Adding Drama & Surprise to a Short Story
A good short story is compact and exciting. Its plot moves quickly, and its language is trim with no unnecessary words or phrases. Drama and surprise in a short story can come from its plot or its language. As you write your story, remember the golden rule of exciting narrative: show, don't tell.
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Drama Through Plot
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When every plot point in a short story propels it forward, the writing becomes dramatic automatically. Don't add anything simply for the sake of drama. For example, in a story about an adopted child finding his birth mother, each effort he makes to find her should be emotionally intense or otherwise difficult for him; each attempt should lead logically to the next. Plot points that add drama but don't relate to the subject weaken your story. For example, don't include an irrelevant incident in which your character almost gets hit by a car just to make the story more dramatic.
Drama Through Language
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Readers respond emotionally to rhythm and sound, and you can create tension in your story by using dramatic language. To craft a powerful ending to a paragraph, write the rest of the paragraph in long, complex sentences. Then finish the paragraph with a short, simple sentence that contains important information. You can apply this to longer sections, too; start with a long paragraph, make the following paragraphs progressively shorter and simpler, and finally end with a one-sentence paragraph. The increasing pace of the language adds drama to your story.
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Surprise
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To introduce surprise into your story, first determine what your readers will expect. Ask yourself what your characters are most likely to do and what is most likely to happen to them. Then brainstorm alternative plot points that are less obvious but still make sense. According to Daniel and Daniel Publishers, a good twist ending is not what the readers expect but seems obvious and logical after they read it. For example, your character might discover that the woman he knows as his aunt, who has taken a special interest in him all his life, is actually his birth mother.
Show, Don't Tell
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Instead of telling your readers how your characters are feeling, show your readers what your characters are doing or how they are doing it. If your character goes to an adoption records office for information, show the intensity of the moment with sentences like "He had to remind himself to breathe while the clerk looked through the records." Avoid "telling" the intensity with sentences like "He was so nervous." Allowing your readers to feel what your characters are feeling increases the dramatic power of your story.
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References
- Daniel & Daniel Publishers; Writers' Resources
- Writing for Story; Jon Franklin
- The Writers’ Guide: Writing a Short Story
Resources
- Photo Credit Comstock/Comstock/Getty Images
