How do I go about writing interesting short stories?

Question

Are you a short story author? How do I write an interesting short story?
I am a creative person, I do acting classes & play the piano. Can you tell me all the different genres of story writing?
Can you tell the the basic steps of writing a short story?

Please send me your short stories if you like, I will tell you what I think of them.

Should I commit to a certain number of words/pages? Or just let the story end where it seems appropriate?

Answer 1

There's stories all around you. What do you enjoy, non-fiction or fiction? Drama, Horror, Thrillers, Romance, Mystery, Crime, Science Fiction, Fantasy...

Next, spend some time reading, there are wonderful books on the subject, which could answer all your questions.

If you haven't already, start taking notes on story ideas, which you can later use when writing...

Start noticing family, friends and strangers more, study them, and how they respond to things. Notice body Language and Pronunciation of words, more then simply their accent.

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Book: Writers Market
Price: Around $30

Book: Write Great Fiction
by: James Scott Bell
Price: $16.99

Book: Anybody Can Write
Roberta Jean Bryant
Price: $5.98

Writers Digest Mag.
________

university.barnesandnoble.com
Offer free three month courses, with free membership.
Real teacher. Classes updates every few months.
All you need to buy are the books, and sometimes you can do without them.

The Poet's Table: Walt Whitman's Poetry and Prose
Thinking Like an Editor: How to Get Published
Writing Fiction with Gotham Writers' Workshop
Writing Poetry with Writer's Digest Books

They have other class subjects too...you should try it out...

Answer 2

Think of something to write, then start. *grin* Myself, I do fanfiction, stories about pre-made characters from games and stuff. Short stories have all the same genres of books. What you do is come up with a sceen that interests YOU. Mood is VERY important; adjectives and description. If you want to read mine, you'd probably do better to know the worlds first... But maybe not. They're on www.fanfictions.net/~kdzeal It the 'oneshots', The End and Belonging. Joachim probably counts too. ...Hope that helps... >.<

Answer 3

I'm sorry, darling, but there's no one way to write a short story. The best way to know the genres is to read some short stories by the short story masters: Hemingway, O. Henry, Carver, Cheever, Faulkner, O'Connor (especially), etc.

A short story isn't like a novel, where you have to have intricate plots and lots of characters. A short story can have one character or no character. Something has to happen, or nothing has to happen. You get an idea of something you want to occur and to whom it occurs, then you write it down. It can be really short or really long.

I can email you one of my short stories, or I can give you a list of the best short stories in the business. It's up to you.

Some of my favorite short stories are:

"Cathedral" by Raymond Carver
"A Good Man is Hard to Find" by Flannery O'Connor
"A City of Churches" by Donald Barthelme
"Entropy" by Thomas Pynchon
"A Rose for Emily" by William Faulkner,
there are too many to name, really.

Answer 4

Write about the people and things around you. Write a diary, it helps you very much. When you know that you want to write about your day, you will think about the life around yourself more. When you are writing a diary, you just want to do your best to have a beautiful diary with good words and interesting sentences. Try it. I'm sure that you will succeed!
And something else, I will send you one of my stories as soon as I could. You will see that how simple it is.

Answer 5

Take writing classes, most community colleges have courses.