Writing a Short Story

The best way to write a short story is to first read as many as you can. Some of the best known short
story writers are H. Munro, Ruskin Bond, R.K. Narayan, O. Henry, Somerset Maugham, Ernest
Hemingway and Chekhov.

Start the story with an interesting element so as to get the reader glued. It should catch the attention of
the reader making him want to read more. The first para itself, should ideally set the tone of the story by
introducing the conflict/action/something unusual.

Avoid exposition, that is giving information about the happenings or background. Let the reader read
between the lines.

The story should evoke feeling in the reader. Curiosity, anticipation, laughter, sadness,… the story
should get the reader deeply engrossed.

Decide in which person to write the story:

First person – The story is written as “I”. It can the protagonist (or main person) narrating or the
secondary character narrating about the happenings to the main character. This method unites the
character with the reader, but may disallow the reader’s connection with the other characters.
Second person – The story is told to the reader. “You must be wondering what a person like him was
doing in the casino.” This puts the reader in the situation.
Third person – A person not part of the story is telling it, using “he”, “she” or “it”. This option allows the
writer to explore all the characters and present them to the reader.

The first two options are considered easier for beginners.

Developing Characters:
Draw up their physical appearance so that the reader can visualize the person.
Show their actions rather than tell. Instead of using adjectives to describe the person’s character, make
them do things which reveal the same.
The character should not just take the plot forward by announcing details, he should also express his
thoughts, fears, hopes. This will make the character sound real to the reader.

An excerpt from An Astrologer’s Day:

Punctually at midday, he opened his bag and spread out his professional equipment, which consisted of
a dozen cowrie shells, a square piece of cloth with obscure mystic charts on it, a notebook, and a bundle
of palmyra writing. His forehead was resplendent with sacred ash and vermilion, and his eyes sparkled
with a sharp abnormal gleam which was really an outcome of a continual searching look for customers,
but which his simple clients took to be a prophetic light and felt comforted. The power of his eyes was
considerably enhanced by their position placed as they were between the painted forehead and the
dark whiskers which streamed down his cheeks: even a half-wit's eyes would sparkle in such a setting.
To crown the effect he wound a saffron-coloured turban around his head. This colour scheme never
failed. People were attracted to him as bees are attracted to cosmos or dahlia stalks. He sat under the
boughs of a spreading tamarind tree which flanked a path running through the Town Hall Park.

An excerpt from Gift of the Magi:

Della finished her cry and attended to her cheeks with the powder rag. She stood by the window and
looked out dully at a grey cat walking a grey fence in a grey backyard. To-morrow would be Christmas
Day, and she had only $1.87 with which to buy Jim a present. She had been saving every penny she
could for months, with this result. Twenty dollars a week doesn't go far. Expenses had been greater than
she had calculated. They always are. Only $1.87 to buy a present for Jim. Her Jim. Many a happy hour
she had spent planning for something nice for him. Something fine and rare and sterling - something just
a little bit near to being worthy of the honour of being owned by Jim.

There was a pier-glass between the windows of the room. Perhaps you have seen a pier-glass in an $8
Bat. A very thin and very agile person may, by observing his reflection in a rapid sequence of longitudinal
strips, obtain a fairly accurate conception of his looks. Della, being slender, had mastered the art.

An excerpt from The Feast of Roses by Indu Sundaresan:

Hoshiyar Khan stood in front, taller than most of the other men around him. He was dressed, even this
early in the morning, as immaculately as a king. His hair was smoothed down below his turban, his face
grave with responsibility, his manner impeccable. Hoshiyar had been the head eunuch of Emperor
Jahangir’s harem for twenty-five years now.

He would know of all that passed, know also that Mehrunnisa had dismissed his men from the verandah,
know that they had left at her command and why. It seemed to Mehrunnisa that he nodded briefly, just
a flicker of an eyelash, with a smile more on his countenance than on his lips before he turned to the
Emperor.

Hoshiyar leaned out of the arch and raised his hand. The royal orchestra started to play, announcing the
Emperor’s arrival.

An excerpt from The Feast of Roses by Indu Sundaresan:

A slave girl, clad in thin muslin skirts, bodice, and veil, swayed to the rhythm of the tabla’s beat. The
table player sat behind one of the courtyard pillars, out of sight, the sound of his drums filling the heavy
air. Slow, insistent, compelling. The girl was slim, not particularly pretty, her nose spread over her face.
But what nature denied her, cosmetics embellished to something akin to beauty. Her eyes were outlined
with kohl, giving them depth and breadth, her lips reddened with carmine, henna flowers tattooed her
hands and feet. Her body hardly seemed to move, yet the cadence of the drums filled her gestures.
Setting:
Give a description of the setting – location, time, atmosphere – so that the reader can visualize the place
where the story is taking place. Before writing, try to picture the setting and the characters in it.

An excerpt from An Astrologer’s Day:

He sat under the boughs of a spreading tamarind tree which flanked a path running through the Town
Hall Park. It was a remarkable place in many ways: a surging crowd was always moving up and down this
narrow road morning till night. A variety of trades and occupations was represented all along its way:
medicine sellers, sellers of stolen hardware and junk, magicians, and, above all, an auctioneer of cheap
cloth, who created enough din all day to attract the whole town. Next to him in vociferousness came a
vendor of fried groundnut, who gave his ware a fancy name each day, calling it "Bombay Ice-Cream" one
day, and on the next "Delhi Almond", and on the third "Raja's Delicacy", and so on and so forth, and
people flocked to him. A considerable portion of this crowd dallied before the astrologer too. The
astrologer transacted his business by the light of a flare which crackled and smoked up above the
groundnut heap nearby. Half the enchantment of the place was due to the fact that it did not have the
benefit of municipal lighting. The place was lit up by shop lights. One or two had hissing gaslights, some
had naked flares stuck on poles, some were lit up by old cycle lamps, and one or two, like the
astrologer's, managed without lights of their own. It was a bewildering criss-cross of light rays and
moving shadows. This suited the astrologer very well, for the simple reason that he had not in the least
intended to be an astrologer when he began life; and he knew no more of what was going to happen to
others than he knew what was going to happen to himself next minute.

An excerpt from The Dhaka Girl by Dhrishti Dasgupta:

The summer of 1947 was at its end and the mostly clear sky of Dhaka was painted with tints of orange
and pink in that afternoon. The wind roared through the date palms making them sway briskly, and it
ran through the sand carrying away a part of it to destinations unknown. Dry leaves parted from the still
young trees and flew with the wind to find their place in the blown-away sand while birds flocked over
the dusty brown branches chirping merrily.

The rain was not too far. The scorching summer had prevailed a little longer that year, and now it was
time to bid it adieu and hail the coming monsoon.

Excerpt from The Feast of Roses by Indu Sunderesan:

The months of June and July had passed. The monsoons were tardy this year – the nights hinted rain
constantly with an aroma in the air, a cooling on the skin, soundless lightning across skies. But when
morning came, the sun rose strong again, mocking Agra and its inhabitants. And the days crawled by,
brazenly hot, when every breath was an effort, every movement a struggle, every night sweat-stewed.
In temples, incantations were offered, the muezzins called the faithful to prayers, their voices melodious
and pleading, and the bells of the Jesuit churches chimed. But the gods seemed indifferent. The rice
paddies lay ploughed after the pre-monsoon rains, awaiting the seedlings; too long a wait and the
ground would grow hard again.
A few people moved torpidly in the streets of Agra; only the direst of emergencies had called them from
their cool, stone-flagged homes. Even the normally frantic pariah dogs lay panting on doorsteps, too
exhausted to yelp when passing urchins pelted them with stones.

The bazaars were barren too, shopfronts pulled down, shopkeepers too tired to haggle with buyers.
Custom could wait for cooler times. The whole city seemed to have slowed to a halt.

The Plot:
Plot is the storyline – what happens in the story. Decide what genre you want your story to be – fiction,
non-fiction, tragedy, comedy, romance,… Would you like to convey a message through your story? Once
you have a brief idea on these, you start writing. Story elements help in drafting the plot. Elements
include conflict, exposition, problem/complication, dialogue, flashback, climax (peak), resolution
(solution to the problem), explosion (a gripping action/event which captures the reader’s attention
immediately). To get a flow in the events of the story, brainstorming is a good method – make a list of
possible events/situations and pick one. Follow suit for the next paragraph. Use mystery, surprise,
insight, progression (keep increasing the kind of problems the protagonist has to deal with), risk, and
danger, to mention, but a few elements, to enhance your story.

Conflict and Tension:

Show opposition between the characters or within one character’s thoughts. Get the reader to wonder
how it will get resolved, what the end will be. A conflict can be between the protagonist and another
individual, protagonist against society/God/himself.

Build the story to a climax, the peak moment. Then, resolve the conflict. This can be done in several
ways. You can leave it to the reader to determine what happened. It could be shown through a dialogue
between characters or one character commenting. The end could be shown as a new beginning. The
setting could be used to show the end, for example, the sun setting to show death.