Let it sit, give yourself some mental space from your creation, and then return with fresh and critical eyes. Both approaches have their strengths.Д®ither way, when you come to a conclusion, I recommend stepping away from the piece for a few days. On the other hand, writing the story without a plan, and discovering the narrative as you progress, is exciting and challenging. Taking the time to chart your course before diving into the short story allows every word to be written with purpose. What I describe above is what works for me. Embrace them and then adjust course accordingly. Our fingers strike the keyboard in an unanticipated rhythm and we discover an unplanned story beat that is much more satisfying and powerful than anything we could have plotted out. Sometimes, in the midst of a scene or character interaction, we're struck by inspiration. Your story map shouldn't be set in stone.

Don't take the above point too seriously. This will allow you to keep your writing focused and deliberate.ДҐ. Either way, you want to have considered key points in your narrative arc and at least have a workable concept of your ending. Others discover the narrative arc as they write. Some writers map out everything in advance. Have a rough sense of your narrative arc. Every word that goes down on that page should serve a purpose. Your characters need to feel real, your world authentic. You'll elevate your story from an entertaining yarn to a substantive experience that makes a reader genuinely think and feel.ДЈ. What is your story about? Understanding this allows you to map your scenes and character arc to the successful development of a cohesive idea. It's important to not only know what you're writing about, but why you are writing. Regardless, knowing in advance how much physical space you have to work with helps you determine your sequencing of scenes and overall narrative arc.Дў. Word count also works if you prefer that benchmark. Pick a page count and stick to it (mostly). So, where do you start? There is no magic formula, and each writer follows his or her own unique process, but I hold to eight general guidelines when sitting down to draft a short story.ДЎ. While this might seem frightening at first, I find that the confines of a short story often boil the work down to its most important, and compelling, parts.

Short stories can also contain rich settings and compelling characters, but they force efficiency upon a writer. It can also be argued that it gives writers too much time and space. The benefit of a novel is that it gives a writer the time and space to build a fictional, yet believable, world. Novels allow us to weave complex narratives that evoke authentic worlds and intriguing characters. It's safe to assume that applies to all fiction writers.

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