Make sure your main character is playing an active role in this part. This is the place for obstacles for your characters to navigate. It just means that the main character needs to have some friction on the way to reaching their desired outcome, or the change they need to go through. This doesn’t mean that your story has to be an edge-of-your-seat thriller. This is where the tension and conflict lives. What are the stakes? What will happen if they don’t find the solution? Rising Action It gives the character their journey and a problem to solve. It sets the events of the story in motion. The inciting incident is the moment the character’s normal life is changed in some way. Show the reader, rather than telling them. Try to feed the exposition naturally through the characters and scene. If there is no exposition then the reader won’t understand what’s going on or care what happens to the character in the end.Įxposition can be tricky – if you throw too much at the reader at once it can become boring and stale. It establishes the status quo for the main character, gives an idea of the genre and provides the setting. The exposition in a story gives the reader the context they need. “Pantsers” (or those who like to fly by the seat of their pants) can look back over a story and check these elements haven’t been missed.

If you like to plot your short story before you start writing, you can use these as guidance. We have some top tips from the Fiction team on how to plot your short story. Sign up to our Weekly newsletter Subscribe to our magazine for more great content

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