Top 10 Tips for Tiny Story Writing

With just a few more days to go until the deadline for our TINY STORIES COMPETITION, we thought we’d give those off you still writing – our thinking about starting – some tips!

Our fantastic Tiny Stories writer, Kate Romano, has put together 10 Top Tips for Tiny Story Writing – so why not give it a go? You never know what might happen…

TOP 10 TIPS FOR TINY STORY WRITING:

1. 1. Think of your short story as a little piece of theatre…what sort of world are you drawing the listener into? How can the words and language you use help the listener to step inside your tiny world?

    

   2. It takes a long time to write short things! There is a famous quote from Blaise Pascal (a 17^th century French mathematician): ‘Please forgive the length of this letter; it was written in haste.’ It takes time and thought to write really concisely. Be tough on yourself with your editing – you will need to cut things out!

    

   3. Write about things that interest you. They don’t have to be big or world-changing. In fact, its often the case that tiny things make good subjects for tiny stories because you can explore them in great detail. I’ve enjoyed writing about snowglobes, clothes pegs, miniature books, ships in bottles…. I guess I like creating small worlds about small worlds….

    

   4. You could also write about things that have happened to you – again, they don’t have to be huge, life-changing events. The small things in life can be really fascinating when someone draws attention to them.

    

   5. Writing is a messy, chaotic process. Start with a few facts, a handful of words, a catchy phrase you like saying… anything… I call this ‘splurging’. You can write any old rubbish that comes into your head and it probably won’t end up in the final story. But for me, this is a really important part of the writing process. It’s the way I get my head into the ‘space’ (the little world) that I want to create. ….

    

   6. Go for a walk! I often have my best ideas when I’m not sitting writing. If a story feels stuck, I’ll go for a stroll, a run, do the washing up, take a shower…(why do SO many good ideas come to me in the shower?) You can’t force ideas and sometimes you need to move around a bit to get the thoughts flowing (seriously … it works…) I often find that changing writing locations in the house is good too – go and write in another room…

    

   7. Read your work out loud as you write. This is SO important. Its important to do this whatever you are writing but even more so when it is going to be recorded for people to listen to. Don’t use over-fancy words. The purpose is to communicate your story to the listener. If the listener hears a word they don’t understand you will lose them for the next few seconds whilst they puzzle over it. In a short story that only lasts a couple of minutes, this is critical.

    

   8. As you read, think about the sounds of the words – this is the bit I love the most. A word like ‘smooth’ takes a long time to say (try it!) and some words are tricky to say (sixth, pests…) If you write something that is awkward to say, see if you can find another way to express the idea.

    

   9. Writing for speech isn’t like writing an essay. Its more conversational. I often start sentences with ‘And’… and I put gaps into my writing… as you’ve probably noticed … with dots to show the pauses… it works well for spoken word…see what I mean?….

    

   10. Have fun! There are no rules. And if you make rules, you can break your rules! Take chances, don’t be too ‘safe’, don’t be afraid of getting it ‘wrong’ – the more free you feel to write as you want to, the more you will enjoy it … and listeners will enjoy it too!