Home » Writing & Publishing » Writing for Children » Writing Short Stories

Writing Short Stories

© Sue Reichard

Whether writing short stories for children or the fiction market, certain elements remain the same. The first step is to write your story. Start by writing a bare bones story. This way you can give close attention to structure. A story needs to have a beginning, a middle and an end. The beginning should only be one or two sentences long. In the first sentence, or at least by the second sentence, you should give the reader the character, the setting and the plot. Try this plan and you'll be sure you don't have any unnecessary information.

The next step is to write the middle. The middle of your story is where the character, within the given setting solves the problem posed in the plot. This is the most critical part of the story. It's a good plan to have the character try to solve the plot three times. If the character solves the plot the first time he tries the story may not hold the reader's interest. If the character tries to solve the problem unsuccessfully too many times, the reader will think the main character incompetent. Two or three attempts work well.

The third part of the story is the ending and this needs to be kept short.

Now the structure of your story is complete. Stories are more than structure. Stories need good content as well. You now need to expand the story. This can be done by putting a new sentence between each of the previous sentences. These new sentences must come forth naturally from what was written before it. Remember, it must be a natural expansion. Ask yourself,"What would really happen next?"

The expanded story becomes more interesting because it has more details which enable the reader to better picture in their mind what is happening. The writer now needs to add style. This is the special element that only the writer can bring to the story. Restructure sentences, add relevant dialogue and details to add interest.

Ask yourself the following questions:

1. What does the main character want? Why? When you answer these questions you add depth and dimension to the character and the best stories are character driven.

2. Does the story have a beginning, a middle and an end?

3. Can you story use a metaphor? If not, that's OK.

Revise, revise, revise becomes the next step for your story. Follow the plan above, if it's helpful your on your way to writing a short story.

The copyright of the article Writing Short Stories in Writing for Children is owned by . Permission to republish Writing Short Stories in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.