Story endings
Quite often I get readers of this blog leaving questions in the comments section. That is great and I appreciate the feedback and try to help people with their writing problems.
Occasionally I also get readers leaving ideas from which I can benefit too. This is also great. Louise was one such reader today. Here is what she wrote:
You’ve just solved my problem! I have lots of short stories written – but with no ending! I get ideas for stories but then they sort of fizzle out.
Just for fun, I am going to create my own ‘final sentences’ and maybe something will click and maybe, they’ll trigger more ideas for short stories!
Thanks!
It must be a little discouraging to have lots of unfinished stories. Please, please, please don’t throw them away. They could well be the seeds of longer works later.
Another suggestion is to leave an unfinished story filed away for a few weeks or even months, then come back to it with almost “fresh” eyes and ears. You read that correctly – EARS. Read the unfinished story out loud – better yet – get someone you trust to read it to you. That story will have been ticking away in your subconscious for ages and might well be ready to mature into a complete story. The creative mind can be quite amazing at times.
Another suggestion: a commonly used technique is to ask the simple question: “What happens next?” or even “What if…?”
And how about “interviewing” your main character? You might be surprised what that character will say, or come up with.
You could also ask yourself the question: “What does the main character really want? What motivates her? How will he get what he wants? And what or who is hindering fulfilling those wants or desires? These could be triggers to get you writing again.
Hope this all helps.
Good writing.
Related article: Short story endings
Follow me on Twitter
A new phenomenon sweeping the internet is Twitter.
Okay – I’ll come clean, I’m new to Twitter and I’m not really sure how effective it will be in relation to my blogging, writing and the way in which I do things. I’ve only been on it a few weeks now, but already I find it great for keeping up with breaking news. The downside of this is that it can be a terrible distraction. During the recent tragic fires in Victoria, however, it was great keeping up to date on happenings.
I joined Twitter at the urging of my son Sim’ so he could keep informed about what I was doing. In return, I can easily keep track of what he is doing. It’s neat.
If you want to follow me on Twitter, you can do so on the sidebar where it says “Follow my Twitters.” That’s really intuitive, isn’t it? That way you will keep up to date with what’s happening around here.
Oh, by the way – I’m also fairly new on Facebook too.
Good writing.
Short Story Starters
2 Comments »6th February, 2009; Category: Fiction, Short Stories, Short Story Starters, Writer's block
It has been far too long since my last set of short story starters was published here. Entries in this series of articles have proved very popular with my readers for several years now.
Use them
I invite you to look through this latest list of short story starters. If anything grabs your imagination, run with it. Borrow my idea and use it for a short story (or even a novel).
Writer’s block
If you are suffering from the dreaded Writer’s Block, these ideas are the ideal way to write yourself out of that slump. Take one of the ideas and just write – anything that comes to mind. Don’t worry if it seems like rubbish. Just write – and soon the words will be flowing again.
New writers
If you are new to writing, here you will find some great ideas to get you going. Don’t worry too much about the technicalities of spelling, punctuation and grammar on your first, rough draft. You can go back over those things later, once you have the main bulk of the story written.
Here they are – more Short Story Starters:
- As Alice rounded the corner she could hear the train coming. She…
- Before I had a chance to fully grasp what was happening, Ben had whipped out his knife. Seconds later he…
- Considering his past record, this latest move was sure to create a new round of controversy. Peter knew this, but he was adamant that he must go on. He…
- ‘Don’t come in here!’ she shouted. ‘After what you’ve done I don’t want to see you again. Get lost.’
- Even as I entered the room I could tell that she was not happy. She had that certain look that spoke volumes. I knew…
- ‘Fine! You just go ahead and leave – tonight! Good riddance, I say. And don’t think I’ll come running after you.’
- Getting over the party was the least of my worries. The cleanup could wait; that mess wasn’t going anywhere. I had to find George and explain. He was probably wondering…
Show – don’t tell
Notice that I start in the middle of the story. Many short stories start in the wrong place. Beginner writers tend to give far too much background detail and the real story starts part way through.
In the example above I have tried to get the action going immediately. Pages of background information is fine if you are writing a novel. Short stories are just that – short. They are tiny glimpses into one scene, two at most.
Beginner and inexperienced writers want to tell everything, going into the minutest of details and their short stories have nothing interesting happening in them. ‘Show – don’t tell’ is a mantra repeated endlessly by teachers of writing. Show the character’s motives through what she does. Show your character’s emotions through what he says (see example 6 above). Notice that I’ve broken my own rule in number 5 above. Sometimes telling is needed; you have to know the rules before you know when to break them.
Good writing.
For more short story starters click here.
Conditions of use:
- Feel free to use any of the story starters listed above. Change anything to suit your needs.
- Give it your best shot.
- Edit your work carefully before sending it off to a publisher or posting it on your blog.
- Let me know in the comments section how it went.
- If you publish your story on your web site or on your blog let me know so I can make a link to it for others to read.
Another small piece of writing success
Yesterday I wrote about an article I had published in a magazine recently. I forgot to tell you about another piece of writing success I had a few weeks ago.
As regular readers would know, I am currently in the middle of my Master of Arts in Creative Writing course. One of the units I am doing this semester is called Creative Writing: Prose Fiction. In the unit we are required to write three pieces of fiction, totalling 7000 words in all.
The first piece I wrote came from a workshop writing activity. It was about 150 words long. I then expanded this story into a 2000 word story. Along the way I received valuable feedback from the lecturer and fellow students. Thanks Rosanne, Rod, Caz, Tricia and Sally – your insights were great and very useful.
I called the story ‘Shifting Sands.’ I achieved a distinction for the assignment.
Sadly, I can’t print it here for my readers to enjoy. That’s because I will be sending it off to a magazine soon.
Good writing.
Suggestion: Why not share some of your recent writing successes in the comments below.
I am writing two short stories
One of the writing assignments I have to complete by the end of this semester is to write two short stories.
No sweat, I thought.
Then I read the conditions. The total word count must be about 5,000 words. Again, not a problem because I’ve written over 9,000 words in the last five days.
The lecturer has decreed that the two stories must be technically different in some way. Well, that makes it more of a challenge. At the last workshop I presented a short story of about 400 words to my group. This was an experimental piece I wrote in the second person. Technically, this is very difficult to sustain without the readers feeling very awkward. It is hard to pull off successfully. My lecturer feels that, on the basis of what I presented at the workshop, I have the skill to achieve this difficult task.
The short story I presented will give one character’s point of view of an incident. Others in the group, including the lecturer, felt that they would like to hear the same story, but from the point of view of the other main character. Her story could be written in the first person, giving another technical difference.
I think I’ve just taken on a challenging project. I’ll keep you posted.
Good writing.