The thing with short stories is you want very few characters, and you can’t spend much time on developing them.

[quote cyberwrite]Another idea I had was of a troll stopping a boy from crossing a bridge. In order to cross the bridge the boy has to answer three questions. Again, I couldn’t thing of a simple enough motivation for the boy wanting to cross the bridge unless it was part of a bigger story.[/quote]

This here? You actually don’t need to really say why he wants to cross the bridge. :) Or perhaps, he always crosses the bridge to visit his grandmother, but a troll has recently settled in. The boy is not aware of this–and surprise! A troll. No forestory necessary.

Pretend in the next chapter the boy will meet his grandmother–but in this chapter, he has to go through the troll first. And when you finish the chapter–guess what? You just finished a short story. You can end with “and the boy went whistling to his grandmother’s house.” and be done. That’s the way short stories are. Like chapters in a book, except they can each stand alone. :)

The troll and boy exist in a fantasy world, and because it is a very short story I don’t have the luxury to set up the icons, and therefore elude to them.

The reader cares if the boy crosses the bridge if you create sympathy for his character - and you could do that with a just few lines of dialog. I know you don’t have time - but the movie THE BOY WITH THE STRIPED PAJAMAS does this almost perfectly. Creates a child that you feel sympathetic toward just because of the things he says - because he doesnt realize what hes saying says about him - that’s part of the innocence of being a child. Being so blissfully unaware just how ****** up you really are.

Oh, BTW, Usurper, thanks for sticking with me.

And just to save time here are the other requirements of the assignment:

Word Count: 500-1500 Words

You have to be able to answer the question “So What?” in the story. For example So what if the boy gets to cross the bridge?

The protagonist has to solve the problem. Even though he/she can have something or someone help along the way.

To be honest I’m not the biggest fan of the first one - its sounds like many things I’ve seen and read.

The second one could be interesting and sounds like it could easily be done in a short story form.

Start it with the kid approaching the bridge and keep his motivation a secret to both the troll and the reader - YOU can know his motivation but the reader doesn’t have to - it adds intrigue.

Just take a scene from it.

You know how they are books out on how to write novels in thirty days, I just thought if there was something like that for short stories except in one or two days it might help me to simplify things, but I guess there is no such thing.

Stop thinking of it all at once - steps, my friend, steps.

Your creative - think of something.

Thankyou for all your responses. Maybe I better be a bit more specific about my situation. I started to write a story about a couple of months ago which I thought was a short story, but I have discovered that is too large in scope and would be better as a book. Problem is now I’m only a couple a days from my deadline and all ideas that I come up with are book length ideas, or ideas that require research that I don’t have time for.

Where and when does this take place?

2- Then move onto character.

Who are they? What is their name? What makes them interesting? What flaws to they have? What do they look like? Why are they there? What is their CONFLICT?

Conflict is very important to every story - ever.

3 - Then you brain storm situations. Put them into situations and write them out of them - keeping in mind everything you decided in step 2.

Create interesting situations where the character is tested - or his conflict bubbles to the surface.

4 - Write a story outline. What happens? In what order? It doesnt have to contain dialoug - just quite literally an outline of the story from beginning to end in roughly 3 steps

ACT 1 The “inciting incident” - where the story begins - why you chose to cut in at this moment is because everything happens from this incident on. This is when you hook the reader into your story - something that makes them want to stick around.

ACT 2 The confrontation - the build up - the body - the beef of the story, draws out whatever emotion your trying to create - if its a funny story, then this is when the more relevant funny things will happen to build up to the next ACT. Usually the character goes through some kind of ordeal that they have to deal with.

ACT 3 The climax. What the story has been building to. Whatever it is - it needs to pay off somehow. People want a pay off - be it a change, character realization - whatever, it better be a good end.

Always keep in mind who your writing for. How they will react. And most people’s biggest mistake is ending the story when it should start. So consider your ending, and then think - would this make a better beginning? It usually would.

If you do all these steps, not only will it be easier to write it, but whatever you do write will be better.

Using this form, complete an outline of the short story you have been assigned. Refer back to the completed one for “The Story of an Hour” as an example. This is a 100 point grade (50 points for content and 50 points for grammar).

Plot

Exposition

Rising Action

Climax

Falling Action

Denouement

Characterization

Physical description

Actions

Words

Inner thoughts

Other characters

Conflict

External

Internal

Setting

Theme

2) If your not sure what to write about, get a peice of paper and pencil, and start writing out ideas. Try to write out about ten.

3) Pick the idea you like best, then, on a new peice of paper, write it in the middle of the sheet. Fantasize a bit about where you want the story to go, and then write down your ideas under/around the topic.

4) If you think of a really good idea, and know exactly where your going with it, then you may be able to skip step 3 entirely. If not, then follow step 3. The only other thing left to do is write! :)

5) Since its a short story, try to write it straight through, as the more pauses there are in the process of writing, the more jerky it turns out to be. Save things like grammar, paragraph placement, and your basic corrections/re-arranging of sentences for last, because if you try to do it in the process of writing, you might lose your train of thought.

Hope this helps! :)