How to write a short story that works

A short story has to do in a few pages what a novel does in hundreds. That does not mean squeezing a big plot into a small space. It means choosing one moment and looking at it closely.

Think small

A novel can follow a character across years. A short story usually covers a few days, or even a few hours. It focuses on one event, one decision, one change.

If your idea has five important characters and ten scenes, it may be a novel. For a short story, try cutting it down to one central character and two or three scenes.

Start close to the action

You have no time to warm up. Begin as near the key moment as possible. The reader should know in the first paragraph who the main person is and that something is about to happen.

One clear question

Good short stories often rest on a single question. Will she tell him? Will he return the money? What is in the locked room? The story is the process of answering it, and the ending should answer it, though not always in the way the reader expects.

Use details with care

With so little space, every detail has to earn its place. A mention of a broken clock in the first paragraph should matter later. A description that does not change the mood or the plot should go.

At the same time, a few vivid, specific details bring the place to life faster than long description. A cracked cup, a smell of kerosene, a radio left on in an empty room.

Endings

An ending does not have to tie everything up. Many strong short stories end on an image, a decision, or a line of dialogue that leaves the reader thinking. But it should feel earned. The reader should sense that the story could not have ended anywhere else.

Avoid the twist that comes from nowhere. A good surprise feels inevitable in hindsight.

Read widely

Read short stories in both your languages. Notice where they begin, how long they run, how they end. Premchand, Manto, Ismat Chughtai, Ruskin Bond and many others wrote stories that you can read in a single sitting and learn from for years.

Practise with limits

Try writing a story in five hundred words. Then in a thousand. Limits force choices. You will learn what you can cut.

Revising

Put the draft away for a week. Then read it aloud and mark every sentence that does not help. Cut it. A short story can almost always lose its first paragraph and gain by it.

Where to share

When it is ready, look for magazines, online journals and contests that accept short fiction. Read the submission rules carefully, and follow them exactly. Rejection is normal, and every writer has a folder full of it.