How to Write a Short Story in a Day

By R.M. Archer

If you want to write a full story but you want to do it in a brief time span, short stories are your new best friend.

Whether you’re looking into a short story contest, building background for a novel project, or just need to feel the sense of accomplishment that comes from finishing something, I want to teach you how to construct and write an entire short story in a single day. (Though if you are looking at a short story contest, I do recommend giving yourself more than a day. You want plenty of time to edit!)

So without further ado, here are the steps you’ll need.

Find Your Starting Point

This could be an inkling of an idea you had on your own, it could be a writing prompt, it could be a song, it could be an image… Figure out what you’re starting from.

Having a concrete starting point is obviously necessary to get started at all, but it will also give you some parameters and pieces to work with.

If you’re starting with a plot bunny, ask as many questions as you can come up with and then answer them. These will build up your plot, world, and characters.

If you’re starting with some sort of prompt (a word prompt, a song, an image), look at it from a number of angles and take in as many details as you can. Work through possibilities until you find the one you want to turn into a story.

I find this part of the story the most fun with an image prompt. I love to look at all the details of an image and ask myself how they might play into a story, or how I might describe them, or what stories they might hint at.

Make a Plan

Before you start writing, it will be super helpful for you to know where you need to go with this story. 

You might find that a full outline of your story is best for helping you keep your theme and ending in focus, or you might find that all you need is knowledge of your intended ending. Just like any other type of project, a given balance will work great for one author while another author needs a totally different balance, so feel free to experiment to figure out what works best for you.

I highly recommend knowing your ending, at minimum. You might find that your ending changes as you write, but having an ending to aim for will give you something to aim for as you write.

I find that knowing the ending of my story and at least the most important scenes helps me to stay within my word count limit and the other limits of the story. Which brings me to my next point…

Set Limits

I’d recommend starting with a word count limit. With this in place, you’ll know what you’re shooting for and you’ll know where you intend to stop. This can be a helpful safeguard if you have a habit of turning short stories into novels by accident. (No judgment; I’ve been there.)

A word limit might be mandatory (if you’re entering a contest, for instance), or it might simply serve as a personal challenge to make every word count.

If you want to be adventurous, though, you can set additional limits for yourself. Use as little dialogue as possible, or have the entire story take place in a single room, or describe everything without using color terms.

These extra limits might sound crazy, and they’re not mandatory by any means, but you might be surprised how much more creative you can be when you set unusual limits on a story.

Some of my favorite short stories have come about within limits like these.

Write (and Don’t Edit)

Dedicate a chunk of time to drafting your story. You’ll know best how much time you need. Maybe 5,000 words take you two and a half hours; maybe they take you five. However long you need, set aside the time and eliminate as many distractions as possible.

If you work best with a snack or a drink, make sure you have that on hand before you start. Likewise music that helps you focus, or a candle that puts you in a writing mood.

Make a strategy for how you’re going to hit your word count. Ask a friend to word war with you at predetermined times, or plan for the pomodoro method, or decide you’re going to write for half an hour without stopping and then take a timed social media break before diving back in for another half hour. Whatever works for you.

While you write, don’t edit. Remind yourself, if you need to, that all a first draft has to do is exist. You’re just shoveling sand into a sandbox so that you can later build castles. (Credit to Shannon Hale for that terminology.)

I do personally find that I’m more precise with my words when I’m drafting a short story than when I’m drafting a longer work. If you find that’s the case for you, too, that’s fine. But if you find yourself agonizing over a word, or going back to rewrite sentences every few lines, put your inner editor in time-out and push forward.

Take a Break

When you’re finished drafting your story, don’t forget to celebrate! Give yourself a break. Read a chapter of the book you’ve been reading, have a piece of chocolate, listen to some music, whatever refreshes you after spending time on a creative endeavor. You’ve earned it!

You need a bit of time to let your brain rest and recharge and to give yourself a break from your words.

Edit

It’s usually wise to read through your entire story to start off with. Just read through, notice what needs to be fixed, figure out if it has structural issues that need to be addressed, and get a picture of the story as a whole.

After that, apply any structural fixes that are necessary. Rearrange paragraphs, adjust how a scene goes, deepen a character’s motivation… whatever needs to be done.

After the developmental edits are finished, you can go through and fix things on a line-by-line basis. Flesh out your description, cut unnecessary words, choose stronger verbiage, work on your imagery and symbolism. This is where you really want to make every word count.

Your last run-through will be to check for typos or grammatical errors. These are pretty straightforward. You might find it helpful to read your story out loud for this part, since it forces your brain to pay closer attention to the details of what you’re reading. (And a read-aloud might help you to pick out unwieldy sentences or descriptions that you missed your previous time through.)

Check Your Work

Once you’ve edited, see how you’re doing in relation to your limits. Is your word count about right? Have any extra limits served their purpose? Are your themes communicated effectively?

Don’t worry if your story has shifted somewhat from your initial concept, or if you’re not quite within the limits (unless you’re outside of the required word count for submission guidelines), so long as your story is effective. The limits ought to serve your story, not the other way around.

I once wrote a short story with a goal of not using any dialogue. I ended up with a fair amount of dialogue toward the end, but the story was still effective and it still served as an exercise in using more description and body language to communicate that story.

If you are writing a short story for submission somewhere, the guidelines will obviously be more important. You might have to trim a few extra words, or rework a sentence to be shorter, or you might have to add words or scenes to hit a minimum.

The aim when trimming or fleshing out a story ought to be “How can I change this to meet the guidelines and do so in such a way that it strengthens the story that I want to tell?”

Maybe your story is too short, but you can add a scene that shows the main character interacting with someone else and emphasize the idea that the MC isn’t alone in their hope.

Or maybe it’s too long, and you realize that a piece of description you used doesn’t support the symbolism you’re trying to emphasize so it can be cut.

Use the limits to make your story stronger, and try not to let the necessary changes discourage you.

Celebrate

Congratulations! You’ve just written a full short story! Now you have a complete story in your back pocket for the next short story contest that comes up, or to reference as background for your novel, or to publish for fun or to give readers a sample of your work.

Have you ever written a short story in a day? How did it go? What’s your favorite part of writing a short story?