The Writing Of The Short Story

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Unlike in a book or even a long story, when writing the short story there isn’t much room for flowery, descriptive, prose. Here are galore satisfying and effective ways to handle that.

Think essence rather than complete. I love to write long, flowery, pretty descriptive sequences in the novels I write. When writing the short story that has to change. In a great deal of ways it helps make an author a better (more precise, at least) writer. In writing the short story one will have to determine what facets will speedily set the proper stage and offer all the crucial (necessary) features. Here is an example.

“The astonishing beauty of the budding trees, the assortment of colorful flowers, and the still, blue, lake just down the hill from his rustic cabin, quickly dispatched the sensations of melancholy that had led Jerry to seek the solitude offered by the Briar Hill Retreat Center.” That sentence replaces regarding six pages of description from one of my early novels. From that sentence the reader learns many, story-setting, aspects: time of year, a snapshot of the setting, available roots of beauty, a bit with regards to the character’s background, and the effect the setting seemed to be having on him. Actually, all that might be worth a full chapter in a long novel. All of that was accomplished by packing a sentence with selective information – actual and inferred. ‘Packing’ must take place with outstanding care not to make a sentence or set of sentences too heavy or complex or rambling. (That one is close to being over-packed, perhaps.) One would in all likelihood never pack a sentence that way in a novel – the reader would feel cheated.

When writing the short story, however, the reader will be grateful for such a compact laying out of utile but not critical information. It doesn’t mean you have to give up fantasti words and phrases. If anything, they become more precious for the precision they provide (astonishing, beauty, colorful, quickly dispatched, melancholy, rustic, solitude).

There is one peril that will have to be avoided. When writing the short story make sure you don’t overuse those wondrous words. Take the word ‘remarkable’, for example. In a short story consider it a one-time-use word. Used a second time it will not only lose it is punch but it will sound amateurish. Sometimes that holds true in novels as well. Certain great words stand out and make their point once, but more often times than that they make the piece amateurishly redundant. (See how that just happened when I reused a form of ‘amateurish’.)

So, here are three pieces of counsel in regards to descriptive passages when writing the short story,. Master the art of packing – and not over-packing – descriptive sentences. Think essence introductory and completeness second (with care and exercise both may often times be achieved). Avoid the repetition of extraordinary words as they speedily feel wrong and become awkward distractions.

The Writing Of The Short Story

This book was converted from it is physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.

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Good – for what it is
By Richard A. Herman
The more of these books I read, the more I believe experience and writers groups are the only worthwhile methods of literate growth.