BBC YOUNG WRITERS’ AWARD 2017
SHORT STORY TOP TIPS
Five top tips to help
you get started with
your short story
Short stories are their own form
of fiction writing and as such have their
own characteristics. When writing your
short story, here are some elements to
bear in mind:
1
TIMESCALE
Because short stories are short, they
tend to cover a small period of time –
perhaps a day, an hour, or even less. A
short story is probably not the place to
explore a family saga over many years,
but rather a form that throws light on the
small realities of life, or extraordinary
events that might happen quickly and
leave a character changed as a result.
Don’t bite off more than you can chew
with the length of time or number of
events you try to cover.
Flannery O’Connor’s short story ‘A
Stroke of Good Fortune’ features
a woman climbing the stairs in her
apartment building, stopping off on the
way to talk briefly to her neighbours. By
the time she reaches the top of the stairs
she realises she is pregnant. The whole
story probably takes about half an hour
in real time.
2
STRUCTURE
There are many different approaches to writing short
stories as there are writers, but a common structure
looks a bit like this. Don’t be put off by a diagram – it’s
actually quite straightforward.
lExposition
Exposition just means the start of the story. It means
that you set the scene quickly – giving a sense of the
location and feel of the story, and introduce your main
character, ideally in the middle of some action. The
start of your story should be intriguing from the first
word – plunge your character into a situation and see
how they react. A conversation or argument counts
as action: you can go straight into the middle of a
conversation if you like. Either way, it’s happening
right now.
BBC YOUNG WRITERS’ AWARD 2017
SHORT STORY TOP TIPS
2
STRUCTURE (continued)
lRising action
Rising action means that your story gets more
involved, and the action gets more intense. By talking
about action, it doesn’t mean that your story has to
be a Bruce Willis blockbuster or involve a car chase.
It just means that stuff happens to your character, and
the situation they found themselves in at the beginning
of the story evolves as time goes on.
l Climax
The climax is the ‘top’ of the story, and can be where
your main character faces their greatest fear or a
dangerous situation – whatever has been building up
in the rising action. Alternatively, in a short story the
climax can involve an epiphany on the part of the
main character.
What is an epiphany?
Epiphany means ‘realisation’,
and this realisation doesn’t
have to be big. It could just be
that the character realises she
and her best friend have grown
apart, or that she doesn’t like
her new job.
l Falling action
Falling action is where the story starts to wind down
after the realisation or action. If the character has
made a decision, it shows the consequences of those
decisions.
l Resolution
The resolution is the conclusion of the story. Here, the
conflicts are resolved, all loose ends are tied up, and
the story concludes with either a happy or sad ending.
3
CHARACTERS
Again, because a short story is short,
you don’t have time or space to create
a host of interesting characters in the
same way that you would in a novel.
Concentrate on one character, or two
at the most, with a few background,
sketched-in characters if you need them
to make events happen. Even with your
main character/s, you don’t have time to
develop them as fully, so you need to get
a good thumbnail summary of them in
quickly, so that the reader gets a feel for
who they are.
Instead of detailed description, show
the reader what you want them to know
about the character via their actions
and dialogue, and how they interact
with other characters: what they do,
what they say and how they say it.
You also have the option of showing
their thoughts and feelings if you use a
first person point of view. This is good
in a short story because it means you
can give the reader a sense of the
character at the same time as developing
the action.
BBC YOUNG WRITERS’ AWARD 2017
SHORT STORY TOP TIPS
4
IMAGERY
A short story is the sprinter of fiction – quick, lithe,
trim and gets to the point fast. It has to make a strong
impact on the reader in very few words, and to do that
it needs vivid imagery that can be conveyed quickly.
There’s no time for flabby description. In a short story,
you need to choose a particular theme of imagery and
stick to it: little flashes that paint a quick picture in
the reader’s mind. Short stories include brief phrases,
usually similes or metaphors, or words that convey
the senses – what we can hear, touch, smell, taste
and see.
A good example of vivid imagery is Dylan Thomas’
A Child’s Christmas in Wales: Years and years ago, when I was a boy, when
there were wolves in Wales, and birds the
colour of red-flannel petticoats whisked past
the harp-shaped hills, when we sang and
wallowed all night and day in caves that smelt
like Sunday afternoons in damp front farmhouse
parlours…”
5
DIALOGUE
Just like everything in a short story,
dialogue needs to work to push
your story forward and reflect the
developing tensions and drama between
characters. With dialogue, you can show
what your characters are like instead of
describing them at length.
Dialogue in a short story also needs
to be short and to the point. You don’t
necessarily need to write in short,
choppy sentences, but make sure your
dialogue doesn’t include unnecessary
‘fluff’, i.e. anything which isn’t essential
to the story.
Ernest Hemingway’s short story ‘Hills
Like White Elephants’ is almost all
dialogue between a man and a woman.
Much is said about the characters via
what they say and how they say it, which
enables Hemingway to avoid having to
spell out the character’s motivations and
feelings.
For more information and to enter, visit:
www.bbc.co.uk/YWA
Don’t forget, the deadline
for entering stories of up to
1,000 words on any topic is
5pm, Friday 21 April 2017.
Good luck!
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