How to write a short story?

Lama shihab
3 min readFeb 28, 2021

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The story is seen as the most capable literary art in expressing reality, life's problems, and their interactions. It is a human act that carries in its depths a position on the environment, society, and life in general, as it meets psychological and social needs, and its dimensions are discussed Just as every literary work has steps to be followed, with the aim of completing it well.

So writing the short story includes some steps, wich are:

  1. Familiarity with many short stories, reading them, in addition to taking notes, and making use of them when writing.
  2. Forming a general idea of ​​the story, and upon reaching that one must take into account the ability to write on this topic, and the weaving of imagination.
  3. Start writing in a logical sequence, with the aim of having a dialogue between the characters, and setting a goal on the basis of which the story is built Great mastery of the language literary, linguistically, and grammatically.
  4. Staying away from socially unacceptable behaviors, and if they are mentioned, it must be noted that they are wrong and rejected.

The concept of the short story

The short story was defined as the unity of impression, and it is read in one sitting, and it was also defined as a piece of fiction, and an expression of artistic unity, or more like a poem in terms of richness of ideas, possessing a keen awareness of the uniqueness of the human being, while the Moroccan critic Ahmed Al-Medini came trying to collect One of the definitions in one concept, where he sees that the short story takes a cross section of life, and tries to explain its aspects, or addresses a situation in it, leaving a single impression, and specific to the reader, with a specific focus, and a shortness of expression, and other artistic means related to the short story, and with great commitment The technical unity, the ability to suggest to the reader, and its proximity to the poetic vision.

The characteristics of the short story

Literature is an art that has existed throughout the ages, so whoever wants to fly on the wings of dreams clinging to the hopes of life has to do with literature. And the beautiful, purposeful, and expressive story has characteristics that distinguish it and distinguish it from others, including:

  • Interesting and shocking start.
  • Beautiful, expressive vocabulary.
  • Focusing on time, place, and people, describing them, and creating dialogue activity around that.
  • Explaining how relationships occur within the story, and justifying them as love, and conflict.
  • Away from repetition, and repetition as much as possible.
  • The sequence of events with aesthetics, ease, coherence, and connection. The ending is shocking and unexpected, often with scenes of joy or sadness.

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Lama shihab

“A writer is a person for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.” ~Thomas Mann