Writing WorkshopWriting a Short Story

AssignmentPrewriting

Consider Audience, Purpose, and ToneExplore Story IdeasImagine Characters and SettingPlot Your StoryChoose a Point of ViewConsider StylePractice and Apply

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Assignment: Write a short story of at least 1,500 words with an interesting plot and well-developed characters.

Writing a Short Story

A good short story can make readers laugh aloud, choke back tears, or gasp in fear or surprise. Your story should be short enough to be read in one sitting and interesting enough to keep readers moving from scene to scene, asking themselves, “What will happen next?”

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Audience: Your short story will be read by readers like you. What do you enjoy in a story?

Writing a Short StoryPrewriting: Consider Audience, Purpose, and Tone

I want to feel like I’m in the setting, listening to the characters talk.

• descriptive language and realistic dialogue

A plot with a few unexpected twists can be fun.

• a surprise or two

Your purpose is to use language creatively to express an idea—about salads, for example.

Writing a Short StoryPrewriting: Consider Audience, Purpose, and Tone

Selling fresh salads from a cart is a wonderful way to meet great people.

Selling salads from a cart is a bust—so far only a few hungry rabbits have shown up.

Selling salads from a cart is as risky—and as exhilarating—as climbing a mountain.

Writing a Short StoryPrewriting: Consider Audience, Purpose, and Tone

Which tone fits each idea?

Comical and exaggerated

Ironic, perhaps even sarcastic

Sincere, maybe a little gushy

Tone is the attitude you take toward your readers and your subject matter.

Selling fresh salads from a cart is a wonderful way to meet great people.

Selling salads from a cart is a bust—so far only a few hungry rabbits have shown up.

Selling salads from a cart is as risky—and as exhilarating—as climbing a mountain.

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Writing a Short StoryPrewriting: Explore Story Ideas

As yourself, “What if . . . ?” to generate a good story idea.

What if a hot dog vendor switches to selling salads?

What if the vendor’s customers can’t get their favorite hot dogs and all the trimmings?

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Who are the characters—the people who live in your story?

Writing a Short StoryPrewriting: Imagine Characters and Setting

the hot dog vendor who is now selling salads

the hot dog vendor’s customers who can’t get their favorite hot dogs with all the trimmings

Writing a Short StoryPrewriting: Imagine Characters and Setting

What do your characters look like?

How do your characters behave?

The hot dog vendor tells her customers that salads are better for them than hot dogs.

One of her customers demands hot dogs.

The hot dog vendor wears a chef’s hat, one customer wears a red hat, and another customer has a nice smile.

What motivates your characters?

Writing a Short StoryPrewriting: Imagine Characters and Setting

The customer with the nice smile is a journalist who needs a story for her newspaper.

The hot dog vendor is losing money.

The customer in the red hat hates salads.

What is the setting of your story—where the action takes place?

Writing a Short StoryPrewriting: Imagine Characters and Setting

Use concrete sensory details to create effective descriptions of the sights, sounds, and smells of the places in your story.

The action takes place on a busy street where the vendor has a salad cart. People talk loudly over the noise of traffic, and the smell of food mingles with that of car exhaust.

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What’s the conflict—the problem in your story?

Writing a Short StoryPrewriting: Plot Your Story

The hot dog vendor is now a salad vendor. The customer in the red hat wants his hot dog. The journalist with the nice smile needs an idea for her next story.

What happens next?

The journalist buys a salad. The customer in the red hat argues with the vendor: “I don’t care if salad is better for me. I like hot dogs!”

Will things go on like this forever? What is the climax of your story?

Writing a Short StoryPrewriting: Plot Your Story

There is an argument between the salad vendor and Red Hat. The journalist takes notes.

What happens to the characters at the end? What is the denouement, or resolution of the conflict?

The vendor becomes successful with salads. Red Hat buys lunch at the hot dog cart down the street, and the journalist writes a news story about the hot dog vendor who switched to selling salads.

Keep the plot events moving.

Writing a Short StoryPrewriting: Plot Your Story

Most events will occur in chronological order. But you might also use flash-forwards and flashbacks to break up a strict chronology.

Sequence Dialogue

What characters say out loud and think to themselves can also move the plot forward.

Pacing

Vary the pace of the plot. Linger over details; then, create tension by speeding up the story. Build toward the climax, and then wind down.

Putting words in their mouths—dialogue

Writing a Short StoryPrewriting: Plot Your Story

“Look, mister. A salad is really much better for you than a hot dog. Here, try one. No charge.”

Interior monologue—shows unspoken thoughts

“I don’t care if it is free, I don’t like salad. And I don’t think that some street vendor has the right to tell me what I should eat!”

Exterior dialogue—what the characters say

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Point of view answers two questions: Who tells the story? And how much does he or she know?

• First-person point of view

• Third-person limited point of view

• Third-person omniscient point of view

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Writing a Short StoryPrewriting: Choose a Point of View

Use stylistic devices to make your story more appealing to your readers.

The use of metaphor and imagery enhance style.

The customer in the red hat was angry. The veins in his neck stood out like highway lines on a map as he refused the salad vendor’s offer of a free salad.

Patiently, the vendor served other customers while the journalist stood to one side, calmly taking notes in her notebook.

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Writing a Short StoryPrewriting: Consider Style

Writing a Short StoryPrewriting: Practice and Apply

Develop a short story idea by planning a setting, plot, and characters; choosing a point of view; and considering ways to use stylistic devices.

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