Writing Short Stories When You Usually Write Novels

Writing a short story is something I feel like every writer should know how to do. It doesn't matter if you say that you "only write novels" because there is going to be a time where short stories are needed. Short stories have multiple purposes.

How Short Stories Might Benefit You:

• You want to give your readers a little extra. Your readers are important. I can't stress that enough. Sometimes giving them a little something extra isn't going to kill you. Writing a short story is a good way of doing that. Say you have a side character that your audience just loves. Why not give them a little short story in that side character's point of view. It doesn't have to be related to the original story but be sure to give it a plot on it's own.

• Helps you omit needless words. If you don't want to give into your readers, then at least use it as practice to omit needless words. It will force you to stay focused on the plot and try not to generate subplots, since it is a short story.

• It opens up other opportunities. Anthologies being one of them. Or for those who aren't published yet, short story contests. There are a lot of them. Anthologies and contests are a good way to get your name out there so use it to your advantage.

• You learn to gain control. This might sound a little weird but I was one of those people who would try to write a short story and ended up writing a whole damn novel. I learned to tone it down. It taught me how to control my story, keep things on the right path because your characters really don't have the control of the story, you do. When your character's veer off, that's you trying to explore your options or you just really have a hard time following your own directions. 

 I'm sure there are other ways that short stories can benefit but these are the immediate things that came to my head.

Now that we know how short stories can benefit you, lets move on to how to write one. I'm a novel writer. I know how hard it can be to cramp a story into a limited amount of words. But I learned.

For this short story contest I decided to enter, the guidelines for the story were:

• Any genre
• No more than 3,000 words
• Due November 31st

It was a pain in the ass.  I had a great story planned out but then I realized that it was too damn long. Something had to go but what? Everything varies for me. I don't always do the same method twice in a row but these are the basics of my process.

• Figure what I wanted from the story. That meant plot. I needed a small plot that had a lot of impact and could intrigue readers to continue. So knowing what I wanted for a general plot was important.

• Keeping characters limited. There are only two characters that the readers know the names of and one that everyone refers to as "Boss" but you don't get to know him as a character very well. Keeping characters limited means that you will have to not fill your story with a ton of characters. That will just make it drag. Keep the characters that have an important role. 

• Throw everything into an outline. I advocate outlines more than anyone I know. I love outlines. They are the way I keep everything in line. I even outline blog posts. By throwing what you have into an outline, I was able to establish three major parts of the story that were 1,000 words a piece and it was more than enough for what I was writing. It will also keep you from veering off into something that it shouldn't be.

• Write what's important. This is the only way I didn't go over the limited amount of words. I only wrote down what was important to this plot. When you have subplots or a series, you'll probably have to write a lot more than in a short story. Novels are more complex than short stories. I only have one plot for this story. Keep only what's important to the story. 

It might look like a lame little list here but it works for me. It's as simple as it can get really. It's a short story, after all.

Types of Outlines

I've mentioned before about the importance of outlining in a previous post. This is going to go into a little more depth about the different types of outlines that I've heard of or tried out myself. It will be a general list with a few examples.

• Sequence Boards. I call them Sequence Boards because you lay out your novel in a sequence of how the scenes go. You write one scene on an index card until you've plotted out your entire novel. This is my go-to method. It's nice because you can rearrange scenes to see what works better.You could also do this in a notebook, the only thing you wouldn't be able to do is rearrange the scenes to see how they fit.

• A General Outline. This is the generic outline you'd use for taking notes for class. For example: 1.) Chapter One a)character introduced b.) plot starts i.) something else goes here. Things like that. It's not a method I use anymore but it works for some people. 

• The Snowflake Method. I've never used this method before but I know several writers who have and found it very helpful. Here is a link if you'd like to take a look at it. 

• Storyboards. It's similar to a Sequence Board but a little more creative. Sometimes when I need to do something artsy for my writing, I make a Sequence Board. It has all kinds of arrows and pictures. It's fun.

• Beginning-Middle-End. There is an actual name for it but I don't know what it's called. This is basically the least amount of planning I do and it's usually for short stories. I need to know my beginning, my middle, and my end. It helps me stay on track. Sometimes I use this method with another method because it helps me understand my plot better. 

• Mind Map Method. I've only ever used this once and it was a general guide of how certain things happened in my novels. It's not the best method but at least you can have parts of your story planned out. For example, in my novel, my character meets a lot of people and these people become important to the plot. I had laid out when, where, and how he met them. Then added a little bit about them that I needed to know. If you ever used a mind map before, it was kind of hard to get everything down in one word or small phrase but I managed it...somehow.

There are tons of ways to plan your novels. You can look up a ton of them online but it's something that every writer should do to stay on track with their writing. Keep away from those filler scenes! Noted, we all write them from time to time but that doesn't make it okay. I end up deleting them during the revision stage (which you should). Outlines will help when it comes to writer's block. You know what comes next and push ahead. Even if it does suck. You can polish that up during the revision process.

WriYe Blogging Circle: Planning Or Pantsing

If you are a planner, what part of planning is your favorite? If you’re a pantser, what is your favorite part of pantsing?

Bonus: Show us your NaNo planning - handwritten or computer screen!

I love planning out my novels. A lot of people don't enjoy this part of the process but I do. Getting deep into my novels is probably one of my favorite parts, aside from writing the actual novels. I love building my own worlds - which I do a lot.

My favorite part about planning is probably the outlining portion. I like knowing where my novel needs to go. It also helps me consider things I need to discover about the world I'm planning for. It's good to know where I want my story to go, too. The world slowly builds itself as I outline or even as I write.

Introduction to Planning a Novel

It's October. Just a little under a month away from National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). I figured it would be the best time to do this kind of post. It's a planning post, kind of. It's more like an overview of what I'm planning on posting this month. Since it is close to NaNoWriMo, I've decided to do a planning series where it goes through basic points of planning.

What is planning in a novel? It's where you figure out what your novel is going to be about, your characters, and your setting. It's simple. There are various ways to go about planning, but these are some of the key things that are consistent for me when I plan.

Things I plan on covering:

• World Building. World building is essential to a lot of writing even in contemporary settings. You've got to know key/important places and why they are important. 

• Character Building. This is also important since characters are kind of needed to tell a story, whether it be human or non-human. You've got to have some kind of information down about them.

• Plotting and Outlining. I'm a huge supporter of outlining. It's a good way to track what you are doing in your story. My reasons are in a different post that I will link HERE.

Unfortunately, there are only enough weeks in the month for three more posts but these are the bare essentials for planning a novel. Especially if you writing for NaNoWriMo. It's easy to lose motivation during the month it's best to know where you are going with your novel. 

But the one thing you need is an idea. You've got to start somewhere. If you don't have an idea then you need to get one. How you go about getting ideas for novels/stories is up to you. I can't tell you how to generate your ideas as they vary from person to person. Do some exploration, you'll find something to write about.

The Importance of Outlining

Some people believe that outlining a novel or story isn't always important. The people who we call "Pantsers" as they are the ones who write by the seat of their pants. I used to be one of them until I discovered the wonderful thing called an outline.
An outline is basically a guideline for your book. You write down your scenes in order of how you want them in your book. Or you outline by chapter, it really depends on you as a writer. It's important for you to have one at some point in your writing process.

What outlines can do for you as a writer:

• They keep you from taking your characters down an unplanned road.  I don't know about you but some writers lose track of what they are writing. An outline is a way that you can keep your characters down the right road.

• You have a clear cut visual of your story. Sure there are still things that might surprise you here and there but not everything should be a surprise to you as the writer. What might come as a surprise is more of an epiphany moment. You finally figured out how to connect point B and C or something along those lines.

• Outlines can keep you from writing unnecessary scenes. This kind of goes with the first point. Outlines can keep you from writing filler scenes or anything that is unnecessary to the plot of your novel. If you follow your outline, you're sure to not write filler scenes. As long as you don't plot filler scenes (a post I'll get into later).

• It keeps you organized. Writing can be absolute chaos sometimes. You've got to research and figure out your characters and all sorts of things. Sometimes you have to create some kind of chart to figure out how your character(s) get from point A to point B or how object C connects with the suspect of your character. Having all of this in various places can be really hard to find. It's best to find a way to keep it all in one place. An outline is a nice way to keep it all right there, even if it's just a little note or however you add it to your outline.

•  It won't add unnecessary characters. This kind of goes along with the unnecessary scenes. Basically, anything that you don't need, it will help you keep them out of your story. It helps when you're editing so you don't have to trim them out later.

• It helps you explore new ideas for your story. This is one of my favorite things about outlining. It opens up new ideas and subplots for your novels. You will be able to see where a story will go if you changed a scene even in the slightest. You might even find a way to make your story stronger. 

• It's fun. Okay, this isn't why it's important but I feel like I should add it anyway. I love outlining my novels. There are so many ways to do it too. I do a lot of different things but I generally end up going back to the index cards. 

There are benefits to outlining. If you've never outlined a novel before, then you should consider trying one. Going about it is easy but you should try different methods to figure out which one suits you.

Progress Update: Plot Bunnies

I figured out my editing hour total. I currently stand at 26.75 hours and I still need to add more to it. I'm half way to where I want to be by the end of the month but I need to really buckle down on this editing. Once I get into the fun part of it, I think it'll just breeze on by but I need to push myself to get there.

A lot of the rewriting is setting me back. I have to make a new outline and a new story board. I just need to remember to stay on track. So, I'll continue doing that.

Lately, I've been really into writing everything out by hand. I have those moments and that's usually when paper ends up everywhere. Now my room is a mess. That's probably why I can't be creative in my room. It's messy. I should really work on that.

On another note, thanks to work, I got hit with a plot bunny and I'm considering using the idea for the Handwrite a Complete Novel challenge on the WriYe forums. They are probably going to end up being Novellas. 4 of them. I already started outlining them because it wasn't leaving my head. I'm not sure how I'm going to write it completely. I always get stuck with the 1st person VS 3rd Person POV. I'll have to do some samples later.