Short story: Exposition, main character, story and setting (SVFL)

Get hold of a pen, or the nearest computer! It's time to write a short story... a short made up story - in other words - fiction. A short story is about a small number of characters; and it often takes place during a limited time. First: figure out the story in broad terms.

Use a real event as inspiration if you want to. Or decide upon a theme, such as: love, betrayal, or friendship. One example of a story could be: Nina, 16 years old, sees Adam and falls instantly in love. She discovers that he is deaf; and to be able to tell him about her love, she takes a class in sign language. In the class is also Tomas - whom she finds extremely annoying.

When Nina finally manages to tell Adam about her feelings, it becomes clear that he is homosexual and does not feel the same way about her. Nina becomes very miserable but is comforted by Tomas. In a story it is important to introduce a problem of some kind. A conflict. In this particular story the conflict consists of Adam being deaf.

Conflict is what builds the tension in the story. Our story is about Nina: she is the main character. To make the main character or the others in the story - the side characters - come alive, you must decide how they behave, what they look like, and how they feel. Then decide where the story takes place, the settings. As this is a short story you should use as few settings as possible.

Perhaps only one. Describe the settings as you experience them with your sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch. That will make the settings come alive to the reader. But don't use all of them at once, that would make it to tedious. But who is the narrator in the short story?

Is it someone who is in the story? An "I"? This is called First person perspective. Or, is it an anonymous writer's voice - that describes everything from the outside? A third person perspective?

There are other narrative perspectives but these two are the most used. Listen to the difference: It was the first time I saw Adam, but it felt like I already knew him. I felt sick." And "When Nina first saw Adam, she looked as if she had had too much candy, and didn't know whether she was happy or needed to puke." Time to start writing. Start with an exposition. You need to capture the reader's interest as quickly as possible.

Throw the reader into the story. And maybe the main character as well. In the exposition, introduce the main character, the story, the setting, and when the story takes place. But try to not just line up the facts, mix them in as ingredients in the story. Perhaps like this: "On that day in school when Nina first saw new guy Adam, nothing went according to plan.

Not only had she overslept and been yelled at by her teacher; now somehow she managed to stumble over her own feet, right here in the canteen at a moment when she was carrying an overloaded tray of lasagna. Milk and food took to the air and Nina got pasta pieces all over her dark messy hair. The sound of glass breaking against a hard stone floor made all the high-school kids turn around and stare. But Nina couldn't see their faces, she just noticed them as a blur of summer pastels whirling around. 'Cause Nina could only see one person. Adam.

The most gorgeous boy ever to walk this earth... or at least a stone floor in a school in Solna. What will happen to Nina? Did we get everything we needed into that exposition? And when are we coming to the conflict?

That you will find out in part two of this film.