As a novelist, short stories have always been challenging for me. I have the tendency to overcomplicate things, and short stories need to be simple. Last year I wrote a short fiction story for a magazine. Thankfully, my editor gave me some advice about how to structure a short story that I found so valuable, I created an outline to use again and again.

1) Do You Have a Small Moment Idea?

Before we get into the specific steps of the outline, I want to first point out that we can’t structure a short story like we structure a novel. We just don’t have enough room for a complex plot. What we do need is to come up with a small-moment story idea. I teach the identification of a “small moment” to my fifth graders using the following example:

WHOLE WATERMELON: I went on a vacation to Disneyland is way too big. There are several short stories here.

SLICE OF WATERMELON: I rode lots of rides at Disneyland. This is still too big. Each ride is its own short story.

WATERMELON SEEDS: I rode Space Mountain at Disneyland. Perfect! This is a small moment story that has its own beginning, middle, and end.

Once you have a small moment idea, you’re ready to outline. Again, with a 1000-word story, we just don’t have room to use something like the Save the Cat Beat Sheet or even the three-act structure. They’re both too much. We need a simple plot outline with one problem or goal that can be solved with just few try-fail cycles. I usually set up my short stories like this:

• The character in a setting has a problem or goal.
• They try once and fail.
• They try again and fail.
• They make a realization, try a third time, and succeed.
• Wrap up and conclusion.

Once you have your general small moment idea, you’re ready to outline. The following steps will help you craft a plan for a compelling short story. Let’s take a look at each step.

2. Setting

Where does your story take place? Whether it’s in one location or more than one, jot them down in the order of the timeline of your story.

3. Main Character

Who is your main character? Write down something as simple as: Luke, age 16, a junior in high school who is competing in a robot design competition.

What does he want? He wants him and his teammate to do well in the competition.

It also helps to know a little bit about your character’s personality so you can know how they’ll react to the plot points in the story. Do your best to make them sympathetic from the start so your reader will want to root for them.

4. Secondary Character

In a short story, it helps to have at least one secondary character, though you may have more. This person could be a friend, a parent, or an antagonist. You’ll want to know a little about them too. For my example, I’m going to have Ryan, another 16-year-old junior who is from a competing school.

5. Main Character’s False Belief

The false belief ties into the theme of your story, and for me, it helps if it is either a lie the main character believes. For this story, let’s say that Luke’s lie is that he doesn’t need anyone. He can fix his problems himself. Hint: the false belief or lie is what escalates the problem. It’s not until the main character admits the lie that the story is able to wrap up in a satisfying way.

6. Plot Point 1

Your story is going along just fine with the main character working toward his goal when the first plot point happens. This should be something that not only changes the trajectory of the story, it causes conflict for your character and forces him to make a choice. In my example story, Luke is hard at work setting up the booth at the competition when he gets a text message from his teammate who is sick. He’s not coming to the event! And if that wasn’t bad enough, his teammate was supposed to bring an important part to complete their robot.

7. Plot Point 2

This part of the story is usually a little shorter than the first part. We are ratcheting up toward the ending, so we want to increase the tension here with a new twist. This is the climactic situation or big confrontation that brings your main character to the hardest part of their challenge. Depending on what you do with the Turning Point (see #8), this second plot point will go one of two ways. It will either involve your main character having to make amends in some way or confront someone. Or it will be one more twist that makes everything worse than it already was. For Luke, he will have to ask around to see if someone has the part that he is missing. This will be hard for him since he doesn’t think he needs anyone.

8. Turning Point

The Turning Point, sometimes called the Ah-ha Moment, is when your character makes a realization about their false belief. The Turning Point can either come between the two Plot Points or after Plot Point 2. When it comes between the two plot points, it usually involves the main character’s false belief causing them to do something that must be fixed. They might unfairly confront someone and find out that the truth wasn’t what they assumed it was all about. They were upset for no reason. Or they might realize they need make amends for something they did wrong. In either case, they will then move on to Plot Point 2 where they will make the situation right.

When the Turning Point comes after the second plot point, it usually happens when the main character is at their wit’s end. The only way out is to admit that their false belief might be holding them back. Then they must take a risk and do the hard thing they’ve been fighting against doing from the start. For Luke, that means he must trust someone else with his dream of doing well in the competition and ask for help. And Ryan is able to help!

Either way, the Turning Point is meant to show your main character reaching a new level of understanding, perspective, or growth that transforms them in some way. It’s this piece of the story that resonates the most with your readers.

9. Wrap-Up

This is your conclusion. Do your best to weave together all the threads of your story and tie everything up nicely. Show your main character living in their new truth. They have grown as a person. For Luke, that means we get to see him compete and his new friend Ryan cheer him on. We probably would also see him thank Ryan for his help and think about how trusting people was worth the risk. The Wrap-Up is a nice place to reinforce your theme. That often works well in dialogue, but it can come in narrative too. Ending with your theme can give a great sense of closure to your story.

10. Revise and Increase the Tension

When you’re done writing your first draft, you’ll need to revise. This is where you get to tweak things and make them better. As you look for ways to increase tension, another way to think of your short story’s plot structure is to call it the Problem-Gets-Worse-As-You-Go scenario. Look for places in your story where things are going too easily for your main character. Then add complicaitons.

I haven’t written the story about Luke, but from the outline I’ve crafted so far, I’m not sure I have enough conflict. Once I have written a first draft, I’d look for places I could increase the tension. This could be done by inserting more problems. It could be the announcement of a new rule. Or maybe Luke realizes he is missing another part or that something on the robot is broken.

You can also increase the tension by tweaking the character’s false belief or coming up with a stronger one. If I were to tweak Luke’s false belief, maybe I could change his lie so that he feels he can’t trust anyone but himself. Then in plot point one, his lie would be reinforced by how his teammate called out sick and left him with a problem to solve. Then maybe another character loans him the part he needs, but it doesn’t work. This would still leave Luke with no choice but to ask Ryan for help in Plot Point 2, but now there would be an extra layer of lie-reinforcement in the story that would make it harder for Luke to trust Ryan.

In Conclusion

Writing a short fiction story is not easy! Keep in mind, these steps are just guides. Once you’ve got a first draft, trust your gut as to what needs changed to make the story better.

Have you written many short stories? If so, what strategy do you use to write yours? Share in the comments so we can learn from each other.

Jill Williamson is a chocolate loving, daydreaming, creator of kingdoms, and the author of several young adult fantasy novels including the Blood of Kings trilogy. She loves teaching about writing. She blogs at goteenwriters.com and also posts writing videos on her YouTube channel and on Instagram. Jill is a Whovian, a Photoshop addict, and a recovering fashion design assistant. She grew up in Alaska without running water or electricity and now lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and two kids. Find Jill online at jillwilliamson.com or on Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter.