From Character to Short Story Plot

By Rayne Hall, @RayneHall

Part of the Focus on Short Fiction Series

JH: Not every story starts with plot—some start with character. Rayne Hall shares tips and exercises to develop your short story idea by developing your character.

Today, I want you to pick out one of the short story ideas dancing around in your head. Most writers have a lot of half-formed ideas, all demanding to be written. Choose one of them, and I’ll show you how to refine your idea by focusing on the main character

1. In the scenario of your vague idea, who wants or needs something?

Choose her as the main character, and write the story from her perspective character. (I use the female pronoun; you can of course choose to write about a male.)

Choose the Setting for Your Short Story: Location, Weather, Atmosphere

By Rayne Hall, @RayneHall

Part of the Focus on Short Fiction Series

JH: With a short story, you don't have a lot of time or space to develop your setting. Rayne Hall shares tips and exercises on how to get the most out of your short fiction setting.

Where does your story take place?

Consider giving your story an unusual, quirky setting. This will make the piece memorable and vivid. What’s the weirdest possible place where the events could plausibly happen?

If this is a romantic story about a first date, how about these two people don't go to a predictable meal in a restaurant, walk in a park or movie in a cinema, but a Ferris wheel ride at the funfair, rollerblading in a deserted car park, or picnicking on a mountain top?

Getting Your Short Story Published: What You Need to Know About Submission, Rights and Payments

By Rayne Hall, @RayneHall

Part of the Focus on Short Fiction Series

JH: Writers are on their own when it comes to the business side of short stories. Rayne Hall explains what you need to know when submitting and publishing your short fiction.

We’re in a ‘golden age’ for short stories, with more opportunities for short story authors than ever before. This doesn’t mean that getting your tales published is easy, or a way to earn riches fast.

You need to be sure that your stories are good, and you need to submit them to the right markets.

Where To Submit Your Story

If your story falls under a category (a ‘genre’), focus on markets specializing in that genre, because there your chances of acceptance are greatest.

Give Your Story Meaning with Inner Conflict and Theme

By Rayne Hall, @RayneHall

Part of the Focus on Short Fiction Series

JH: No matter the size of your story, a theme can deepen it and make it stronger. Rayne Hall shares tips on finding and developing your story’s theme.

Do you want your story to be meaningful and memorable? Then give it a theme.

Although there are many ways of creating and exploring a theme, here's the one I find the easiest as well as the most powerful.

'One Purpose/Ideal/Value' versus 'Another Purpose/Ideal/Value'.

For example:

• Love versus Safety
• Patriotism versus Friendship
• Faith versus Integrity
• Honesty versus Compassion

Plotting a Short Love Story

By Rayne Hall, @RayneHall

Part of the Focus on Short Fiction Series

JH: Short fiction is a great way to satisfy readers between novels. Rayne Hall shares tips on how to write a compelling romance short.

Readers enjoy short Love Stories in collections, anthologies, magazines, websites. But Love Stories are among the most challenging tales to write. 

The Challenge: A Relationship in a Short Space

The challenge is the length. A Romance novel follows the couple as they form a relationship to the level of commitment. How can you do that in the limited space of a short story?

How to Write a Short Story Spin-Off from Your Novel

By Rayne Hall, @RayneHall

Part of the Focus on Short Fiction Series

JH: Short stories can be a fantastic marketing tool for your novel. Rayne Hall shows you how to use your novels to create short story spin-offs.

Do you want to create short stories as spin-offs from your novel? This can be a great marketing strategy. When readers who discover your short story on your website or in an anthology and love it, they will look for more fiction by this author. This can strengthen your reputation as an author and boost your novel's sales. 

Can you use the novel's main character for spin-off stories?

13 Tips for Writing a Halloween Story

By Rayne Hall, @RayneHall

Part of the Focus on Short Fiction Series

JH: Drawing inspiration from holidays is a great way to spark a new story. Rayne Hall shares 13 tips for writing a Halloween tale.

A Halloween story has two characteristics: it must unfold on or around the time of Halloween, and it must be scary in some way. Here are some ideas and tips for creating your own scary Halloween story.

1. The story features a Halloween ritual – but not necessarily a predictable one.

The story plot needs to involve Halloween customs or rituals. However, these don't need to be the conventional trick-or-treating, carved pumpkins and fancy-dress costumes. Consider the seasonal traditions of other cultures, regions and religions and draw on them for inspiration.

Placing Short Fiction, Part Two: Contests and Red Flags

By José Pablo Iriarte, @LabyrinthRat

Part of the Focus on Short Fiction Series

JH: Contests can be a great way to get your writing out there, but be wary of those who take advantage of writers. José Pablo Iriarte shares some red flags that a publisher doesn't have your best interests in mind.

In my last guest post, I talked in general terms about selling short fiction, focusing on considerations such as how to find a market, how much pay rate might matter to you, how to format manuscripts, print versus online markets, and magazines versus anthologies. In my mind, the theme was You've finished you story . . . now what? As I said in July, though, there was really too much I wanted to say to be able to fit in one post, so now I'm back with more thoughts on what to do—or what not to do—with your short work. Today the focus is less on selling and more on adjacent questions, such as . . .

11 Reasons Why You Should Submit Your Short Stories to Anthologies

By Rayne Hall, @RayneHall

Part of the Focus on Short Fiction Series

JH: Submitting a short story to an anthology has a lot of benefits. Rayne Hall shares 11 reasons why you should give one a try.

Getting short stories published in anthologies (collections of stories by multiple authors) can be a big stepping stone in your fiction writing career.

Here are the reasons why you should try:

1. As a Yardstick

If an anthology editor selects your story, it proves that your writing is good enough to be published. New writers can't judge the quality of their own writing, and friends and family aren't unbiased judges either. So if an independent editor chooses your piece over others, it confirms that your writing has reached an important threshold. Of course, some anthologies have higher standards and are more difficult to get into than others. While getting accepted by any anthology is great for a novice, seasoned writers will seek to get into one of the top anthologies of their genre.

Twelve Story Ending Twists That Don't Work

By Rayne Hall, @RayneHall

Part of the Focus on Short Fiction Series

JH: Some twists have been written to death. Rayne Hall shares 12 endings you should avoid.

Certain short story endings will almost inevitably lead to rejection. What are they, and why should you avoid them?

1. "And then I woke up. It was only a dream."

You've created an exciting story, and your readers sit on the edge of their seat to await the outcome... and then you reveal that none of it happened. What a let down!

In my role as an anthology editor and contest judge, I've received quite a few of those, mostly from novice writers who are submitting their first stories. Other editors and writing contests judges are fed up with them, too. Often, when I chat with editors and judges, one of them says, "Today I got a big batch of 'it was only a dream' submissions," and the rest of us just roll our eyes and groan in sympathy.

Selling Short Fiction, Part One: The Basics

By José Pablo Iriarte, @LabyrinthRat

Part of the Focus on Short Fiction Series

JH: There are a few things you ought to know before diving into the short story market. José Pablo Iriarte answers questions writers often have with short fiction.

When my spouse and I give presentations to conferences and writing groups, I'm usually the grumpy one who wants to focus on craft more than business, because I believe no gimmick or pitch is going to make you a selling writer if your craft is not professional grade.

That said, I've seen enough red flags in magazine practices, in contest submission guidelines, and in assumptions expressed by new writers to make be feel that we definitely should talk about the business side of things, when you're a short story writer. You might have a sense, from reading Fiction University and from other sources, of how you approach novel publication. Some of those lessons overlap into short fiction, but in many ways the short fiction landscape is unique, so it's worth talking a little bit about how to seek publication.

10 Alternative Types of Short Fiction

By Rachelle Shaw

Part of the Focus on Short Fiction Series

JH: Not all short fiction is a "short story" as we know it. Rachelle Shaw shares a round-up of different short fiction options and structures.

As outlined in the introductory post for this series, a typical short story follows the kind of structure we’ve all come to know and love when we think of fiction: a tale with a beginning, middle and end. And while they only capture a single event in time, traditional short stories still include an overall plot while fostering growth or change for the characters within them. However, it’s worth noting there are other options in the world of short fiction, particularly if that setup isn’t your cup of tea.

Goal and Motivation: What Does Your Story Character Want, and Why?

By Rayne Hall, @RayneHall

Part of the Focus on Short Fiction Series

JH: Goals and motivations drive every story, but they're critical in a short story. Rayne Hall discusses character wants and needs and how they keep readers hooked.

Today, I want to share a professional trick for hooking readers from the start and keeping them hooked until your story's ending.

Give your main character a goal and an urgent reason to pursue it. Perhaps she wants to or win a prize in the village flower show, rescue her daughter from the kidnappers, get her suitor to propose marriage or raise money for her business.

Make this as important as possible: she doesn't just want it, she needs it. (I'll use the female pronoun in this article, but of course the main character in your story can also be male.) Give her a compelling reason (or better, several) for needing to achieve this.

5 Tips for Writing a Novella that Wows Readers

By Sarah Skilton, @Sarah_Skilton

Part of the Focus on Short Fiction Series

JH: Some ideas don't quite have the legs for a full novel, but they'd make perfect novellas. Sarah Skilton shares tips on how to write a memorable novella. 

Sarah Skilton is the author of two critically acclaimed young adult novels, Bruised and High & Dry, and was a 2019 Edgar awards judge. For adults, she's written a murder mystery, Club Deception, set in a fictional underground magic club; and a romantic comedy, Fame Adjacent, about a former child star on a mission to confront her famous castmates at a 25th reunion show. Under the pen name Tash Skilton, she is the co-author of Ghosting: A Love Story, which was published in seven countries and six different languages, and which Kirkus called, "An energetic romance that would make Nora Ephron proud."

Sarah’s first novella, “Mind Games,” appears in the  rom-com anthology Summer in the City, alongside authors Lori Wilde and Priscilla Oliveras. There’s nothing like summer in Manhattan. The days are long and the nights are even longer. But when the lights go out on the city, fireworks explode...! 

Website | Goodreads | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram| 

Take it away Sarah…

How to Keep Your Short Story Short

By Rayne Hall, @RayneHall

Part of the Focus on Short Fiction Series

JH: If you’re used to writing novels, switching to short fiction can be rough. Rayne Hall shares tips on how to keep your word count down.

Shorter stories are quicker to write. This means, you can produce more stories, and multiply your chances of getting them accepted for publication. But stories often expand as we write them, trying to grow into novels, demanding more and more words. How can you keep your short story short?

Here are six techniques professional short story authors use. Apply them when you start plotting your yarn.

1. Condense the time frame.

Let the action play out in the shortest time possible a weekend, an afternoon, perhaps even just an hour. Plots spreading over weeks, months or years tend to grow into novels. Curb this by making everything happen quickly.

How to Punch Readers in the Feels: A Case Study

By José Pablo Iriarte, @LabyrinthRat

Part of the Focus on Short Fiction Series

JH: The best stories do more than just tell a tale. José Pablo Iriarte shares tips on how to pull more emotion from your plot.

As luck would have it, my newest published short story hit the world this week: "Proof by Induction," in Uncanny Magazine, a story about grief and about mathematics. If you want to see an example of what I mean when I talk about short fiction craft, I hope you'll check it out. (Content warning: death of a parent.) You can find the issue online here, or go straight to the story here. You can read the story for free online, but if you like what you see at Uncanny, I would encourage you to subscribe to them through Weightless Books or Amazon, or support them on Patreon. You can also buy this individual issue here. If you're a reader of this website, you know that good fiction is worth supporting, so that magazines like Uncanny can keep on publishing it.

Building POV and Stakes in Short Stories

By Rachelle Shaw

Part of the Focus on Short Fiction Series

JH: Short stories have little time to make readers care about the protagonist and their problem. Rachelle Shaw shares tips on how point of view and stakes can pull readers into your story.

Individually, POV and stakes both play an important role in developing a story that compels readers to keep going. For short works of fiction, the biggest challenge usually comes with choosing which POV is right and what kind of stakes works best for the chosen narrative.

In a previous post on this site, I mentioned how short stories should cover a single event that shapes the main character’s journey in their overall arc. Even though only a snippet of that larger arc is covered, the backstory leading up to that point serves as motivation for the choices your character will make during the event.

How to Win Short Story Contests: Insights from A Writing Competition Judge

By Rayne Hall, @RayneHall

Part of the Focus on Short Fiction Series

JH: Thinking about entering a short story contest? Rayne Hall shares tips on how to improve your chances at winning.

Contests are great for short story writers, because they motivate you to create more stories and to revise them until they sparkle like diamonds. If your story wins, you'll gain recognition, validation that your writing is good, a boost for your credentials. You may also reap a cash prize, and perhaps a certificate, trophy or plaque to display.

So how do you make your story stand out in the eyes of the contest judges?

Of course, you need to write a really good story. All the usual guidelines for story writing apply: character, goal, motivation, conflict, structure, dialogue, hook, satisfying ending and more. Unless you've mastered the craft of short story writing, your chances of success are small, and no insider tricks will help.

But here are several steps you can take to draw the judges' attention to your good story and win their favor.

Forget Hooks: How to Pull Readers Through a Short Story by Making Promises and Raising Questions

By José Pablo Iriarte, @LabyrinthRat

Part of the Focus on Short Fiction Series

JH: Keeping readers engaged in a story is no easy task. José Pablo Iriarte shares tips on how to keep readers wanting more.

I'm going to talk about story openings in this post, but this isn't a post about story openings. Rather, it's about grabbing the reader's interest and sustaining that interest throughout an entire story. That's important to authors working at all lengths, of course, but I think writing short stories comes with its own special challenges when it comes to reader interest.

You would think that short story authors would have it easier when it comes to pulling the reader through a story. What is a short story but the perfect prose morsel for the short attention span age? But on the other hand, we don't just want readers to finish our stories. We want our stories to be memorable. We want them to lead to something . . . the reader seeking out our other works, or reprint sales, or award consideration. With a novel, you've got tens of thousands of words with which to make an impression, to win the reader over or wear down their barriers.

How to Publish Your Own Short Story Collection

By Rayne Hall, @RayneHall

Part of the Focus on Short Fiction Series

JH: If you have a lot of short stories written, publishing a collection might be a great idea. Rayne Hall shares tips on how to publish a successful short story collection.

Do you want to gather your short stories in a book? Here are insider tips for publishing a successful short story collection. Whether you’re looking for an agent or publisher, or plan to self-publish, these tips will put you ahead of the game.

1. Stick to one genre

Short story collections sell best if they focus on one genre, for example, romance, fantasy, historical or horror. Collections within a sub-genre are even more popular, e.g. paranormal romance, urban fantasy, mediaeval historical or psychological horror.