Winning Short Story Guide

Here is a guide to Anne R. Allen's Blog post on how to write a winning short story.

It has 31 steps, so it's a comprehensive guide. That means that some of the steps are tried and true obvious steps, but you need to follow them anyhow.

This is just a list of the steps, lest her post disappear. I recommend reading her post to get the excellent details.

PLANNING STAGE:

1. Keep the story tight.

2. Create a main character who is complex and charismatic, one readers will care about.

3. Give your protagonist a burning desire.

4. Decide what your character is most afraid of.

5. Devise a critical story problem or conflict.

6. Develop a unique "voice" for this story.

7. Create a worthy antagonist.

8. Add in a few interesting, even quirky supporting characters.

9. To enter and win contests, make your character and story unique and memorable.

10. Experiment – take a chance.

WRITING STAGE:

11. Start with a compelling scene.

12. Start right out in the head of your main character.

13. Put your character in motion right away.

14. Use close point of view.

15. Situate the reader early on.

16. Jump right in with some tension in the first paragraphs.

17. Show, don’t tell.

18. Your character needs to react!

19. Every page needs tension of some sort.

20. Withhold key information.

21. Dialogue in fiction is like real conversation on steroids.

22. Each character should speak differently, and not like the author.

23. Build the conflict to a riveting climax.

24. Go out with a bang.

25. Provide some reader satisfaction at the end.

REVISION STAGE:

26. Hook 'em in right away.

27. Cut to the chase!

28. Make every element and every image count.

29. Make descriptions do double duty.

30. Stay in character for all descriptions.

31. Pay attention to word count and other guidelines!