Short stories are loved all over the world, with these bite sized tales, several writers and readers have connected with one another and understood the many ways a story can be told. Short stories create a means for each of us to explore imaginary worlds while showcasing characters that are adaptable and remain relatable with readers.
In today’s post I’ll be giving you my top tips on planning out a short story, so let’s get started!
Begin With a Concept
For every great story there is always a planning stage. Starting out with a basic idea of what you would want to write is the best way to formulate any creative piece. Begin with a few bullet points or use spider diagrams to get clear understanding of where your narrative should go. If you have the time write out a rough outline of your story one chapter at a time and keep this next to you when you’re writing up your story.
However, if you struggle to come up with an idea then my suggestion is to use random generators like emojis or words and challenge yourself to write a story based on what you get.
Set the Scene
Next comes the origin and backstory for your characters, environments and other bits and pieces that you may add into your story. This part of short stories is commonly skipped over during the planning stage, but I would recommend every beginner to create write out an outline or profiles for each of the categories mentioned above.
This may seem tedious at first but writing these outlines will save you time thinking about your characters personality or what they should do in a given situation. Additionally, your environments may be expansive, so it’s a good idea to note down any changes that may take place over the course of your story and how it first started out for future reference.
© Roderick Lukenge
References
Image by Jess Bailey from Pixabay
Connected Through Writing 