Can We Write a Short Story Every Day?

Potrait H.G. Wells

Inspired by a collection of short stories by H.G. Wells, I ventured to try writing my first collection of short stories.

Recently I’ve only written about 300–500 words of flash fiction, almost a short story, and to be able to say that short stories, which average around 1000–3000 words, need to be developed further.

My first short story, which was written as an inspiration for another short story, was entitled ‘Stasiun’. You can read the work at this link. This work can still be called flash fiction because it is written in around 582 words.

Armed with the experience of writing several flash fictions, which were published on Wattpad, now might be the right time to realize my dream of writing a collection of short stories inspired by the famous writer H.G. Wells.

Preparation

Initially I wanted to make this wish come true at the start of the new year 2024 — around January, but I don’t know if now is the right time to make it happen? Possible.

Cerpengram

Cerpengram was created or introduced by Peng Kheng Sun, which really helped me in writing flash fiction stories recently, is a tool to help me in writing short stories later.

There are several important steps presented in Cerpengram, namely Cerpengram 1 to 5.

a. Cerpengramer Ia

• steps to determine the Theme and Title

b. Cerpengram Ib

• steps to determine Name, Profile, and Behavior (using a table)

c. Cerpengram II

• steps to determine Physical Appearance (using a table)

d. Cerpengram IIIa

• steps to determine accessories

e. Cerpengram IIIb

• steps to determine the Storyline (taken from several other short stories)

f. Cerpengram IV

• steps to determine Dialogue and Description (taken from several other short stories)

g. Cerpengram V

• steps to determine the opening and closing narrative (taken from several other short stories)

There are several writing steps that will at least help me in writing the first draft of a short story later, namely:

Pre-write

• Step 1 = determine the seeds of the story: nouns and events
• Step 2 = write a narrative based on nouns and events (without forgetting the conflict elements in it)
• Step at the beginning or after (optional) = determine the title and theme of the story

Writing Scripts

• Step 4 = write a follow-up narrative by adding elements: names, profiles and character behavior
• Step 5 = write a follow-up narrative by adding elements: physical characters
• Step 6 = write a follow-up narrative by adding elements: accessories for the key characters/characters
• Step 7 = rewrite by adding elements: narrative introduction, conflict, climax (rise), anti-climax (fall), and resolution
• Step 8 = rewrite by adding elements: dialogue, description or special description (five senses description)
• Steps at the beginning or after (optional) = rewriting by adding elements: opening narrative and closing narrative.

Obstacle

No plan is perfect. Likewise the preparations this time, which may even be like previous preparations that failed.

Procrastination is still my biggest obstacle in writing. Fear of imperfect results. Moreover, feeling lazy and losing mood or feeling.

Even so, I want to at least write several short stories or flash fiction of around 200 to 300 words a day, to process every day even though the results look small. In order to realize his biggest wish, namely to become a writer.***