How to Plot Your Short Story

We've talked about the different type of short stories, different challenges, and ways that habits and short stories interact.  Today we're going to touch on the idea of plotting the short story.  I'll go through how I plot and why it works for me.  You can feel free to try them out or see if one of the methods I use for a longer short story might work for you as flash fiction.

1. Drabble: This is pretty straight forward for me.  I look for a prompt, feel it out by finding a definition or a picture, and try to figure out which characters I have would work best for the prompt.  This is where one of the big books of prompts would help me and it has in the past.  The only problems I run into is that sometimes I think a character and prompt fit but then they don't.  When that happens, I will brain dump why it might not be working, which is a form of outlining sometimes, and one of two things will happen.  I'll either go back to the drawing board and find a new character or the block will be broken to write the drabble.

2. Flash fiction: This is where plotting gets a bit more involved.  Sometimes I'll use the same idea as the drabble.  I'll find a prompt, select a character, and write.  Sometimes it's a bit more tricky, like when I do a challenge and people have to read it, but that seems to be few and far between.  When I do a challenge, I'll sit with the prompt and sketch out what I would like to write.  Do I want to do fantasy or do I want to do a genre that is a bit outside of my comfort area?  Do I want to use a character I know and love or would that be a point against me?  It involved a bit of a brain dump at times, so I know what I'm doing but also so I can write a stronger story.  I find that I do a lot less editing when I've brain dumped ahead of time or sketched out a basic framework of my story.  That framework might be more of when to introduce or not introduce a plot point or character but that's about it.

3. Short Story: This is where it gets fun.  What I like to do with a short story is create an outline of scenes as a pathway from start to finish.  Sometimes I end up with a story that I realize would be better as a novella or novel than a short story.  Sometimes I realize that I have a plot hole and I need to fill it in by creating a side character or adding a bit more to my main character.  Either way, I try to make sure that it is a cohesive story.  Now, this is the only time that I don't do a brain dump because I create an outline.  Also, I usually have a story idea that came to me instead of using a prompt.  This is not to say that I won't use a prompt from time to time to write a short story but it's less likely when I write the longer short story.  I usually already have a story in mind, I outline it, and realize that the short story format will work for it or it won't.

So, that is how I plot my short stories.  Do you feel these would work for you or do you have another way that you plot out a short story?  Feel to share it below in the comments or hit me up on either Facebook or Twitter.  Have a good Monday and keep on writing!

Short Stories and Characters

When I first talked about short stories, I brought up that one of the problems is characters.  I meant it as a way that there are times, in short stories, where there are too many characters and you need to cut them out.  The characters that you need to cut out, especially when you're hitting the ceiling of the word count, are the ones in the background.  The ones that don't do something but you introduce them anyways because it seems like a good idea.  Those are the ones who get cut.  They wouldn't if you were writing a novel, unless an editor thought it was a good idea, but you need the words in a short story, so they go.

This post isn't talking about that though.  This post is more to remind you that, no matter what you're writing, you need to have well rounded characters.  Even though you don't have as many words as you do in a novel, your characters still have to connect to your readers.  They have to connect to the other characters in your story and feel like normal people.  That is the baseline for all stories, no matter the length - well, maybe not drabbles as those are so short, but that's what your characters should be like.

There are character templates out there, through simple Google searches, and I recommend that you try a few.  You might take some things out while making your characters, but this needs to be apart of whatever you do in the writing process.  Characters matter, as they're usually the vehicle for your story, and you should not skimp on them just because you're writing a short story.

That's it for the day, really.  It was just a PSA on not forgetting to make sure your characters shine.  Until next time, keep on writing and don't forget your characters!

Writing Prompt: A Drabble

Title: Minutes
Prompt: Introduction from 100 Themes Challenge Writing Prompts

My palms are sweaty, going over the different ways to introduce myself to a person that I never met before, as minutes ticked away. My parents and his were trying to arrange a marriage for both of us and this first meeting was critical for if it would go forward at all. He would know my name and would he care about anything else? Would he care that I love H.P. Lovecraft and wanted to study literature? Would he care about my favorite color or food? The doorbell rang and all the questions would be answered in a few minutes.