You’ve just discovered what a short story is, or maybe you’ve been writing them for a while but you want to take them more seriously. I’ve compiled a list of questions around writing short stories for beginners like you – and me!
A short story is generally seen as a self-contained, short piece of fiction, no longer than a maximum of 10,000 words. We’ll go into how long a short story usually is further down. We’ll also look at some great tips for writing short stories, where to publish them, and where to find inspiration.
How to write a short story for beginners
Unlike a novel, a short story doesn’t need months and months of work – unless that’s how you’d prefer to work! For most writers, you’ll start with an idea, write that idea, and then edit it. Here’s how to write a short story for beginners.
Once you have an idea for a story, you can either begin writing straight away or plan it out. Planning can look like an outline (not unlike what you might have for a novel), a concept (a sentence or paragraph conveying your idea), or a few bullet points. You might find that one kind of planning works better for different genres.
For example, fantasy short stories usually need some more planning around the worldbuilding. Or for character-focused pieces – like romance – might need some more planning around characterisation.
There are thousands of sources out there about writing a short story, but here are some common tips to keep in mind:
- Don’t try to cram too much in. A short story usually has only one plot, and rarely has more than two sub-plots to resolve. Any background or exposition probably doesn’t need to take up space on the page either.
- You still need the basic elements of a story: characters, conflict, plot, point-of-view, and setting.
- A theme can help guide your story and keep you on track. If you’re writing something with the theme of “the importance of friendship”, you probably don’t want to muddle the story by including a romance or rivalry unless it’s truly relevant.
- Building up your short story writing skills can be done easily with writing prompts. With a little inspiration and an hour or two, you can flesh out ideas for a new short story and get in some practice. I like to think of writing prompts as two concepts: tools for developing skills and inspiration for developing stories.
- Don’t forget to read short stories. Read the stories that get published in magazines and anthologies, and keep an eye out for short story competitions and read their winning entries. You’ll learn what readers are looking for and how to write stronger stories by doing this.
- Make sure your characters are distinct. You have less time to explore their differences, so you want them to stick out enough without spending too much time on them.
- Write as close to the end of the story as possible. Don’t begin at the start of a war; write the final combat in the war instead. Spend more time in the moment than what’s happened before.
- Write. Too many writers combine editing with writing, interrupting the flow of writing and getting caught up in perfecting the story instead of finishing it. Editing comes later!
Can short stories be written in first person?
A short story can be written in any way you like, your only rule is to keep it short. You can write short stories in first person, third person, or even second person. Try them all out and see what works for you!
Sometimes, it can be beneficial to rewrite a short story in a different point-of-view, whether you’re switching protagonist or flipping between third and first person.
How many words in a short story?
There’s no exact word count for a short story. To know how many words your short story needs to be, you need to consider where you’re planning to send it. If it’s to a magazine, anthology, or competition, you’ll be given a word count: either something like “up to 3,000 words” or “between 1,000 to 5,0000 words”.
Like novels, there’s no exact length for a short story. But the general guidance is that a short story is under 7,500 words, and no longer than 10,000 words. It’s also usually longer than 1,000 words; anything shorter is considered flash fiction.
Others suggest that a short story is anything shorter than a novel, but then there are novellas and novelettes to consider too. It can get confusing quickly!
If your story is between 2,000 and 5,000 words, you’re in the safe spot to consider it a short story.
Can short stories have chapters?
Short stories usually don’t have chapters, but they can if you’d like to. Some people use other ways of breaking up a short story.
Section breaks can be done in many ways, whether with asterisks or double-spaced breaks (like you’d find within a chapter) or even with headings and numbers. For example, you could have three parts in a short story titled ‘1’, ‘2’, ‘3’, without fully breaking them apart with a page break.
Can short stories be published?
Short stories can be published in a variety of ways: in magazines, in anthologies, in short story collections, in email newsletters, on blogs, on author websites, and more. If you’re not familiar with any of these, here’s a quick rundown:
A magazine includes general magazines that feature short stories, as well as literary magazines, which are dedicated purely to fiction or creation. To submit to them, you can find their contact details within the magazine.
An anthology is a book of multiple short stories by different authors, sometimes even an assortment of short stories and novellas. A short story collection is a book of multiple short stories by the same author or a specific group of writers.
Email newsletters, blogs, and websites can be used to host short stories as well, but there should be some caution here. Even though you usually have automatic copyright as the person who wrote and then published (online) that short story, it’s easier for people to copy the text and use it. There’s also the risk that AI could be trained on them, as there’s very little protection for what you put online.
How to write short stories for magazines
Magazines, especially literary magazines, get hundreds and sometimes thousands of submissions every month. I’ll explore this topic more elsewhere, but for now here are some basic tips on how to write short stories for magazines:
- Read the magazine. Make sure you know what they’re looking for and what they usually publish.
- Stick to the guidelines. They’ll tell you how to submit to them (via email or an online form usually), how long the short story should be, and what they’re looking for.
- Don’t send a speculative fiction (fantasy, sci-fi, horror) short story to a romance magazine or vice versa, unless it clearly fits what the magazine is asking for.
- Make sure you email the right account! Double check the email is correct before sending.
Where to find creative writing prompts for short stories
Now that we’ve covered the basics of writing short stories for beginners, let’s look at some inspiration. There are many places to find creative writing prompts for short stories, some free, some paid, and some with the opportunity to submit to publishers.
If you’re a visual person, you can find inspiration from photos as writing prompts. Common places to check include ArtStation (for speculative fiction especially), Unsplash and other stock photo websites, and Pinterest (where you can easily save images for later).
Some people prefer to generate random words to use. You can do this by finding a random word generator online or even flicking through a dictionary. Want to challenge yourself more? Instead of taking inspiration from the word(s) you find, task yourself with using multiple words in one short story.
I have a whole list of writing prompts for short stories you can use, with a focus on fantasy, LGBTQ+, and romance genres. You’ll also find character ideas to play with in many of these, or storyline ideas to consider.