Short Story Starters & Endings

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Short Story Starters & Endings by Carol Whiteley Share Email Print - Short Story Starters & Endings Tags No tags are currently set for this article. To add a new tag Log in or register Starting short stories is the difficult part A short story beginning has to grab attention Short story endings should offer closure Starting is always a difficult part. The beginning of a piece sets the tone of the story, introduces the characters, and, of course, has to grab the reader’s attention. Take a look at the following well-known beginning, from “The Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant: She was one of those pretty and charming girls born, as though fate had blundered over her, into a family of artisans. She had no marriage portion, no expectations, no means of getting known, understood, loved, and wedded by a man of wealth and distinction; and she let herself be married off to a clerk in the Ministry of Education. Choose one of these jumping-off points or create one of your own, then write a 1,000-word story that develops the concept. Who knows, you might end up with a great tale. A huge storm is approaching and a family must invite an unwelcome guest to stay. Three teenagers who have grown up together set off for a day at the beach. While visiting her ailing father, a middle-aged woman has a telling memory. Watching a football game with his wife reveals an important truth about their relationship to a young husband. A Great, Gripping End Equally important, and a challenge to write, is the short-story ending. Try to effect a sense of closure, without going overboard on the melodrama. In the story “Charades,” by Laurie Moore (published in Birds of America), a family game at Christmas reveals the dark, unhappy side of several characters, yet ends with an encouraging truth: [Therese] stands up and looks at Ray. It is time to go. She has lost her judicial temperament hours ago. She fears she is going to do another pratfall, only this time she will break something. Already she sees herself carted out on a stretcher, taken toward the airport, and toward home, saying the final words she has to say to her family, has always had to say to her family. Sounds like “could cry.” “Good-bye!” “Good-bye!” “Good-bye!” “Good-bye!” “Good-bye!” “Good- bye!” “Good-bye!” But first Ray must do his charade, which is Confucius. “Okay, I’m ready,” he says, and begins to wander around the living room in a wild-eyed daze, looking as confused as possible, groping at the bookcases, placing his palm to his brow. And in that moment, Therese thinks how good-looking he is and how kind and strong, and how she loves nobody else in the world even half as much.
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by Carol Whiteley

Starting short stories is the difficult part
A short story beginning has to grab attention
Short story endings should offer closure

Starting is always a difficult part. The beginning of a piece sets the tone of the story, introduces the characters, and, of course, has to grab the reader’s attention. Take a look at the following well-known beginning, from “The Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant:

She was one of those pretty and charming girls born, as though fate had blundered over her, into a family of artisans. She had no marriage portion, no expectations, no means of getting known, understood, loved, and wedded by a man of wealth and distinction; and she let herself be married off to a clerk in the Ministry of Education.

Choose one of these jumping-off points or create one of your own, then write a 1,000-word story that develops the concept. Who knows, you might end up with a great tale.

A huge storm is approaching and a family must invite an unwelcome guest to stay.
Three teenagers who have grown up together set off for a day at the beach.
While visiting her ailing father, a middle-aged woman has a telling memory.
Watching a football game with his wife reveals an important truth about their relationship to a young husband.

A Great, Gripping End

Equally important, and a challenge to write, is the short-story ending. Try to effect a sense of
closure, without going overboard on the melodrama.

In the story “Charades,” by Laurie Moore (published in Birds of America), a family game at
Christmas reveals the dark, unhappy side of several characters, yet ends with an encouraging
truth:

[Therese] stands up and looks at Ray. It is time to go. She has lost her judicial
temperament hours ago. She fears she is going to do another pratfall, only this time she will break something. Already she sees herself carted out on a stretcher, taken toward the airport, and toward home, saying the final words she has to say to her family, has always had to say to her family. Sounds like “could cry.”

“Good-bye!”
“Good-bye!”
“Good-bye!”
“Good-bye!”
“Good-bye!”
“Good- bye!”
“Good-bye!”

But first Ray must do his charade, which is Confucius. “Okay, I’m ready,” he says,

and begins to wander around the living room in a wild-eyed daze, looking as confused as
possible, groping at the bookcases, placing his palm to his brow. And in that moment,
Therese thinks how good-looking he is and how kind and strong, and how she loves
nobody else in the world even half as much.