Guide to Short Fiction

This is another very old document that was lying around, pasted here.

Tips for Writing Fiction

Short stories are a good way to practice creative writing. If you like writing stuff, you’ve probably
already written a few short stories. If you haven’t tried, well, it can be fun, and it feels good to
express yourself.
This is just some advice that I’ve gotten from various sources that I think might help you to write
better. There is no formula for writing; every guideline I present here can be safely ignored, but I
hope that at least some of what I’m saying will help you write better!
There’s a saying: write what you know and write what you don’t. If you’re a regular reader of
Tearaway, then you are probably in school. School and home life is a great setting for young
people’s fiction.
Honestly, write what you want, don’t be afraid to do it and don’t be afraid of criticism – the best
way to get good at writing is lots of practice.

General Tips

Brainstorm!
Think about what you want to have happen.
Try writing poetry about the characters.
Make up some imaginary people and play twenty questions with them.
Create a challenge of some kind for your characters to meet.
Have a goody and a baddy; maybe have lots of people in between good and bad.
A little bit of action is good.

Character Development

Think about these things for your characters, play twenty questions with the following ideas and
make up an imaginary person, think about who they are, where they come from, what has influenced
them, little details are good, and then make up a story involving them.

- Emotions and feelings and personality and beliefs?
- Physical characteristics, clothing? Eye colour, hair, build, face, ethnicity, shape, age
- Role in story – antagonist? Protagonist? Somewhere in between?
- Position in Society
- Biggest Fear and Greatest hope
- Family life
- Weird quirks
- Tastes – in clothing, style
- Problems/Challenges – why is your character doing what they are doing?
- Past, present and future… Your character has a history
- Interactions and relationships
- Do it case by case, every character is different.

Make the reader care about the characters, use emotional words and explain physical sensations,
make emotional contact with the reader, and remember that each character perceives the world
slightly differently.
There are a lot of different stock character types out there. A lot of them seem quite stereotypical.
Honest thief, femme fatale, crooked cop – chances are if you have seen a character in a movie
they probably fit a certain type.

Quite often there is a protagonist, the main character, who the
reader often emotionally supports, and an antagonist who tries to make the protagonist’s life difficult.
Making the main character a nice person is often a good thing to do; a nice main character is
more likeable.
Having interesting characters is good – the more you know about them the more realistic they will
feel as you write about them.

Theme Development

One of the things that make a good story into a great story is good themes. A metaphor for life in
some way, a personal experience – there are a lot of ways to do this. Some common themes are
love, sex, war, crime, conflict, betrayal, relationships, and politics. There are as many themes as
there are ways for people to interact.

World Creation and Development

- Time – Past? Present? Future?
- Location – Real or Fictional?
- What is unique about this world? What makes it special?

Remember to describe the world and what makes it different; writing is rendering a virtual world,
or sometimes the shadow of the real world.

Description is important – the reader only sees what you show them, so make sure they see the
little things like the weather and the buildings and the colours and tastes and smells and sounds
and everything else that adds to your setting.

Plot Development

Where does the story start?
A lot of plots follow the basic outline of a likeable main character up against difficult odds who
ultimately manages to successfully achieve the goals with a lot of effort.
It helps if the odds are quite difficult and the character has no choice but to solve the problem
through their own efforts.
Brainstorming is great for making plots, and a tough situation for the characters often makes for a
better story.
There is generally a goal – it helps if it’s something the character really wants, and it helps if it’s
difficult, but try not to make it too far fetched or impossible, just something that would be difficult
that will make the main character feel satisfied when they accomplish it. If you can make the
reader feel the struggle that the main character has been through, the reader will feel a lot more
satisfied with the story.
You will feel more satisfied too if you make the character really struggle!

Further Technique

Implement foreshadowing, create tension and opposition, edit lots, remove nulls, and try different
perspectives (first, second and third). In English, prose terseness is desired, so edit as much as
you can while retaining the flow and quality of the story.
This is not the be all and end all guide to writing short fiction – remember, the way to get better is
to write lots!
If you want more help with short fiction try talking to your English teacher and asking them for
help, browsing short fiction guides online, getting people to critique your work, and so forth.

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