Short Stories For Screenplays

 Okay, I will be the first one to say that I am not a great short story writer. Hemingway nor Cheever are shaking in their graves. Still I persist.

Screencraft published How to Write a Short Story by Shanee Edwards, which I delayed reading for 11 days. I feared seeing my opinions seconded (that is only fun when it's a positive opinion that is seconded).

Yes, I found my deficiencies in the article.

Start your story as close to the climax as possible

It’s important to start your story as close to the climax as possible to give the story a sense of urgency. A visit from an old friend, a high school reunion or even a break in the weather can create a window allowing the protagonist a limited time to get to the climax.

For example: Maybe your protagonist, we’ll call her Sue, is an astronaut whose dream is to go ice fishing on Europa, Jupiter’s smallest moon. If the climax in the story is Sue catching an alien sea creature, maybe a brief heat wave will give Sue a short window to achieve her goal.

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Conflict comes in all shapes and sizes

Explore multiple sources of conflict – the more the better. Things like other people, weather, difficult terrain, even self-doubt all create conflict for your protagonist. 

Example: As Sue becomes more and more focused on catching a fish, she might neglect her research duties, causing pushback from her colleagues at NASA. She might get caught in unexpected bad weather and begin to doubt her fishing abilities. Sue might even experience equipment interference from mysterious radio waves coming from another of Jupiter’s moons, increasing the amount of risk she’s taking on. All these things make it more difficult for Sue to achieve her goal of catching a fish.

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Go for Big Emotions

The purpose of telling any story, no matter the length, is to make the reader/audience feel something deeply and experience catharsis. Reading about someone going through a traumatic, dangerous experience helps us to process our own trauma and often find hope. Exploring primal needs like survival, love, freedom, and justice can evoke major emotions in short stories

 

You might want to not procrastinate reading the whole article.

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