Introduction: How to Make Up a Short Story

Hi guys !
Do you want to make something special ? Something different from a cooking recipe ?
So you found the right instructable !
You don't have to buy anything, you just need a piece of paper and a pen or a computer to write.
You also need some imagination and a bit of patience.
Don't worry ! It's not as a novel ! You have to write 3 pages maximum.
Now let's go to make up a short story !  

The photos I posted here inspired me for various stories, that's why I put them here.

Step 1: The Characters

First of all, you have to choose the main characters. (5 different protagonists maximum)
Then, it is necessary to describe their appearance, their nature and explain how they are related together.
You have to give enough details without revealing everything. 
They have to be common persons with particular and troubling feature.


(This drawing is not mine, my cousin has drawn it.
Her website: http://requiemfordarkness.free.fr/gallery.html )

Step 2: The Places

Now, you must paint the places of the story. It can be anywhere, as long as its description is undefined and a bit anguishing.
In this kind of story, you must imagine three different places maximum.
The places have to be familiar to the reader. (A house, in the street, in a cinema etc…)
You also have to describe the ambient, the atmosphere related to the places.

Step 3: The Themes

The short story has to be based on two or three mains themes. It can deals with any subject. (About Nature for example)
The story can be fantastic too. All along the story you have to focus on those themes. The events have to unfold around them.
You can make them obvious, but it is more significant when those subjects are implicit.

Step 4: The Desruptive

In this step, you have to introduce something weird in a real and normal context. Something that will trouble the behaviours of the characters and theirs habits.
It is necessary to be scary in a particular scene, that we can call the “key-scene”.
The characters, and of course the reader, have to feel insecure, lost and worried about what is happening.

Step 5: The Details

The short story has to be scattered of details. After the « key-scene » you have to be more and more precise in the descriptions.
This step is relevant because the reader will use this details as clues to imagine how the story ends.
Those details can have various meanings and interpretations.
The reader have to be lead on a wrong track and misinterpret the events of the story and the attitudes of the characters.

Step 6: The Suspense

The suspense has to endure until the end of the story. This feeling will stimulate the reader to know the outcome.
You have to make the suspense deeper. The attitudes of the characters will change, the places will seem disturbing.
The attention of the reader has to be returned. He does not have to suspect what will really happen at the end of the short story and must be afraid.

Step 7: The End

Only at the right end of the short story, in the last sentence, in the last words, you will reveal the denouement.
It means the fall of the story.
You have to invent an unexpected end.
If the reader is surprised and amazed, you succeeded to built a short story.