Everybody knows writing a story is not easy. Like the drama or the poem, it is imaginative literature that should appeal to the emotions of the readers. Since it communicates the writer's interpretation of reality, there must be an artistic use of language to signify human experience. But how do we write a great short story? What are the things to keep in mind in order to come up with a short story that works? Here is a quick guide to get you started:
Read
Reading is essential to anyone who wants to write. In order to be able to write a good short story, you must read other short stories first. This will not only give you the motivation and inspiration for your own story, but it will also help you learn how other authors made an impression on the reader and use their style as basis to create your own style and impression.
Get inspired
For seasoned professionals, there is no need to obtain inspiration because thoughts naturally flow and they only have to put them into words on paper. But for novice writers, it is important to have one because it will not only help you begin your first paragraph but also keep you going throughout. Your inspiration may take the form of an object. a person, or an event that you just can't seem to forget.
Conceptualise your story
Think of something you want to talk about with your readers. Let's say you want to relate a story about a couple who fell in love with each other. What about the couple? What is it about them that you are interested to let your readers know? Focus on this idea and think of other concepts that you want to associate with this couple. Suppose the girl's parents discommended their relationship. What about the parents? What did they do to stop the two from loving each other? This could signal a good beginning for your story. From here, you would have the notion what to write down.
Map out the scenes
In order to keep your writing aligned with your pre-conceived story events, it is good to briefly map out scenes of your story on a different piece of paper. Write down the possible characters of your story and list the main events in order. You don't have to put so much detail on them because this only serves as a rough sketch of how your story will look like.
Choose your point of view
Who tells the story and how it is told is very critical for a short story to be effective. The point of view can change the feel and tone of the story radically. Hence, you must decide carefully before finally resolving with the angle of vision to use for your story. But whatever it is you decide to choose as the point of view, make sure it stays constant throughout your story to maintain consistency.
Conceive your characters
For a short story, create a maximum of only three main characters. Too many main characters will make your story confusing since each new character will provide a new dimension for the story. Each character should be more than cardboard caricatures. Make your characters speak naturally in proportion with their traits. Make them believable but mysterious.
Furnish a good introduction
When you have everything planned out, start scribbling your first paragraph. Introduce your main characters and set out the scene. The scene must be some place you know much about so that you'd be able to supply the necessary snapshot for a clearly described setting. Make your introduction interesting to hold the reader's interest and encourage them to read on to the end. It is also important to hold back significant details and the greater part of the action at this point so the mystery is kept.
Build up a great plot
From your introduction, draw out events that will eventually create a problem or a conflict for the main character/characters. After that, begin laying out an array of clues to keep the reader interested, intrigued and guessing. Intensify the conflict as the story moves forward. This will not only make your reader enthused to read more but will also keep them riveted to your story.
Show don't tell
The characters should be the ones responsible for expressing the story through their actions and dialogue and not the writer telling the reader what is being expressed. Rather than saying, "Annette was really mad at her best friend Christina for stealing her boyfriend", say "Annette felt an ache in her stomach and a strong pang of betrayal as Christina approaches her and flashes her with a sweet smile. She breathed hard trying to calm herself as she speaks with suppressed anger: "I hope you're happy now that you've proven yourself as a friend."
Use active verbs
Put as much life into your story as you can. In order to do this, employ verbs in the active voice in your story. Instead of saying," The flower was picked by Johanna", say "Johanna picked the flower."
Use dialogue every now and then
Dialogue is important in bringing your story to life. Don't just use it to pad out your characters. Use it to convey your character to identify with the reader. Use it in direct quotes like "Go there!" instead of indirect quotes as "She told him to go there."
Keep references handy
A good reference such as a thesaurus or a dictionary is crucial in creating a good story. You can use them to check your spellings and to find the words which best fit your description. Instead of using one lengthy sentence or paragraph, you can utilize one or just a few words to convey what you want to say. Oftentimes, one strong word has a greater effect than a paragraph full of fancy language.
Conclude briefly
Conclusions are tough sledding. For a good ending, it is advisable to experiment and to add a little twist. Make your ending unique but not hanging in a loose end. Make it satisfying without making it too predictable. Keep in mind to keep it short but concise and lingering so that the reader is left with a feeling of resonance. Your conclusion should wrap up everything from start to finish.
Edit and revise
After fashioning the last words of your story, it is time to begin the editing cycle. Carefully go through your work and fix all your mistakes regarding sentence construction, word usage, formatting, punctuation marks, diction, spelling, grammar, and descriptive analysis. Scratch out words, phrases and even paragraphs which don't seem to contribute to the basic elements of the story. After you are done, let it sit for a while for days and even weeks, then edit it again. Reread your story over and over again at different occasions. This will make you see various things you may want to change to make your story shine at its best.
Let others proof read
Have your friends look at your work. They may just be able to see mistakes which you have missed. For instance, they may be distracted with some words or lines which you adore dearly. In this case, you have to decide on changing it or cutting it off completely.
Writing a short story may not be easy but it can surely be done. With some knowledge on the basic elements and some passion and patience, it's effortless to pull together a story with just a few ideas. Just keep in mind that you are writing not because you have to, but because you want to. Keep the spirit up! Give it a go now!
Contributed by: Rachelle Arlin Credo
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Showing posts with label writing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label writing. Show all posts
The Whys of Writing
Have you ever told yourself that you think too much? Have you ever wondered why you waste so much time...writing?
You pick a pen, grab a piece of paper and scribble…or, nowadays, turn on your PC, go to MSWord, exhaust your fingers on the keyboard…and you're done…instant article! That easy, and you're an instant celebrity.
It has been made clear that everybody can write. Why not? It's as basic as reading. Once you've mastered the alphabet, able to distinguish plural from singular and loaded your cerebral bank with tons of vocabulary, you're off to a good start.
Why write?
A semester of essay writing classes and four years of enduring journalism teachers who were fond of dumping projects with tight deadlines helped me come up with the reasons for writing.
Reason #1 Power
Writing is a good weapon in swaying opinions, influencing people's mindset and way of living and in fighting for causes believed in.
Being a writer, you can bask in the glow of glamour. You become a celebrity but most of all a leader.
Reason #2 Expression
Other than being a weapon of might, writing is a good outlet for your pent-up emotions. Also, it allows the graceful or direct presentation of opinions and know-how.
Reason #3 Attention
You can use writing to bring attention to an issue you deem important or to things unheard of, which you want to share. As for my case, the scribbled words became my voice.
Through writing, you can reach a great number of readers from all walks of life without exhausting your vocal chords.
Reason #4 Entertainment
You can write for people's delight, and even for your own entertainment when you've got nothing else to do.
Reason #5 Immortality
You can be immortalized through people's memory; the written works you leave behind would remind them of you and your ideals.
Reason #6 It's a Write-Or-Starve Situation
It's your job. No escape. Write or be fired.
Reason #7 For Others
Most of all, write for others, not only for your self. Use writing to reach out to someone who feels alone and misunderstood, and who needs all the comfort in the world. Use writing to teach a lesson. My mentors had made that perfectly clear to me.
Before, I was merely satisfied with creating a world of my own. I enjoyed playing god. However, I soon realized that to be a better writer, I must not write merely for myself.
As a writer, you have readers whom you communicate a world of ideas, and who are affected by what you write. Don't only think of yourself. By becoming a writer, you have taken a responsibility to the society. You are molding and reshaping somebody's persona.
As a writer, you move readers to do something. Lead them to the light; lead them to the truth. They deserve nothing less.
One of my mentors used to read this to me: A writer without a sense of responsibility is no better than the leader who goes on with his work without regard for the welfare of those he leads.
I have failed to remember the writer from whom those wonderful words came, but they are words that are not easy to forget.
Contributed by: Sheryl Joy Olano
You pick a pen, grab a piece of paper and scribble…or, nowadays, turn on your PC, go to MSWord, exhaust your fingers on the keyboard…and you're done…instant article! That easy, and you're an instant celebrity.
It has been made clear that everybody can write. Why not? It's as basic as reading. Once you've mastered the alphabet, able to distinguish plural from singular and loaded your cerebral bank with tons of vocabulary, you're off to a good start.
Why write?
A semester of essay writing classes and four years of enduring journalism teachers who were fond of dumping projects with tight deadlines helped me come up with the reasons for writing.
Reason #1 Power
Writing is a good weapon in swaying opinions, influencing people's mindset and way of living and in fighting for causes believed in.
Being a writer, you can bask in the glow of glamour. You become a celebrity but most of all a leader.
Reason #2 Expression
Other than being a weapon of might, writing is a good outlet for your pent-up emotions. Also, it allows the graceful or direct presentation of opinions and know-how.
Reason #3 Attention
You can use writing to bring attention to an issue you deem important or to things unheard of, which you want to share. As for my case, the scribbled words became my voice.
Through writing, you can reach a great number of readers from all walks of life without exhausting your vocal chords.
Reason #4 Entertainment
You can write for people's delight, and even for your own entertainment when you've got nothing else to do.
Reason #5 Immortality
You can be immortalized through people's memory; the written works you leave behind would remind them of you and your ideals.
Reason #6 It's a Write-Or-Starve Situation
It's your job. No escape. Write or be fired.
Reason #7 For Others
Most of all, write for others, not only for your self. Use writing to reach out to someone who feels alone and misunderstood, and who needs all the comfort in the world. Use writing to teach a lesson. My mentors had made that perfectly clear to me.
Before, I was merely satisfied with creating a world of my own. I enjoyed playing god. However, I soon realized that to be a better writer, I must not write merely for myself.
As a writer, you have readers whom you communicate a world of ideas, and who are affected by what you write. Don't only think of yourself. By becoming a writer, you have taken a responsibility to the society. You are molding and reshaping somebody's persona.
As a writer, you move readers to do something. Lead them to the light; lead them to the truth. They deserve nothing less.
One of my mentors used to read this to me: A writer without a sense of responsibility is no better than the leader who goes on with his work without regard for the welfare of those he leads.
I have failed to remember the writer from whom those wonderful words came, but they are words that are not easy to forget.
Contributed by: Sheryl Joy Olano
Inside a writer's Mind
I'm sitting with pen in my hand, the bitten with bite marks on it. I look at the last sentence that I just wrote and I feel proud of myself. Upto now I've never feared a writers block. I only learn from each one and I get more confident with each one. Looking at what I achieved so far, it's is quite an effort. It seems like I was only beating around the bush until I wrote that concluding sentence. That hit the right spot and ended it perfectly.
My heads full of ideas that I know are great because I know of many people within my own social circle who would love reading it. It would relieve them of what is offered to them to think and what opportunities the world gives them to do what they want to which they say is the best you can get. They all succumb to the drudgery of living within those limits.
"Everywhere you go people are rating people There are people just waiting to find a reason to tag you. Everywhere you go, people realize that people They make opinions that can make, break or just nag you. If you look around, you will see hidden suppressed spirits all around you So many things they want to be but they don't want to let all that come down on them."
I want my writing to affect people and change lives. The truth is my motto. It is for me-my calling if you will- to dig it out and offer it up. I believe that art of any kind should do more than just be a mere observation of life. It should correct, console and encourage as and when required and above all bear the truth. The editor is not too keen too publish things that radical. He is scared that it would tarnish the reputation of his publication. It would scare people too much. Well, people could fall in love with that perspective of writing but if they don't, they might not buy the next issue of his publication. It's a risk on his part.
I want to be a writer. Once I'm established, I'll only have to work about 3-4 hours a day. That's the excuse people have to reason out why I should study, get a job, get settled and succumb to life being a pain the backside which you cant do anything about. They say there's no reason for you to stop studying- "It'll only occupy your free time". They don't know of the satisfaction of accomplishment- the satisfaction which fills you up when you do something you value. When I finish breaking my head over a piece, I feel like laying back and enjoying that fulfillment that it gives me. I don't see anything wrong with that.
When I'm asked what I want to do, they shut my aspirations up saying that it is not ambitious enough. Ambition they judge by salary, reputation and post. The self hasn't got anything to do with it. It's all weighed by what the world would think of you. Will the self ever carry weight? Why does everything have to be logical and statistical especially when no one even understands life in its entirity? We're all travelers on the same road. We're all in the same boat on the same waters. None of us know any less than anybody else in the entire world. The best we can do is guess, cross our fingers and hope that were right. If our chances wont do us any good, we might as well just live with what we are sure of and not worry about the rest. We will most probably will never be able to find out certain things about life's mysteries in one lifetime. For all you know there could most probably be nothing that's definite- nothing to find. Life could only be what you make of it and nothing else. It would be a more worthwhile venture to make sure our passage through it is good and not worry about anything else.
Contributed by: Sunil Noronha
My heads full of ideas that I know are great because I know of many people within my own social circle who would love reading it. It would relieve them of what is offered to them to think and what opportunities the world gives them to do what they want to which they say is the best you can get. They all succumb to the drudgery of living within those limits.
"Everywhere you go people are rating people There are people just waiting to find a reason to tag you. Everywhere you go, people realize that people They make opinions that can make, break or just nag you. If you look around, you will see hidden suppressed spirits all around you So many things they want to be but they don't want to let all that come down on them."
I want my writing to affect people and change lives. The truth is my motto. It is for me-my calling if you will- to dig it out and offer it up. I believe that art of any kind should do more than just be a mere observation of life. It should correct, console and encourage as and when required and above all bear the truth. The editor is not too keen too publish things that radical. He is scared that it would tarnish the reputation of his publication. It would scare people too much. Well, people could fall in love with that perspective of writing but if they don't, they might not buy the next issue of his publication. It's a risk on his part.
I want to be a writer. Once I'm established, I'll only have to work about 3-4 hours a day. That's the excuse people have to reason out why I should study, get a job, get settled and succumb to life being a pain the backside which you cant do anything about. They say there's no reason for you to stop studying- "It'll only occupy your free time". They don't know of the satisfaction of accomplishment- the satisfaction which fills you up when you do something you value. When I finish breaking my head over a piece, I feel like laying back and enjoying that fulfillment that it gives me. I don't see anything wrong with that.
When I'm asked what I want to do, they shut my aspirations up saying that it is not ambitious enough. Ambition they judge by salary, reputation and post. The self hasn't got anything to do with it. It's all weighed by what the world would think of you. Will the self ever carry weight? Why does everything have to be logical and statistical especially when no one even understands life in its entirity? We're all travelers on the same road. We're all in the same boat on the same waters. None of us know any less than anybody else in the entire world. The best we can do is guess, cross our fingers and hope that were right. If our chances wont do us any good, we might as well just live with what we are sure of and not worry about the rest. We will most probably will never be able to find out certain things about life's mysteries in one lifetime. For all you know there could most probably be nothing that's definite- nothing to find. Life could only be what you make of it and nothing else. It would be a more worthwhile venture to make sure our passage through it is good and not worry about anything else.
Contributed by: Sunil Noronha
The means Literature deigned employ
There is no dispute that literature is the reflection of life. The relation of literature with society is to be considered in the two fold aspect of source and aim. The question arises whether art should arise from and reflect social conditions or be the subjective creation of the artist’s fancy. Its natural corollary is whether art should have any social role to play, painting the society as at present and leading the mankind towards its betterment. From this controversy arises the question whether literature should create only beauty and create delight by playing upon the eternal instincts of love and hatred, or shall have any relation with the conditions of life as lived in society.
If it is to play any social role it must reflect social conditions as they exist. It must be born out of the interaction of social forces. Hence the relation of literature to society is firstly one of its source and secondly of its aim. It is man who creates literature. God creates life; man reproduces it in the form of literature with the help of his imagination. It is man for whom literature is created .God is creator of the universe. He has created man in his own image making him a demi-creator.
He has made man an imitating animal. In the process of creating he not only imitates but also improves upon it. To appreciate a piece of art is as delightful to man as to create it. When we find a literary piece life-like and realistic, we enjoy this feeling. A man of literature not only presents life as it is but also as it should be. As a comprehensive subject literature encompasses, the present, past and future of a community and of humanity at large, it is the mother of all sciences. A man of literature looks before and after and weighs and considers something .
He possesses subjective as well as objective vision. His treatises bear his mind and personality. Objective realities do exist in his creative work along with personal or subjective outlook. What his imagination seizes as beauty that is rightly compatible with truth. Absolute truths are found in literature in the form of quotations. Such sayings and common parlances are quoted everywhere by scholars to further elucidate their points. Literature has no comparison with history which is merely chronological record of past events based upon second hand knowledge.
Sir Philip Sidney was right to say that nothing is true in history except names and dates; nothing is untrue in literature except names and dates. Often laymen ask the question whether such and such a story is factual; I am obliged to be amazed at their innocence that they do not know what a piece of literature aims at. Literature is a subject of probability and symbolism. When we name somebody ‘tiger’ we expect the listener to think of its attributes. Just like symbols used in mathematics, physics, chemistry and other physical sciences, we are expected to read a literary piece between the lines and find in it something said after our hearts. Truths in the domain of literature are truer than truth itself. I have the audacity to say that poetic truths are an improvement upon scientific realities.
It is the penetrating vision of the literary artist which lends various colors and shades to an ordinary scientific reality. A man of literature passes for a common man undergoes trials and tribulations of life. He universalizes the personal findings .The reader finds in them his own feelings defined and represented. Literature alone entertains and tolerates the opposite opinions. It is very much republican in its approach. Emphasis, dogmatism, self-assertion, egotism, didacticism etc find no place in a piece of literature. A single man of literature looks at a thing and incorporates all his expressions in a pleasurable and melodious way of saying. His imagination is just like a prism which refracts various colors and shades giving a wide birth to Methodism, fanaticism and egotistic sublime. An artist passes through a garden, a thorn runs into his heel, he describes the whole history of garden, it is called macrocosmic approach.
To his seeing eye a grain of sand is nothing but a desert in miniature. A drop of water is an ocean in the literary sense of the term. To an artist the proper study of mankind is man [pope].Likewise he lives among men, studies them minutely and claims to be the doctor of human nature. It is the literary vision that determines the status of a literary artist. Literature is nothing but a philosophy which aims at the love of mankind. How can you report about men and matters unless you possess negative capability and emotional involvement in men and matters.
Literature raises its voice above season, climate, territory, race, color, creed and culture. Safety and well-being of a community lies not in the hands of the scientists, politicians and technocrats, but in the hands of men of ideas through whom a social group sees. Wordsworth has rightly said: One impulse from the vernal wood May teach you more of man, Of moral evil and of good Than all the sages can. In my view study and teaching of literature can be a panacea for all our social and political ills. It is literature that both teaches and delights you.
It kindles your curiosity, creates In you quest for the unknown and enables you to learn something new with a palpable design. In this context, Naziri Neshapuri, the Persian poet says: If the lecture of a littérateur were in the language of love, even the truant boy would attend the school on Friday, the weekend holiday. Nature’s world is brazen but that of literature is golden, the gardens of nature see autumn but those of literature are evergreen.
Lovers of the world of nature are fickle minded, false and untrue whereas those of literature are constant. Literature denies euphemism, hypocrisy, affectation, half baked realities, one sided facts, half truths and truth seeming lies. A spade is called by its own name without circumlocution. In short the study of literature has an ennobling effect on man’s personality, heart and mind.
Contributed by: Amir Aziz
If it is to play any social role it must reflect social conditions as they exist. It must be born out of the interaction of social forces. Hence the relation of literature to society is firstly one of its source and secondly of its aim. It is man who creates literature. God creates life; man reproduces it in the form of literature with the help of his imagination. It is man for whom literature is created .God is creator of the universe. He has created man in his own image making him a demi-creator.
He has made man an imitating animal. In the process of creating he not only imitates but also improves upon it. To appreciate a piece of art is as delightful to man as to create it. When we find a literary piece life-like and realistic, we enjoy this feeling. A man of literature not only presents life as it is but also as it should be. As a comprehensive subject literature encompasses, the present, past and future of a community and of humanity at large, it is the mother of all sciences. A man of literature looks before and after and weighs and considers something .
He possesses subjective as well as objective vision. His treatises bear his mind and personality. Objective realities do exist in his creative work along with personal or subjective outlook. What his imagination seizes as beauty that is rightly compatible with truth. Absolute truths are found in literature in the form of quotations. Such sayings and common parlances are quoted everywhere by scholars to further elucidate their points. Literature has no comparison with history which is merely chronological record of past events based upon second hand knowledge.
Sir Philip Sidney was right to say that nothing is true in history except names and dates; nothing is untrue in literature except names and dates. Often laymen ask the question whether such and such a story is factual; I am obliged to be amazed at their innocence that they do not know what a piece of literature aims at. Literature is a subject of probability and symbolism. When we name somebody ‘tiger’ we expect the listener to think of its attributes. Just like symbols used in mathematics, physics, chemistry and other physical sciences, we are expected to read a literary piece between the lines and find in it something said after our hearts. Truths in the domain of literature are truer than truth itself. I have the audacity to say that poetic truths are an improvement upon scientific realities.
It is the penetrating vision of the literary artist which lends various colors and shades to an ordinary scientific reality. A man of literature passes for a common man undergoes trials and tribulations of life. He universalizes the personal findings .The reader finds in them his own feelings defined and represented. Literature alone entertains and tolerates the opposite opinions. It is very much republican in its approach. Emphasis, dogmatism, self-assertion, egotism, didacticism etc find no place in a piece of literature. A single man of literature looks at a thing and incorporates all his expressions in a pleasurable and melodious way of saying. His imagination is just like a prism which refracts various colors and shades giving a wide birth to Methodism, fanaticism and egotistic sublime. An artist passes through a garden, a thorn runs into his heel, he describes the whole history of garden, it is called macrocosmic approach.
To his seeing eye a grain of sand is nothing but a desert in miniature. A drop of water is an ocean in the literary sense of the term. To an artist the proper study of mankind is man [pope].Likewise he lives among men, studies them minutely and claims to be the doctor of human nature. It is the literary vision that determines the status of a literary artist. Literature is nothing but a philosophy which aims at the love of mankind. How can you report about men and matters unless you possess negative capability and emotional involvement in men and matters.
Literature raises its voice above season, climate, territory, race, color, creed and culture. Safety and well-being of a community lies not in the hands of the scientists, politicians and technocrats, but in the hands of men of ideas through whom a social group sees. Wordsworth has rightly said: One impulse from the vernal wood May teach you more of man, Of moral evil and of good Than all the sages can. In my view study and teaching of literature can be a panacea for all our social and political ills. It is literature that both teaches and delights you.
It kindles your curiosity, creates In you quest for the unknown and enables you to learn something new with a palpable design. In this context, Naziri Neshapuri, the Persian poet says: If the lecture of a littérateur were in the language of love, even the truant boy would attend the school on Friday, the weekend holiday. Nature’s world is brazen but that of literature is golden, the gardens of nature see autumn but those of literature are evergreen.
Lovers of the world of nature are fickle minded, false and untrue whereas those of literature are constant. Literature denies euphemism, hypocrisy, affectation, half baked realities, one sided facts, half truths and truth seeming lies. A spade is called by its own name without circumlocution. In short the study of literature has an ennobling effect on man’s personality, heart and mind.
Contributed by: Amir Aziz
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