A Very Short Story - How to Write Compactly

By Susan Hart

If you can write a few incredibly short, short stories -- then this will go a long way towards practice for the longer ones of over 1,000 words or more. And when we are talking about short, we mean 50-300 words. See the example below and note how it has suspense, mystery, a beginning, middle and a nice twisty ending. If you can be this compact when you write, a short story will turn out wonderfully. This one I call Primitives comes in at 262 words, and it's in my favorite genre, Sci-Fi.
 
Woman and cat, both long, lean and black, crouched low in the overgrown dry grass, sand and rusted remains of objects long decayed into red and lumpy masses. She, dressed in a ragged and stained piece of cloth, gestured to the cat silently. Cat, hackles raised, looked at her then slunk off and around the small hill.
 
Woman, using the row of dunes for cover, kept hidden as long as she could. Without taking her eyes off the animal ahead of them, she reached out and grabbed the closest thing she could find, then half crouching, threw it at the animal ahead. She hit the rabbit as cat took advantage of the stunned animal, leapt on it and with one swift bite, killed and then carried it over to the woman.
 
She stood up, holding the rabbit out to the cat proudly. After both admired their meal with a good degree of satisfaction, woman bent down and picked up the object she had thrown at the rabbit. She looked at it curiously then began to pocket it, but took it out again and held it in her hand. It sparkled a little, even in the putrid light which seeped through the blanket of clouds. She cleaned off the clear but cracked face of the object, stared at the numbers painted below, then shrugged and tied it to her belt.
 
Satisfied, the woman and the cat moved off to their shelter, the battered pocket watch swinging from her belt. Long past its original purpose, it was given a new one by its owner.

About the Author:

Susan Hart is a former literary agent, born in England, with the majority of her clients being screenwriters. After many years of helping others get their work published or up on the big or small screen, she is concentrating on her own writing in the areas of articles (of many kinds), short stories, novels and sceenplays plus editng and proofreading, Some samples of her work can be found on her website at: http://www.ifreelance.com/pro/49442

Articles Source: A Very Short Story - How to Write Compactly