Creative Writers Use 4 Easy Steps to Write Short Stories

Learn the DeBowen short story system, the newest writing rage.

Every story has one climactic conflict, and this is where you are going to start your story. You might be saying, huh? What about the setting and theme? What about the plot and resolution? All in due time.

Think of action scenes. The action is what makes the story. Without it, you don't have a story. Think of Stephen King's stories. Someone has a knife and they gain entrance through a window. The woman is in the shower, and their intent is not only to murder her, but also to slaughter her in the most gory way possible. He sneaks through each room making little noises here and there. He stops. Does she hear him approaching? The entire scene is prolonged, drawing out the suspense as long as possible until he actually does the slaying.

The entire story leads up to that point, and then it fades back a little to let the viewer catch his breath. Then it builds again to a resolution with fever pitch excitement, and it finishes with a huge climax.

Writers have a hard time working up to a climax when they don't know what the climax is going to be, so you are going to determine that right now. Things like train wrecks, a parent being murdered, a bomb in a school, someone just inherited ten million dollars, etc. Think of six good or bad action scenes before you read on. The more action, the more drama, the better.

Let's say you think of a person who just inherited a large amount of money. The conflict could be in receiving the money, how he spent all of it foolishly, and went back into credit card debt.

Or think of a boy who was brought to the United States for an education by a charity group. The group houses and feeds him throughout his formative years. Graduation day comes. He's on his way to the ceremony when his car stalls on a train track and he is killed.

1. Now it's your turn. Think of an eye-popping conflict, or a gut-wrenching scene. How would it change a character's life? This scene can be up to 700 words.

After you have written the conflict scene, you will automatically know how many characters are going to be in the story. You should have no more than three main characters, (preferably two), and three secondary characters. All of these characters will not be involved in the conflict scene you are writing, but you will know they are coming at some point.

2. Next, it's time to write the ending scene. How do you want to resolve your conflict? (At this point, these two scenes will not be connected. Keep in mind that you are writing rough drafts - the bare skeleton.)

3. Thirdly, write the beginning of your story to introduce your characters and set the scene.

4. Last, connect the scenes, and edit your story. Yes, it's really that easy!

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