Short story tips: 10 Ways To Improve Your Creative Writing in 2024 [Updated]

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A short story is smaller than the novels. You may assume, this may give you fewer chances for exploring but it’s not like that. A short story can give you ample space to experiment. You will just have to know a few magical tips that will help you on the journey to write a successful short story.

There are story writing tips that are creative writing basics. In this article, we are going to provide you with 10 fantastic ways that will help you to improve your creative writing skills.

1. Get started with these emergency story writing tips

All our story writing tips will be helping you in the long run. Our emergency story writing tips will give you insights about how you can write a short story, even having a short time at hand.

• What does your protagonist want? This should be made clear first. 

When a protagonist wants to win a big athletic competition or when they want to survive a car crash, it doesn’t sound that unique.

• When the plot begins, what is the morally significant action that your protagonist has taken towards achieving their goal? This question should have an answer. 

The conscious choice of your protagonist, either good or bad, should drive the rest of the plot.

•  What are the obstacles the protagonist has to go through to achieve their goal?

Having an antagonist is just not enough. If it is a novel there would be time and space for character development. That too, characters can evolve differently from what they used to be. When it comes to a short story they can’t afford that much character development. 

Then also, short stories can be made interesting with a character who fights internal battles and negotiates with messy morals. This makes the story far more interesting than a protagonist who has to fight against a villain.

• How should the unexpected consequences be?

The unexpected consequences should be related to the goal of the protagonist and increase the emotional energy to make the story more relatable.

• What are the details that you should avoid?

 You can avoid travel scenes. It will avoid the usage of many words. If there is a dialogue that is between character A and character B, then avoid repeating it to character C, this way you can avoid redundancy. Never describe the facial expression of the first-person narrator. You can never see your own expression.

• At the climax, what is the morally significant choice that your character made?

The decision of the protagonist is something that you should make your readers eager for. You should not make it necessarily unpredictable.

2. Write a Brilliant and Catchy First Paragraph

“Mr. and Mrs. Dursley of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal”- J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter, and the Philosopher’s stone.

It is from the first line that you should keep your readers hooked up. No one these days has the time to read a story that has a lousy start. So, write a first paragraph that would beckon a reader to read the whole story.

It should be unusual, unexpected, and innovative. You can begin with an action or conflict. There should be an emergency and tension there because short stories are smaller and end soon.

3. Developing the Characters

Creating a living, breathing, and an ingenuous character will make your short story even more fascinating. The most important factor in characterization is that you should know more about your characters than the readers. Here, we have provided you with certain details that will help you get started on your characters.

• Name 
• Age
• Profession
• Appearance
• Marital status
• Hobbies
• Temperament
• Religion 
• Friends
• Things they like
• Things they don’t like 
• Family
• Phobias
• Faults
• Strong memories
• Illness
• Sleeping Pattern

To understand your character better, you must remember the aforementioned points about the characteristics of your protagonist. The important thing is most of them are unnecessary information for the readers. You need to find out the ones that are mandatory for the plot and use them in the story. This story writing tip is one of the most important creative writing basics.

• Appearance-  This is mandatory because the physical description of the characters will make the readers form an image in their head which is the magic of creative writing.

• Action-  Show the readers the way your characters are rather than using adjectives to describe them. This will create a better impression.

• Speech- Show the action of the character for major plot details than make them say it in dialogues.

• Thoughts- Let the readers know the minds of the character. So, that the readers can understand the secrets, fears, hopes and memories of the characters. Let the readers read the thoughts of the characters.

4. Pick a Point of View

It is the perspective of the narrator in which the story is narrated. The perspectives are first, second and third. You will have to know who is going to tell the story and how much information and details, you want to reveal in a short story. Based on this, you can decide your point of view. The narrator can either be subjective if they don’t want to be involved or objective and report the actions.

First-person- The story is told using “I”. It is either the main protagonist narrating how the happenings are affecting their own life or a secondary character narrating the story that is revolving around the main characters. This can be an easy choice for inexperienced writers. Yet, the first-person character may start resembling the writers so much which would remove the excitement from it. Other than that, this makes characters other than the narrator become unfamiliar. Then also,  it creates a bond between the narrator and reader since they share secrets and opinions.

Second-person- The story is told while addressing the readers as “YOU”. The readers get a sense of belongingness, and they feel like a part of the storyline. . This way readers can confront the possibilities directly. You will have to keep the characters in a tangible environment. So, the readers will not be kept in the dark of certain possibilities. 

Third-person- The story is narrated using “He”, “She” or “It”. It enables you to explore the thoughts of all the characters. In this, you will have to take care of the transition from one character to another. Other than that, you will also have to deal with the absence of a character. 

5. Write Dialogues that are Meaningful

“My thoughts are stars I cannot fathom into constellations.”

― John Green, Fault in our stars.

Dialogues are the most important part of the story. Make sure you give pauses between dialogues. You will have to make everyone see how the characters feel when they are talking. You will have to make them fidget, get nervous, shout and whisper in the dialogues. Each character should have its part in the written dialogues. They must be put forth clearly, giving the clue about the personality of the character. Also, give dialogue labels correctly. Dialogue labels are the ones that say who spoke which dialogue.

6. Use a Suitable Setting 

The setting will be time, location, context, and atmosphere. There is certain story writing tips that you will have to remember when you are constructing the setting of the plot.

• You will have to merge the setting with characterization and plot.
• Picture the incidents that will develop the story.
• Try using at least two the human senses to describe the setting.
• Describe the events rather than give facts.

7. Set up the Plot

The plot is the storyline and series of incidents that lead to the climax. There are certain story elements that will develop actions and lead to a successful end result. 

• Explosion or hook-  It is a thrilling or gripping event that makes the readers continue reading.
• Conflict- The struggle that a character goes through internally or externally.
• Exposition- The background of the character should be explored.
• Complication- The events that stop the goal of the character. 
• Transition- They are the image, symbol, and dialogues that merge paragraphs and scenes together. 
• Flashback- Remembering scenes or events that took place before the time set in the story.
• Climax- This happens when the rising action of the story reaches its peak.
• Falling action- It is the releasing action of the story after the climax.
• Resolution- When the conflicts are resolved, it is the resolution. 

8. Create Conflict and Tension

 Conflict is the one that starts the story. Tension is produced by internal or external struggles that the character goes through. By balancing both sides in the struggle you can keep the readers perked. We have listed certain possible conflicts.

• The protagonist’s struggle against another individual.
• The protagonist’s struggle against herself or himself.
• The protagonist’s struggle against society.
• The protagonist’s struggle against God or Nature.

9. Build a Gripping Climax

This is the turning point of the story. You can make it the most dramatic moment of the story. The crisis must always be a scene which the readers must have anticipated from the beginning. The conflict should be said in an interesting way.

10. Find a resolution

Resolution is the solution to the conflict. In a short story, it is difficult to provide a conflict. Then also, you can provide some sort of the change in the character. There are different choices you can make for the ending.

• Open ending- The ending is left open for the readers to determine.
• Resolved- In this the ending is very clear and offered in a plotter to the readers.
• Parallel to the beginning- This is making the ending similar to how the story started. 
• Dialogue- Character having a conversation.
• Literal image- In this, the resolution comes in the form of the setting.
• Symbolic image- In this, the resolution comes in the form of a setting which makes more sense than the literal one. 

In this article, we have only mentioned story writing tips. That too, these story writing tips are part of creative writing basics. If you really do want to master creative writing more than creative writing basics, you can take up a creative writing course which would help you to master creative writing. One of the best creative writing courses is offered by Henry Harvin. 

Henry Harvin’s creative writing course starts with the creative writing basics and allows you to learn more throughout the course. You can even master more than this story writing tips. We would also like to brief you on the benefits of taking up a creative writing course from Henry Harvin. 

Benefits of creative writing course from Henry Harvin

Creative writing course from Henry Harvin’s writing academy is by far the best to improve your creative writing skills. These 32 hours of training is taken by seasoned trainers and authors. These trainers and authors have experience of 10+ years. You will also be able to publish your own writer’s voice at the end of the course.

Henry Harvin allows you to learn through a series of assignments. You will be doing assignments for creative writing basics to many more advanced topics. They will not only provide you with story writing tips but other useful tips too.

At the end of the course, you will also have a guaranteed internship opportunity. You will also be able to write four genres of creative writing. You can successfully apply creative writing techniques. You will also be able to assess your own strength and vulnerabilities for writing projects. We will teach you the famous creative writing styles of famous creative writers. This way you will be able to create your very own creative writing style. 

 If you have learnt creative basics from our story writing tips, then consider taking up the course to learn more. All the best.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Which Point of View is the Best?

It mostly depends on the details, you want to provide as a writer, as well as your character. All the three-point of view, if written following the story writing tips will be interesting.

2. What Should I Do to Improve my Writing Skills?

The first creative writing basic you will have to do to improve your writing skill is to read a lot. When you read, you can explore new themes and ideas. That will help you write your own story.

3. How to Find out if my Writing is Good?

Readout your creatively written piece. Make sure, you have shown not tell. This means you have created a pretty decent piece of writing.

4. Do I have to learn More than Creative Writing Basics?

 Learning is a process, you can keep learning. Learning more than creative writing basics is mandatory. 

5. Will I be learning more than these story writing tips on the topic of story writing in Henry Harvin’s creative writing course?

Yes, you will learn more than these story-writing tips. You will learn more than creative writing basics. At the end of the course, your creative skill would become profound and more knowledgeable. 

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• Why Henry Harvin Content Writing Course
• Creative Writing Course in Navi Mumbai
• Best Content Writing Course in Bhubaneswar
• Top Content Writing Course in Noida
• Best Creative writing course in Varanasi
• Creative Writing Training in Lucknow

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