The setting gives your story texture and depth, making the place and time real for the reader through carefully shared details. The settings you do visit really need to shine. Unlike a longer piece, you won’t be visiting many locations in your story. The setting is my favorite part of short fiction. Let your characters drive the story, and let the plot evolve naturally. For a short story though, you can think about the plot a little less than you would for a novel. That doesn’t mean you can ignore the plot. The plot is a byproduct of good storytelling. Everything you write for your story feeds into the other elements, coming out the other side with a story. Your story’s plot describes the events rather than defining them you’re not writing down events, dialog, or flowery descriptions in a vacuum. The plot is “the sequence of events inside a story which affect other events through the principle of cause and effect.” What I like about this definition of plot is that it doesn’t demand that you create a plot rather it simply must be acknowledged. Your short story’s plot needs to be tight and focused. Regardless, the presence of a character the reader wants to see succeed drives the story forward and gives that character depth and humanity. She’s crafted a character with a clear point of view who we can follow despite misgivings about the Grandmother’s intentions. Maybe it’s because we know what she wants, but we can’t discount O’Connor’s masterful storytelling. Yet it is hard not to root for her as the story unfolds. The Grandmother is a nuisance to her family and ultimately leads them all to a terrible end. Readers want characters who grow, change, and ideally redeem themselves.Ĭonsider Flannery O’Connor’s classic, A Good Man is Hard to Find. The better you know your character, the easier it will be to craft a story your readers will love.
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