How to plan a short story for a given word count?
Many short story competitions, at least in Israel, set a theme and a word count: up to 2500 words, 2000-5000 words, etc. I often find myself starting short stories for such competitions, and hitting the word count upper limit halfway into the story I want to tell. The only times I managed to stay within the word count is when writing fanfic: I didn't need to do much of an introduction for the setting and the characters, and could thus dive directly into the story. Of course, not all competitions accept fanfic, and most of the time it wouldn't fit the theme of the competition in the first place.
Writing that is more concise can shave off about 10%-20% of what I've written without sacrificing story. But surely not 50% or more. So it would appear my stories are from the outset too big for the format.
Is there a way to plan a story for a shorter word count? A way to know from the beginning that a story is likely to fit or not to fit into the limit I've been set?
2 answers
A story is how long it is. The short story is a spare medium to begin with. You can't make a decently written story of X words X-500 words without taking something away from the story itself.
I think a perennial short story writer develops a sense of what constitutes a 2500 word story. It is a 2500 word story from the beginning, before word one has been committed to paper/silicone.
If you want to enter a short story contest with a 2500 word limit, write a 2500 word story. If you end up writing a 5000 word story, find a contest that accepts 5000 word stories. If you desperately want to enter the 2500 word story contest, think of a 2500 word story and write it. Don't try to cut a 5000 word story down to 2500. Don't chop the arms of the Venus de Milo or the nose of the Sphinx. It just won't be the same.
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I would write to shorter limits. Following roughly the three act format.
Use 30% for the first act.
introduce the world and your MC; 5% to 10%.
Write your inciting incident; begin at the 15% mark. This will typically introduce your villain; sometimes remotely (by name, or on TV, or a story being told by somebody).
The first act concludes at the 30% mark with a transition to Act II, this 30% is when your MC leaves their familiar world (physically or metaphorically) and begins their journey.
Within 10%, MC meets any friends / sidekicks on their journey.
At 50% introduce your first main turning point or discovery.
In the second half; you progress to the 90% mark (4500 words for you), to make the final discovery, and set up the final confrontation.
At 93% to about 97% is your final confrontation, followed by the wrap-up, victory is done, all is well, and back to the Normal World.
Obviously you don't have to follow this budget religiously; but if your setup is running over 10%, rethink it. It will be better than rethinking the whole story. You have a budget, try to stick to it. If you can do your setup quicker, you have extra words to play with for the other parts.
When conceiving of very short stories you should minimize the number of characters and simplify the problem; often you want just a protagonist and a villain.
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