My new book and writing fiction

Think. Write. Lead. - Issue #78

Yesterday, my new book came out. And it’s not about thought leadership or marketing. It’s actually a novel book I wrote with my wife and our youngest son.

I’ll tell you more about it in a moment.

Last week, I distilled some thought leadership lessons from a science fiction novel and showed you how to use analogies and storytelling to communicate your POV.

So talking about storytelling, I want to challenge you to try to hand at writing fiction, even if it’s just a very short story.

It will make you a better writer overall.

So that’s what this issue is about—how to write a short story.

What is a short story?

A short story is a work of fiction (meaning it’s about imaginary events, not real ones) that involves few characters and develops quickly. In other words, it’s a brief narrative.

How long or short can a short story be? There’s no strict word count for a short story, but we can define three categories:

• Traditional Short Story: 1,500 to 5,000 words

• Flash Fiction: 500 to 1,000 words

• Micro Fiction: 5 to 350 words

Can stories be that short? Absolutely!

One of the most famous examples is by Ernest Hemingway:

“For sale: baby shoes, never worn.”

In just six words, it tells us a tragedy!

How to write a short story

A short story is like the last chapter of a novel. Many things have already happened in the story, and we’re getting close to the end, near the resolution.

In a short story, there’s no way to narrate a character’s entire life or use many words to describe places or things.

So, to write a short story, you need to focus on three things:

• Start with a character who wants to achieve something (it could be winning a singing contest, uncovering a mystery, or going back home).

• Create obstacles or problems that prevent the character from achieving what they want, until it seems impossible and there’s no hope.

• Finally, against all odds, the character either achieves their goal (if it’s a story with a happy ending) or fails (sad or tragic ending).

For example, let’s look at the classic story of Little Red Riding Hood.

• The character, Little Red Riding Hood, has a goal: to visit her grandmother and bring her some food.

• The obstacles are the distractions along the way and the wolf showing up. It seems all is lost when the wolf eats the grandmother and then the girl.

• Finally, a hunter arrives and saves them, and Little Red Riding Hood is reunited with her grandmother. Happy ending.

There are many ways to write short stories, but this structure is easy to start with. So, give it a try.

Ideation tips (these work for fiction and non-fiction)

Some tips for generating and evaluating ideas for your stories include:

• Carry a notebook of ideas with you (it can also be the notes app on your phone or computer) and write down ideas for characters, plots, conversations, places, dialogues, and anything that expands your story.

• To evaluate if an idea has potential, tell it to your friends (without revealing the ending) and see if they would like to read the whole story.

• Another way to evaluate if an idea has potential is to start writing a couple of pages. If you feel you should keep going and you’re excited about the story, then it’s a good idea. But if it bores you or you don’t know how to continue, maybe it’s not such a good idea.

• Write the story you would like to read; don’t try to copy a famous writer.

• Learn to think in stories. When you remember something, think about how to tell that memory in the form of a story.

• Summarize your story in a question that defines the plot. For example, “Will the character be able to escape from prison?” “Will the children be able to rescue their kidnapped parents?”

• Focus on the how, not the what. Your readers have seen so many movies and read so many stories that they can probably guess what will happen at the end of your story (characters fall in love, or rescue the prisoners, etc.), but they don’t know how. Your job as a writer is to make that how exciting.

So, what do you say? Wanna give it a try? Let me know if you’re up for it.

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My new book—a fun series for kids

What if Robert Oppenheimer had not only created the atomic bomb but a technology 1000x more destructive?

And what if that technology also had the potential to solve one of humanity's most pressing problems?

And that secret was hidden in a pocket watch (ah, now you understand the photo above).

That is the premise of my middle-grade series, "The 9 Lives of Alfred Merchen: The Secret of Oppenheimer."

You can get a copy for kids in your family (or yourself) at alfredmerchen.com