to writing novels, so a “little” idea tends to blossom or explode into a 300 page thing in no time at all.

But recently I joined a writing group that focuses entirely on flash fiction, maximum 300 words (I have no idea why they set this limit but it does make you work hard). And from this, my brain seems to have winnowed itself down, or set its sights on short fiction of different kinds.

Or maybe it’s like writing picture books (which I also do). I go and sit in the library and read lots of them, and it really helps me to think “picture book length/idea/focus”. It’s as if my brain locks onto that form and starts thinking that way.

I think any form of writing benefits from reading lots of it, to get a sense of how it works and what other writers achieve. Even though you should really read lots of other stuff as well, because it stimulates all kinds of ideas.

Anyway. To write a short story, start by reading small, thinking small, snatching at single ideas. As soon as you let an idea grow long legs or try to bounce off another idea or two or three, you end up with a long work. So…