Writing short stories (4) - How to begin writing the story?

 How do you begin writing a short story? Most first time writers find it difficult to begin writing. Usually it is the first paragraph that is the most difficult. At times, I have sat at my desk trying to start and at other times there is this flood of ideas, images of many characters that keep moving about. 

It can happen at the most unusual of locations. Traveling back in a long distance train at midnight hours and you are watching the only other co-passenger and the mind begins to wonder about them. At other times, you know that you are chatting with a very illustrious personality but you are not interested at all. 

A good idea is to pen down a list of various points that can help you focus. On some days you get this most awesome idea that would definitely be larger than the number of words you need for a short story but can you be disciplined enough to sit and write or type it out? It would be a good strategy to list out the points of your terrific idea or of your yet uncertain topic. 

Try to pick up the three essentials that you need to begin, i.e. the protagonist, the antagonist and the location of the story. These form the crucial triangle that you need to begin with your short story. The first paragraph sets up the tempo for your short story. It decides if your story is going to race ahead in its stream of events or will it go forward because of the dialogue structure. 

You may suffer a writers' block for months and that is exactly why it is a good idea to start in the first para with whatever comes to your mind. 

Before =

(3) Does your story have a clear protagonist?

After = 

(5) To use Pen+Paper or type it out on a computer?

Bharat Bhushan, July 13, 2021

Writing short stories (3) - Do you have a clear protagonist?

So you want to write a short story? Do you have a clear protagonist? You need to determine as to who will carry your short story from the beginning to the end. It is clear that you would have a hero and a heroine if you are writing a love story. But it does not usually work like that. It is not so easy. A hero in a love story could gradually or abruptly turn out to be a villain. That will certainly make for an interesting short story. 

Creating a major character to give strength to the story is up to the author unless you are borrowing a known character from other stories or from current events or depending upon the obvious aspects of generic protagonists. For example, you could borrow Arjuna or Hanuman from the Puranas to be part of your short story. You would not need to take away too many sentences to develop these characters within your manuscript. 

What if you take a renowned Olympian gold medalist champion athlete and turn him out to be an antagonist? Wait! That is actually been done in real life. A good protagonist could also be in conflict with a powerful antagonist or could be at conflict with oneself or with the image that the people have about them. You would need to be careful in such situations to avoid contradicting yourself by the time that you complete your story. 

The principal character notes could be written up separately as your reference guide and will help you to stay truthful and faithful to continuity with the protagonist and the antagonist if you decide on including them in your next short story or in a series. There could be more than one protagonist or antagonist and the author could turn them into a good collective team, for e.g. commandos or school students. 

Before = 

(2) Does your story have a beginning and an end?

Next =

(4) How to begin writing the Story?

Bharat Bhushan, 12 July 2021