Press "Enter" to skip to content

Writing Short Fiction that Keeps the Reader Guessing

 

Annette Young

 

There is no doubt in my mind that writing short fiction accelerates the learning curve for writers when it comes to wordiness. We are all guilty of it,  expanding our thoughts by adding in an extra little word here and there, padding out a story line to make the required word count or to describe a person, place or thing just that little bit more. But when writing short fiction, the luxury of additional words is eliminated because the stringent requirements of the short fiction word count does not allow for waffle, therefore our writing must be tight. If writing short fiction has appeal, then be sure to establish what you are trying to achieve first of all, otherwise, your word count will meander aimlessly resulting in mass editing at the end, and no one likes to cull a perfectly good story.

 

A tight focus and a clear aim is a necessity when writing in this genre and the plot must be firmly embedded in  your mind before even typing those first few words. When writing short fiction, you need to establish the desired word count first of all and then consider your starting point fully. If you only have a few hundred words to introduce the plot, characters and to have that dynamic finish, then you can’t afford to start at the beginning and build up slowly.

 

Teasing the reader en-route is one fun aspect of writing short fiction. The first short fiction competition that I entered was using a given photo for inspiration and I choose to write a story with a twist ending, (trust me to add to the pressure)it was very successful, ok, forget modesty, I won the competition and I was hooked on the delights of short fiction thereafter. Having such a reduced word count made me think carefully about what I was trying to achieve and yes, it took a bit of editing because I was determined to not ruin my chances by going over the word limit.

 

 Try deliberately misleading the reader although it must be in context and use my personal favourite for inspiration….. ‘what if’s’,  as this will help you to look at the story from different angles.  Writing short fiction that keeps the reader guessing will be an exciting writing project to immerse yourself in,  but don’t cheat the reader, hook them and keep them dangling.  When you are writing, think about your aim but then subtly push the reader in another direction. Having a surprise ending, really adds to the impact and  it only takes a little careful thinking and you will have a story that is well written and appeals to many.

 

Annette Young

Editor/Freelance Writer

http://creativecompetitor.com

http://annettejyoung.com

Be Sociable, Share!

4 Comments

  1. Iona Maclaurin July 27, 2010

    Some good nighttime reading here. I am happy to have come across this site. Didn’t know it existed before to be honest but I’ll definately be telling people about it and will visit back again myself. Keep up the good work. I am impressed.

  2. Dino Vedo July 29, 2010

    Amazing blog and very interesting stuff you got here! I definitely learned a lot from reading through some of your earlier posts as well and decided to drop a comment on this one!

    Anyways, I just signed up for your newsletter and will definitely come back for more. Feel free to do the same for my blog when you get a chance! 😉 Also, if your looking to do some guest posting or promoting some of my products definitely check out my site: Make Easy Money Online with Dino Vedo.

    All the best,
    Dino Vedo

    PS: Like my Facebook fan page and follow me on Twitter and I’ll do the same for you! 😉

  3. buy backlinks July 30, 2010

    Really great informative blog post here and I just wanted to comment & thank you for posting this. I’ve bookmarked youi blog and I’ll be back to read more in the future my friend! Also nice colors on the layout, it’s really easy on the eyes.

  4. Ray Motamedi November 11, 2010

    Wow! I actually loved this blog. You give me many good data, thank you!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.