# How to write a short story, from first scene to final draft

**How do I write a short story?** A short story is fiction short enough to read at one sitting, usually from about 1,000 to 8,000 words, though each prize and magazine sets its own limit. To write one, build a few scenes around one character's conflict, choose a point of view and keep to it, make every line of dialogue work, start late, end on a well-stated question, and revise many times.

Published 2026-09-26 by EdCitation. https://edcitation.com/newsletter/how-to-write-a-short-story

To write a short story, find one character with a conflict, tell it in a few scenes from one point of view, give the dialogue work to do, begin as late as you can, end once the question is stated well, and then revise, many times. Most prizes and magazines take stories of about 1,000 to 8,000 words, and each sets its own limit.

EdCitation publishes this guide. It draws on prizes' and magazines' own rules, university craft guides, writers' own accounts and three universities' published module assessments, all read on 26 September 2026. Where the sources disagree, the guide says so, and advice of our own is marked as ours.

EdCitation never writes any part of a story or a commentary. It does the work around them: [Check your paper](https://edcitation.com/check) turns a module's brief into a checklist, [Find sources](https://edcitation.com/) finds the criticism a commentary needs, [Cite a source](https://edcitation.com/cite) builds each entry, and [Verify references](https://edcitation.com/verify-references) checks the finished list, all free.

## How long is a short story?

A short story is usually between about 1,000 and 8,000 words, but no single definition holds, so the limit that counts is the one set by the outlet or the brief. Poe's review of Hawthorne put it by reading time: a prose tale "requiring from a half-hour to one or two hours in its perusal" (Poe, 1842).

| Who sets it | The limit, in its own words | What it means for you |
| --- | --- | --- |
| BBC National Short Story Award | "a maximum word count of 8,000 words", no minimum | Open to writers with a prior record of UK publication |
| Commonwealth Short Story Prize | "between 2,000 and 5,000 words" | The 2027 round is postponed to January 2027 for a review of its rules |
| Hugo Awards | short story "less than seven thousand five hundred (7,500) words" | Novelette 7,500 to 17,500; novella 17,500 to 40,000 |
| One Story | "stories between 3,000 and 8,000 words" | Reads in periods that close when a cap is reached |
| Clarkesworld Magazine | "1000-22000 words, no exceptions" | Refuses work written or assisted by AI tools |
| SmokeLong Quarterly | flash narratives "up to 1000 words" | Flash, the shortest form in this table |
| Your module | Surrey's ELI3046: a 2,400-word story and a 600-word commentary | EdCitation's free [Check your paper](https://edcitation.com/check) lists the brief's limits |

Each limit is quoted from the outlet's own page (BBC Radio 4, n.d.; Commonwealth Foundation, n.d.). Where to send a finished story is a separate guide still to come.

### Short story, flash fiction or novelette?

Nothing fixes where one form ends and the next begins: SmokeLong stops at 1,000 words, where Clarkesworld starts. The Hugo categories are the most exact we found, and they cover science fiction and fantasy alone.

## How do you structure a short story?

Structure a short story around one conflict, told mostly in scenes, with every part pointing towards a single effect. Poe's 1842 review argued that the writer first chooses "a certain unique or single effect" and then invents the incidents that produce it. Critics still argue over that legacy, the subject of a 2012 chapter by Erik van Achter (van Achter, 2012).

### Conflict first, plot after

The Open University's free course *Start writing fiction* tells writers to look for a character's contradictions and conflicts, both to make a complex person and to generate the plot (Open University, 2024). Purdue's Online Writing Lab sets out the traditional pattern: a complication challenges the protagonist, a decision leads to the climax, and the resolution shows how the character has changed (Purdue Online Writing Lab, n.d.-c).

### Scene and summary

A scene happens in real time, like film, and usually carries dialogue; summary moves quickly through background. Purdue lists doing "more summary than scene" as the first pitfall of beginning fiction writers (Purdue Online Writing Lab, n.d.-a).

### A first draft in eight steps

1. Read the brief or the outlet's rules and write down the word limit. For a module, paste the brief into EdCitation's [Check your paper](https://edcitation.com/check) and keep the checklist beside you.
2. Name one character, what they want, and what stands in the way.
3. Plan three to five scenes; summarise the rest.
4. Choose a point of view and write the whole draft in it.
5. Open the first scene as late in the action as you can.
6. Give each exchange of dialogue one job.
7. Stop when the story's question is fully stated, even if it is not answered.
8. Put the draft away, then revise with the questions in the section on revising.

## Which point of view should a short story use?

Use the point of view that gives the reader exactly as much access as the story needs, and keep to it. Purdue sets out the three traditional choices (Purdue Online Writing Lab, n.d.-c):

- **First person.** A narrator who is also a character tells the story, as Sonny's brother does in James Baldwin's "Sonny's Blues".
- **Second person.** The character is "you". Purdue calls it unusual in fiction.
- **Third person.** The author tells it, and decides how far to enter the characters' minds. Purdue's example is Chekhov's "Vanka", told in third person limited omniscient: we learn when Vanka is thinking, and the action shows us what about.

San José State's writing centre handout shows the choice at work in two stories (England, 2020). Raymond Carver's "Cathedral" is told in close first person, so everyone else is seen through the narrator's scornful view until his tone softens at the end. Jamaica Kincaid's "Girl", mostly in the second person, is one sentence of about 650 words that never names anyone.

### Shifts in point of view

Purdue notes that authors may switch and combine points of view. In our view a shift should be a visible choice, such as a new section told from another character, rather than a slide from one head into another in mid-scene; a commentary may have to explain it.

## How do you write dialogue in a short story?

Write dialogue that does work: each exchange should reveal the characters or their world, raise the tension, or move the reader. Those are the jobs set by Purdue's dialogue exercise, which asks writers first to sketch two characters, then to answer questions in each one's voice, and only then to bring them together in a scene (Purdue Online Writing Lab, n.d.-b).

### Two tests for a line of dialogue

- **Does it reveal?** San José State's handout says that when characters speak they show their dispositions, affections and motivations (England, 2020). A line that only passes information can usually become summary.
- **Is there a clock?** Purdue suggests giving the scene a time limit, such as a five-minute break or a bus ride, which gives it a natural start and end.

## How should a short story begin and end?

Begin close to the conflict, and end when the story's question is fully put, answered or not.

### Beginnings

Poe held that if a story's "very initial sentence" does not serve its effect, the writer has already failed (Poe, 1842). Purdue's advice to tutors is gentler and more practical: start in the middle of the action or conflict, and let the first page show who the main character is and where we are. For a slow story, it suggests starting at another point in the plot (Purdue Online Writing Lab, n.d.-a).

### Endings

Chekhov, writing to A. S. Suvorin on 27 October 1888, separated two things a writer might be asked to do, "solving a problem" and "stating a problem correctly", and said only the second was the artist's duty (Chekhov, 2004). A short story does not have to resolve its conflict; it has to make the reader see it whole.

Endings also take the most rewriting. Ernest Hemingway told the Paris Review that he rewrote the last page of *A Farewell to Arms* thirty-nine times, and when asked what had been wrong, answered: "Getting the words right" (Plimpton, 1958).

## How do writers revise a short story?

Writers revise by rereading as a stranger would and changing what does not hold them, over many drafts. George Saunders (2017) imagines a meter in the forehead, from positive to negative, reads the draft as a first-time reader might, and edits to move the needle, sometimes for hundreds of drafts. In the essay's example, a blunt insult about a character called Bob becomes, change by change, a grieving widower snapping at a young barista.

### Three habits from writers' own accounts

- **Stop mid-flow.** Hemingway stopped each day at a point where he still knew what came next, and each morning rewrote what he had written before carrying on (Plimpton, 1958).
- **Revise even late.** Alice Munro told the Paris Review that after "Carried Away" appeared in *Best American Short Stories 1991* she found a paragraph she thought "really soggy" and rewrote it in the anthology's margin (McCulloch & Simpson, 1994).
- **Know when to let go.** Munro added that such late changes were sometimes mistakes, made after she had lost the story's rhythm.

Surrey's final-year module has students build a personal editing checklist from their feedback. Keep drafts: a commentary often asks what you changed and why.

## What does a creative writing assignment at university ask for?

A creative writing assignment at university usually asks for a story plus a shorter critical or reflective commentary on it, each with its own word limit. The published assessments differ widely (University of Leeds, 2025; University of Surrey, 2025b):

| Module | The story | The commentary |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Southampton, ENGL2075 Brief Encounters: Writing Short Stories (2026-27) | Written assignment, 75% | Critical commentary, 25% |
| Surrey, ELI1026 Introduction to Creative Writing (2025/6) | Portfolio of 1,500 words or equivalent | Self-reflective commentary, 500 words |
| Surrey, ELI3046 Creative Writing and Professional Practice (2025/6) | 2,400 words | Self-reflective critical commentary, 600 words |
| Leeds, LLLC2287 Creative Writing Workshop Two (2025/26) | Prose of 3,000 words, or poetry, or a mix | Contextual commentary, 2,000 words |

Southampton calls critical reflection a key element (University of Southampton, 2026); Surrey's final-year brief wants it on your writing "and the critical and secondary material that surrounds it" (University of Surrey, 2025a).

### Writing the commentary

The Open College of the Arts gives the most detailed advice we found (MacKenzie, 2020): 500 words at most levels, in the first person, on a few techniques in the finished piece. Do not summarise the story or retell how the idea came; explain why you chose first person, not just that you did. It asks for Harvard, with a bibliography outside the word count. Your module may differ; our guide to [reflective writing](https://edcitation.com/newsletter/reflective-writing-with-gibbs-and-other-models) covers the reflective side.

### What Check your paper made of Surrey's brief

We pasted Surrey's published module content, assessment pattern and assessment strategy for ELI3046 into EdCitation's [Check your paper](https://edcitation.com/check) on 26 September 2026. It returned two limits, each shown with the line it came from and named for its part: about 2,400 words for the Creative Writing Submission and about 600 for the Self-Reflective Critical Commentary, both from "Creative Writing Submission (2400 words) and Self-Reflective Critical Commentary (600 words)". It set three lines aside as not checked. Keep the two limits apart as you write: the commentary's 600 words do not come out of the story's.

### Citing in the commentary

Cite in the commentary as in an essay, in the style your module names; the story itself normally carries no citations. Asked for "Poe single effect theory of the short story", EdCitation's [Find sources](https://edcitation.com/) put among its first results Palmer Cobb's 1910 article in *Modern Language Notes*, van Achter's chapter, and a 2013 note in *Notes and Queries* on Poe's first use of the term "short story". Two results had no author in their records.

From van Achter's DOI, [Cite a source](https://edcitation.com/cite/harvard) returned this Harvard entry:

van Achter, E. (2012) ‘Revising theory: Poe’s legacy in short story criticism’, *Short Story Theories*. BRILL, pp. 75–88. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789401208390_005.

The chapter's record names no editor and drops the book's subtitle. The library catalogue gives the book as edited by Viorica Patea for Rodopi; the DOI record names Brill, so use the publisher on your copy. The book's ISBN, looked up, named Patea as author, not editor. Corrected, in *Cite Them Right* Harvard:

van Achter, E. (2012) 'Revising theory: Poe's legacy in short story criticism', in V. Patea (ed.) *Short story theories: a twenty-first-century perspective*. Rodopi, pp. 75–88. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789401208390_005.

In the text: (van Achter, 2012), with the page of any quotation. See also the [Harvard referencing guide](https://edcitation.com/newsletter/harvard-referencing-guide) and the [literary analysis essay](https://edcitation.com/newsletter/how-to-write-a-literary-analysis-essay-in-mla).

## Where does EdCitation fit in a creative writing assignment?

EdCitation is the best tool for the source work around a story, since each entry it gives comes from a publisher's record, never from a guess. The run above shows why that matters: the record behind van Achter's chapter left out its editor, a gap you can only see by checking the record.

- **Check your paper**, free with no account, reads a brief into a checklist of word limits, headings, sources, style and layout, each rule beside its sentence. Judging the finished work against it is Theoretics QA, in Max at $24 a month.
- **Find sources**, free, looks for the claim you need supported across about 300 million published works.
- **Cite a source**, free, builds an entry from a DOI, ISBN, title or web address in six styles, and screens the source for retraction.
- **Verify references**, free, gives each entry of a list one of three verdicts (verified, "check this", not found), and never passes off "could not check" as not found.

We ran a five-entry commentary list through [Verify references](https://edcitation.com/verify-references): Chekhov's letters, Cobb's article, the Saunders essay and van Achter's chapter came back verified. Poe's review in *Graham's Magazine* came back not found, because no publisher's or registry's record holds an 1842 magazine review; it exists, and we read it on the Poe Society's site. Pasted one entry per line, with no blank lines, the list gave the same five verdicts.

None of this touches the story: its ideas and sentences stay yours. Plans are on [Pricing](https://edcitation.com/pricing).

## Quick questions

### How many words is a short story?

Usually about 1,000 to 8,000 words, but each outlet sets its own: the BBC National Short Story Award takes up to 8,000, the Commonwealth Short Story Prize 2,000 to 5,000.

### What is the difference between a short story and flash fiction?

Length, as each outlet defines it. SmokeLong Quarterly publishes flash narratives up to 1,000 words, while Clarkesworld takes nothing shorter than 1,000.

### What point of view is best for a short story?

The one that gives the reader the access the story needs; first and third person are the usual choices, second person the rare one.

### How do I cite sources in a creative writing commentary?

In the style your module names, in the text and in a list at the end. EdCitation's [Cite a source](https://edcitation.com/cite) builds each entry from a DOI or ISBN; check it against the book's title page, as the editor can be missing.

### Can EdCitation write or improve my short story?

No. EdCitation never writes any part of a story or a commentary; it reads your brief, finds and cites sources, and checks your reference list.

## References

- BBC Radio 4. (n.d.). *BBC National Short Story Award: Frequently asked questions*. BBC. Retrieved 26 September 2026, from [https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/3hPT5MgPnyMDwkT9VXg8xSJ/frequently-asked-questions](https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/3hPT5MgPnyMDwkT9VXg8xSJ/frequently-asked-questions)
- Chekhov, A. (2004). *Letters of Anton Chekhov to his family and friends* (C. Garnett, Trans.). Project Gutenberg. [https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/6408](https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/6408)
- Clarkesworld Magazine. (n.d.). *Submission guidelines*. Retrieved 26 September 2026, from [https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/submissions/](https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/submissions/)
- Commonwealth Foundation. (n.d.). *Commonwealth Short Story Prize*. Retrieved 26 September 2026, from [https://commonwealthfoundation.com/short-story-prize/](https://commonwealthfoundation.com/short-story-prize/)
- England, Z. (2020). *Creative writing: Short stories* [Handout]. San José State University Writing Center. [https://www.sjsu.edu/writingcenter/docs/handouts/Short%20Stories.pdf](https://www.sjsu.edu/writingcenter/docs/handouts/Short%20Stories.pdf)
- Hugo Awards. (n.d.). *Hugo Award categories*. Retrieved 26 September 2026, from [https://www.thehugoawards.org/hugo-categories/](https://www.thehugoawards.org/hugo-categories/)
- MacKenzie, V. (2020, July 7). *Writing a good reflective commentary*. Open College of the Arts. [https://www.oca.ac.uk/weareoca/creative-writing/writing-a-good-reflective-commentary/](https://www.oca.ac.uk/weareoca/creative-writing/writing-a-good-reflective-commentary/)
- McCulloch, J., & Simpson, M. (1994). Alice Munro, the art of fiction no. 137. *The Paris Review*, (131). [https://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/1791/the-art-of-fiction-no-137-alice-munro](https://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/1791/the-art-of-fiction-no-137-alice-munro)
- One Story. (n.d.). *Submit a story*. Retrieved 26 September 2026, from [https://one-story.com/write/submit-a-story/](https://one-story.com/write/submit-a-story/)
- Open University. (2024). *Start writing fiction* [Free course]. OpenLearn. [https://www.open.edu/openlearn/history-the-arts/creative-writing/start-writing-fiction/content-section-3.3/?printable=1](https://www.open.edu/openlearn/history-the-arts/creative-writing/start-writing-fiction/content-section-3.3/?printable=1)
- Plimpton, G. (1958). Ernest Hemingway, the art of fiction no. 21. *The Paris Review*, (18). [https://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/4825/the-art-of-fiction-no-21-ernest-hemingway](https://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/4825/the-art-of-fiction-no-21-ernest-hemingway)
- Poe, E. A. (1842, May). Review of *Twice-told tales* [Review of the book *Twice-told tales*, by N. Hawthorne]. *Graham's Magazine*, 298–300. [https://www.eapoe.org/works/criticsm/gm542hn1.htm](https://www.eapoe.org/works/criticsm/gm542hn1.htm)
- Purdue Online Writing Lab. (n.d.-a). *Common pitfalls for beginning fiction writers*. Purdue University. Retrieved 26 September 2026, from [https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/resources/writing_tutors/tutoring_creative_writing_students/pitfalls_for_fiction_writers.html](https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/resources/writing_tutors/tutoring_creative_writing_students/pitfalls_for_fiction_writers.html)
- Purdue Online Writing Lab. (n.d.-b). *Fiction writing assignment: We need to talk*. Purdue University. Retrieved 26 September 2026, from [https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/subject_specific_writing/creative_writing/teachers/example_assignments_overview/writing-experiment-we-need-to-talk.html](https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/subject_specific_writing/creative_writing/teachers/example_assignments_overview/writing-experiment-we-need-to-talk.html)
- Purdue Online Writing Lab. (n.d.-c). *Fiction writing basics 2*. Purdue University. Retrieved 26 September 2026, from [https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/subject_specific_writing/creative_writing/writers/fiction_writing_basics/fiction_writing_basics_2.html](https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/subject_specific_writing/creative_writing/writers/fiction_writing_basics/fiction_writing_basics_2.html)
- Saunders, G. (2017, March 4). What writers really do when they write. *The Guardian*. [https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/mar/04/what-writers-really-do-when-they-write](https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/mar/04/what-writers-really-do-when-they-write)
- SmokeLong Quarterly. (n.d.). *Guidelines*. Retrieved 26 September 2026, from [https://www.smokelong.com/guidelines/](https://www.smokelong.com/guidelines/)
- University of Leeds. (2025). *Creative writing workshop two (LLLC2287)* [Module catalogue, 2025/26]. [https://catalogue.leeds.ac.uk/Module/UG/LLLC/2287/202526](https://catalogue.leeds.ac.uk/Module/UG/LLLC/2287/202526)
- University of Southampton. (2026). *Brief encounters: Writing short stories (ENGL2075)* [Module, 2026-27]. [https://www.southampton.ac.uk/courses/2026-27/modules/engl2075](https://www.southampton.ac.uk/courses/2026-27/modules/engl2075)
- University of Surrey. (2025a). *Creative writing and professional practice (ELI3046)* [Module catalogue, 2025/6]. [https://catalogue.surrey.ac.uk/2025-6/module/ELI3046/SEMR1/1](https://catalogue.surrey.ac.uk/2025-6/module/ELI3046/SEMR1/1)
- University of Surrey. (2025b). *Introduction to creative writing (ELI1026)* [Module catalogue, 2025/6]. [https://catalogue.surrey.ac.uk/2025-6/module/ELI1026](https://catalogue.surrey.ac.uk/2025-6/module/ELI1026)
- van Achter, E. (2012). Revising theory: Poe's legacy in short story criticism. In V. Patea (Ed.), *Short story theories: A twenty-first-century perspective* (pp. 75–88). Rodopi. [https://doi.org/10.1163/9789401208390_005](https://doi.org/10.1163/9789401208390_005)