Don't know where to start? Writing a short story is just as difficult as writing a 100,000 word novel! A writer gives us a little advice on the art and form of writing a short story, and how to get it right.

Have you ever thought of writing short stories? Well, if you have, this is a good place to start. First of all, you need to know what a short story is. In brief, it’s a story that usually doesn’t exceed 5,000 words and is often less. Apart from the length, a short story should be appealing to the reader.

Your short story should flow easily from one chapter to another or from paragraph to paragraph. A short story isn’t always packed with details, although it should be clear and easy to follow. Moreover, it should contain suspense, have a strong plot, and hook the reader.

The Elements of a Short Story: There are five important elements to a short story and they are as follows: plot, character, setting, conflict, and theme. These elements, when handled well, become a significant part of your short story. Now, let’s take a look at each of these elements below.

The Five Basic Elements of a Short Story

The Plot: A plot refers to the sequence of events. Usually, the events are put in a particular order that is significant to the story, and helps build suspense or create twists. Some components of a plot are outlined below:

1. The Exposition: This is another word for the start of your story. It should contain essential information needed to understand the story, including the setting, introducing the main character, and a situation the story focuses on.
2. The Complication: This can be referred to as the conflict. A conflict is mentioned early on in the story. It is this complication that creates the overall situation and raises the stakes because the main character needs to resolve the dilemma.
3. Climax: This is the highest peak of excitement and suspense in your story. It is often the turning point in the story where some twist occurs. This is where the character or characters try to resolve the complication.
4. Resolution: This is simply the end of the story, or conclusion. It is basically where the events of the story lead up to a close. The complication is solved and the hidden clues and twists are clarified.

The Characters: A short story can have more than one character, although typically it has fewer characters than does a novel. The two characters that are usually significant to the plot are both the protagonist, or good character, and the antagonist, or the bad guy. Nonetheless, in any short story, the character is probably the most important part of the story, so developing a strong character is necessary. By developing a strong character, you’re able to usually gain the reader’s sympathy and understanding, to form a connection between your character and the reader. It’s through the character that your story becomes more than just a story - something a reader can understand, learn from, and relate to. So, we’re going to look further into character personalities.

The Character Personality: Let’s examine how a reader begins to like, understand, and make a connection with the characters on the page. First of all, there are a few ways a writer can familiarize the reader with the character and thus, allow a connection to develop naturally as the story progresses.

1. The reader can tell a little bit about a character’s background, style, or personality, through their physical description.

2. A character’s actions can speak louder than words. Actions are straightforward and don’t require a lot of explanation.

3. The way in which a character talks, the words and language, offers the reader a more personal view of the character and often reveals their own thoughts. This allows the reader to get inside a character’s head, in order to see what the character is really feeling, thinking, and how that character views the situation.

4. Speaking of which, the characters inner thoughts are a wonderful medium for showing emotions, information, or letting the reader get a glimpse into this person’s head. Revealing a character’s thoughts allows the reader to gain a deeper understanding of the character and his or her personality. If your character happens to act differently toward certain people in the story, by showing the character’s inner thoughts, you’re able to find out what the character feels and thinks. Sometimes, this can justify the character’s behavior.

5. Moreover, the reader can gain insight on a certain character when another character in the story talks about them. The characters can offer their opinions or thoughts about others, and this often reveals clues. The reader can then see how the character presents him or herself to others and also, uncovers how the character behaves in different situations. This can tell the reader if the character has an attitude, behaves terribly, or has a kind disposition. It also reveals, in some cases, a character’s flaws, quirks, or any serious psychosis.

The Setting: The setting or exposition sets up the story and usually, the main character. The setting describes where the story is taking place, who’s involved, and what’s going on. However, keep in mind that sometimes a story doesn’t always take place in just this one setting.

The setting requires a lot of description. It should contain all details that are essential to the reader. It explains what the reader must know in order to follow the whole story. It can sometimes introduce the main character or simply focuses only on the setting. The setting can contain a time period or perhaps even a date so the story can begin and end concerning a time frame. Once you have the setting complete, you’re ready to move further.

The Conflict: The conflict of the story is what the character, or characters are working on solving. There are two kinds of conflicts and they will either be internal or external. Often, the character struggles with something within himself and this is an internal conflict. But when a character faces something that is outside of himself, then that’s an external conflict. There are 3 common character conflicts that are either internal or external. They are as follows:

1 Man versus nature (external)
2 Man versus humanity/society (external)
3 Man versus himself (internal)

The Theme: Most stories have a theme whether stated directly or indirectly. A theme is the main idea behind the story. It’s the message the writer is trying to convey. For example, if you were writing about school, perhaps your theme could be standing up to bullies. Although the plot is sometimes confused with theme, they’re completely different. The theme is the idea behind the story and the plot is the events and twists that create and develop the theme or message. The theme is the message or main idea the author wants the reader to walk away with. Usually, a theme is a life’s message. It can teach us something or show something important in life that otherwise might have been missed. The theme isn’t always vivid and it can be stated in different ways. Here are some examples of where the theme can be shown or revealed.

#1 In the title of the story.
#2 In important phrases, statements, or narrative about big ideas such as courage, love, friendship, etc.
#3 Stated or shown by the characters changing or learning lessons.

Now you have an overview of the five elements of a short story. This should give you enough information to kick start your own work. But remember that being good at writing takes work and practice; therefore it is good idea to keep writing regularly and keeping a journal is a good way to force yourself to write everyday. Also, you might wish to read a lot of short stories by other writers. Listed below are a few great resources to start with:

1. http://www.bnl.com/shorts/
2. http://shortstory.byethost6.com/
3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short_story
4. http://teenwriting.about.com/od/shortstories/
5. http://jerz.setonhill.edu/writing/creative/shortstory/

Always remember that writing is an art, so try not to get discouraged if your short story isn’t the best on your first try. Don’t give up - try again. Hopefully, this article will serve as notes to refresh your memory, or as a resource when working on a short story. So go ahead pick up a pen and try it out. Have some fun with it.

About The Author:
Holly Abidi has always shared a love for writing. She probably will never stop writing because it’s something she's passionate about. If you’d like to read more of her work, it is featured at this link http://Writing.Com/authors/cougarcat. You may also contact her at This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it with questions or comments.