In a rough way the short story writer is to the novelist as a cabinetmaker is to a house carpenter.” ~ Annie Proulx
In this post, I am going to share an awesome short story recipe with you. Don’t worry, it’s not too difficult—there are only five ingredients.
Warning: manufactured in a facility where puns abound; contains shameful literary/cooking puns.
Let’s begin with the most important ingredient:
1. Characters
The most crucial element of a story are the people in it. If our characters aren’t engaging—if they’re stale—no one will really care what happens to them. Sometimes these people will take a while to come about, so this is something you’ll want to have on hand before attempting this recipe. But don’t worry, if you don’t have any to choose from, a trip to the park, grocery store, or airport, or even a few minutes of brainstorming about people you’ve already seen/met will provide you with ideas for character creation.
The goal here is to craft characters that could each take up a novel if we told his/her life story. The reader will never see all this detail, but we as authors need to know it so we can give them the depth they need to be convincing.
In this article for The Creative Penn, I elaborate on creating character bios and provide ideas for developing characters prior to writing your story. Check it out for additional info on this important first step!
2. Setting
While we’re bringing our characters to a rolling boil of conflict, emotion, and connection with our readers, we can crack out our setting and stir until solid. Setting is important in a short story, and here’s what I mean by the term:
The setting is the world in which our characters live and interact. In a short story, it may take place in one room or across a city. The setting will encompass the time period, location, and overall feel of the piece.
House in Jamestown, VA, summer of 1697 (Lonely? Adventurous?).
Truck stop in the Appalachian mountains, NC, fall of present year (Desolate? Holiday?).
Boat on the Nile River, Egypt, summer of 500B.C. (Frightening? Relaxing?)
Taxi in New York City, winter of 1987 (Frustrating? Romantic?).
There is an infinite number of places and moods we can throw together to achieve a great setting. We just need to keep an eye on it throughout the story to make sure it is consistent.
And this is where our story starts to have an aroma and color. It could be a deep, sad, blue, and wistful one; a sweet, golden orange one with a startling flash of red spice; or a hard, bitter green one with swirls of black fear.
Once our setting has solidified and our characters are about to boil over, it’s time to add ingredient #3.
3. Plot
Something needs to happen. We’ve got a solid setting and boiling characters, and when we put them together, things occur.
Plot consists of conflict. Plot is the movement in the story, getting from point A to point B, J, or however far we’re taking the reader. It’s the clashing of people and ideas, the twisting of circumstances and morals, the intertwining of lives, dreams, and desires—for better or for worse.
Where are they going? How are they getting there? What is the opposition?
Once our plot is in place and it agrees with the setting and characters, we come to the hard part. It’s time to cut.
4. The Right (Write!) Vignette
Here’s what sets a short story apart as its own genre: we’re only telling part of a story…while we’re telling the whole thing. Here’s what I mean.
You have an amazing idea for this story. It’s so involved, it could be a novel. But you’re only telling part of it. (I recommend 2000 words—not too long, not too short.)
The agonizing thing about crafting a great short story is what to cut and what to tell. If done well, it provides the reader with a fantastic vignette of life that leaves an impression and an emotion. Not a collection of impressions and emotions—that’s for a novel. We’re taking someone’s life journey—their trip from point A to point Z—and only telling part of it (perhaps point L to point M). It’s a complete story in itself, but it’s only a chapter in the life of this person. When the reader devours this vignette, he should feel like he has stumbled upon the very middle of something and didn’t quite reach the end. We do wrap things up, but we leave room for more because the story really isn’t over.
A short story vignette is like a photograph. Imagine you’ve been gone all day, having adventures with your friends in the sun and fresh air. At the end of it, you have several pictures you love. Each one is colorful, vivid, and detailed, and elicits a different emotion as you recall when and where it was taken. This picture in no way tells the whole story of your day. But it takes you back to that moment, that particular snapshot of time, and makes you feel what you felt right then. That’s what you’re doing with a short story. You’re giving the reader a snapshot of the life of your characters. It’s a complete glimpse while being just that—a glimpse.
5. Execution
Now that we’ve got our ingredients together and have cut things down to size, we need to finish off with a nice round amount of proper execution.
Writing the story, crafting the dialogue, selecting the vocabulary, implementing the style, checking the grammar, and perfecting the technique—these are all part of the execution.
A lot of times proper execution takes a while to bake. You may have to finish off the writing and then let the draft sit for a few days or a few weeks. Come back to it and stir it again. Fix it. Be open to mistakes and rewriting. A short story doesn’t happen all at once.
Need more info on this step? You’ve come to the right place. That’s what this blog and my weekly newsletters are all about: perfecting step #5. You can read more articles about this on the blog, as well as our emails for fresh tips every week! (And tell your friends about it—they might be interested in becoming better bakers…I mean writers…)
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Thank you so much for all your help