1. Writing an Effective Short Story 5 Tips for Writing Your Story

2. 1. Have a clear theme. What is the underlying message or statement behind the words? This will leave more meaning in the minds of your readers.

3. 2. Cover a short time span. It may be one single event that proves pivotal in the life of the character, and that event will illustrate the theme.

4. 3. Don’t have too many characters. Each new character will bring a new element to the story, and for a short story too many different dimensions (or directions) will water down the theme. Use only enough characters to effectively illustrate the theme.

5. 3. Know the character you do have. To help with the effectiveness of your writing, be sure to know your character as a whole person. The character interview sheet can help.

6. 4. Make every word count. There is no room for unnecessary extension in a short story. If a word is not working towards getting across the theme and moving the story along, delete it. A longer story is not necessarily better!

7. 5. Focus Your story’s point is its theme. It's tempting to digress, but in a 'short' story you have to follow the straight and narrow.

8. FOCUS! If you do not have focus, you end up with either the beginning of a novel or a group of ideas that don’t add up to a meaningful story.

9. FOCUS The best stories are the ones that follow a narrow subject line.

10. Short Story Writing Tips 1. Have a clear theme. 2. Cover a short time span. 3. Don’t have too many characters. 4. Make every word count. 5. FOCUS!

11. One more thing… No cliff hanger endings No “It was just a dream” endings