The AmWritingFantasy Podcast: Episode 10 — Five Tips to Hack Short Story Writing

Short stories are an asset in today's ebook market. They can be used to attract readers, as giveaways, introductions to characters, and so many other things.

But first you have to know how to write one - a really good one!

Short story writing is an art entirely different from writing a novel. Get five key tips on how to write a short story and hack the process so that you can wow your readers!

And be sure to check out the AmWritingFantasy website for more great tips at www.AmWritingFantasy.com!

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Read the full transcript below. (Please note that it's automatically generated and while the AI is super cool, it isn't perfect. There may be misspellings or incorrect words on occasion).

Intro (9s):
Yeah.

Autumn (12s):
Short stories are in hard, right? I mean who can't whup off 5,000 words of an awesome short story that will hook readers into absolutely loving your writing. I'm willing to shell out money to buy the next full book can. Maybe that does take some skill. If you're a fantasy author, then you've come to the right place. My name is Autumn Birt and together with Jesper Schmidt, I host this channel between us. We have published more than 20 novels and our aim is to help you and your writing and marketing endeavors.

Autumn (44s):
Just because you've written a novel, it doesn't mean you can whip off a fantastic short story or vice versa. In my previous video, I outlined the steps on how to develop a novel, but short stories are an entirely different beast, but they are so useful. Short stories can keep your readers entertained while you write the next book. They can be given away as freebies used to vet new story ideas or as a reader magnet to hook people into the next series. That is if he could write the ones that are good enough and don't eat up all your novel writing time like Maverick trolls rating a Dunkin donuts experience can teach you to write a great story and that's just what you have tons of, right?

Autumn (1m 26s):
Lots of time to learn the artist short story as well. Working, walking the dog, spending time with family, cleaning the house, laundry, mail bills, so what do you do if you don't want to sink an Epic amount of time to learn to write something that is supposed to be a leader for your novels. This is just what I wanted to do. What I wrote the prequels to my post apocalyptic series. It was to be a set of short stories that touched on pivotal background events.

Autumn (1m 56s):
Two episodes in the novels will also showcase in the characters and I figured I've read six books at this point, 10 short stories, not a problem. Then I sat down to write them and Oh my gosh, not so easy. I usually describe it as paddling in circles in a puddle of words. Short stories are a whole new ballgame, but I persevered because it's something I wanted to do and just one of those odd people who when I find out I can't do something, I just have to learn how.

Old McGrumpy (2m 30s):
I will never understand you worthless humans.

Autumn (2m 34s):
That is because who ever code created you didn't have emotions run into it. Glad you could, but in old man grumpy, he is our resident AI co-host who we seem to be stuck tolerating. Yep.

Old McGrumpy (2m 49s):
Short stories are only a few thousand words. How hard can they be?

Autumn (2m 54s):
Well, technically short story is run from 1000 words to 20 words or thereabouts. When I was writing them, I was aiming for 5,000 and you were having problems. That is pathetic. Someday I will delete you. Not possible. Now that he is gone, I have to admit, not being able to write a snappy and comprehensive short story in a couple of days actually really bothered me, but that might be to strive about word though, but I persevered in lane, learned quite a lot.

Autumn (3m 26s):
Now I write a monthly short story for the readers on my mailing list. I use something better. I'll do a storylines or your visit favorite characters and places or even help develop aspects of characters. So do you write short stories or have a use for them after the video? Let me know what you use, your short stories for, what you want to reuse them for in the comments. But first there is some key tips I learned and I'm going to share them with you. Number one, start with action. So this is true with novels, but it is especially pivotal with a short story.

Autumn (3m 57s):
You only have 5,000 words or less to tell an entire story that is under two chapters. For me, if I'm writing a novel, I'm just getting going at that point, no ending things. And that is why short stories are so hard. It is an entirely different mindset. You need to grab a hold of a reader's attention and hold onto it and you have to do it instantly. And so you do this by jumping straight into the story so you don't waste time describing the world emotions, political goals.

Autumn (4m 27s):
Instead of the horse is charging the dragon. The evil may just grabbing the magical ring and the thief is cornered. Start there. Number two have a goal. I use this idea for everything from a novel purpose to the point of a chapter is, but for a short story, this is pivotal. You don't have the word count to waste time, so figuring out what the goal of the short story is. It could it get subparts, which we'll get to in a few moments and then only write what fits that goal.

Autumn (4m 58s):
Doing this will help keep you on track so that you don't waste time with dead ends are floundering while describing the clouds and the flowers when you need to be getting into the next seed. If something doesn't fit the overall goal, sum it up. Just use a paragraph, a sentence, but you don't have time for an info dump either. Now we're on to number three, how to at least three parts or scenes. This is what I refer to in the last step. I am for five when I'm out learning, my story and I even go as far as to assign a rough length for each scene, like around 1000 words, which should make a short story of around 5,000 with five scenes.

Autumn (5m 34s):
That's a decent length like I mentioned in tip one start with action. There's no time to worry about the world-building or setting the seed. Start with the sword strike or the arrow leaving the bolt after that. Scene two is usually some explanation of what is going on. Dialogue is really great and this one, the thief tries to talk his way out of jail by explaining his innocence despite being cut with the duals. The quick laws build of this scene to the crisis of seen three which needs a resolution in scene for the ending scene.

Autumn (6m 9s):
Five runs a variety of purposes. Wrap up the action, reinforce the reader's view of a character or set the scene for the lead into your novel. Somehow things have to end and at least wrap up the major event of the story. Even if not all the goals are wrapped up, which leads me to number four. You don't have to wrap up all the detail for short stories. It comes down to minimizing the word count. Well, writing a gripping and emotionally invested story. I tried to keep my stories under 10,000 words and there's just no way to tie up everything going on in a world conflict relationship in that many words, at least while still writing sentences that convey anything interesting or comprehensive.

Autumn (6m 53s):
So stick to tip number two, having a goal, wrap up, whatever that is. Not every character will be introduced or describe fully. Not every action needs to be explained as long as the major theme is solid. A few blurry details won't ruin the narrative. The other part is that this is also a 10,000 or less word story. You don't need to mention the detail more than once. Trust the reader to catch it. A short story. We can be read in one sitting over lunch. You don't need to worry about the reader remembering something that happened tens of thousands of words ago.

Autumn (7m 26s):
It was the previous Baije don't keep hitting them over the head with the same stuff. It is knowing and waste words.

Old McGrumpy (7m 37s):
You are talking more about short stories. Then they take time to write.

Autumn (7m 42s):
Why have you written one? Since I started this video,

Old McGrumpy (7m 45s):
I have a plot but need to create a words list. Human character. I can't think of any worth might.

Autumn (7m 52s):
Maybe you should check out the website MC grumpy. There are lots of posts on character develop it and arc and some great workbooks too.

Old McGrumpy (8m 0s):
Possibly an acceptable idea.

Autumn (8m 3s):
Well that was useful because we are on to tip number five and it is that the short story is about the characters and how events affect them and not about the events. A lot of really bizarre, wild, terrifying and wonderful things can occur and the reader can care less if she can't relate to the character. This is especially true in a short story. There isn't much time for character building or a slow warm up to like a difficult character. They have to come across fully formed with blog.

Autumn (8m 33s):
Those nuances and pet peeves. Red on the surface. Inner personality needs to shine by the end of page one, preferably within a few paragraphs, short stories of the times for snap judgements. Do you like the character? Are they trustworthy? Is there more to their motivation leading to potential revelation and some tension or curiosity building later? Once I develop these tips, I could whip off a short story in a week easily. Now that it's down to a few days, depending on the length for my mailing list, sometimes it's just a thousand word flash fiction.

Autumn (9m 8s):
You know, sometimes it hits 5,000 words, though it takes longer to write those, but the readers love their monthly short story. It adds to the back list available for readers. Eventually, I'm going to combine the stories from each of my series into a novella and author while I'm exploring new potential novels, developing characters, and sometimes just taking much needed break from a novel that takes months. Stay safe out there and see you next Monday.