Write a short story

Invent characters, a setting, and a plot to tell a brief but complete tale that flexes your storytelling muscles.

Time:: 60 min
Cost:: free
Difficulty:: moderate
Where:: Indoors
Best:: Solo

Most attempts to write a short story stall in the setup, several pages of context before anything happens. Starting as late in the situation as possible fixes it: begin near the moment something changes and let the reader work out the background from what people say and do. Backstory is almost always removable.

Why write a short story is worth an hour

A story needs someone who wants something and something in the way, and that structure can be established in a paragraph. Once both exist, the story has somewhere to go. Finishing a bad draft matters more than any craft advice, because a complete rough story can be revised while a beautifully written half-story cannot be anything.

How to write a short story step by step

1
Give someone a want and an obstacle
Both concrete, both in the first paragraph. Without these you have a description rather than a story.
2
Start as late as you can
At or just before the moment things change. Everything before that is usually setup you can cut.
3
Aim for a thousand words
Short enough to finish in a sitting. Ambitious length is why most first stories never get completed.
4
Write to the end without editing
Bad sentences are fine. A finished rough draft can be fixed; an unfinished polished one cannot.
5
Cut the first paragraph afterwards
It is usually throat-clearing. Try starting at the second and see whether anything was lost.

Tips to get more out of it

Show through action and dialogue rather than explaining. Readers infer far more than writers expect them to.
End sooner than feels natural. Stories are usually better cut a paragraph before the explanation.
Leave it a week before revising. Distance shows you what is actually on the page rather than what you intended.

Ways to mix it up

If a thousand words is daunting, write flash fiction under three hundred, which forces every choice to count. If you have a story you cannot finish, write its final scene first; knowing the destination often unblocks the middle.