Here\u2019s the Key To short Story Success:<\/p>\n
Paint a picture with words by seeing the story in your minds eye. Watch as the characters move ahead living out the story. Write what you see and the reader will see it, too. <\/i><\/p>\n
Show Don\u2019t Tell<\/span>:<\/p>\n As Mark Twain said, \u201cDon\u2019t say the old lady screamed. Bring her on and let her scream.\u201d Open Your Story In Progress<\/span><\/p>\n You\u2019re writing a short story, not a novel. Don\u2019t explain. Don\u2019t offer background. Begin No Fluff<\/span><\/p>\n Every word. Every sentence. Every paragraph must move the story forward. Anything that Conflict<\/span><\/p>\n If you have no conflict \u2026 you have no story.<\/i> Conflict need not be bloody or violent. It What is at stake?<\/span><\/p>\n Stakes must be articulated and meaningful and important. <\/i>Note: did you notice the extra \n What is at stake for the protagonist should the antagonist prevail? Money, love, affection, Difficulty:<\/span> Don\u2019t make achieving the goal too easy, but do make your character(s) This is, perhaps, best exemplified by the French saying, \u201c\u00c0 bon chat, bon rat: Tit for tat.\u201d Resolution<\/span><\/p>\n What\u2019s at stake implies a resolution. Doesn\u2019t it? Make it obvious to the reader what the Emotions:<\/span><\/p>\n Show the emotion of your characters.<\/i><\/p>\n Emotions are powerful. Use them to inform the reader of what your characters Human Senses: <\/span><\/p>\n Sight, Smell, Taste, Hearing, Touch, Balance are the five senses, but don\u2019t hesitate to Characters:<\/span><\/p>\n Protagonist:<\/span> This is one of the story\u2019s main characters. This is the person that the reader What does the protagonist want?<\/span> Does your Main Character (MC) want money, Antagonist:<\/span> Make your antagonist strong, dangerous, or otherwise formidable. Your \n The antagonist is anyone or anything that the protagonist must over come to achieve the \n Is it the fate of the world? Getting married? Getting a job? Whatever it is, you must be \n Physical Attributes: <\/span>Height, weight, age, physical condition, intelligence, education, hair <\/p>\n Dialogue & Conversation:<\/span><\/p>\n Knowing how your characters talk, the words they use, is critical to your dialogue. there \n Here\u2019s how to write fantastic dialogue: listen to hoe people talk as you go about your <\/p>\n Setting:<\/span><\/p>\n Where does your story take place? Have you been there? Is it on a spaceship? If so, take <\/p>\n Description:<\/span><\/p>\n Make your description as real as possible. Even if writing about a spaceship, cave, \n Describe: people, clothing, a character\u2019s tick or fetish, if a gambler his \u2018tell,\u2019 housing, \n Read the book, \u2018The Martian\u2019 by Andy Weir and watch the movie of the same title. While <\/p>\n Color: <\/span><\/p>\n What color is your world, rooms, surroundings, seasons, buildings, vehicles, wounds, \n Emotions of color: Red is hot. Blue is cold. At night water is black.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Sound:<\/span><\/p>\n The creak of leather; laughter; a sneeze; sniffing; the rumble of a high performance <\/p>\n Texture:<\/span><\/p>\n Tree bark is rough or smooth depending on the tree; car bodies are smooth; cats are <\/p>\n Temperature:<\/span><\/p>\n Fire is hot; ice is cold; and on and on and on.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Technology<\/span><\/p>\n First tike writers often feel the need to explain how star ships, submarines, time machines <\/p>\n What do the seasons portend?<\/span><\/p>\n Summer: youth, beginnings, adventure ; Fall: slowing, chill air; Winter: old age, defeat, <\/p>\n Research: <\/span><\/p>\n Are you writing about your town or a city? Get a map of how it is today or how it was in <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Here\u2019s the Key To short Story Success: Paint a picture with words by seeing the story in your minds eye. Watch as the characters move ahead living out the story. Write what…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[104],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wayneaenglish.com\/WordPress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wayneaenglish.com\/WordPress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wayneaenglish.com\/WordPress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wayneaenglish.com\/WordPress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wayneaenglish.com\/WordPress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5237"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wayneaenglish.com\/WordPress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5237\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wayneaenglish.com\/WordPress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wayneaenglish.com\/WordPress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wayneaenglish.com\/WordPress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nDo that and you\u2019ll never be sorry.<\/p>\n
\nwith the story in progress.<\/p>\n
\ndoes not do that is fluff. Get rid of it.<\/p>\n
\nmay be a conversation, phone call, two people wanting the same job, two children each
\nrunning a lemonade stand. Whatever it is in your story, don\u2019t forget that your story needs
\nit. Conflict is required; it\u2019s not optional.<\/p>\n
\n\u2018and\u2019 in the previous sentence? It\u2019s not there by accident. Why do you think I added it?<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
\nmarriage, someone\u2019s life, loss of a friend, what? Make this obvious.<\/p>\n
\npersevere in their struggle to win the goal. Think Harry Potter and the terrible things he
\nmust overcome. Look at Star Wars, Star Trek they all have protagonists and antagonists
\nthat well balanced.<\/p>\n
\nLiterally: For a good cat, a good rat.<\/p>\n
\nresolution of the problem is that the protagonist wants. Else how will the reader know
\nwhen it had been achieved? Don\u2019t hide important aspects of your story from the reader.
\nDon\u2019t make your story a guessing game.<\/p>\n
\nmotivations and what they are feeling. When a character goes through an emotional
\nexperience it changes that character. Show the change. In fact, that might be the whole
\npoint of the story. If the character does not acknowledge it, it can still inform that
\ncharacters actions later in the story.<\/p>\n
\ninclude intuition, good solid horse sense, and that ineffable feeling that things just aren\u2019t
\nwhat they seem. Let your character immediately like or dislike someone. Trust or not
\ntrust.<\/p>\n
\nwill identify with.<\/p>\n
\nsuccess, love, a new car, to survive on the moon, on the ocean? whatever it is it is the job
\nov the antagonist to deny it. That\u2019s the story. How the protagonist wins through.<\/p>\n
\nantagonist need not be a person. It could be survival on the moon, in a cave, at war, a
\nshipwreck, or being stranded. It could also be a rival for someone\u2019s love.<\/p>\n
\ndesired goal.<\/p>\n
\nsure that the stakes are appropriate to the protagonist.<\/p>\n
\ncolor, eye color, temperament, trustworthiness, father, mother, grandparent, child, adult,
\nteenager, accent, handicapped, physically active or sedentary, technical expertise,
\netcetera.<\/p>\n
\nis no better way to learn how people speak than by listening to how people speak. Pay
\nparticular attention to their figures of speech, and the specific words used. ane don\u2019t
\nhesitate to take notes.<\/p>\n
\ndaily tasks. Yes, listen to those talking around you and write down the phrases and idioms
\nthey use in their speech. To read one of the very best writer\u2019s of dialogue read Louis
\nL\u2019Amour. His books, short stories, and dialogue are superb.<\/p>\n
\npains to do research by watching movies and reading what others have written. Take
\npains to ensure that your setting is as real as you can make it.<\/p>\n
\nunderwater, or a fictional planet. It\u2019s your job to make it plausible. to do this you will
\nneed to do research or use your life experience. Hopefully this informs yo uway a writer
\nneeds to read and love widely.<\/p>\n
\nneighborhood, vehicle, classroom, friends, etcetera.<\/p>\n
\nthis story takes place on Mars, it is very real.<\/p>\n
\nbirthmark(s), clothing, hat, weapons. A bloody bandage; a brick building; a farm house;
\nthe colors of Fall; green grass; red tractor; black and white cows. All these things arouse
\nemotions and can see in the minds eye.<\/p>\n
\nengine; the clatter of opening a garage door; the creak of hinges; the bark of a dog; howl
\nof a wolf; screech of an owl; the yowl of a cat. The sound of breathing; a scream; a sigh;
\npleasure; pain. Can you hear the pounding of surf? A siren; a fire. The hubbub of
\nconversation at a party?<\/p>\n
\nfuzzy; mud is squishy; hair is soft unless caked with mud or blood; water is wet; terrain
\ncan be rough; a beach is sandy or shingle; hard packed trail; bubble gum is sticky;
\npopcorn is crunchy; yogurt is smooth; beer has a head of foam; candy is sweet. Include
\ntexture and sensation in your story.<\/p>\n
\nand other fictional technology work. Avoid that. What readers want to read is the story.
\nAnd the story, dear writer, is about the people; the characters. Whether those characters
\nare cats, fish, or sentient robots makes no difference. The story is the characters. Not your
\nfictional technology.<\/p>\n
\ndecline, dispirited attitude ; Spring: rebirth.<\/p>\n
\nthe year(s) your story takes place. Writing about a racing team? Best know the territory by
\nworking with one. In fiction you still need to keep your work within the bounds of reality.<\/p>\n