How to Plan a Short Story

Writing a short story can be challenging if you are not properly inspired. It is possible to plan out a short story before you write it, however. This can help you know where you are going and end up where you intended to take your writing.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Things You’ll Need:

• A creative mind
• Paper and pen
• OR Word processing program

1. Create a main character or two. Short stories usually have small casts of characters. Each character you create should have a name, age, family, friends, job, education, physical appearance, home, and habits.
2. Give each character in the short story a goal. If no one wants anything, there will be no progression and no conflict in your story. The goals can be physical - a new car, the magic ring, or a murder victim - or not physical - true love, an apology, or self-gratification.
3. Decide if your characters will achieve their goals or not. This will be the resolution of your short story. It is usually a good idea to know what direction you are heading in before you start to write.
4. Create obstacles for each character, or at least the main character, to overcome. These obstacles will both stand in the way of his goal, and create internal change within the character himself. This change should lead to either achieving or failing to achieve the goal at the end of the short story.

Tips & Warnings

• Change must occur in every short story.