Story Suggestions

Do not make your story overly complicated or overly long. If you are aiming for a ten-page story, you do not need multiple settings and multiple characters. Keep your length and general structure in mind. Ten pages is really not much. I would suggest only one or two main characters and one or two settings. You do not need a long sequence of events. You do not need a long complicated plot. Keep it simple.

Focus on your main character[s]. Picture the character in your mind. Get to know this character. Then set this character in motion. I suggest your story be character-driven (as opposed to plot driven).

Rather than try to invent an exotic setting, develop something familiar. This is a real short cut, since you can see imaginatively what you need to describe. A dorm room? A scene at a party or at a club? A street scene? In a classroom? If you set your story in a far away exotic place, Tahiti or Peru, you will have to do some background research to gather descriptive details.

Rather than try to invent exotic character types, develop something familiar. You do not need international assassins or dope smugglers. Use familiar characters and/or familiar personality types. You might even use people you know, and possibly yourself, as models for your characters.

Keep your tone in mind. Is your story going to be sad, funny, or ironic. Consider how you want your readers to feel at the end of the story. Be consistent in your tone. A funny story ordinarily would not suddenly become a tragic story.

Be descriptive. Use visual details to allow readers to see your characters and settings. Don’t say “a car.” Rather, say that the car was a mud-splattered dark blue Ford 150 pickup truck with a broken taillight.

Consider how your story will build tension and reader expectation, and then how it will resolve this tension, satisfying reader expectation.

Consider how and why your story will hold reader attention. Is there relevance? What is interesting enough to keep the reader from stopping halfway through the story?

Consider what point of view will work best for you. First person? Third person? You might try to begin the story in one perspective, and then restart the story in the other. Which seems to work best?

Show, don’t tell. If a character is sad, or happy, don’t just say that he or she is sad, or happy. Use description to dramatize how the character is sad, or happy. “Jane screamed with delight when she saw Brad step off the train.”