I tried Nelson’s 9 Steps for Story Writing (and it's brilliant)

So recently, I stumbled upon this wonderful article in Tin House's Writer Notebook 2. It was basically a schematic or a blueprint for how to put a short story together, even if you've never written one before, and it was kind of genius. The author was Antonio Nelson, who has published seven short story collections and also published in this very tiny little magazine you've probably never heard of, The New Yorker. So I figured, hey, this is somebody who I should really listen to about how to construct a short story. I started my career writing short stories. I published a collection of short stories with Press 53, and I've won some big short story contests too, like Shannon and Third Coast, and I got one published in the Chicago Tribune as well. So I decided to test her short story method out, and I wrote it over a single day, and it actually worked quite well, and I even liked it a week later, which is actually quite unusual. Normally, I'm like in my editor mode, and I'm like, kill, kill, delete, delete, but no, I read it again, and I'm like, all right, this is actually good. Now, I tend not to like overly prescriptive advice when it comes to fiction writing, but I found that these nine steps gave you plenty of leeway and creativity while simultaneously giving enough framework to guide you in the writing of a short story. So here are the nine steps, and along the way, I'm going to give lots of examples from famous short stories and also explain how I wrote my short story using this advice. One, write a story about something that's happened to you. I think she starts with this because tapping into a story that you know from your own life is a really good way to get to material with deeper weight that has real significance. If you struggle with infertility or you've gone through a divorce or you've suffered from a theft, like all of these things are elements that you can turn into a story, and don't feel constrained by what actually happened in real life. What happened in real life is just the starting point for your story. Perhaps in real life, you had an illness which made you sick, but in your story, you want to up the stakes a little bit, maybe make it life-threatening. Perhaps you were in love with someone in real life, but to spice it up in the story, you add another person who was like vying for your beloved's attention, and so now it's sort of this love triangle. And when you look at short stories, there's actually quite a lot of famous short stories that just draw from the author's experience. James Baldwin's "Sonny's Blues" draws from his experience growing up in Harlem. Philip Roth's "Goodbye Columbus" draws from his experiences of growing up as a Jew in New Jersey. Tim O'Brien's "The Things They Carried" draws from his experience of fighting in the Vietnam War. And because Alice Munro just died, bless her heart, I have to bring up her short story "Boys and Girls," which mirrored her own upbringing in Canada. For my short story, I'm a big chess player, so I wrote about going to a chess tournament, and I did so thinking, hey, "Queen's Gambit" was amazing. Everybody seemed to love and watch that show, so I felt like there was a market there for this type of story. Nelson's second step: write the same story from a different point of view. Nelson, you're a genius. This is an essential step because it's teaching you how to rotate between a whole bunch of different perspectives to try to find the exact right perspective to tell the story from. After all, the best way to tell the story might not feature you as the main character. Sometimes authors write pretty decent stories that would be amazing stories if they were just told from a different point of view: the neighbor's point of view, or the spouse's point of view, the child's point of view, or even, say, the gun's point of view. Yes, you can write a story from an inanimate point of view, although don't try that tricky stuff too often. Now, this is a great step because I don't think you can truly understand your story until you've looked at it from multiple points of view. Now, how do you choose between all these different points of view? Ideally, you want to choose one from the perspective of someone who has something at stake in the story. What's going to happen if they don't get what they want? A wife might have her marriage at stake. A husband might have his career at stake. A neighbor might have his very happiness at stake, and maybe he's considering suicide or something. And as you're playing with these points of view, don't forget that you might end up with a very weird point of view. Like Jorge Luis Borges, he has a short story called "The House of Asterion," where he writes it from the perspective of a Minotaur. Yeah, that Minotaur, like the Greek myth type of Minotaur. So don't be afraid of considering lots of options for what point of view you could tell the story from. Now, from my story, I didn't make up my point of view. I chose a character who was female, so I had a strong feminine lead as the narrator. Nelson's third step out of the nine is to create a ticking clock. A ticking clock is a countdown to a particular event. Think about how many high school stories have a countdown to prom at the end of the year, or think about how every single road trip is structured. So we're looking forward to the end. For any sort of summer romance, it's confined within the summer, so we know there's an endpoint at the end of the summer when the story's going to end. Oo, I said end way too many times there: end, end, end, end, end, end. So a ticking clock pressurizes your book. It gives the reader something to look forward to. They are counting down until they reach that climactic event. It creates tension in the story, and it creates suspense in the story because the reader wants to know how it's going to end. Kind of like how in this video, you're looking forward to the ninth step of this guide. I've structured this video so it's ticking towards the finale. Think of the ticking clock of Cinderella. We have that midnight hour, and she's going to transform back, and so we're anticipating that as readers to see what will happen. Or a movie like "Run Lola Run," where she has 20 minutes to find 100,000 Deutsche Marks in order to save her boyfriend. Or the recent show would be "The Bear," and this cooking show has a ticking clock in a lot of the episodes. It's always super high stakes and super high pressure, and they have a deadline. One example from that show is Carmy's renovation of his restaurant, super expensive, and he has 18 months to pay back Uncle Jimmy, or else he's going to bulldoze the whole thing. Now, for my story, the ticking clock was the countdown to the chess tournament. Right at the beginning of the story, I announced the chess tournament, and it's working towards that climactic event, so we're waiting until it happens. The fourth step is to create props or objects. From Frodo's ring to that spinning top in "Inception," objects are never merely objects in fiction. They're always endowed with this potency. They're totems. They have this outsized power and meaning. So the next step is to pick an object for your story. This could be a bracelet, it could be a stamp, it could be a poker set. Now, here's some advice on how to choose a good object. One, it's always good to have some sort of sentimental attachment to that object. Two, look for a way for that object to be involved in the plot in some way. What does it make one of the characters do? How does it change them throughout the story? You want to make sure it's necessary for the story, and if you took it out of the story, the story wouldn't work. And three, I would recommend trying to choose not a typical object but a slightly rare or more unusual object. An engagement ring might be a powerful object, but it might be also too cliché of an object. Now, you don't want this object to appear only once inside the story and then just vanish during the second half. Ideally, you'll have this object throughout all different points in the story, say the beginning, the middle, and the end. Now, if the entire story really does revolve around this object, then it's called a MacGuffin. Think of the philosop...

author was Antonio Nelson who has published seven short story Collections and also published in this very tiny little magazine you've probably never heard of The New Yorker so I figured hey this is somebody who I should really listen to about how to construct a short

story I started my career writing short stories I published a collection of short stories with press 53 and I've won some big short story contest too like Shannon in Third Coast and I got one published in the Chicago Tribune as well

so I decided to test her short story method out and I wrote it over a single day and it actually worked quite well and I even like it a week later which is actually quite unusual normally I'm like

in my editor mode and I'm like kill kill delete delete but no I read it again I'm like all right this is actually good now I tend not to like overly prescriptive advice when it comes to fiction writing

but I found that these n steps gave you plenty of leeway and creativity while simultaneously giving enough framework to guide you in the writing of a short story so here are the nine steps and along the way I'm going to give lots of

examples from famous short stories and also explain how I wrote my short story using this advice one write a story about something that's happened to you I think she starts with this because tapping into a story that you know from

your own life is a really good way to get to material with deeper weight that has real significance if you struggle with infertility or you've gone through a divorce or You' suffered from a theft like all of these things are elements

that you can turn into a story and don't feel constrained by what actually happened in real life what happened in real life is just the starting point for your story perhaps in real life you had an illness which made you sick but in

your story you want to up the stakes a little bit maybe make it life-threatening perhaps you were in love with someone in real life but to spice it up in the story you add another person who was like vying for your

beloved's attention and so now it's sort of this love triangle and when you look at short stories there's actually quite a lot of famous short stories that just draw from the author's experience James Baldwin Sunny Blues draws from his

experience Growing Up In Harlem Philip Ross goodbye Columbus draws from his experiences of growing up as a Jew in New Jersey Tim O'Brien's the things they carry draws from his experience of fighting in the Vietnam War and because

Alice Monroe just died bless her heart I have to bring up her short story boys and girls which mirrored her own upbringing in Canada for my short story I'm a big chess player so I wrote about going to a chess tournament and I did so

thinking hey Queen's Gambit was amazing everybody seemed to love and watch that show so I felt like there was a market there for this type of story Nelson Second Step write the same story from a different point of view Nelson you're a

genius this is essential step because it's teaching you how to rotate between a whole bunch of different perspectives to try to find the exact right perspective to tell the story from after all the best way to tell the story might

not feature you as the main character sometimes authors write pretty decent stories that would be amazing Stories if they were just told from a different point of view the neighbor's point of view or The spouse's point of view the

child's point of view or even say the gun's point of view yes you can write a story from an inanimate POV although don't try that tricky stuff too often now this is a great step because I don't think you can truly understand your

story until you've looked at it from multiple points of view now how do you choose between all these different points of view ideally you want to choose one from a perspective of someone who has something at stake in the story

what's going to happen if they don't get what they want a wife might have her marriage at stake a husband might have his career at stake a neighbor might have his very happiness at stake and maybe he's considering suicide or

something and as you're playing with these points of view don't forget that you might end up with a very weird point of view like Jorge Luiz bores he has a short story called The House of aerion where he writes it from the perspective

of a minitar yeah that minitar like the Greek myth type of minitar so don't be afraid of considering lots of options for what point of view you could tell the story from now from my story I didn't make up my point of view I chose

a character who was female so I had a strong feminine lead as the narrator Nelson's thirdd step out of the nine is to create a ticking clock a ticking clock is a countdown to a particular event think about how many High School

Stories have a countdown to prom at the end of the year or think about how every single road trip is structured so we're looking forward to the end for any sort of Summer Romance it's confined within the summer so we know there's an end

point at the end of the summer when the story's going to end oo I said end way too many times there end end end end end end so a ticking clock pressurizes your book it gives the reader something to

look forward to they are counting down until they reach that climactic event it creates tension in the story and it creates suspense in the story cuz the reader wants to know how it's going to end kind of like how in this video

you're looking forward to the ninth step of this guide I've structured this video so it's ticking towards the finale think of the ticking clock of Cinderella we have that Midnight Hour and she's going to transform back and so we're

anticipating that as readers to see what will happen or a movie like Run Lola Run where she has 20 minutes to find 100,000 deut marks in order to save her boyfriend or the recent show would be the bear and this cooking show has a

ticking clock in a lot of the episodes It's always super high stakes and super high pressure and they have a deadline one example from that show is car's renovation of his restaurant super expensive and he has 18 months to pay

back Uncle Jimmy or else he's going to bulldo the whole thing now for my story the ticking clock was the countdown to the chess tournament right at the beginning of the story announced the chess tournament and it's working

towards that climactic event so we're waiting until it happens the fourth step is to create props or objects from Frodo's ring to that spinning top in Inception objects are never merely objects in fiction they're always endowed with this potency they're totems

they have this outsized power and meaning so the next step is to pick an object for your story this could be a bracelet it could be a stamp it could be a poker set now here's some advice on

how to choose a good object one it's always good to have some sort of sentimental attachment to that object two look for a way for that object to be be involved in the plot in some way what does it make one of the characters do

how does it change them throughout the story you want to make sure it's necessary for the story and if you took it out of the story the story wouldn't work and three I would recommend trying to choose not a typical object but a

slightly rare or more unusual object an engagement ring might be a powerful object but it might be also too cliche of an object now you don't want this object to appear only once inside the story and then just vanish during the

second half ideally you'll have this object throughout all different points in the story say the beginning the middle and the end now if the entire story really does revolve around this object then it's called a McGuffin think of the philosopher stone in Harry Potter

or the Heart of the Ocean necklace in Titanic but you don't have to have the entire story revolve around that Central object it might just be sort of a symbolic object for one of the characters for an example of this think

back to Brokeback Mountain which was a short story before it was a movie there were two shirts one denim one plaid that hung in the closet those shirts really aren't a plot device they are more of a symbol of those cowboys love now for my

story I thought a chess piece was too cliche of an object too obvious so instead it was her father's championship football ring which was all that she had left of him after he had died so to her it symbolized the mindset of a champion

five create a transitional situation this is probably the trickiest step out of all nine of them to understand and to implement so a transitional moment is just some sort of Crux in your character's lives when they are moving

from one mode of existence to the next step of their existence it could be a job change it could be an actual move from one side of the country to the other it could be a move out of marriage

or into one in A Good Man is Hard to Find by flaner o Conor it's when they take a road trip and end up getting lost in The Secret Life of Walter midi it's when Walter stops dreaming about taking

adventures and actually goes on one in Minority Report Tom Cruz's transition is when he stops being the lead of the pre- crime unit and starts being the suspect of a crime that hasn't been committed now if you're trying to find your

transitional moment a good technique to do it is to say the phrase and then one day and figure out what happens that changes from the status quo to the new part of your character's existence that is your transitional moment and then one

day now I have to say this in many short stories that transitional moment might be very small it might be very delicate it doesn't have to be life altering that's because so many writers have been trained in movies and novels so they're

looking for these giant shifts but short stories are more delicate subtle things you might need a very small transitional moment it might be a very internal transition for your character it might be some kind of epiphany in my story it

was my character deciding to participate in a chess tournament for the very first time she was out of her comfort zone she didn't know what was going to happen but she decided to try the sixth step is to

add a world event for the reader you want to connect the world to the story in some way imagine being a reader and stepping into a short story where they have no reference points they don't know what's going on perhaps they don't even

know you as an author it makes it much easier to trust you as an author if they can step in and immediately see a famous figure they know or a historical event that they're familiar with for example if a story takes place at a Thanksgiving

dinner the reader automatically has a connection to that story they've been like oh I've been to a Thanksgiving dinner they have emotions about it and so that's their way into the story and what's even better is when it comes time

to Market this short story or Market the short story collection you will have a touch point that you can use for marketing because it's something that readers can latch on on to really quickly for example the short story

collection by Hillary mantel the assassination of Margaret Thatcher gave a way for readers to immediately connect with that Story collection it's also an element of veracity right the reader feels like this story is true because there are real world events and real

world people that are inhabiting it it's just one more thing that convinces the reader what they're reading feels true now I don't mean merely to name drop a famous person I don't think that was what Nelson was going for it has to be

pretty Central to the story in some way for my story there was cheating at the chess tournament which I feel like tapped into a trending moment because there's been lots of stories of Chess cheaters in the last year or two and yes

news stories or or current world events or something is always a great thing to include in your story the seventh step is to add binary forces this is just basically a fancy way to say create opposition or opposites inside your

short story now I think the best way to do this is to make characters who are opposites it's not the only way but it's the way I would start with consider an un educated person against an uneducated person like in good country people by

fenry o Conor in that story you have a one-legged PhD who gets duped by an uneducated Bible salesman or consider innocent versus experienced in Joyce Carol oats where are you going where have you been you have this very

youthful very inexperienced 15-year-old Connie and against her in opposition you have this very experienced predatory 30-year-old man called Arnold friend you could have oppositions like closed mind versus open-minded in Cathedral by Raymond Carver you have one character who is very bigoted and very

close-minded and who resents the blind friend of his wife who is coming to town but the blind man who comes to town is very open-minded he's very insightful he's very confident a complete contrast or you could set up oppositions like

winner versus loser I don't know if you remember reading this in high school but the most dangerous game about a man hunting another man on an island for sport it's a classic but there we have the opposition of Hunter versus prey and

we want to keep reading to see whether those roles will be reversed at any point so when you have binary forces in your story and when you're creating opposites you are creating tension because those characters are going to

butt heads and the more opposed your characters are the more chances you have to put them into sharp conflict with each other that means your job as a writer is to stretch them further apart from each other to exaggerate their

differences because that space will allow you lots of narrative room to play and have fun and create a little messy conflict all right we're almost finished here two more steps the eighth step is fry tags pyramid so a lot of Nelson

advice so far has been focusing on certain portions of the story now we're going to look at the story as a whole and think how do we shape this story what happened sequentially in a plot and so frex pyramid is one option you have

for how to structure a storyline you start with an exposition which is basically the introduction you have some sort of rising action then a climactic moment the point of no return then you have falling action and then the dayuma

at the end which is basically French for the ending now frex pyramid is the structure of a tragedy so it might be that you're climax comes 90% of the way through the story rather than right in the middle of the story so you can

obviously change this pyramid as necessary another good structure to look at is the seven-point plot structure for that you start with a hook and then you move through a series of plot turns and pinches remember pitch points are

outside events that force your character to take action while plot events are things that your character does to move the story forward and I like the way that this one escalates all the way up to plot turn two Climax and then

resolution but I will say that a lot of very famous short stories don't follow neat structures like this think of John updikes it's about a boy working in convenience store and he watches these girls come in who are extremely

beautiful and there's not exactly Rising Arc and Climax and I don't know it's a different type of storyline it's more of like a snapshot moment than a traditional Arc so I would consider using one of these narrative structures

for your story but don't feel like you absolutely have to you always have a lot of latitude to change them as necessary to fit the type of story that you're trying to tell but I will say that with

my chess story it does follow the general Rising action to a climax of a cheater exposed at a chess tournament and what happens to that character and then the ending so a lot of times you do end up following that because it's a

great structure to get emotions out of the reader and here is the very final step and it's honestly my favorite one experiment in other words try something crazy what I like about this is the previous eight steps were like pretty

definite hey like do this do this do this I mean there's room to be creative but in general it was very prescriptive while experiment basically says Hey throw it every I just told you and try something different so let me give you

some examples of how I've seen experiments go really well in short stories one try a hermit crab fiction these are stories that slip into the shape of another form of writing like a hermit crab moving to a new shell you

can write a story like a recipe or board game rules or a crossw word puzzle or a Craigslist post or a PowerPoint presentation Jennifer Egan actually does this in a visit to the goons Squad you can write it as instructions or advice

from a parent like Jamaican con does this in girl a second option other than hermit crabs is meta fiction break the fourth wall and talk directly to the reader or give a character your exact name or point out the implausibility of

a coincidence in your story a third option make your narrator unreliable how are they going to lie how are they going to slant the truth to what extent are they unreliable like wildly unreliable or just you know fibb and little here

and there a fourth way you can experiment try writing within specific restraints like don't use any words that are longer than two syllables or pick two objects like a Splinter and a dinner bell and then somehow find a way to

include those in the story now I have to say for my story I didn't experiment in any formal or technical way but I still think this is a great step in the short storywriting process cuz it opens up

your mind to all sorts of possibilities for what you can do with a short story I cannot wait to see all the short stories that you guys create based on this advice good luck writing and don't forget to subscribe and like