New Daily Writing Guides from The Write Practice

9 Key Elements of a Short Story: What They Are and How to Apply Them

If you’re new to short story writing, it can be intimidating to think of fitting everything you need in a story into a small word count. Do you need to apply certain elements of a short story in order for it to be great?

Writers like you struggle with this all the time.

You might want to develop deep character backgrounds with a huge cast of characters, amazing settings, and have at least two subplots. And that’s great. But that wouldn’t be writing a short story.

You might try to cut some of these things, and then all the sudden you don’t have a character arc or a climax or an ending.

Every story has basic elements; a short story’s basic elements are just more focused than a novel’s. But all those elements must be there, and yes, they need to fit into a short word count.

In this article, you’ll learn what you need to make sure your short story is a complete story—with three famous short story examples. These story elements are what you should focus on when writing a short piece of fiction.

5 Reasons to Use Pictures as Writing Prompts

by Sarah Gribble | 0 Comments

If you follow any kind of writing blog or social page, you’ve probably seen picture writing prompts before. People love them and there’s no end to sites that provide them. Not to mention the millions of pictures that are out there that aren’t “official” writing prompts. You’ve probably got a ton on your phone that could spark an idea.

If you haven’t taken the plunge and tried writing from picture writing prompts before, here are five reasons why you should.

10 Ways to Master Pacing in Writing and Keep Your Readers Riveted

by Joslyn Chase | 1 Comment

If you’ve ever run a marathon, or a 10K, or even a 5K race, you know that pacing is important. If you pour it on at full speed right off the starting line and keep that up without variation, you’ll run out of steam and be unable to finish.

You do the same thing to your reader if you don’t vary the pace. Fast or slow, if you don’t provide some variety for your reader, they won’t finish either. So let’s take a closer look at pacing and how it can help you create a better experience for your readers.

Story Development Process That Works

by Sue Weems | 0 Comments

I often hear practicing writers ask, “What if I can’t think of anything to write about?” Sometimes they even have notebooks full of observations, but they feel like none of them are good enough for a story.

I’ve felt the same way, but there are more opportunities or seeds for ideas in our notebooks than we think. It might be an image, a snippet of a conversation we overheard at lunch, or a social issue that grates against us. Once we have the seeds, how do we take those seeds and develop them into stories?

How to Write a Thrilling Chase Story

by Joslyn Chase | 1 Comment

Why are games of Hide and Seek or Tag so appealing? I think it’s because they play with our emotions and instincts as hunters and hunted. They stir the elemental embers of our flight response. As an adult, you may not indulge in actual games of tag, but I’ll bet you still love to participate by proxy in the pages of a thrilling book or on the screen.

As a writer, learning to use a chase story, also known as the pursuit plot, will strengthen and diversify your toolbox and may help you create an awesome book.

What is Metonymy? Definition, Types, and Examples Explained

by Robert Harrell | 0 Comments

If you’ve heard the saying, “The pen is mightier than the sword,” then you’ve experienced metonymy. But what is metonymy and how is it used in writing? Let’s look at the definition, types, and examples of metonymy.

How to Edit a Short Story: A Step-By-Step Process Every Writer Can Handle

by Sarah Gribble | 0 Comments

Writing a short story is difficult, but there’s a special learning curve that comes with how to edit a short story. Even though there is a small word count, where do you start?

The editing process might not be your favorite part of the writing process (or maybe it is!), but it’s a necessary one.

Editing your short story can push the story idea into a whole new arena, which will make it more likely to grab a reader, whether or not that’s a fellow writer, editor, or writing contest judge.

In this article, I’ll take you through the step-by-step process of editing a short story. I’ll share the step-by-step process you should use to break down your editing phase into manageable chunks and what to focus on with each editing pass.

Sequence of Events in a Story: How to Order Scenes That Build Suspense

by Joslyn Chase | 0 Comments

Have you ever felt cheated when reading a book? Like the author held back information that would have enhanced your reading experience? Or neglected to include all the relevant details that would have allowed you to solve the mystery? Did the sequence of events in the story feel…off?

Think about this:

What if J.K. Rowling neglected to have Hagrid tell Harry about his parents’ deaths until the end of The Sorcerer’s Stone?

What if the writers of Die Hard had let Hans Gruber discover Holly was John McClane’s wife right up front?

What if Suzanne Collins had forgotten to alert readers to a rule change allowing tributes from the same district to win as a team in The Hunger Games?

Leaving out these vital pieces of information—or putting them in the wrong place—would have robbed these stories of a full measure of suspense. This would have dulled the impact of their final scenes.

As a writer, you never want readers to feel cheated or disappointed by your book. But how can you make sure you include all the relevant pieces of the puzzle, in the right order, to sustain suspense and satisfy your reader?

Short Story Tips: 3 Successful Strategies to Write a Short Story

by Sarah Gribble | 2 Comments

Knowing how to write a short story seems like it’s a no-brainer. They’re short; how hard could it be? However, once you start writing a short story you’ll probably realize that you don’t know how to write a short story. You’d like to some short story tips.

A novel has hundreds of pages to get you involved in the characters’ lives and to transform you to another world, all to leave you with a great ending that you’re thinking about weeks—maybe even years—later.

In a short story, you have to do all that in a few pages. It’s no wonder most of the “new” writers I know would rather write novels. Short stories may be small, but they are mighty. (Not to mention they are a great way to keep up a writing habit.)

Chances are your favorite author started their writing career by writing short stories. Big names and favorite writers like Stephen King, Neil Gaiman, Ray Bradbury, Kurt Vonnegut, Shirley Jackson, Louisa May Alcott, Sylvia Plath are all short story writers.

I’ve talked about coming up with ideas, plotting, and some key elements of short stories. Now it’s time to stop dilly-dallying and get to writing. This article covers three successful short story tips and strategies to write a short story.

How to Research a Novel: 9 Key Strategies

by Joslyn Chase | 3 Comments

Have you ever started a story, gotten halfway through, and realized you don’t know key facts about your story’s world? Have you ever wondered how to find out the size of spoons in Medieval England for your fantasy adventure story? Is that even relevant to your plot, or could you skip that fact? Here’s how to do research for your story.

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