Simple, quick tips for improving both your writing quality and your Wattpad experience. Open, friendly, and conversational, this book will give you that little info boost you need to tackle common problems and often-overlooked issues.
Wherever you a...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Writing a short story can be a really rewarding experience that doesn't have to take a whole lot of time, and it's also quite fun!
As a reminder, short stories typically range from anywhere between 5,000-7,500 words, but can be as little as 1,000 words or as many as 10,000 words. Stories shorter than 1,000 words are called flash fiction, and stories longer than short stories but shorter than novels are called novellas. Phew. Now that that's over with...on with the show! (or should I say "paper"...) 😊
GETTING STARTED
Crafting your Story: Sometimes (a lot of the time for me) it's hard to think of the right characters, setting, and story itself. Something that helps when writing a short story is to first come up with the main feeling, or what you want your reader to feel while reading your story. Is your story going to be a silly, humorous story? Then make it feel that way by the choice of words, setting, and characters! A silly story (usually) isn't going to take place in a dark, spooky mansion during a thunderstorm.
Obviously, your short story is going to be a "short story", so there won't be enough "time" to fit in a whole lot of story development, so pick just one or two main feelings. Is your story going to center around fear? Joy? Sadness? Now that you have a main feeling, break it down. If your story is mainly a happy one, will it be about overcoming hardships? Victory? Finding a lost phone? There are different levels of "happy", so choose what fits with your story.
WHAT WILL MAKE YOUR STORY BETTER?
Use Some Literary Devices: These can include metaphors, litotes, different types of irony, flashbacks, etc. You can use as many literary devices as you want to, as long as they flow with your story and aren't just jammed in for "extra points". One good example is the short story "The Lottery" (Shirley Jackson). Jacksonuses situational irony to surprise her readers while also using a lot of foreshadowing to hint at what will happen. For me, it's also fun going back and reading the story again to try and catch all the foreshadowing hints. 😉
Description is Key: Since the story is going to be "short", you need to make sure that the surroundings and character(s) are memorable. One way to do that is to give a lot of descriptive detail, and as succinctly as possible. You want to submerge the reader into the story's world, so choose the right words and the right amount of words. There is such thing as too much detail.
Ask others to read your work. I know this is an obvious one, but I had always ignored it because it didn't seem necessary to me. The first time I wrote a "real" short story, I thought it was amazing. Then I had someone read it, and I realized that there were a lot of confusing parts for the reader. They gave me suggestions, and I fixed it up how I thought was best considering what they said. The story ended up coming in third place in the contest I entered. Later, I went back and read the first version of it. It wasn't nearly as good as I thought it was. I would say it was even embarrassing remembering how I thought it was great. I'm just relieved I didn't submit it...it didn't convey the story or feeling I wanted at all. The point here is that with another view of the story, I was able to make it better. (I guess this really isn't a problem for people on Wattpad...😉)
Learn from the Greats: Read a lot of short stories. Read different authors, genres, lengths, etc. What made some stories better than others, and what made some worse? Out of all the short stories you've read, which ones did you like/ think about the most? What feeling did they convey? Thinking about what made your favorite short stories great might give you some ideas on what your short story should be about and how to make it better.
Twist Endings: Twist endings are a good way to surprise your reader who will, in turn, want to figure out why they couldn't see it coming. If you're going for a twist, don't assume your reader won't try to think of all possible endings. They will. A good twist ending is something no one expects, so make sure yours is a super far off, unfathomed ending.
Still, you don't want to confuse your reader with too many twists and turns. If the reader must guess at what you mean for the story to make sense, then you've failed. However, if the reader reflects on what was written in an awestruck kind of way, then you've accomplished what many authors strive to do.
What you don't want to do: Don't throw in a lazy ending. If you want your short story to mean something to the reader, don't write a lazy, unrealistic (for your story), unsatisfactory ending. The last thing the reader sees of your story is the ending, so make sure it's thought out, to say the least.
Your short story might end with things being unresolved, and that's ok. It might end at the start of a character's adventure. That's ok, too. A short story isn't a novel; you can't explain everything that ended up happening to the characters. As long as your story has a satisfactory "ending", your reader can imagine the rest.
SOMETHING TO REMEMBER
Good stories are remembered, but better stories are pondered. An amazing short story is one that stays in your mind after you've finished reading it. This means that you cared enough about the story to keep pondering about it on your own time. Sometimes there is even a sickening feeling you get in your stomach after reading short stories like "The Tale-Tell Heart" (Edgar Allan Poe) or "The Most Dangerous Game" (Richard Connell). You want to stop thinking about the story, but you can't. It was too surprising. Too powerful.
Just Get Started! Writing a basic outline or even just a title is good enough. The stress of starting is no longer there and you can focus on writing. Writing anything about your story helps to get ideas flowing. So just get started! Simple as that.
Good luck on your upcoming works, and I hope this is helpful!
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Want to submit your own Tip? Comment in this book and email your entry to avadelauthors@gmail.com. We'll review it, and if we think it's well-written and helpful to the Wattpad community, we'll post it! Your entry may be something you have written previously, even if it is published elsewhere. (=
Have a Request? Comment on the first chapter with the topic you'd like to see. Your suggestion might just turn into an article!
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
