Grab the reader's attention – and keep them engaged

Our Top Tips

If you’re working on a new short story, or dusting off an old one, some of these pointers might help.
A good title
can set the scene, pose a question, create a riddle, and excite the reader to find out more.


Carry on with an attention-grabbing first paragraph, taking the reader straight into your story.
Draw the reader in with a tight and concise image, and keep them there. Introduce the idea of your story, set up a question the reader will want to answer, and engage the senses. 


Choose the right narrative perspective, or point of view, and stick to it throughout the story.
Most stories are told in the third person or the first person. A third person perspective gives the writer access to the thoughts spoken and unspoken of all the characters. Alternatively, a first person narrative can create a sense of intimacy between the narrator and the reader.


Get the plot right. Every story needs a clear beginning, middle and end, but not necessarily in that order!
Plot is about organisation. It supports the substance of the story and links all the elements together. Remember the essential relationship between writer and reader – the plot should encourage the reader into the writer’s world, engaging and surprising them along the way.


Leave space in your story for the reader’s imagination, so be sparing with the adjectives.
All stories need an arena where characters move around and events unfold. The reader needs to feel involved in the story, invited into the arena and allowed to draw on their own knowledge, experience and imagination.


Make sure your characters are authentic. You need to know them inside out, how they think and how they speak.
Good characterisation enables the reader to identify with the story and engage with all elements of it. Remember, a small amount of detail can say a lot about a character.

Is the dialogue between your characters realistic? The best test is to try reading it out loud.
Dialogue is a way of bringing us closer to the characters. Good dialogue can give us direct access to the action, enhance tension and drive the plot forward, but go easy on the tags (she said etc).

Your ending should take the reader straight back into the story  and leave them with something to think about.
A strong ending needs to show that change has taken place somewhere in the story. It doesn’t need to be neat and tidy but it should leave the reader satisfied and conflicts resolved.

Be prepared to edit and re-edit. Read your story through, then read it again and again.

 

Believe in yourself. You’ve done the work and now it’s time to get that story out to its readers.

To enter the next WriteTime short story competition see here.