SMARTHINKING Writer's Handbook

Chapter 1, Lesson 16

Writing Short Stories 2: Techniques

In this lesson, you’ll learn the techniques that short story writers use and learn how to develop your own craft.  To understand what a short story is and the different types of short stories, you can refer to Chapter 1, Lesson 15, Writing Short Stories 1: Short Story as Genre.

Because the short story is brief, every word is extremely important.  Along the same lines, the rhythm of the prose is also extremely important. This is also sometimes called your “voice,” how you say what you say.  There are many techniques to developing rhythm, but one way to work on it is through sentence length.  Let your sentence structure imitate your action.  For instance, if your character is taking a long, leisurely walk, try writing in long, leisurely sentences.  Ultimately, however, you don’t want the structure of your sentences to distract from the action.  Find a balance where the rhythm of your words works in tandem with the action and feelings of your characters.  Because poetry focuses on rhythm also, for more information on rhythm read Chapter 1, Lesson 17, Writing Poetry.

There are basically two methods of treating time in fiction: summary and scene.  Summary covers a longer period of time in a short space, and a scene deals with a short period of time at length.  Summary helps give background information or leap moments or years, but a scene is where significant things happen in moments and cannot be summarized.  Think of scenes as similar to a camera zooming in on something.  Every detail, every gesture, every word is looked at close-up and with extreme care.  Because short stories are full of conflict and confrontation and turning points and crises (Writing Short Stories 1: Short Story as Genre. ), they require scenes.  You must look very closely at actions and words and subtle facial expressions in short stories, and this can’t be done in summary.  Short stories are about moments, and the scenes that show those moments are powerful for writers and readers. 

To practice summary and scene, think about something that happened to you today.  First write a summary of the incident in two or three sentences.  Then write the same incident as if you are zooming in on it.  Write every detail, every gesture, every word, and every action that happened in a two or three minute span. 

As far as tense goes, present tense and past tense are the two basic tenses used in short fiction.  It is generally more effective to stay in one tense all the way through a story, though if there is a thematic reason for jumping from tense to tense, doing so can be successful.  Flashbacks are one way to show past events in the narrative time of the story, which is when the ongoing story flashes back in time and the reader sees a scene or scenes that help him to understand the ongoing story.  Remember, when you do use flashbacks, give the reader a smooth transition into the past and then back into the present story time.  Though flashbacks are very useful, dialogue, narration, or a detail may tell the reader all he/she needs to know, so see if your flashback can be told through the present story.  Too many flashbacks often bog the story down.

Someone must tell your story.  This “someone” is called the narrator.  There are three basic viewpoints through which stories are told: third person, second person, and first person.  Person refers to the basic mode of a piece of fiction.  In the third person, all the characters will be referred to as he, she, or they.  There are different ways to use omniscience with the third person, but one of the most effective is limited omniscience, which is when the reader knows the thoughts of only one character.   In the first person, the character telling the story will refer to himself or herself as I and to the other characters as he, she, or they. The second person (considered a very experimental form) is the basic mode of the story only when a character is referred to as you.  When an omniscient narrator (or all-knowing, when all of the characters’ thoughts are known) addresses the reader as you, this does not alter the basic viewpoint of the piece from third to second person.  Only when “you” become an actor in the drama is the story written in second person.

In choosing a point of view, the “you” implies an identity not only for the teller of the tale, but also for the reader of your story.  Most fiction is addressed to a literary convention, “the reader.”  But the story may also be told to another character, or characters, in which case the reader “overhears” it; the teller of the tale does not acknowledge the reader.  One more way a story can be told is to the self, which is very intimate.  An example of this is a story written as a diary or taking place completely in the mind. 

It is important to stay in one viewpoint consistently throughout the story unless you are changing viewpoints for specific reasons.  In other words, if part of your theme in your story is to show how different people think differently about the same event, you might write part of the story in the first person “I” and part of the story in the third person “he, she, or they.”  Keep in mind, however, that changing viewpoints in a story jolts a reader.  What happens is that the reader often has to stop and even go back to see what, if anything, s/he missed.  And your readers can’t be expected to do this.  You want them to be so caught up in your story that they experience the emotions you want them to.   Ultimately, changing viewpoints should be done sparingly and with specific reasons when you are writing short stories.

Characterization is how you develop your characters through dialogue, action, and thought.  What your characters say, do and think are the crux of how your story will be told.  Depending on the story you are writing, you can use all three, or two, or just one.  Just like real people, your characters will come to life through their words, actions and thoughts.

The purpose of dialogue in fiction is never merely to convey information.  Dialogue may do that, but it must also simultaneously characterize, provide exposition, set the scene, advance the action, and foreshadow and/or remind.  Dialogue that is only there for the sake of talking is sometimes called “pass the peas,” where the character is only talking but nothing else is being revealed.  Look through your dialogue to make sure that first it is absolutely necessary, and second that it is revealing something either about the character, the scene, the action, or something to come (also called foreshadowing). 

With dialogue, you will convey information more naturally if the emphasis is on the character’s feelings.  But this is easier said than done.  The trick to writing good dialogue is hearing the character’s voice.  Ask yourself, “What would he or she say?” 

Exercise

A good way to practice writing dialogue is to listen to people in real life.  Eavesdrop on people anywhere, from restaurants to bus stops to airports to classrooms.  Keep a journal with you and try to write down exactly what you hear.  If you hear an interesting conversation, try writing a passage of that conversation.  Try not to look for words that seem right; just listen the voice and let it flow.  You will develop your inner ear and consequently your own range of voices as you listen to real people and practice writing conversations.  Also, try reading your dialogue out loud.

In your short stories, examine your dialogue to see if it does more than one thing at a time.  Do the choice of words and their syntax reveal that the character is stiff, outgoing, ignorant of the facts, perceptive, afraid, about to boil over?  Is the conflict advanced by “no-dialogue,” in which the characters say no to each other?  Is the drama heightened by the character’s inability or unwillingness to tell the whole truth?   

Just like dialogue, every action should have more than one purpose in the short story.  This can be to characterize, set the scene, move the plot forward, or foreshadow.  Though what the characters do may often be important to the plot, often the internal or mental moment of change (or epiphany) is where the action lies.  For example, the moment of change may be the moment at which the character decides to do something, discovers that an accident has happened, or realizes that they were wrong about something.  This internal change goes hand-in-hand with either action or dialogue.  What your characters do can often be in conflict with what they think or say, also.  This adds depth and complexity to your characters.  And remember, the action that your character does can often be the “wrong” one; the reader can know what the “right” action should be, while the character does the opposite. 

Your story can either have the thoughts of one or more characters or no thoughts at all.  If the reader cannot get into the mind of the character(s), the conflicts must be expressed in contradictions outside of the characters (such as speech and action).  However, if your reader “hears” what your character is thinking, the conflicts in the difference between what the character thinks and how he acts or what he says becomes apparent.  Ultimately, you will want to listen to your characters, let them tell you what should be revealed.

Like everything else in the short story, setting and description suggest more meaning than just being where the story takes place or arbitrary details.  Why does your story take place where it does?  Is there a conflict between the characters and the setting and/or description?  Or are they parallel to the action/characters/conflict etc.?  Writers often use symbolic settings such as war, a farm, a city, an inner-city project, etc. to give their stories depth and meaning.  Description can also be used this way.  In this way, setting and description comment on the action, thought, appearance, and other elements of the story. Also, setting and description can arouse the reader’s expectations and foreshadow events to come. 

Revision is an ongoing process, and many writers never consider their stories ever “finished.”  But the advantage of revision is the chance to see your story fresh and creating it again.  This re-vision, or seeing your story in a new way, involves internal and external insight.  You’ll need your conscious critic, your unconscious, and readers you can trust.  And, over time, you may discover what your story is really “about.” 

One of the best things you can do for your story is to set it aside and not look at it for a matter of days or weeks—until you feel fresh on the project.  This gives you some distance on your story and allows you to see it new again.

When you think that you have acquired enough distance from the story to see it in a fresh way, go back to work.  Make notes in your journal, freewrite, write new passages or dialogue.  Try to write in one sentence what your story is about.  Look for irrelevant scenes, conflict, tension, and crisis or epiphany.  Make sure that it is clear and that your reader can follow the story, and look for places where you have told too much.  Listen to your characters and what they are telling you.  Keep a copy of the story as it is so that you can always go back to the original, and then be merciless with revising another copy of the draft.  Remember, in the short story, what is between the lines often is most profound. 

You’ve learned some of the techniques that short story writers use to tell their stories and the different ways you can tell your own.  You’ve also learned the importance of revision and how important it is to see your story anew so that you can rewrite to make your story better and better.  With practice, your characters will come alive.  And remember that reading short stories is one of the best ways to learn how great writers do what they do. 

Creative and Critical Approaches to the Short Story.  Noel Harold Kaylor, Jr., Ed., 1997.

The New Short Theories,Charles E. May, Ed., 1994.

Short Story Theories. Charles E. May, Ed., 1976.

Story to Anti-Story.Dr. Mary Rohrberger, 1979.

Writing Fiction: A Guide to a Narrative Craft.Janet Burroway, 1992.

Dramatic Technique in Fiction.Robert Bahr, 1998.

The Right to Write: An Invitation and Initiation into the Writing Life. Julie Cameron, 1998.

The Norton Introduction to Fiction.Jerome Beaty, 1996.