Let’s write a short story.
To write a short story has challenges – you have to get into the action right away.
Your target framework is 2500 words.
0-250 words setup
250-400 words inciting incident
600 words Act II
1800 words Act III
2100 words climax
Short stories tend to drag a little bit – the setup can run all the way up to the Act II switch. That’s okay. Your framework will barely have time to get running before it has to go bad.
Here’s how I actually did it.
0-250 words introduced the general store
250-400 words establish Ernie’s character and paranoia
600 words Act II. I got to my inciting incident late (”the bomb, the Reds dropped the bomb”)
1250 words midpoint – Ralph
1800 words Act III – Darian
2100 words climax – you’ll see
Technically, I placed my inciting incident late – Ernie going off. However, dealing with it as a short story, Ernie’s short fuse and his skirting of laws established his character – and that’s the TRUE inciting incident. The reader is cued in by word 400 Ernie’s going to do something.
The bare shelves in the store, the sparsity of resources already earmarked for others and the line that “store items for locals only” showed the mindset of the town.
By word 650 or so, when Ernie says” the bomb”, you know what’s going to happen. I even dragged in some backstory.
The important thing is, you only have a few lines to establish everything. You have to effect change in the story in two to three sentences, and sometimes only half a sentence.
The Island was 100% raw draft. I left it that way.
Your assignment today is to read the Island. Pay attention to how I structured it. I literally wrote it in one night, and put it online the same night – no editing.
Note where I foreshadow. Note the wording I use to set up the story. Take notes, because your own writing assignment this week is also a 2500 word story.
