An Introduction To Short Stories

Being at the start of this new adventure, it all feels so fresh and exciting. I wonder how long this feeling of bliss will last.

Hopefully longer than a week!

ADD is real, and so it goes; I have dealt with that since as far back as I can remember. But I swear I will do everything I can to hold on to this project until the end! I might have to keep my eyes closed, so nothing shinier shows up and steals my attention.

If you don’t know what I am talking about, then Hello! And welcome to day two of my 365-day writing challenge that you can read about here.

I decided to get this party started by dipping my toes into the genres of creative writing. Lucky for me, I am at the start of a new course in my MFA program that happens to be Research Methods for Writing, so I have a great excuse as to why to take so much time and focus on exploring.

I had initially planned to write blog posts about herb gardening and other agricultural topics because the husband and I are planning to start our homestead journey this year. I changed my mind. Not about homesteading but writing about it anyway.

Because I like to be random, this is my second time taking this course. I passed it already with an A, but I learned in writing school that grades don’t mean much of anything. They only matter when the subject is non-subjective.

It is not like I will get a publishing deal with Hallmark because my GPA was high. No, I am not retaking this course for the grades. I wanted to use this time to re-explore my interests through writing about them.

Last time I wrote a bunch of blog posts about being a digital marketer.

I learned how incredibly boring that field is to me, although I know I will have to come to terms with it. Being a writer means competing against thousands, if not millions, of people who have a similar dream. Without a presence online, I suspect that I would fall flat on my face.

I know I did not need to retake this course, and I could do this in my own time, but I wasn’t sure where to start this semester, so why not keep exploring while figuring it out? It makes sense to me, and that is all that matters.

I have a project proposal due in four days. The assignment is to research and write about something in our current work or the field we are trying to break into. It needs to be eight to ten pages, but I plan on breaking it down into shorter blog posts.

I am looking at starting a career as a creative writer, so it makes sense to look at what that means. My thought is to break down the genres of creative writing and learn more about each one.

Short Stories

Reflecting, I cannot recall reading a short fiction story until I entered this writing program. Maybe I have because I remember having a book of Disney stories when I was a kid, but I mostly remember Ichabod and the Headless Horseman.

Either way, I took a lit class that required some hefty reading of contemporary short stories, so now I have read some.

Now that I have experienced reading those and trying to draft a lengthy novel, I would like to try my hand at writing short stories for a while. For me, understanding the process of outlining and building character arcs and plots will open the flood gates of possibility.

My main objective is to get the rules understood so I can start writing online and join in on writing challenges and feel like I have as good of a chance as the next person who is passionate about learning the process as much as going through the process.

So, for part of my class project, I plan on writing about short fiction.

Resources

I took the time last night to learn some basic info on short stories as a starting point. I learned from Jodie Rennier that most short stories are anywhere between 2,000 and 7,000 words, but just a quick sweep on google shows that anything over 1,000 words can be considered a short story.

Shaelinwrites on Youtube has some good advice for new writers, as does Abbie Emmons; they both have experience, but they talk fast. So, if you are brand new to writing, I suggest having a notebook handy and planning on taking notes of the key points, or you might get lost.

I also suggest learning more in detail from their other videos about writing in general or couple their advice with that from other writers.

For example, they talk about character arcs, plots, and themes. The book I am reading right now is Creating Character Arcs: The Masterful Author’s Guide to Uniting Story Structure, Plot, and Character Development by award-winning novelist and writing instructor K.M. Weiland, which you can grab your copy on Amazon with my affiliate link here.

It is easy to read and makes understanding character arcs feel like a manageable task. I haven’t tried implementing the advice yet, but it makes sense. If I had not already been reading it, I would have been lost trying to understand what the girls on youtube were talking about.

I also like Weiland's book because she offers suggestions of additional resources sprinkled throughout the text. I am so excited to dive into those too, but I will save talking about them until I have!

Writing fiction

Last summer, when I first started in the MFA program, I was brave and jumped into a fiction class. Maybe it was a mistake not having much experience writing anything but academic papers, but it doesn’t matter now. It did help me get an introduction to keywords like plot, character arcs, and so on.

It also gave me an insight on outlining a story, working with other people through the process — such as editing and revising. It is a lot of work, but writing is an art form in all genres. Fiction is the most subjective, in my opinion, because a person's taste can determine whether or not they think it is good.

Despite that, fiction is not abstract in most cases, which means there are expectations to fundamentals and there is a difference between's someone's opinion of it being good and it actually being well written.

Rules are meant to be broken in art, but first, you have to know why they matter and then break them with purpose.

I am glad to know this. I am also happy I am taking on this challenge. I have wanted to write a fiction story for so long. I have tried so many times but never took the time to learn how to do it properly.

Now I am. First in short story form, then once I get the hang of it, I will either love it and stick with that, or I will someday reapproach writing a full-length novel.

Final Thoughts

Even though this challenge has just started, I have been learning about writing for almost an entire year. Is that much time? No, not really. But it gives me a little heads up.

When I first started writing, I wanted to write about writing. I began to but quickly stopped. I realized that the way I was approaching it was as an expert. I want to be clear that I am coming to you as a student, a peer. I am sharing my experiences, what I have learned, my background and will continue to share what is working and not working for me.

It is meant to be inspirational, educational, and fun! But I am not an expert. I will try my hardest not to sound like I am. I haven’t completed a novel; I have never written a short story. Most of my published work is probably in desperate need of an editing makeover despite the few times I have gone “viral.”

I am on a journey of growth and creativity, and I am so excited for you to be on it with me. Today is only day two in “The Adventures of Writing,” but I feel like this will be a great experience, and I look forward to getting to know you.

Please share with me in the comments your experience with short stories, be that writing them, reading them, or anything in between! Do you have a favorite place online to read them? How about a favorite author? I’d love to hear from you!

If you have read this far, I am grateful for you. If you want to come for this ride with me, please feel free to subscribe and/or follow me on this platform!