On the other hand, after a character wakes up in the morning, there is the part where, inevitably, you will write about their morning rituals, and that, for most readers, will be boring. For example, the weather can be used to set up the mood and to show how it affects your character. Of course, this doesn’t mean that you can’t use them (plenty fiction writing “rules” have been broken by writers, and in a brilliant fashion). Some of them are universally scorned, like beginning with the weather, or the character waking up in the morning. There are quite a few openings that will make readers, editors and agents stop reading. If it’s too big, write a novella or a novel instead. This is why you need to decide whether the idea you have can be adapted into a short story. Additionally, trying to cram a novel-lengthy plot into a short story will only make the plot seem rushed, or incomplete. Don’t attempt to fit a novel into a short story – you will end up giving too much unnecessary information to the reader.
The key here is to find the right medium for your idea. Depending on how big your idea is, you can adapt it into a novel, or a short story, or a novella. Fitting a novelĮvery story starts with an idea. However, there are some mistakes that new writers are prone to making, and below, we’ve gathered things you should avoid when writing a short story. And if the reader wants that novel, then you’ve done a really good job.
In effect, the reader gets a glimpse of what a novel involving the same characters with a setting in the same universe would be like. A short story can and should have the same effect on the readers as a novel – with the difference that it’s a lot shorter. This is true, but a short story is a lot more than just a piece of fiction with a finite amount of words. A short story is defined as a piece of fiction that revolves around one theme, doesn’t have a lot of characters, and contains a limited number of words.