Tips for Writing a Short Story

www.write101.com/shortstory.htmHighlights:
* Put a man up a tree
* Throw stones at him
* Get him down

Conflict

Do you have enough conflict in your book? Take the conflict test: home.earthlink.net/~kpanov/conflict_test.htm

The Short Story: Read to Write

english.unitecnology.ac.nz/resources/units/short_story/plot.htmlHighlights:
THE INVITED/UNIVITED GUEST: The successful outcome of the relationship structure is conception – a baby is either an invited or uninvited guest. The arrival of death (another guest) is a conclusion of the life. Stories developed on this structure explore how a pre-existing circle of people is affected by the arrival of a stranger. Will [...]

Plotting a short story

www.sff.net/people/SASwann/text/plot.htmHighlights:
A character with a problem.
Every story is about a character trying to deal with some sort of difficulty. Characters who have happy lives, who are content with their lot, and who have achieved their goals are not good fodder for fiction. The people we read about are people in trouble.

 http://www.sff.net/people/alicia/10prob.htm
Highlights:
9. Boring Beginnings:
6. Tumors and Parasites– The cast of thousands:
4. What a Coincidence!: Coincidence is fun in real life. But it’s death to good fiction.

Notecarding: Plotting Under Pressure

hollylisle.com/fm/Workshops/notecard_plotting.html
Highlights:Get out a pack of index cards, write the name of each character on the correct number of cards, and if you’d like, on a few extras — I’ll make eighteen for Elsie and Mike, ten or eleven for Frisco and Annabelle.
Once the names are on the cards, pull out a card set — I [...]

The Sagging Middle

The Sagging Middle…
How do I fix it?
I hear this concern a lot but don’t see too much advice on how to fix it… mostly b/c those who
suffer from it have no clue how to fix it. LOL
So here’s an article from Alicia Rasley:
www.sff.net/people/alicia/artmid.htm
She states “The sagging middle we’re concerned with is between the
opening and the [...]