Plotting the Short Story

How Successful Authors Write Short Stories: Learning the Plot

Most beginners seem to have the idea that the

writing game is a very easy game to play, as easy as ping-pong, for

instance. 

A few of them have acquired a fair education; others, not

so fortunate, are equipped with nothing but a gnawing desire to

write, and on first appearances it seems to them that it should prove

to be a very simple matter to weave their ideas into readable

stories.

Some of them have a vague idea of what a plot is, but they

know-nothing about BALANCE, INCITING MOTIVES, CRUCIAL SITUATIONS,

CLIMAXES, etc., and care less. 

When they read in their favorite

magazine a cameo-like story by some master writer, they do not

realize that the author may have labored for days over that story,

rearranging words, eliminating paragraphs and even whole pages from

the original draft, and reconstructing the plot after he has torn it

to pieces half-a-dozen times. 

The words flow so smoothly, the

characters stand out so clearly, the plot is so simple — how easy

it must be! But these writers are soon disillusioned when the

rejection slips begin to roll in on them with the regularity of

well-oiled clockwork. 

Not until they have served a long

apprenticeship do they learn that authorship is as much of a

profession as surgery is and that, as in all other pursuits, it is

simply a matter of the survival of the fittest.

No writer can hope to achieve real success in the

writing field unless he is well-grounded in the fundamentals of plot

construction, nor can he avoid an atmosphere of SAMENESS in his

stories and give them the stamp of cleverness and originality unless

he constantly adds to his store of plot material. 

"The plot's

the thing," and the writer who relies solely upon inspiration to

furnish him with suitable plots for his stories cannot begin to

compete with his more practical brother craftsman who stimulates his

imagination with tid-bits from real life, as it were, and builds the

foundations for his stories with the same care and exactitude that a

stone mason would employ in building the foundation and framework of

a house.  

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