Ideas for a short story?

[Anonymous]

Okay so I usually like to write novels, but recently I’ve been wanting to write a few short stories.

One because it seems fun, and two because I think that writing short stories will help me improve as a writer and create better novels.

But I’ve run into an issue… how do you think of short story ideas instead of novel ideas?

Every short story idea I think of quickly turns into a novel idea after thinking about it for a short while.

So if you’ve written a short story before, how have you thought of the premise for them?

And if you have any good short story ideas that you aren’t going to write about yourself, it would be awesome if you shared them!

Thanks!

[Linyang Zhang]

@purenostalgia Firstly, I just wanted to tell you a) I like your username and b) I had your profile picture for my wallpaper for the longest time.

For short stories I generally think of a concept or a scene that I want to write and then I surround it with other things. Develop it a little…something like that. I have a large cast of characters from my current long project, so it’s quite easy to pull any of them out and use a short story for development.

I also think that those writing prompts can help a lot, if you’re just starting out writing short stories. They help for practice of writing, and generally, after you’ve written a couple, you get the hang of it and can start coming up with some ideas of your own. I have a Pinterest board of prompts that I can send you a link to if you want.

Anyway, hope this helps!

Lately, it's been on my brain
Would you mind letting me know
If hours don't turn into days

[Anonymous]

@devastate-lasting

Thanks! It’s such a coincidence that you’ve liked my profile picture for a while because I have your profile picture pinned in one of my Pinterest boards! Yeah, basing a short story after a scene makes a lot more sense than basing it after some premise that I have thought of; those quickly turn into novels. I think it’s a good idea to start off with prompts until I get used to writing short stories. Especially since I’m a TOTAL beginner at short story writing.

I would love to see your Pinterest board of short story prompts! Go ahead and send me the link.

[Linyang Zhang]

@purenostalgia That’s very cool. I have a feeling that we could be very similar people.

Here’s the aformentioned link: https://www.pinterest.com/todaysdearanonymous/literature-inspirations/

Have fun!

Lately, it's been on my brain
Would you mind letting me know
If hours don't turn into days

[Hobbitchild]

Hi!

I’ve been writing short stories for three or four years for a school curriculum. Some advice that I have found helpful is to limit your stories to a small concept (a trip to the story, a visit with friends). Try to really flesh out the details. A helpful thing to do is to read a chapter from a children’s book (the kind where each chapter could stand alone without the others), and then see what made that story interesting. For example, All of a Kind Family has some wonderfully simple stories in it, yet in a childlike way they are intriguing.

Hope this helps!

[TheLobsterLover]

I haven’t written any but I do have a lot, and most of them tend to start with an interesting character or a trope subversion. Like what if the life of a chosen hero was narrated by the people he’d met, like his friends, mentor, strangers, enemies and the end chapter was from the hero’s perspective reminiscing on his life choices (similar to Susan Kay’s Phantom now that I think abt it). Or what if the damsel in distress was also the dragon? I usually think of them while browsing tv tropes or doing random research for other projects, so that might be a good place to start. Make sure to write them down tho. Good luck!

Hmm, how shall I emotionally torture my ocs today I wonder...

[Author]

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