Writing Fiction & Poetry : How to Generate Short Story Ideas

Posted by admin on March 12th, 2010 and filed under short stories | 25 Comments »

Short story ideas are generated from the idea of a central character trying to solve a problem and encountering change of some sort; they also include a clear beginning, middle and end. Get ideas to write a short story, referring to writing books such as “Creating Short Fiction”, by Damon Knight, with tips from a published author and English professor in this free video on writing.

Expert: David M. Harris
Bio: David M. Harris has taught English at Vanderbilt University and elsewhere.
Filmmaker: Dimitri LaBarge

Duration : 0:2:21


[youtube rWNDpXqo-Ik]

25 Responses

  1. wouldntyoulike2know Says:

    Thank you so much. …
    Thank you so much. This has cleared up my foggy mind just a bit. :)

  2. nyvion Says:

    lol @ the clock in …
    lol @ the clock in the top left corner xD

  3. gabriel1118x Says:

    Ho Ho Ho!
    Merry… …

    Ho Ho Ho!
    Merry… writing!

  4. VAMPIREBIRDIE Says:

    I have a book of …
    I have a book of short stories out Undead reb Down Under and a novel, Disco Evil…they are on filament as well as amazon…

  5. VAMPIREBIRDIE Says:

    I have a vampire …
    I have a vampire collection of short stories out there- Undead Reb Down Under and a novel Disco Evil. They are available on filament and Amazon.

  6. viledischarge666 Says:

    yup. never wrote a …
    yup. never wrote a short story.. well in high school i did :) and the teacher if he is still there wanted to use it in his class for future reference o_O don’t know if he does tho.
    how about your self? have you written any stories lately and if so may i read them or some.

  7. VAMPIREBIRDIE Says:

    Ah! The endless …
    Ah! The endless possibilities from a bear knocking on a door…No wonder some writing guides think its a good starting point. Keep going with it and you might find yourself with a short story…Good luck to you if this turns out to be the case…To me it sounds like you have only got your little toe wet so far in this rather deep lake of what can be done with a simple opening gambit.

  8. viledischarge666 Says:

    well he COULD try …
    well he COULD try to kill the character, fail. or just kill that character if its not my main one but its a short story so that would not be fun to have it that short unless the main character is the bear who is tired of being hunted so he became the hunter or his or her cub was killed by this particular person and he was to knock polite so the person would not think its the bear. then again the person to answer the door could be a giant bee. and the bear was only going to ask for some honey

  9. VAMPIREBIRDIE Says:

    Well if you want a …
    Well if you want a polite bear to have tea with you then you have got a polite bear to have tea with. He may not have been knocking as way of polite entry but that is up to you the writer. He may simply have been trying to break in to get to the honey or whatever. Yes, he could always kill more humans…Why not? He could start with you or your character.

  10. viledischarge666 Says:

    well since the bear …
    well since the bear knocked i would ask him or her in for some tea since it is obvious that the bear had intelligence to know that some one was there and be polite enough to knock so the least i could do was offer some tea then they start talking about what.. i dont know how does he like being hunted why dont he kill more humans he is a gigantic animal with awesome power and im rambling on………… . .. . .

  11. VioletsAreViolent Says:

    his shirt is made …
    his shirt is made of epic win
    but srsly thx, this vid helped

  12. RandomBadgerRyan Says:

    Thanks Santa :)
    Thanks Santa :)

  13. EvolBob1 Says:

    Is the title going …
    Is the title going to be ‘Sex After Death’?
    Who with and How, or is this just a venture into the spiritual side of life… um, I mean death?
    I have many ideas, or I can generate ideas for a story, but I know my writing sucks. For example, some of my favorite shows have fallen flat, and have not gone where I expected: Heroes, Fringe (cringe), CSI, Medium, Babylon 5, and Buffy TVS. The last 2 were the greatest disappointment, as I had a much better ending in mind, but I could never write them.

  14. thoughtchallenge Says:

    That would be great,
    That would be great,

  15. MrWordlover Says:

    I am working on a …
    I am working on a book similar to the satanic verses, but more interesting…

  16. ScalbionTerror Says:

    send me it i’ll …
    send me it i’ll give an honest report

  17. SuperShadow74 Says:

    sure
    sure

  18. VAMPIREBIRDIE Says:

    I was once told …
    I was once told about the bear at the door. You are in a cabin somewhere in the Rockies. There is a great thumping knock. You open the door and there is a huge grissly. What do you do? Apparently this is an important question for the reader. What do you do about the immediate threat or what does your character do. The reader wants to know. Anyway this is what I came across ages ago when I first started writing…

  19. NimraAhmed Says:

    very helpful thanks
    very helpful thanks

  20. BookCollector100 Says:

    I’m writing a novel …
    I’m writing a novel based upon love and the afterlife. Its more than the generics I’ve given in the description.

  21. kaimonington Says:

    I’ll read it..
    I’ll read it..

  22. MrWordlover Says:

    I am writing a …
    I am writing a novel and looking to see if people want to read sample chapters and give me feedback..

  23. 0003050 Says:

    he has really great …
    he has really great advice and tips i am goin to ace english language this year
    thank you

  24. Physics400 Says:

    Nice :)

    I’m …
    Nice :)

    I’m currently writing a time travel based story.

  25. Ru0508 Says:

    thank you! =)
    thank you! =)

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