A gripping story will set its author’s pulse racing before he puts pen to paper. Write a story based on an idea that fascinates you, and chances are your readers will also be intrigued enough to want to read on. The key is to write about what interests you rather than what you think you ought to write. Stories about desperate 30-something women in search of love may be all the rage, but if you really long to write about a desperate, defrocked Lithuanian priest in search of redemption, trust your artistic instincts.
The beginning of your story is the key that unlocks your reader’s resistance and draws her into your imaginary world. This is where you introduce place and setting, acquaint your reader with your characters and introduce a problem or dilemma that moves the plot forward. Introduce some background information that is relevant to the story, but be selective. You can begin a haunted house story, for example, by telling your reader about a horrible event that happened there in the past.
Conflict in the middle of the story builds suspense and aids character development. Your reader should believe in your characters and identify with them enough to care what happens to them when they find themselves facing a life-changing dilemma. Avoid one-dimensional characters, and inject subtle psychological truths. Some of the most diabolical villains in literature have been redeemed by clever characterization. Emily Bronte’s Heathcliff, for example, was motivated by revenge, but his love for Cathy and the cruel treatment he suffered in childhood made his future crimes and the fantastic plotline more believable and understandable. Even if the conflict just involves your heroine chipping a nail, the way she reacts to it is what will make the story interesting.
Another key to storytelling is in the detail. Regardless of whether you are writing a short story or a novel, subtle use of detail brings a story to life. Just one carefully inserted word can create a thousand pictures. American author Dorothy Parker used this to devastating effect when she wrote about the poppies woven around the “assisted” gold of a woman’s hair in her short story, “Arrangement in Black and White.”