Write Away

I would think of writing a short story in terms of limiting what you're writing in scope. When I assign my students narratives (which are personal narratives about their own experiences, but I think the assignment parameters apply here), I tell them that they can only write about an event or situation that took place over the course of a weekend at most and the smaller unit of time they can cover in their essay, the stronger the essay will be. I always have students who want to write about how an illness messed up their senior year, for example. And I tell them they have to pick one representative moment that encapsulates how that illness affected them because their essays are too short to try to cover too much time. Trying to cover their whole senior year means that most of their essays will be exposition rather than scene and will consequently be less vibrant and less interesting.

When I write short stories, I always think about writing something that takes place over a short amount of time. I focus on dialogue a great deal; I think short stories are wonderful places for dialogue to shine. And if I find that I'm starting to write too much exposition like, "And this carried on for the next three weeks," then I try to rein in the time frame some.

I hope this helps.

I agree with agilebrit's advice that limiting characters and limiting conflict is also a good way to contain a story.