I was recently asked for advice on a short story writing project. Yes, it is difficult to avoid clichés, so it is essential to put some good effort into planning before you even think about starting to write.
In this particular case, certain elements of the story were prescribed, which made it that much harder to put together some cohesive ideas. In this post, I will share my tips for preparing ideas for scenarios in which the writer is limited in their control over the story, as well as scenarios where the writer has free licence.
Part 1: Planning stories with fixed elements
Let’s say you’ve been tasked with writing a short story that must:
- include a major character who is a thief
- deal with the subject of philosophy
- be of the romance genre
How do you make all of these elements fit together in a story that not only makes sense, but is not clichéd and is still enjoyable to read?
Tip 1: Trust your instincts
If you’re lucky, a cohesive idea using all of these elements will just jump out at you – write it down, see if there’s anything you can add/improve, and away you go! More likely, however, you will be rather stumped and will need some way to work out what you want to write.
Tip 2: Keep the elements separate
To begin with, it may be easier to treat each prescribed element as a separate entity. This means thinking about each one independently, so that you don’t end up stuck in a loop of particular ideas that just don’t seem to fit together.
Grab some sheets of paper and label each with one of the elements you’ve been given. Under each heading, write down all the ideas you can think of that relate to this element. Think about the following:
- Genre/storyline
- When thinking about the genre element, it is also important to consider what you want your storyline to be. You may not come up with a full plot, but it is worth writing down any plot ideas that come to mind.
- What are the clichés you want to avoid? Make a list of them so you have a reminder if your mind happens to keep wandering back to one or more of them.
- What are the conventions of this genre? Write them down so you can easily refer to them when deciding on your storyline.
- What sort of story do you want to tell? Consider sub-genres: do you want (for example) a pure romance story? Or would romantic comedy or romantic drama work better with your other elements.
- Where do you want to set your story? And when?
- Subject
- What do you know about this subject?
- Are there different ways of looking at the subject? Write them down – you don’t know which one will serve you best until you have looked at your ideas for the other elements.
- Character
- What makes this character the way they are?
- What sort of behaviour would they exhibit? What are their characteristics?
- Were they always like this or did something happen to change them? Write a brief character description (or multiple descriptions) so that you can see how the character could fit in with your ideas for the other elements.
- How might they contribute to the storyline? Are they the main character or a supporting character?
If you’re more of a visual person, perhaps draw a mind map for each element; or rule up a grid on the page so that each cell contains a single idea. This may make it easier for you to compare ideas across elements at a glance.
Tip 3: Mix and match
Now that you have gotten all your ideas down on paper (or separate files on your computer, if you prefer!), compare your pages and see if any of the ideas work well together. Which interpretation of your subject goes well with a romantic story? Which version of your character will add interest to your preferred storyline? You may find that the ideas you’ve drawn up independently of each other can be cherry-picked to form a cohesive narrative, or at least the foundation of one. You might even come up with other ideas you hadn’t thought of before that work even better!
Part 2: Planning stories with creative licence
You may think it is easier to plan a short story for which you are free to choose everything from the setting, to the genre, down to which character will have freckles sprinkled across their nose. However, this may not necessarily be the case! With so many options, it can be easy to fall into typical combinations of genre conventions, plot points and character types, so you need to be mindful when planning your story.
Tip 1: Write a preliminary summary
Most of the time, you will have an idea of what you want your story to be about. Write it down on a piece of paper (or type it up in a document). Think about what the story is about, who the main character is, and what they will get up to. Make a list of the elements you can identify in your summary (e.g., genre, characters, plot points). You will use this once you have done some more preparation, so put it aside for later.
Tip 2: Work out your main elements
While in the first scenario you had to work with specific elements, the principle for working out how to fit them together is useful when elements have not been prescribed, as well. Prepare a separate page or file per element you identified in your preliminary summary. For each, write down all your ideas – do they make sense together (both within the same element and with the other elements of your story)? To get a better picture, try laying the sheets out on the table, with the summary in the middle, and cross out/amend any ideas that don’t fit or add in new ideas that come to mind.
Tip 3: Write your blurb
Once you are happy with the main elements and ideas for your story, write a blurb based on them and on the preliminary summary you wrote in Part 2 Tip 1. You should end up with a clearer, more cohesive explanation of your story. When you’re happy with it, you can start fleshing out your elements even more.
Tip 4: Put the meat on the bones
Once you’ve put together a satisfying summary of your overall story, it’s time to get into the nitty gritty of planning. Write up character descriptions for each character, describe the setting(s) you will use, and create a timeline of the plot points in your narrative. All of this may seem like double work, but it will make it easier in the long run, when you’re stuck on what to write next!
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I hope you find these tips useful. As always, they’re things I’ve found work for me or others I’ve worked with, and are not the only way to go about preparing for short story writing. Feel free to share any other tips you’ve found helpful in the comments below!
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