I am thinking about writing a short story, but unfortunately I don't know how one should be structured. I seldom read fiction nowadays, and though I have books on the subject, it might be better for me to simply begin then to study them. But if I begin without knowing what I am doing, that might also be bad. Even though I have read fiction in the past, I have never absorbed the elements of story telling. What should I do? Are there any good articles on this site or on other sites that cover what I need to know? I know that writer's digest has a lot of articles, but there are so many of them that I will not be able to begin before I have read them all. What do you think of the story plotting method that Pixar uses for their films (Or I think they use based on a video I saw a couple months ago)?: Once upon a time there was____, every day ___, one day ___, because of that___, because of that___, until finally ___. Can this apply to written fiction? Please forgive me for not polishing the form of this post or the one in the thread I just posted before. At least I am not revising as I write obsessively, but only to some degree. Well, honestly I did quite some revising while I wrote this post, but I didn't bother about making it perfect. But when I write the short story, I might revise while I write, but I will have to be careful not to make a make my sentence structures too complicated, because that seems to be what gives me the most trouble. It's not the length but the syntactic nesting and complexity that seems to be the trouble. A sentence can be extremely long but very clear. A sentence can be not that long but very complex. So if I choose to revise while I write, I will have to figure out how not to make a mess of syntax. Otherwise I will have to write short sentences to ensure coherence, and then combine them together after having arranged them so that they are suitable for combination. And I most likely will attempt to use cadence. But my main trouble with that seems to be not making sure that what I have written uses words that signify what I mean. I think that if the meaning of the words, when put together, is according the meaning I intended for the sentence, regardless of how syntax may make it hard to grasp, the sentence, to others who read with some effort, will be clear. But taking a further step to adjust the syntax for clarity, the reader will be able to understand the sentence easily. Once again, pardon me for the poor quality of this post. I have not aimed for perfection at all. Anyway, what should I do if I want to write a short story, but have little knowledge of how one should be structured?
Read short stories. Read lots of them, and read them for pleasure. That is pretty much a requirement. Forget Pixar—or rather forget using it as a model. Pixar makes movies. Writing is a different medium. Watching Pixar to figure out how to write a short story is like trying to paint a landscape after listening to a sonata. The sonata might inspire the landscape, but it's not going to help you with the mechanics of handling paint, stretching canvas, understanding complementary colours, perspective, etc. Especially if you spend little or no time actually looking at landscapes or paintings, and don't know what a finished one is like. Pixar's stories might inspire you, but they are not going to help you learn to write. After you've spent a LOT of time reading umpteen short stories and getting very familiar with the medium (get collections from libraries, online, etc) start to think about the ones you really like. Pick a few. See if you can recreate what you like about them. In other words, write your own story, but keep in mind how the ones you like are structured and what they 'sound' like. Get to where you can do that, and you'll be fine. If you want to refer to instruction books, that's fine. However, keep in mind that most short story writers outwith the past 50 years or so just sat down and wrote. There weren't instruction books around. These authors just read stories, became familiar with storytelling on paper, and then wrote their own. The only real mistake you can make is the one that keeps you from writing at all, or keeps you from finishing what you write. So get started, keep going, and don't stop till you're done. If you keep telling yourself you can't write because of this, that and the other obstacle, guess what? You won't.
What genre or genres are you looking to write in? That'll determine which places are the best for your needs.
Off the top of my head, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Lightspeed, and Daily Science Fiction have some or all of their content available to read freely online. Don't let the name of the last one fool you; about half of DSF's content is fantasy. Those will give you an idea of the sort of structure and styles that are in in modern fantasy short fiction. If you just want to see structure even if some of the style is outdated, a lot of the work of pulp classics is in the public domain. For example, most of Robert E. Howard's original Conan stories can be found online for free. The TV Tropes article on Conan has links, as I recall.
There probably are. However, you'll need to research this yourself. Do look up Gardner Dozois. He is a person who puts together some collections of short stories, at least once a year. His specialty is SciFi and Fantasy, and his collections are the 'best of' whatever that year is. You could do a lot worse than get a few copies of his collections. These are high-quality contemporary stories. You should be able to get hold of them very cheaply via Amazon, if money is an issue for you. Also, google this one: The Mammoth book of Fantasy
Do not attempt the cadence thing in the first draft. Don't. Just, don't. When you have words down that have a meaning, you can, if you insist, edit them to try to insert the cadence.
I would invest in a short story anthology if you plan to study short story structure. Back in community college, I had to get a book for my literature class. It had definitions, summaries, and classic short fiction stories. Something like that could be extremely useful. I still refer back to it every now and then. I forget the title of the book. I always enjoy getting a physical copy of literature because I like to highlight important parts (i.e. parts I find important). You could do the same as you read and study the art of short fiction. If you want to find a book like that you could probabl even contact a professor at a local college. They may even have other resources for you to use. You mentioned revising in your initial statement. Whenever I write something, I wait a day or two before I r it and edit. I think it was Hemingway that I learned this from. You get caught up in the excitement when you first write something and everything you wrote seems beyond perfect. If you wait a day or two, sometimes read something and can't imagine what you were thinking. I just write until I am done or can't write anymore, and then edit. It works for me. I get to free write the story without any interruptions and polish or completely change it later. You also have to keep in mind that everyone has their own method for revising just like everyone has their own writing style. Everyone has their own writing process (i. e. brainstorming, writing, editing, publishing). My method may not work for you and do wonders for others.
A short story is basically a novel with fewer plot twists and faster resolutions. I have a WIP novel going on, and when I needed a break I decided to try writing a short story. While writing it, some of the things I kept asking myself were, "Does this really help what I'm trying to do with this story? Does this plot twist add more words than I want this story to have, and can it be left out? How can I resolve this problem more quickly without ruining the structure, flow, and characters?" Really, it's not any harder than writing a novel unless you have a hard time cutting back in word count. I do agree with everyone that it's a good idea to read more stories, short or not. Reading has helped me tremendously with my writing, not because I consciously pick up on how to write, but because it helps my imagination flow and solve problems. I also just helps to know what's out there. In my opinion don't worry too much about the story structure. Every story has its own structure and every writer has their own method of writing. You want to write the whole story and then revise and edit it? Go ahead. You'd rather edit as you go along? Try that too. Do anything you feel like doing while finding your style, and eventually you'll find what works best for you.
