Writing a Short Story from conception to completion

I had not been intending on writing. Yet Tuesday was the day that something finally clicked.

Which is a relief because this was going to be a very short series about my writing process if I got totally stuck before I even got started.

I had a (very successful) doctor’s appointment in the morning (HRT FTW!). I intended on going straight home but it was such a lovely, sunny day I went on a short walk instead. That turned into a longer walk. That turned into a seven mile wander.  

I walked through two pieces of woodland and began mulling over the theme I have for my current short story work in progress “Gold.” I was thinking through anything to do with gold. Song lyrics, quotes, films and sayings. Adding to a Google Doc as I walked. I still felt stuck.

I sing or hum to myself when I am feeling anxious, or happy, or irritable or… well, most things actually. So, I found myself humming Spandau Ballet’s Gold to myself, hoping that no passers by could hear me. 

Unexpected Musings

I did have a couple of ideas pop into my head. One merely a line about a character. Something about the way she looked. Something else which was a little on the philosophical side. I did not really rate either as a potential idea for the story, but no idea is a bad idea.

 I wandered further still, meandering along the river, past the cathedral where I overheard some people talking in Cathedral close and noted it down, adding some embellishments to their dialogue, of course.

Then on into Norwich proper. I bibbled about in the city to buy some veggies, by which time I decided I had walked quite far enough, thank you very much, and went to a coffee shop to just sit for a bit before heading home.

I popped to The Yard in Norwich for the first time. For those who might not know it, it’s tucked away in a… Well, a yard, unsurprisingly, on Red Lion Street. It was lovely. It was quiet at that particular time of day and had a wonderful writerly atmosphere, with real comfy sofas, little nooks and turns. I was slightly miffed that I couldn’t get any WIFI. Not even from my data because the mobile signal in Norwich dates back to the Cretaceous era. So I just sat, sipping coffee with no internet. So, all I could do was nibble my cookie and think. 

Boredom is Writely Mana

With not much else to do and cut off from the world of war, email, news and social media distractions, I started to look over the snippets of what I had absorbed along my walk. I thought about how much I did not like what I had for the story so far… except there was that one thing. No, that would not work but I had nothing else.

Then a guy brought over my drink, placing the coffee down gently, taking care not to spill it, joking about the little trays they served on and not wanting to drop it. After he walked away and in the relative quiet of the cafe I shared only with a bunch of teens telling jokes to each other, an idea dropped. 

Not sure if it was the chill vibe of the coffee shop, the caffeine hit, hydration, sugar high, having to sit and think, or all of the above, but suddenly a piece of dialogue popped into my head and I frantically typed it out before I had the chance to forget it.

It was a stream of dialogue from the character I had dismissed earlier. She was arguing with another character over something I was not quite sure of yet, but there was something rumbling beneath their relationship. There was a slight shift. I had moved beyond research, and now had a glimpse of a character and a snippet of dialogue.

I won’t go into detail yet. Because I think that might actually be the nugget that moves this from idea to the story and the start of something I can use. Now, I know I said I was “Showing my Workings ” whilst in this post I have clearly omitted the actual lines I have written. However, now we have passed the event horizon and into character development, I am not sharing those details until the story is complete and out in the world. Then I will come back to this post (after June 2026) and add the details in. I am keeping track… For once.

Getting to Know Your Character – Interrogation or Conversation?

The character I had dismissed earlier on my walk, was saying to me, whether I liked it or not,I have a voice now. You can’t just erase me from the world without finding out what my story is.

That is how I meet my characters. Like bumping into them and starting a conversation. Not interrogating them with a Character profile. Like “Oi! Where did you go to school? And, what was your favourite song when you were 13? To be blunt, and this is my blog so I will say, unapologetically what I feel, I don’t care about all these fastidious details. Not unless it serves the story. Otherwise, what is the point? It just give me anxiety and takes up my time. And time is something I do not have a lot of.

Okay. I confess. I do not write out those long character profiles. Not before I know my character. I begin to write and then I might do one later if, and only if, the story becomes something much larger and unwieldy, like a novel where I am trying to keep track of many characters and I don’t remember who was who and what their personality was.

I have never written a character profile for a short story. The moment I sit to write one, I feel a little bit of the soul of my story die a little. Also, I hate that some people might be put off writing if they think that they have to get over the Character profile hurdle everytime they start writing something new. Seriously, you don’t. You do you.

Sorry, to every workshop I have sat through where I have been told how important they are. Hell, I have even run a workshop where I have inflicted them on other writers (Sorry!). If you need to write out a 25 sheet character profile for your characters before you put pen to paper then, by all means, do what works for you. I am not saying they are not helpful. I just find them counterproductive in discovering who my character organically is. My being put on the spot and made to overthink, with only a few seconds to decide my character’s deepest truths and values and every bodily detail just makes my brain freeze up.

What I need to write is peace, time, freedom, maybe a little boredom and no internet, to channel my character onto the page (At risk of sounding mystical when I am the least woowoo person I know). That is my process. It might not be yours. Your mind is different to mine, so do what works best for you.

She’s ALIVE

So, now I have a main character, someone she is talking to in the snippet of dialogue, rumblings of conflict and some subtext rumbling on underneath but there is still no story there. Not yet. It is March and the deadline for the short story is June so I still have plenty of time to mull it over and figure out the story. This is how it happens for me, sometimes. I don’t just write the story out in one day. Although, annoyingly, sometimes I do. But my best work has often happened like this. Layers built gradually. Like painting a colour and letting it dry. Then coming back and adding another… and later a little bit more. Pressure can make a diamond. But it takes time. Taking the easy first choices sometimes just results in following a path of least resistence and you get something that, no matter how much you polish it, never feels quite as special.

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