The 12th grade college level English class has been working on a short story assignment. It was introduced to us a month ago. I was able to finish the assignment in 3 days, while many of my classmates still have yet to complete it. As someone who writes a lot in their free time, I thought I would share how I easily write short stories.
Step One: Choose a Topic
Deciding what to write about can be the most difficult part of writing a story. Sometimes, a great idea just comes to me. Other times, I have so many thoughts floating around in my head that I can’t pick just one to write about. But most of the time, my brain is empty and I can’t think of a single thing to write a story about. That is when I use a prompt. I find them all over blog posts, on Pinterest, and sometimes even on TikTok. I search through them until one piques my interest. With a prompt, it’s very easy to get the creativity flowing. Two of the most recent prompts I’ve used have been, “My name was on the missing person’s list…” and “Begin your story with laughter and end it with silence.” When I’m feeling especially inspired, I even give myself a challenge when writing a story. For example, I just wrote a story with a male protagonist for the first time ever. Challenging yourself can help you grow as a writer.
Step Two: Outline
I love to outline all of my writing. It helps me organize my thoughts and gives me something to reference while writing. Anytime I don’t use an outline, it ends up taking me a long time to write and I end up deleting and restarting frequently. Below is the template I usually use for my story outlines with some notes explaining my process. I like to write my outlines out in a notebook rather than type them.
Main Story Details
| Story Title Ideas | I like my story titles to be less than 3 words so they’re catchy and memorable. |
| Prompt and/or Main Idea | This is so I can remember the topic of my story. |
| Time Period | I always pick a very specific year and month so that my story is period accurate. |
| Setting | I name the town/city, even if I don’t specify the location when writing the story. Be sure to know at least what state/country and kind of area (urban/rural) your story takes place in. |
Character Building (fill out for each character)
| Full Name | I look up popular names from around the time the character would have been born and pick one that I feel fits what I have in mind for them. I know some writers choose names for the meaning, but I choose based on sound. |
| Age/Birthday/Level in School if a Student | Even if it isn’t specified in the story, it is important to know these things about your characters for maturity reasons. |
| Looks | Specify their height, weight, build, skin tone, eye color, hair color, hair length/style, and what they like to wear. |
| Personality | What are they like? |
| Similar To… | I base all of my characters on real people I know. It’s easier to write them if it feels like you really know them. |
| Family | What was their upbringing? Who do they live with? What do those people mean to them? Do they get along? |
| Relationships | What are their relationships to other characters? |
Plot (use bullet points)
| Intro | How does the story begin? |
| Middle | What happens in the main part of the story? What is the climax? |
| End | How does the story end? |
Step Three: Write Your Story
When writing, make sure that you are in a location that is comfortable and allows you to focus. Use your outline as a guide, but don’t let it confine you. It’s okay to change things. Sometimes an idea that originally sounded good doesn’t work out when you actually write the scene. I change things all the time, adding details and scrapping others. Sometimes I delete whole chapters in my book or completely cut characters. It is common to get frustrated when writing, so be sure to take breaks and not stress about it. Let the ideas flow naturally. I like to keep a thesaurus open in another tab so my vocabulary doesn’t get too repetitive, and I avoid the word “said” when I can. I always try to get another set of eyes on my writing to be sure it makes sense and is received well by readers. Happy writing!!
