The art of the short story is to share truth about the human condition or human nature. It is also to entertain and provide pleasure to the reader. A well written short story fulfills these dual obligations.

So the aspiring writer needs to be able to write a short story that shares a truth about the human condition and is also entertaining.

To do this, the aspiring writer needs to learn the craft of writing fiction. One of the ways to learn the craft is by reading as a writer.

How do you read like a writer? You must read like a writer by analyzing the short story or novel, understanding how the writer employs the elements of fiction, like setting, character, plot.

Reading like a writer also enables you to learn how the writer begins and ends a story, and uses dialogue, figurative language, and much more to tell the story. These are the techniques of fiction.

Reading like a writer also enables you to learn the writing style of great writers, such as Hemingway, Faulkner, Margaret Atwood, Alice Munro. You can learn how to use a sentence fragment, how to create a periodic sentence, a loose sentence.

Only by reading and analyzing lots of short stories will you be able to write a good short story, perhaps a great short story, that entertains your readers. Entertaining fiction gets published.

Here are 15 short stories that you should read and analyze:

1. Eveline by James Joyce
2. Hills Like White Elephants by Ernest Hemingway
3. A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner
4. The Lady with the Pet Dog by Anton Chekhov
5. To Build a Fire by Jack London
6. Death by Landscape by Margaret Atwood
7. The Tell Tale Heart by Edgar Allen Poe
8. Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allen Poe.
9. A Story of An Hour by Kate Chopin
10. Lust by Susan Minot
11. Everything that Rises Must Converge by Flannery O’Connor
12. It’s Hard to Find a Good Man by Flannery O’Connor
13. Alaska by Tom Franklin
14. Bullet to the Brain by Tobias Wolf
15. The Swimmer by John Cheever

You can read these short stories in the following anthologies:

• The Art of the Short Story by Dana Gioia & R.S. Gwynn
• On Writing Short Stories, edited by Tom Bailey
• The Norton Anthology of Short Fiction

Reading Like a Writer

You can also learn how to read like a writer by reading Francine Prose bestselling book “Reading Like A Writer: A Guide for People Who Love Books and for those Who Want to Write Them.”

This book should be read by everyone that wants to write a short story or novel.

Additional Resources

To help you learn the craft of writing a short story or novel, you should read the following:

• On Writing Short Stories, Edited by Tom Bailey
• Writing Fiction by Jane Burroway
• Writing Fiction from Gotham Writer’s Workshop
• Reading Like a Writer by Francine Prose
• Woe is I by Patricia T. O’Connor
• The Deluxe Transitive Vampire: The Ultimate Handbook of Grammar for the Innocent, the Eager, and the Doomed [Hardcover] by Karen Elizabeth Gordon.
• Elements of Style by Strunk and White
• Norton Anthology of Short Fiction
• The Art of the Short Story by Dana Gioia & R.S. Gwynn
• Reading Like a Writer by Francine Prose

To become a successful fiction writer, you must learn the craft of writing fiction. Learning the craft of fiction allows you  to use the various fictional techniques of storytelling. One of the best ways to learn the craft of fiction, is not by enrolling in an MFA Program in Creative Writing or taking a fiction writing workshop, it is by reading and analyzing the classics and other good fiction. In other words, you must learn to read like a writer.

There are a number of ways to revise your short story. You might want to write the first draft and then revise it for each of the elements of fiction-setting, character, plot, theme. You might want to revise your story for voice, style and tone.

Revising is not a rewrite. A rewrite is where you throw away the original story and then begin again. Revising a short story means to improve your story, refining your story, correct weaknesses in your story. For instance, you might change words, condense sentences, delete repetition.

I suggest that you write your story by first using a macro approach, followed by a micro approach. The macro revision involves revising your story for the elements of fiction, such as setting, plot, character. In the micro revision, you revise for style, grammar, spelling, punctuation, and so forth.

In this article, I’ll explain how to revise your short story using macro and micro revision techniques.

Macro Revision

Here are some of the things you need to consider when revising the elements of fiction:

Setting and Time

• Is the setting realistic and believable?
• Does setting provide a backdrop to the story?
• Does the setting create a mood or atmosphere?
• Is the setting a motive for the character to take some course of action?
• Do you show and not tell the reader?

Plot/Plot Structure

• Does your story have an inciting incident?
• Does central character face setbacks/obstacles as he/she attempts to achieve a particular goal?
• Does the story include a climax or turning point?
• Do you resolve the story by answering the conflict?

Character and Characterization

• Does the character have desire to reach some goal?
• Does your story include flat and round characters?
• Have you employed action, dialogue, description of appearance to develop your central character?

Point of View

• Is your story told from a consistent point of view?
• What point of view are you using? First-person POV? Second-person POV? Third-person POV?

Vivid Description

• Do you show and not tell?
• Do you use sensory details to show what happens?
• Do you use specific details to who what happens?
• Do you use figurative language as a form of description?

Figurative Language

• Does the story include similes?
• Does the story include metaphors?
• Do you use allusion?
• Do you use personification?
• Do you use symbolism?

Dialogue

• Do you include dialogue in scenes?
• Does the dialogue reveal conflict, move the plot forward, reveal character?
• Do you include quotation marks and dialogue tags dialogue?
• Does the dialogue sound realistic?

Theme

• Does your story have a theme?
• Does each element of fiction contribute to the meaning?
• Do the symbols help to develop the theme?
• Is the theme revealed in the conflict?
• Is the theme revealed in the consequences of the story?
• What is the meaning of the story?

Voice

• Do you tell the story with a particular voice?
• Does the story have a consistent voice?
• Does the diction support the voice?

Showing and Telling

• Does your story include narrative summary?
• Does your story use scenes to show how important events, such as setbacks, conflict, and the climax unfold?

Micro Revision

In the micro revision, you correct the following:

• Grammar
• Spelling
• Punctuation
• Writing style, such as diction and syntax

If you don’t complete understand grammar, you need to purchase and read a copy of “Woe is I” Patricia T. O’Connor.

One of the best books on grammar and most entertaining is “The Deluxe Transitive Vampire: The Ultimate Handbook of Grammar for the Innocent, the Eager, and the Doomed” [Hardcover] by Karen Elizabeth Gordon. I urge you to purchase a copy if you don’t understand the difference between and adjective, adverb, verb, and noun. I urge you to purchase a copy if you don’t understand the difference between an independent clause, dependent clause, verbal, infinitive, gerund. This book provides an easy and entertaining way to learn and of master grammar.

The best writing style embodies the principles and advice of Strunk and White’s “Elements of Style”, a short classic text on how to improve your writing style. If you haven’t read it, you should read it. If you don’t own a copy, you need to purchase it, read it, and master the advice.

Final Thoughts on Revision

Too much revision can damage your story. You might make it incomplete. So, ask yourself: What can I cut or eliminate or improve without damaging the story?

As well, revise only until you feel your story is complete, and then stop.

Share your story with people you trust. Have them read your story and provide their opinions. Then decide whether you want to revise your story with their suggestions.

Additional Resources

For more information on how to revise your story, you can read the following:

• Writing Fiction from the Gotham Writer’s Workshop
• Writing Fiction by Janet Burroway
• Elements of Style by Strunk and White
• Woe is I by Patricia T. O’Connor
• The Deluxe Transitive Vampire: The Ultimate Handbook of Grammar for the Innocent, the Eager, and the Doomed [Hardcover] by Karen Elizabeth Gordon.

How do you write an ending for your short story? There is no single method of ending a story. Many writers don’t know how their story will end as they write the story. And so the ending emerges as the story is revealed on the page. Other writers know how the story will end before they begin, and so they can focus on the resolution as they write. There is no right or wrong approach.

In this article, I briefly explain the meaning of an ending, how to end your short story, and explain what the ending must do for the reader. I also provide some tips on how to write an ending for a short story or novel.

The Meaning of an Ending

All stories must end with resolution. There must be some answer to the central conflict.  When you write the ending, your story must be complete. All unanswered questions posed in the story must be answered. All loose ends must be tied up.

Writer Flannery O’Connor the end is when the story is complete, “when nothing more than relating to the mystery of that character’s personality can be show through that particular dramatization.” (On Writing Short Stories, edited by Tom Bailey)

An ending can be framed in terms of denouncement, realization, or epiphany. Each has a different shade of meaning.

Denouncement.

The story can end with a closed ending or open ending. In an closed ending, nothing more can happen. For instance, the villain might be killed. In an open ending, the writer leaves questions about what will happen next. For instance, the gunslinger who has just killed the bad guy, rides off into the sunset. The reader is left to imagine what the central character will do next with his life.

Realization

It is less powerful than an epiphany. The central character gains some insight or is enlightened, and then makes some change in his/her life. For instance, the short story Lust by writer Susan Minot ends with a realization: Their blank look tells you the girl their fucking is not there anymore. You seemed to have disappeared. (On Writing Short Stories, edited by Tom Bailey)

Epiphany

James Joyce introduced the technique of epiphany. It is not simply a realization, but a “magical moment, “felt moment”, that results in permanent change by the character. James Joyce writes includes an epiphany in the short story Eveline. The threat of repeating her mother’s life spurs Eveline’s epiphany that she must leave with Frank and embark on a new phase in her life, but this realization is short-lived. As the story ends, she has a second epiphany, which concludes the story.

Ways to End a Short Story

Short stories or novels can end in many ways. Here are a few common ways in which writers conclude their fictional stories:

Twist Ending

Sometimes the writer concludes the story with a twist ending. Readers are lead to believe that a story will end in a particular way, and then it ends in a different way. So the ending is unexpected. For instance, the story can end with a tragic ending, one in which the protagonist dies. The story might end with an ironic ending, which reveals the darker side of human nature, the shadow of man. Kate Chopin’s “A Story of an Hour” is concluded with a twist ending.

Resolving Action

Sometimes the story ends with some final action that brings an end to the conflict, complete finality. In Jack London’s To Build a Fire”, the story ends with the central character freezes to death while on journey to the work camp.

End of the story ending

Sometimes a story ends after it has been told. This is how Tom Franklin’s short story “Alaska” ends. The narrator tells the fantastical story, the dream trip, and then ends with…”we would stop playing as if on cue and look at each other, suddenly happy, remembering Alaska, waiting for us.”So does William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily.”

Ambiguous ending

Essentially, the writer crafts an ending in which the story ends, but the reader is left wondering what will happen next. So, there is no permanent resolution to the ending. Another story can be written, which brings total closure to the story. You see this sort of ending in sequels.

What the Ending Must Do

Your ending must tie up loose ends and answer any unanswered questions in the story.

Writing the ending is also as important as your opening. So, you need to write an ending that resonates in the mind of the reader.

The ending must also be a logical outcome of the story. In other words, it must be based on cause and effect.

The ending should also answer the central conflict of the story.

Sometimes the ending ends the story but doesn’t mean the end. The reader is left to answer the questions implied by the ending of the story.

If the ending is disappointing, many writers won’t recommend that other’s read your short story or novel. And it probably won’t get published.

Only through finding a meaning to your story will the best ending become possible. That is why theme is so important.

Tips for Writing an Ending

Your ending should provide closure to the story. In the issue of A Writer’s Guide to Fiction (Published by Writer Mag), writer Sharon Warner provides five tips for ending a story, which you can use to help create a story with closure. These include:

1. Avoid the to-neat ending.  In other words, don’t wrap it up and seal it up tight.  This approach trivializes your story. Instead, the write the ending until there is almost a new story that will unfold at the end.
2. Look to your beginning to find your ending. In other words, your opening will often suggest how the story should end.
3. Write provisional endings as your story progresses. As you write the draft, think about how it might end. Then write a provisional ending. A short story has a beginning, middle, and end. So, if you are going to write a story, you should be prepared to write a complete story, a story that has an ending. Once the story is written, you can revise the content, including the ending.Let the story speak for itself. Sometimes the best endings focus a step or two away from the central
4.  A good story ends loosely. It doesn’t tie up all the possibilities that the story presents.
5. Avoid the tendency to summarize. Don’t be preachy or didactic. In other words, don’t tell the reader what to think about the story. Let the reader discover it through subtext it, make his/her own decisions.

Final Thoughts

Many short stories end with an epiphany. The character experiences a significant revelation or realization. This was a technique introduced by writer James Joyce.

Your ending must resolve the story. That is why we refer to the ending as a resolution.  There must be some answer to the conflict—but not necessarily the right answer.

The ending should also lead to some meaning of the story. What does the story, especially the ending, have to say about human nature or the human condition.

What is point of view? It is the narrator of the story. It is the character who is observing the events as they unfold in the story.

Point of view is the most complex element of fiction. (Janet Burroway in Writing Fiction) One error in point of view can compromise your story. Several errors will result in the editor tossing it in the waste bin. Each point of view has particular advantages and disadvantages. Without a good understanding of point of view, the writer will be unable to choose the best point of view for his/her story.

In this post, I’ll discuss point of view in a story. The following will be covered:

• Different types of point of view
• Advantages and disadvantages
• Interior Monologue
• Stream of Consciousness

The Importance of Point of View

As mentioned in the introduction, the point of view refers to the narrator of the story, the character who is telling the story. Each point of view available to the writer has certain advantages and disadvantages. Each point of view also influences the emotional state of the reader in a different way. For instance, if the reader uses first-person point of view (“I”), it creates an intimate connection with the reader. The reader feels as though he/she is speaking to a friend or participating in a conversation with someone who is sharing a story.

Types of Points of View

Before sitting down to write the story, the writer must determine who is going to narrate the story and how it will be narrated. The writer does this by selecting a point of view. There are three options:

• First-person point of view (I, We)
• Second-person point of view (You)
• Third-person point of view (he, she)

First person and third person points of view are the most common POV that writers use to narrate the story.

The form of the story often dictates what point of view to use. For instance, if the writer is going to use a journal entry, diary, stream of consciousness, interior monologue to tell the story, the first person point of view would be the obvious choice.

The writer will also need to consider the distance from the action. If the writer wants to tell an intimate story, a story experienced by the protagonist, he/she would use first-person. But if the writer wanted to be more objective, tell the story from a distance, by someone not involved in the story, he/she might use the third-person objective.

Distance refers to “psychic distance”, the degree to which the reader feels intimacy and identification to the character, or the degree to which the reader feels detachment and alienation from the story.

The writer can also increase the sense of distance in the mind of the reader by using a narrative summary and reduced the distance by using a scene.

First-Person Point of View

The story is told by the narrator of the story. The narrator can be a participant in the story, such as the protagonist, or the narrator can be an observer in the story, watching events as they unfold. To tell the story, the writer uses “I.”

Example: On that sunny day in July, I walked in the woods to a clearing, which lead to the pristine lake, where I took out my fishing rod, attached a worm, and began to fish for salmon…..

The first person POV has all the limitations of real life. The narrator can share his/her own thoughts and feelings, but he/she is unable to report what others are thinking and feeling in their minds. The narrator can only report what he knows.

The big advantage if first-person POV is that it provides the most intimacy for the reader. It is also an eyewitness account, a subjective account, a credible account of what happens in the story.

Second-Person Point of View

When the writer uses second-person “you” to tell the story, he is referring to the reader as a character in the story. This point of view is rarely used by writers because it confuses the reader.

Example: In your lonely home, alone with just the noise of the cat walking on the wooden floor, you sit down, turn on the laptop, and stare at the screen. But you’re not sure of what to write, not sure of whom to write to, not sure you want to continue living this socially isolated life as a writer….

The second person POV is only use by the writer when the character is referred to as “you.” You become the character within the story.

The problem with second person “you” is that it draws attention to itself. It is also difficult to write an entire story using this point of view. It is difficult to avoid using first person “I” or third person “he/she.”

The second person remains an idiosyncratic and experimental form. (Janet Burroway in Writing Fiction)

Third-Person Point of View

The simplest way of understanding third person point of view is that the writer tells the story using “he, she.” Essentially, the writer has three options when choosing third-person point of view:

• Third-person Limited
• Third-person objective
• Third-person omniscient

Third-Person Limited

It is like the first person point of view in the sense that the writer can share the thoughts and feelings of the protagonist or main character—but not any other characters. The writer tells the story using “he/she.”

Example: In the rain, he walked in the dark wood with his shot gun, searching for the black bear that attacked the camp the night before. He was scared, anxious that the bear would appear like a tormented ghost from somewhere beyond. He wasn’t sure if he had the guts to pull the trigger, shoot and kill the beast.

“The big advantage of third-person limited is that it “mimics our individual experience of life, that it is our own ability to penetrate the minds and motivations of others, which can lead to the kinds of conflict or struggles for connection that inspire much fiction.” (Writing Fiction by Janet Burroway)

Third-Person Objective

The writer restricts the story to the facts that can be observed by a particular character. The writer doesn’t reveal the thoughts or feelings of any character and tells the story using “he/she.” The writer reports the story without sharing the thoughts or feelings of the character. For instance, Ernest Hemingway narrates “Hills like White Elephants” using third-person objective. And so the reader must become a detective—trying to figure out what is going on in the story. To do this, the reader must interpret the dialogue and actions of the characters. The reader often learns through inference.

Example: He sat down to write the letter. First, took out a piece of blank paper and a pen. Then he searched for a quote on “Love” in the Book of Famous Quotations. Then he turned on the laptop, connected to the Internet, searched for a love poem…

In third-person objective, the reader learns from interference. This point of view is true to life, in what we often obtain meaning through inference.

Third-Person Omniscient

The narrator is like god, knowing everything that is going on in the story, all events, all thoughts and feelings of each character. The writer tells the story using “he/she.”

The writer can do the following:

1. Objectively report the action of the story.
2. Go into the mind and report the thoughts and feelings of any character
3. Interpret for the reader the characters thoughts, feelings, actions, appearance
4. Tell the reader what has happened in the past or what will happen in the future
5. Move freely in time and space to different scenes; tell the reader what is happening elsewhere in the story.
6. Provide reflections, judgements, and truths

Interior Monologue or Stream of Consciousness

The writer can share the thoughts of the character by using interior monologue or stream of consciousness.

Interior Monologue

The writer can share the thoughts of the character with the reader by using an interior monologue, in which thoughts are described in sequence.

Example: I must get dressed, drink a coffee, read the newspaper…I must exercise and meet Carol for lunch…I must drive to the grocery store, pick up something for dinner….I have so much to do and not enough time.

Stream of Consciousness

The writer shares the thoughts of the character in a disjointed or unorganized way. This method shows how the human mind doesn’t function with order and clarity like the interior monologue. The writer describes any thought as it comes into the character’s mind.

In Ulysses, writer James Joyce used this technique.

Both are written using the first person “I”. However, the writer can also use interior monologue and stream of consciousness in the third-person limited or third-person omniscient. In both cases, the writer would describe the thoughts of the character using “I.”

Conclusion

Each point of view has advantages and disadvantages. The most important point the writer needs to remember is to use a consistent point of view in telling the story. In other words, if the narrator is the first person “I”, the writer tells the story using this point of view, and doesn’t switch to second person “you” or third person “he/she.”

To learn more on POV, you can read:

• The chapter on POV in Janet Burroway’s “Writing Fiction”
• The chapter on POV in “Writing Fiction” from the Gotham Writers’ Workshop

In the next post, I’ll discuss how to write the ending for your short story.

What is suspense in a short story or novel? Suspense keeps the reader reading. It arouses curiosity and keeps the reader turning the page to find out what happens next. “Suspense is the most essential ingredient of plotting”, according to editor and novelist Sol Stein, who writes an interesting chapter on suspense in “On Writing.”

In this article, I’ll explain how to create suspense in a short story or novel.

How to Create Suspense

The writer can create suspense by arousing the reader’s curiosity, which keeps the reader interested as long as possible in finding out what happens in the short story or novel.

Suspense is created when the reader wants something to happen in the story, but the writer holds off providing it. Suspense is also created when the reader wants something to stop in the story, but the writer holds off. For instance, the writer doesn’t end the danger, resolve the life crisis, or end the confrontation. And so the reader feels a sense of anxious uncertainty.

Suspense keeps the reader turning the page in Jack London’s “To Build a Fire” a story about man versus nature. In the story, the protagonist sets out to hike a trail in the Yukon Territory in the winter with out with only a dog as companion. The man is warned by an “old-timer” not to attempt this hike alone because “no man must travel alone in the Klondike after 50 below.” As the story progresses, the protagonist must face setbacks and obstacles, which prevent him from reaching his destination. This creates tension and suspense for the reader.

Suspense can take many forms. Sol Stein identifies several situations that create suspense:

1. A prospective danger to the character
2. An actual or immediate danger to the character.
3. An unwanted confrontation
4. A confrontation desired by one character and not another
5. An old fear about to become a present reality
6. A life crisis that requires immediate action.

The writer creates suspense because the protagonist has a personal stake in what happens. His life might be in jeopardy, his loved one’s might be in danger, what he values might be lost. The point is that if the protagonist loses, it is going to cost him dearly, he is going to suffer, experience a painful outcome, an outcome he wants to avoid.

To create suspense, the writer must delay in resolving whatever is generating the suspense within the particular scene. For instance, the writer delays in bring an end to the danger, delays in bringing an end to the confrontation, delays in resolving the life crisis.

The best way to learn how to create suspense in a story is by reading and analyzing a thrillers or suspense stories that you’ve found riveting, stories that kept you interested, glued to the page. Your task is to learn how the writer created suspense in the story.

In this article, I discussed how to create suspense in fiction. Suspense arouses curiosity in the reader, keeps the reader reading, turning the page to find out what happens next. A memorable work of fiction includes suspense. If your goal is to publish a short story or novel, it will need to include the element of suspense.

In the next post, I’ll discuss Point of View.

Writing a good short story requires that you craft a believable story and also a dream inside the mind of the reader. Including vivid details helps do this. Read any good short story, such as Jack London’s “To Build a Fire,” and you’ll see that it includes vivid details.

Composing a poem is about sharing a meaningful event or experience, and evoking an emotional response. Read a good narrative poem, and you will see that it includes vivid details or description.

Whether you write prose or poetry, you must add vivid details or descriptions to your creative writing. Otherwise, your writing will be ordinary, non-descriptive. You’ll have written forgettable writing–writing that won’t evoke emotion, stir the spirit, touch the soul of the reader.

When you add detail to your creative writing, you are showing the reader, not telling them what is happening, what the narrator is seeing, feeling, tasting…and so forth.

Here’s a good example of how poet Mary Oliver has added detail to make her poem come alive:

Wild Geese

By Mary Oliver

You do not have to be good.

You do not have to walk on your knees

For a hundred miles through the desert repenting.

You only have to let the soft animal of your body

love what it loves.

Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.

Meanwhile the world goes on.

Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain

are moving across the landscapes,

over the prairies and the deep trees,

the mountains and the rivers.

Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,

are heading home again.

Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,

the world offers itself to your imagination,

calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting 

over and over announcing your place

in the family of things.

Techniques of Description

What are the techniques of description that you must use in your creative writing? There are several techniques that you can use, including:

• Sensory details- which appeals to the sense of sight, smell, touch, hearing, taste. Example: It smelt like rotting food in a garbage can…It looked as if someone had taken a baseball bat, swung it widely, trashing the place….It tasted like stale, mouldy bread.
• Concrete and specific details, not general and abstract. Example: Peter Wright, a student in grade 12, wrote a prose poem about social networking on Twitter.
• Authentic details. Your details ought to be original. A good way to start is by freewriting and learning how to think “outside of the box.” In other words, you need to learn creating thinking skills, such as changing perspective, asking why, brainstorming, seeking out alternative ways of describe something.
• Precise details, getting it “just right.” Use a dictionary and thesaurus.
• Don’t be literal. Instead use figurative devices, such as simile, metaphor, symbol, allusion, personification.

When Should You Use Vivid Descriptions?

You need to use them to write prose, such as a short story or personal essay, and to write poetry. Use vivid descriptions for the following:

• to describe the abstract in concrete terms (poetry or fiction)
• to describe the unfamiliar (poetry or fiction)
• to make the reader believe it actually happened, which helps create a dream inside the mind of the reader. (Fiction)
• To make setting, character, inciting incident, conflict, obstacles and setbacks come alive in the story. (Fiction)
• To write a scene in a narrative poem or short story. A scene in creative writing is like a scene in a film. A scene includes time and place details (setting), action, dialogue (not always), and vivid description.
• To create word-pictures in the mind of the reader (Fiction and Poetry)

What to Avoid

You should avoid using the following types of detail:

• Trite details (boring; not fresh or original)
• Clichés (Language that has been overused in speech and writing)
• Abstractions, which appeal to the intellect, not the senses. Use concrete and specific details instead. Example: Don’t say he was kind. Say” He smiled, opened the oak door, allowed me to enter the church first.
• Vague details. You must be precise and specific.

One of the most important attribute of a good piece of creative writing is that it includes vivid description, such as sensory details, concrete and specific descriptions, figurative language, like simile and metaphor.

Whether you write prose or poetry, you’ll need to include vivid descriptions in your creative writing—to make it come alive, to make your writing believable, to make your writing memorable in the mind of the reader.

Jane Burroway in “Writing Fiction” writes that “summary can be called the mortar of the story, but scenes are the building blocks.” When writing a short story, the writer needs to use both scene and summary to craft the story.

In crafting scenes, the writer “shows” the reader what happens by including time and place details, dialogue, action, imagery. The writer crafts scenes to dramatize the story, helping to create a vivid and continuous dream inside the mind of the reader.

The writer also uses summary to” tell” the story. A summary is the material between scenes. It covers a long period of time by compressing time. The writer “tells” the reader what happens in the story. He/she doesn’t show the reader what is happening.

A summary is often a necessary device used by writers to do the following:

• Provide background information
• Description that doesn’t occur in a specific scene
• Compress time
• Provide character reflection, such as interior monologue or stream of consciousness
• Provide narrative commentary

A well written summary can be as good as a scene. You  can use concrete and specific details and sensory details to create a memorable summary. The summary doesn’t include spoken dialogue, but you can tell the reader what was spoken.

You can also use metaphor, simile to create vivid summaries.

The summary is most often used to set up the scene, such as important events that happened in the past or character details that are useful for understanding the protagonist or secondary characters.

The summary can also be used to create tension before the scene.

You can  insert a summary into a scene, such as to share background information, to show a transformation in character through reflection, to provide background information to help the reader understand the character, to understand a transformation in the character, or to control the pace of the scene.

Summary can also be used to change the pace of the story. For instance, to cover a long span of time in which insignificant events occurred or repeating events, the writer often uses a summary, which tells the reader what happened.

A summary needs to be entertaining and enjoyable to read. That is why you must use sensory details and concrete and specific details, and figurative language.

It is possible to write a short story without summary narrative. But this is not common.

You can use a summary to set up the conflict or confrontation—some important event in the plot structure or three act structure.

You should move seamlessly between scene and summary when writing the story. Short bits of summary can often be added in a scene or used to set up a scene.

Many beginning writers summarize too much of the story, telling the reader too many events and compressing too much time. So the story results in a lack of depth. Many beginning writers don’t summarize enough of the story, creating scenes of insignificant events.

You should not use summary to tell the reader about an important conflict, confrontation, turning point. Instead you need to craft a scene. The scene is used to dramatize the story, create a believable story, and show how the story unfolds. Showing through scene is dramatizing the story.

You should not write general and abstract summary narratives. The summary needs to provide the reader with concrete and specific details.

The task of the writer is to balance scene and summary. The writer uses scene to dramatize important events, such as the inciting incident, conflict, setbacks, obstacles, climax of the story.

The write creates a scene by showing the reader what happened. The writer writes a summary by telling the reader what happened, such as a narrative summary or to setup a scene or to provide background information to the story.

For more information on how to write scene and summaries, read the following:

• Writing Fiction by Janet Burroway
• Showing and Telling by Laurie Alberts

Learning to write fiction requires that you not only understand the elements of fiction, such as setting, plot, character, dialogue, theme, but also the techniques of fiction (the craft of fiction) such as characterization, minimalism, epiphany, plot twist, scene, summary, showing, not telling.

In this post, I’ll discuss some of the most popular techniques that writer’s put into use in writing short stories and novels. The following will be covered:

• Showing and Telling
• Flashback
• Minimalism
• Figurative Language
• Realism
• Interior monologue
• Stream of consciousness
• Plot twist
• Epiphany

Showing and telling. The writer dramatizes the story by showing and not telling. Showing the reader what happens helps to construct a believable story. A believable story assists the writer in creating a dream inside the mind of the reader. To create the dream, the reader must narrate the story by “showing” the reading what happens. The best way to show the reader is to provide concrete and specific descriptions, sensory details, and particular details. The writer also narrates the story in scenes, which include dialogue, time and place details, action, description. All scenes have a beginning, middle, and end, and are like a scene in a movie.

At times, the writer will also need to tell the reader what happens, to compress time, to add background details, to show reflection, to provide narrative commentary. The writer does this with a summary—the material in the story between scenes. A summary “tells” the reader what has happened in the story.

Flashback. It is a scene within a scene, or summary, in which the writer reveals details about the past, something that happened before the current narrative, and a way to show fictional time. For instance, it is a way to add background details about events that happened in the past. It is a way to provide background details about the protagonist. This backdrop enables the reader to understand the current story. It is effectively used in storytelling to reveal at the “right point.” The writer can use a scene or summary to write the flashback. The writer often begins by introducing the flashback with the following: I recall…I remember….

Minimalism. It is a literary writing style introduced by Ernest Hemingway, who used short sentences, short paragraphs, concrete nouns, action verbs, and vigorous prose to narrate stories. He used adjectives and adverbs sparingly. His prose were sparse. He made ever word count—each word had to provide meaning to the story; Otherwise, he omitted that word. His writing was based on his “iceberg theory”, which demands that writer’s do one thing—omit. This metaphor suggests that there is a visible iceberg—and below the surface, there is unseen depth, or subtext. Hemingway omitted every detail nonessential to the emotion he was trying to create in the story. He omitted nonessential details that would create a plodding read. He omitted backstory that could be guessed by reading the plot. By omitting detail, not sharing everything with the reader, Hemingway is able to create “subtext”, emotional tension, suggested meaning—more powerful than if he stated it in detail with words. He created significant meaning through understatement and omission—and the silences throughout the story.  For more information on how to develop the minimalist style of writing, you can read Writing Like Hemingway by R. Wilson.

Figurative Language. The writer describes one thing by comparing it to something else. It is a good literary device to use to compare the abstract with something concrete, in order to be understood by the reader. Writers use various types of “figurative language” to create a dream inside the mind of the reader, add vivid details, entertain the reader, and create a memorable story. Common types a figurative language used by writer are simile, metaphor, symbolism, and personification. When the writer uses simile, he/she makes a direct comparison between two different things using “like” or “as”. When the writer uses metaphor, he/she makes an indirect comparison between two different things by suggesting that “a” is “b.” For instance, he is a robot at work. The writer uses existing symbols in literature, such as a cross, black crow, blue sky, sunset, or creates new symbols. The symbol is something that has deeper meaning, different meaning than its literal meaning. For instance, her cheeks are like red roses. When the writer uses personification, he assigns human attributes or characteristics to things or object or animals. For instance, The dog talked to me as we walked along the lonely path.

Realism. A realistic short story or novel depicts setting, inciting incident, scenes, and characters realistically, in accordance with the reality as most readers perceive it. The writer narrates a story that includes characters and events which are apparently the most ordinary and uninteresting, in order to extract from these their full value and true meaning. The writer describe human behaviour and surroundings or to represent figures and objects exactly as they act or appear in life. Realism is nothing more and nothing less than a true to life portrayal human nature and the human condition. Writer Anton Chekhov used realism in writing his short stories.

Stream of Consciousness. When using first person POV, the writer can use this literary device to reveal the disjointed or disorganized thoughts, feelings perceptions, and memories that flow in and out of the main character’s mind. It is a special mode of narration that undertakes to capture the full spectrum and the continuous flow of a character’s mental process. James Joyce used this technique in Ulysses (1922), and it was further developed by Virginia Woolf in Mrs Dalloway (1925) and William Faulkner in The Sound and the Fury (1928). The writer tries to capture a character’s unbroken flow of internal thoughts. The writer can describe the unspoken thoughts and feelings of a character without the devices of objective narration or dialogue. In “To the Lighthouse”, Virginia Woolf makes constant use of this technique, and it is established as the predominant style from the beginning. In this novel, the action occurs not in the outside world but in the thoughts and feelings of the characters as exhibited by the ongoing narrative.

Interior monologue. When using the first person or third person subjective, the writer has the ability to enter into the mind of the main character, and share what the character is thinking and feeling. When the writer puts into use interior monologue, the reader is able to uncover the character’s thoughts in sequence. The writer presents the thoughts of the character in logical progression, often by describing  inner conflict, imagined dialogue, or self-analysis. Most often the writer uses interior monologue in reflection or the memories the character has. The interior monologue is like hearing the character’s internal thoughts. The writer can describe the unspoken thoughts and feelings of a character without the devices of objective narration or dialogue. In “To the Lighthouse”, Virginia Woolf makes constant use of this technique, and it is established as the predominant style from the beginning. In this novel, the action occurs not in the outside world but in the thoughts and feelings of the characters as exhibited by the ongoing narrative.  

Plot Twist. Something unexpected happens in the story. It is a change in the expected outcome or expected ending of a story. When a plot twist happens near the end of a story, especially if it changes one’s view of the preceding events, it is known as a twist ending. A writer uses a plot twist to create surprise and build tension and add suspense.

Epiphany. It is a sudden revelation or insight which inspires the character, most often the protagonist, to change his views or beliefs, and his/her behaviour. It occurs in the mind of the character, and results in character change. It is caused from a particular event, experience, conflict in the story, most often revealed in a particular important scene . Epiphany is the moment of sudden revelation or insight by the character, and the epiphany must result in some action by the character. James Joyce first introduced the technique of epiphany in his collection of short stories “Dubliners.”

For more information on how to learn the craft of writing a short story, you can read “”by Janet Burroway.

The writer can show the reader what happens by crafting scenes. A scene in a short story is like a scene in a film. Something happens. A scene expands time. It takes place in a particular time and location, includes action, and dialogue. In short, something happens in a scene. Events are dramatized.

In a summary, the writer tells the reader what happened by reporting or summarizing. Summaries compress time. Summaries are the content between scenes in a short story or novel. The writer crafts a summary with background information, interior thoughts, and descriptions not in scenes, reflection, or narrative commentary.

When writing a short story or novel, the writer must include both scenes and summaries.

In the next three posts, I’ll discuss summary and scene. In this article, I will explain how to write a scene. The following will be covered:

• Definition of a scene
• Purpose of a scene
• Structure of a scene
• Types of scenes

Definition of a Scene

A scene in a short story or novel is like a scene in a film. A scene brings the story to life, makes the story seem real in the mind of the reader.

When a writer crafts a scene, he is show the reader what is happening in the story. He is dramatizing what is happening. A scene must include the following:

• Setting details. The writer must include a time and location.
• Action. Something must happen in a scene. So, a scene includes some event or conflict. Characters engage in some sort of action.
• Description. A writer must include concrete and specific details and sensory details.

As well, a scene can include the following:

• Dialogue
• Thoughts of the character, such as an interior monologue.

You should be aware that scenes usually include dialogue, the spoken conversation between characters in the story.

Purpose of Scenes

The writer crafts a scene to make the story believable. The writer dramatizes one or more events. In short, the writer shows the reader what is happening in the story. A scene has a number of purposes:

• Dramatize events
• Move action or plot forward
• Introduce or intensify conflict
• Develop character
• Introduce theme
• Establish mood
• Provide resolution to the story

Structure of a Scene

A scene dramatizes one or more events in a story. All scenes have a particular structure. A scene includes the following:

• Beginning
• Middle
• Ending

There are no rules for beginning a scene. The writer can introduce a scene in several ways. For instance, the writer can introduce a character, action, setting details. The writer can begin in the midst of action or dialogue.

In the middle of the scene, the writer intensifies conflict, develops character describes the action.

In the scene ending, the writer can leave the scene unresolved to create suspense, tension, conflict. Or the writer end the scene with resolution, draw it to a close. Sometimes the writer ends a scene with action or dialogue. It all depends on the type of scene.

Types of Scenes

There are many types of scenes that you can write. Here are a few:

• Scenes that provide background details for future scenes
• Scene that introduces or develops conflict
• Scene that introduces or develops character
• Scene that shows action
• Suspense scene
• Flashback scene
• Resolution scene

The writer crafts a scene to develop conflict, reveal the character, describe the action, show conflict, create suspense.

A flashback scene is a scene within a scene. The writes shows the reader what happened in the past. It allows the reader to understand what is happening in the current scene.

Learning how to Write Scenes

To learn how to craft a scene, read and analyze short stories. A good place to start is by reading The Norton Anthology of Short Fiction. Discover how the writer creates a scene by analyzing the short story, paying attention to the way the writer creates the scene, paying attention to the elements of the scene–action, dialogue, vivid description, time and location details.

For more information on how to write a scene, read the following:

• Showing & Telling by Laurie Alberts
• Writing Fiction by Jane Burroway

Remember, you will construct scenes to make your story believable, to dramatize your story, and to create an entertaining story.

A scene occurs in a specific time and location. Something happens, some sort of event takes place.

To write a scene, the writer shows the reader what happens by using concrete and specific descriptions, dialogue, action, setting details.

In the next post, I’ll explain some of the techniques that writers use to craft short stories and novels.

Hemingway, for instance, wrote stories using a minimalist style. He used short sentences, nouns and verbs, short paragraphs, and vigorous language to tell his stories.

Cormac McCarthy also wrote “The Road” with a minimalist writing style. He often used short sentences, sentence fragments, and fancy vocabulary. As well, he did not use quotation marks to indicate that characters were speaking.

Vladimir Nabokov wrote the novel,” Lolita”, a tragic comedy using a creative style of long sentences and fancy words, irony and wordplay, such as verbal puns and anagrams.

Each of these writers narrated the story with a distinct voice and unique writing style.

In this article, I’ll discuss voice and style as it relates to  novels or short stories. The following will be covered:

• Definition of voice in the story
• Writer’s voice versus narrator’s voice
• Definition of the writer’s writing style
• How an aspiring writer can develop his/her voice and style

Voice of the Story

What is voice in fiction? Voice is one of the elements for analyzing fiction and a technique for writing a short story or novel. Voice is what the reader hears when reading the story. Voice is the narrator of the story.

Writers use several types of voices to narrate their stories. The important thing to remember is to keep the voice of the story consistent. Here some of the more common voices that writers use:

• Conversational voice. As you read the story, you feel like the narrator is engaged in a conversation with the reader. The story is told using the POV of first person. J.D. Salinger uses this voice to tell the story of “Catcher in the Rye.”
• Informal voice. It’s not as conversational. The narrator of the story uses everyday language. The story is told using first person or third person POV. Raymond told the story of “Cathedral” with an informal voice.
• Formal voice. The narrator is detached from the main character as the story is told. The narration uses fancy prose and language. Both the stories of “Lolita” and “The Great Gatsby” were told using the formal voice.
• Other voices. Writers have put into use many other voices to tell short stories or novels. For instance, Virginia Woolf used stream of consciousness. Other writers have used a lyrical voice like as though writing poetry.

 Writer’s Voice versus Narrator’s Voice

The narrator of the story is not the author or writer of the story. Yet, it is easy to confuse because some narrators do speak in a voice that resembles the author of the story. This confusion can also occur when a story has a first-person point of view or narrative. You need to be aware that the narrator or voice of the story is a construction, a technique used by the writer, to tell the story.

To decide whether to refer to the author or narrator of the story, ask yourself the following questions:

Are you quoting the text of the novel or short story? If so, you are referring to the narrator or voice of the story.

Are you asking questions about writing style, choice of diction, literary devices, such as simile, metaphor, symbolism? Then you are referring to the author’s voice.

The writer’s voice consists of the writing style and writer’s view of the world, such as his/her beliefs, opinions, values, personal experiences. Essentially, the writer’s voice is everything he/she embodies and puts into use to write the story.

Remember: The voice of the story is the voice of the narrator.

Writing Style of a Fiction Writer

What is writing style? It refers to the various literary techniques and stylistic choices the writer puts into use to craft the short story or novel. In particular, the writer’s style focuses on the following:

• Writer’s choice of diction
• Sentence length, sentence variety, syntax
• Paragraph length

Writer’s Choice of Diction

Diction refers to the word choices of the writer. It all depends on the voice and point of view of the story. Here are some types of diction that writers use:

• Profanity and vulgarisms
• Obscenities
• Contractions
• Conversational and colloquial
• Formal language
• Fancy language

Writer’s Sentence Style

A good writer writes a story using different types of sentences and different lengths of sentences. Here are the common styles of sentences writers use:

• Sentence fragment (phrase or dependent clause)
• Simple sentence ( A single independent clause)
• Compound sentence ( Two independent clauses joined by coordinating conjunction )
• Complex sentence (One independent clause joined by one or more dependent clauses. A complex clause always has a subordination such as though, although, since, because…)
• Periodic sentence ( modifiers + modifier +. Modifier…main clause at end)
• Cumulative or loose sentence (main clause + modifier + modifier + modifier…)
• Items in a series ( Main clause that includes series of items. Example: He wrote the first draft, revised it, printed a hard copy, handed it in to the professor.)

Writer’s Paragraph Style

There is no rule about how long or short a paragraph should be. Writers use different lengths, some very short, such as a sentence. Other writer construct long, detailed paragraphs.

Often writer’s craft a new paragraph for any of the following:

• When a different character speaks
• Shift in time
• Shift in place
• Change of action
• New scene
• Writing a summary

Some writers combine shifts in time and place and action, and so on. Other writers construct sparse paragraphs of only a sentence for dramatic effect. A short paragraph of only a single sentence is emphatic. A longer paragraph is has more detail, and so is slower in pace.

In the end, the choice of using short paragraphs or long paragraphs is a stylistic choice that each writer makes on his own, or with the assistance of an editor.

Developing Your Voice and Writing Style

As an aspiring writer of fiction, how can you develop your voice and writing style? In short, it takes time.

Essentially, you must experience life, read lots of short stories and novels, analyze the writing styles of great writer’s such as Hemingway, Chekhov, Atwood, Faulkner, Alice Munro, and many more. Write, write, write. In fact, you must write every day.

Here are a few suggestions for developing your voice and writing style:

1.  Learn how to write well. Read and learn The Elements of Style by Strunk and White
2. Read and great fiction, such as Lolita, 1984, The Wars, Portnoy’s Complaint, The Road, Catcher in the Rye.
3. Analyze great fiction. Understand how the writer used the element of fiction to craft the story. Understand how the writer crafted the opening and ending.
4. Learn how to tell a story. A short story includes a motive, conflict, climax or turning point, and resolution.
5. Read Francine Prose’s book “Reading Like a Writer: A Guide for People Who Love Books and for those Who Want to Write them.”
6. Learn the techniques for writing fiction. For instance, how to construct setting, create memorable characters, develop a plot, open and end your story. A good book to help you learn is Janet Burroway’s “Writing Fiction”, the Gotham Writer’s Workshop’s “Writing Fiction”, and Tom Bailey’s “On Writing Short Stories.”
7. Read the great short stories in Norton Anthology of Short Stories, and then analyze them, to understand the writer’s style and literary devices used.
8. Take a workshops or courses in writing short stories or novels.
9. Write, write, write. If you want to become a writer, you must write. You must write every day. You must experiment with your writing. Start by keeping a journal.

In this article, I discussed the concept of voice and writing style. I also explained the difference between the writer’s voice and the narrator’s voice. I concluded by providing you with some useful suggestions on how to develop your voice and writing style.

If you really want to become a writer of fiction, you must work at it. Great writer’s learned the craft of writing fiction and read widely and deeply. You must do the same.