HOW TO WRITE A SHORT STORY, PART 4

IV. Editing

When you are writing your story, just write it. Don’t stress about making every little sentence and word perfect. Don’t worry about whether it is too long or too short. Just write.

I tend to use my worksheet to outline the story, then I sit down and write it. Then I go back and tighten it up. Editing is hard, but very necessary for writing a good short story. Each magazine has a specific length guideline. If you send them a story that is too long, they will reject you, no matter how good the story is. So pay attention to the writer’s guidelines.

Learn to cut needless “fluff” words and strip your story down to the bare essentials. There have been times when I’ve written a story for a magazine that accepts stories at 1200 words. Then the story is rejected, so I sit down and rework it for a magazine that accepts stories at 800 words. Cutting 400 words from a 1200 word story is really hard work. That’s ¼ of your story! This takes practice. But I’ve sold several stories that way.

To recap:
1. You need a character with an interesting problem/challenge/goal
2. Escalate the conflict
3. Let the main character solved the problem or learn something from it
4. Cut out needless “fluff” words

Now get to work on that short story! Good luck!

Here is a scan of my short stories that was published.
Isn’t the artwork cute? Click on it to read it.