Short Story Library

Week 2 - Structuring Your Story

Ok so now you have your idea floating around in your head and you are dying to tell, but wait a little more! First things first! Organize and structure your story!

Everything in our mind makes sense to us, I mean we though it up how could it not make sense? The key to writing a successful piece is organization. It does not matter if you are writing poetry, micro fiction, flash fiction or short stories you need to organize your thoughts to make sure they flow correctly and consistently from start to finish.

Structure Your Writing!

• Sit down with pencil and paper or if you are like me, sit in front of your lap top and open up word
• Summarize your story in only three or four sentences. Think of it this way, if someone asked you “so what is it about?” how would you respond. Think about it and write it down
• Read your summary over. Does it sound like a good story? Is it too obvious? Has it been done over and over again? Do your characters seem interesting? Does it fit the genre you are trying to write?
• Once you have found a summary you feel would be worth writing you are truly ready to structure the details. While short stories do not have chapters generally they still have events that need to be ordered and planned out.
• Create a list numbered 1 through 10 where each number represents a paragraph or event in your writing. If you are working on something smaller like poetry or micro - you would only need to list 1 through 5 or even less!
• After each number write one sentence to describe what happens during that event. It does not have to be much, but make sure to describe the ACTION and TWIST of your story.
• When done, read though your summary and your outline. Do they match up? Do they make sense? Are you excited about writing it? If not, keep tweaking it until the answer is yes for all three!

A story built on a bad structure requires a lot of rewrite as you will find flaws later on and require major changes to make up for it. Spend this week planning your story. Tighten it up and make it interesting! Once you are all done with your outline again go through the exercise of writing a summary paragraph to describe your story if a friend asks what it is about. Read it. If you like it you’re ready for the next step! If not, keep working at it!

How did it go? You write your outline? Learn anything? Comment here!