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Top Five Tips for Writing Great Short Stories

June 9, 2023 By Susan Paige Leave a Comment

 

As an aspiring writer passionate about short stories, you will want to know that a short story differs from writing a novel. Short stories are interesting and fun to read. A good short story can be a one-sentence story or as long as seven thousand words.

Here are the top five tips for writing great short stories.

Keep reading!

 

Integrate a Conflict

If you are new to writing, we suggest that you take one of the best creative writing classes to know what is expected of you – especially in connection to how to integrate conflict in your story. If you want your readers on the edge where they are dying to know what is happening in the story, you will want to focus on conflict.

By integrating conflict, you will create much-needed tension in the story, which will also be the force to drive the narrative forward. Conflict often discloses a deeper theme or meaning in a narrative while bringing to light the character’s values, weaknesses, and motivations.

When it comes to creating a conflict, you can do it in several ways. For instance, you could portray the character as having a dilemma. Or – the character could have a revelation that would fill them with tension while deciding.

A good dose of tension and conflict can keep the readers hooked to the narrative and invested from the very beginning to end.

If you have to be a sadist – don’t hesitate to do it. As a good writer, you will want to be a sadist by making bad things happen to the main characters. This way, you will reveal the characters’ motivations, weaknesses, and strengths to the readers, which will make them emotionally attached to the characters by relating to them.

We know that all humans are flawed and that perfect humans are not relatable. You get the point – a good short story needs a good dose of conflict and tension.

 

Integrate a Backstory

You can leave a little space to narrate a character’s backstory. You can also leave out the backstory – remember – you aren’t writing a novel, and you have a limited amount of words you need to use.

With that said, you will want to ensure that every sentence counts. Even if a single word looks like an extra – it has to go. Of course, you won’t be describing the backstory on paper – but – you, as the author of the short story, need to have the full picture in your mind.

You need to be aware of the character’s motivation and use it as a way to write a compelling story.

You can use dialogue, monologues, and tension to give the readers an insight into the backstory and engage all their senses.

 

Appeal to the Reader’s Senses

You will want to use words to appeal to the reader’s five senses instead of focusing only on the visual experience. You will want to use words in your short story carefully and creatively to transport your readers into the world of your characters by letting them experience the world through seeing, touching, smelling, tasting, and hearing it.

Now you get the point of what it means to show and not tell with the use of words. You will be using words to invite the readers to experience the full extent of the world’s small and big things.

You will want to make your readers feel as if they are present in the world with the characters – living the situation or event with the characters.

A short story is different from a novel – while the novel allows you to introduce one scene after the other – you will have to use words, dialogues, and characters in a way to tell the entire story and make your readers a part of the story.

 

Use Dialogue

As a first-time short story writer, you can easily fall into the trap of writing scenes and forgetting dialogues on the way.

You will want only to depend a little on the scenes because you only have limited words. You will want to reach a conclusion quickly compared to a novel where you can dive from one scene to another.

Good dialogue is crucial for character development and making the short story come to life. When you place characters in a scene, you will want to give them something to do, bring the reader’s attention to the dialogue, and eventually advance the story through dialogue.

You can also use dialogue to set up conflict and build drama through an exchange of dialogue. While using dialogue, make sure that it suits the character and that it feels real so the readers get drawn into the story.

 

Become a Ruthless Editor

Irrespective of how good you think you nailed your first draft – there is always room to make it more compelling and concise. To improve your writing skills drastically, you will want to become a ruthless editor of your own work.

You will want to understand the primary principle: edit ruthlessly – keep going despite the hurt. Editing ruthlessly is even more important in a short story because the more precise the story, the more likely your readers will read it until the end.

Initially, you will find it hard to cut out even a word – much less an entire sentence. But – if the sentence or the word doesn’t add to your overall message or story – then it is not something your readers would like to read.

With that said, feel free to edit your work ruthlessly. This isn’t about you – but it is about your readers. You will want to do everything possible to write a better and more compelling story for them to give them the ultimate reading experience.

While editing your short story, you will want to combine your characters wherever possible. You will also want to delete extra scenes and get right to the conflict of the story. Instead of telling, you will want to focus on showing.

Also, make every sentence in your short story count. No fluff is allowed. So, make sure to eliminate all unnecessary words, including adjectives and adverbs.

 

Filed Under: Books

Teach Your Child About Finances With This Book

March 7, 2019 By MelissaB 3 Comments

As a mom and personal finance blogger, I get the opportunity to review many books.  One that I just reviewed that I can’t recommend highly enough is Sunny Lee’s book, Is Your Child a Money Master or a Money Monster?

Money Master or Money Monster?

Sunny Lee is a financial advisor, and she has taken the time to teach her twin sons about money.  In fact, her strategy has worked so well that she’s sharing all her techniques in this book.

Lee has a variety of strategies for teaching kids about money in a fun, incentive-filled way.

Offer rewards.  Lee’s strategy of offering her children rewards helps shape their behavior in a positive direction.  For instance, when her sons were in 1st grade, Lee developed the Morning Stuff Allowance Project.  Each morning, her kids had to get up when their alarms went off, tidy their rooms, get dressed, pack their backpacks, and make and eat their own breakfast and get to school on time.  If they did this every day, they earned $3 a week.

While the kids were motivated by the money, they were also unknowingly developing skills that would help them through the rest of their lives.  Even better, Lee didn’t have to fight with her boys in the morning to get up and get their chores done.  Everyone in her household could enjoy a more peaceful morning.

Play games.  As the boys got older, part of Lee’s strategy to teach them about money was to give them a safe place to experiment.  She did this by finding a variety of free, money based games online.  Her boys experimented online with running a coffee shop.  They had to decide when to discount their coffee based on the season, how much inventory to buy, etc.

Try out your skills in the real world.  Finally, Lee let her sons experiment and try their money skills in the real world.  An important component of this was to let them fail in small ways.  One son spent a large sum of money on a hat, which he loved, but then he didn’t have money available for a while after that.  Her other son learned from his brother and bought a hat at a discounted market so he wouldn’t use all of his money on one item.

Lee’s book contains seven strategies to teach your kids about money (and as a byproduct, teach them personal responsibility).  One thing I loved about the book and her strategy is that she keeps adding layers to her plan.  For instance, after her kids mastered the Morning Stuff Allowance Project, that remained in place, but Lee added on the Special Incentive Project.  If her boys chose to, they could earn additional money throughout the week by completing a book report, doing an art project, etc.  Again, she helped her children grow academically and artistically through an incentive.

I highly recommend this book to anyone looking to not only give their children a strong financial footing, but also a strong work ethic.

Have you read this book?  What is your favorite book to teach kids about money?

MelissaB
MelissaB

Melissa is a writer and virtual assistant. She earned her Master’s from Southern Illinois University, and her Bachelor’s in English from the University of Michigan. When she’s not working, you can find her homeschooling her kids, reading a good book, or cooking. She resides in New York, where she loves the natural beauty of the area.

www.momsplans.com/

Filed Under: Books, Children, Married Money, pf books Tagged With: book review, Books, children, money

The Recovering Spender – Book Review

September 13, 2016 By Shane Ede Leave a Comment

As personal finance bloggers, Lauren Greutman and I travel in a few similar circles on Facebook. So, when she announced on one of the groups that I am a part of that she was releasing The Recovering Spender, and that she was looking for some bloggers to read and review the book, I jumped at the opportunity. I don’t do a whole lot of book reviews on here.  I should probably do more, but especially lately, most of my reading time is taken up by textbooks. I do a few reviews here and there of fiction books, but I tend to keep those isolated to my author/book blog, Novelnaut.

Shortly before the official launch date of the book, Lauren and her team sent me an advanced copy of the book in one of the best book review packages I’ve ever seen.  Lauren really knows how to make a person feel special! But, you likely aren’t reading this to find out about the confetti and handwritten thank you note she sent with the book. So, let’s get to the review.

What is the Recovering Spender about?

The Recovering Spender Cover
Must Read for Spenders

As you can imagine, I’ve read a few books on the subject of personal finance. One of the first, and most influential in my personal finance journey was Dave Ramsey’s Total Money Makeover. Reading that book change a lot of the ideas I had about money, and how it should be handled. The Recovering Spender has the capability to be that book for a lot of people.

Every one of us knows a spender. They’re the people in our lives that are always spending their money. And spending money they don’t have. Maybe it’s your spouse (it was for Lauren’s husband), or maybe it’s a close friend. You know at least one. You do.

[Tweet “If you struggle with spending, debt, and personal finance, you owe it to yourself to find a copy of The Recovering Spender and read it. http://amzn.to/2crCt5E #therecoveringspender “]

In The Recovering Spender, Lauren shares her own story of coming to the realization that she was a spender. She writes candidly about the deep hole of debt that she created through her spending habits, and how crushing it was. She then talks about the decision to come clean, and the grace that her husband had in not only handling the situation, but joining with her in trying to find ways to pay the debt off. If you’ve ever struggled with your personal finances, even if you’re not a spender, you’re going to see some parallels in Lauren’s story.

Becoming a Recovering Spender

Instead of crumbling under the debt, Lauren and her husband decided to beat it. And beat it they did. Through a whole lot of trial and error, and some pretty creative saving, they eventually reached a debt free life! Like some of the other addiction programs, the Recovering Spender program has 12 steps that you can follow to overcome your spending habits, save money, and pay off your debt.

She’s really condensed all her own work down into a set of tools (worksheets and other resources) and advice that should give the spender in your life (even if it’s you!) a real sense of hope that it can be done, and a push to start doing it.

The Recovering Spender, by Lauren Greutman, has earned itself a spot on my book recommendation list right next to Ramsey’s Total Money Makeover. If you struggle with spending, debt, and personal finance, you owe it to yourself to find a copy of The Recovering Spender and read it.

Shane Ede

I started this blog to share what I know and what I was learning about personal finance. Along the way I’ve met and found many blogging friends. Please feel free to connect with me on the Beating Broke accounts: Twitter and Facebook.

You can also connect with me personally at Novelnaut, Thatedeguy, Shane Ede, and my personal Twitter.

www.beatingbroke.com

Filed Under: Books, ShareMe Tagged With: lauren greutman, recovering spender, spender

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