To write a short story, pick one character at the moment something changes for them, start as close to that moment as you can, and tell it in two or three scenes. Write the first draft quickly without fixing it, and stop as soon as the change has happened. Then revise: cut the opening, cut the explaining, and sharpen what people say. A short story is about one thing. Anything that is not part of it belongs in a different story.
What makes a story short
A short story is not a small novel. It has one main character, one problem and one change, and it usually covers a short stretch of time: an afternoon, a drive, a weekend. There is no room for a second plot or a long history. Flash fiction is under 1,000 words, and a short story can run to several thousand.
Find the story with three questions
- Who is it about, and what do they want today? Not in life. Today.
- What stops them? A person, a rule, a secret, their own pride.
- What is different at the end? They get it, they do not, or they find they wanted something else.
If you can answer in three sentences, you have a story.
Marguerite, seventy-one, wants to sell her late husband's boat before winter. The buyer who turns up is the man her husband always said had cheated him. She sells it to him anyway, for less than he offered.
Everything in the draft will serve those three sentences. If you have the urge to write but no idea yet, the story idea generator gives you a few to choose from.
Plan it in scenes
A scene is one place and one stretch of time in which something changes. A short story needs two to four. For each, note where it is, who is there, what each person wants, and what is different by the end.
- Scene one, the quay. The buyer arrives. She hears his name and knows it.
- Scene two, on the boat. He looks it over and makes an offer. He does not know who she is.
- Scene three, the office. She signs. She names a lower price.
Three lines like these are a plan. You do not need more.
Start late, end early
Open in the middle of something happening. Not the character waking up, not the weather, not their childhood. The first line should put a person in a place with a problem.
A slow opening:
Marguerite had lived in the harbour town all her life, and since Alain's death the days had grown long and quiet.
A later one:
The man who came about the boat had the same name as the one Alain swore at every Christmas.
The second starts the story in its first sentence. Whatever the reader needs from the past can come in a clause, later, when it matters.
End as soon as the change has happened. Close on something seen or done, and leave the meaning to the reader. If your last paragraph explains what the character learnt, delete it and see whether the story is better.
Write the first draft fast
Write it in one or two sittings. Do not go back and polish the first page. When you do not know a detail, put it in brackets, like [name of the boat], and keep going. You cannot fix the beginning until you know the end, and you do not know the end until you have written it.
Make people talk like people
In real talk, people do not answer the question they were asked. They dodge, interrupt and change the subject, and they rarely say what they feel.
"It needs a new engine," he said.
"It needs a lot of things."
"I could go to four thousand."
"You could go to the chandler's and buy me a padlock. I'll take three."
Keep the lines short. Use "said" and nothing fancier. Cut the hellos and goodbyes. If two people in your story sound the same, give each a habit: one never finishes a sentence, one answers with a question. The dialogue generator is useful for hearing how an exchange might run before you write your own.
Show what they do
When you catch yourself naming a feeling, swap it for an action. "She was angry" becomes "She coiled the rope twice more than it needed." The reader works out the anger, and believes it more for having done so.
Revise in three passes
- Structure. Does every scene change something? Cut any that does not. Check whether the real opening is your third paragraph. It often is.
- Sentences. Replace general words with exact ones. Cut most adverbs. Let some sentences be short.
- Aloud. Read the whole thing out. Mark every place you stumble or get bored, and fix those.
Then leave it for a few days. When you come back, give it to one reader and ask only two things: where were you bored, and where were you lost?
Common mistakes
| Mistake | What to do |
|---|---|
| A page of background before anything happens | Start at the first event and drip the past in later |
| Too many named characters | Keep it to three or four |
| A twist that cheats, such as "it was all a dream" | Let the ending come from what the character chose |
| The ending states the lesson | Stop one paragraph earlier |
| Nothing is different at the end | Go back to the third question |
Using AI as a helper
You can write a short story with no AI at all, and the method above is the whole of it. If you do use one, use it for the parts where a second pair of hands helps.
- To see your idea played out. The short story generator takes your idea and writes a complete story with a full arc in under 1,000 words. Read it as one possible version, and notice what you would have done differently. That is your story.
- For options. "Give me ten ways the scene on the boat could go wrong."
- For texture. "What would be lying around a boatyard in October?" Check anything factual yourself.
- For notes. Paste your draft and ask where it drags. Do not ask whether it is good.
Be ready for its habits. AI endings are too neat, its characters announce their feelings, and its details are the ones everybody would think of. The story is yours when the details and the ending are yours. How to write a short story with an AI story writer covers what to put in the prompt and how to edit the draft.
Hemmingway-1, the model behind the tool, is better at short fiction than at long. It writes best in English, and it can state a wrong fact with confidence.
Try HemmingwayDownload the app
Common questions
How do you start a short story?
Start in the middle of something happening, with a person in a place facing a problem. Skip the background and the weather. You can add what the reader needs from the past later, a line at a time.
How long is a short story?
Anything from a few hundred words to several thousand. Flash fiction is under 1,000 words. If you are entering a competition or sending to a magazine, its guidelines give the limit.
How many characters should a short story have?
One main character and two or three others is plenty. Each extra named person takes attention from the one the story is about.
How do you end a short story?
Stop as soon as the change has happened. End on an action or an image and do not explain what it means. If the last paragraph sums up a lesson, cut it.
Do I need to outline a short story?
Not in detail. Three sentences saying who wants what, what stops them and what changes, plus a line for each scene, is enough to keep you on course.
Can AI write a short story for me?
It can write a complete draft in seconds, and the draft will be competent and ordinary. Use it to get unstuck or to see one version of your idea, then put in your own details and write your own ending.