How I Wrote A 250-Word Short Story In 18 Minutes
The Famous Mice Quotient Formula To Develop A Story Out Of Nothing
For a novice writer, devoting hours of concentration on writing is a tiresome task. Short stories serve the purpose of carrying the motivation and helps in achieving the ultimate goal — A novel.
Often I stumble upon this roadblock where my mind is void of ideas — a niche to write a short story. I would take a creativity walk (where I would walk with an idea in mind and develop it before reaching home), meditate, read Quora or worse of all will start googling short story ideas. Nothing works out when your mind and pen are not in phase.
After I began writing short stories, I stalked the relevant writers, authors to learn the art and ended upon Brandon Sanderson's lectures on writing sci-fi fiction. All amateur writers should watch these lectures, it is highly enlightening and important of all — it is free.
There comes a small part in the series about writing short stories by a guest instructor — Mary Robinette Kowal.
I will share my insights, excerpts from the lecture, and how I ended up writing a short story. It is too easy and fun.
A Novel, A Short Story — Difference
Short stories are about delivering a specific emotional punch. Novels are immersion, absorbing an experience. It is like watching an Olympics starting from the pre-show to the post-presentation. Short stories are like watching a specific event.
The Mice Quotient
- Milieu
- Inquiry
- Character
- Event
Milieu
A Milieu story begins when your character enters the space and ends with your character exits the place.
Examples: Gulliver’s travels, Around the world in 80 days.
Conflict: Stop your character from reaching the goal. Creating problems in navigating or surviving the space.
Inquiry
Questions drive inquiry stories. They begin with a character has a question and they end when they answer it.
Examples: Sherlock Holmes, Murder Mysteries.
Conflict: The goal is to keep your character from finding the answer, can’t understand the answer or it leads to a dead end. Introduce the Red Herrings.
Character
Character stories are driven by angst. They begin with the character unhappy with themselves, and they end when they are happy. An identity shift, a shift in how the character self defines, and they end when the character’s self-definition solidifies, a new understanding of self.
Example: Romance novels.
Conflict: Stop characters trying to change. Fill with self-loathing or have the change backfire.
Event
These are stories driven by action. It begins when the status quo or the sense of normal is disrupted and they are restored. An external threat.
Example: Armageddon, Asteroid hitting the earth, Aliens invasion.
Conflict: Don’t let the characters restore the status quo. Create disruptions like fight and chase scenes.
One shall combine these quotients to build a convincing story, not necessarily to stick with a single thread.
Workshop
The task is to write a 250-word short story. The instructor now helps us by assigning a character, an object, and a genre.
Character — Jockey (Horse, Disc)
Object — Coaster (Beverage, Roller)
Genre — Science Fiction
1. Opening (Three Sentences, Three Minutes)
In our first three sentences, we need to establish three key aspects of the story.
Who — Character (Hint: Action or Attitude)
Ex: Sexist boss, Angst teenage jockey
Where — Location (Hint: Sensory detail)
Ex: Without sensory detail — “She stood in the battleship’s engine”
Ex: With Sensory detail — “The thrum of the battleship’s engine resonated through her feet”
Genre — Science Fiction (Hint: Specific and unique)
Ex: “The thrum of the battleship’s steam engine through its iron clad walls resonated under her feet”
The instructor gives three minutes to write three sentences.
What I Wrote
“I will ride you one day” he muttered himself. Helping his dad in the bar is his favorite hobby, but to ride the toy ox on the coaster — a set-up to entertain the customers, is a dream for him. He is just 7 years old, but his never give up attitude is far mature than his age.
A Formula To Optimize The Length Of The Story
Often my stories ran out of control in both characters and length. What I have tried to accomplish in 2000 words, ended up in 6000 words. I don’t find any unnecessary characters, scenes or sentences in my story. But what I had did wrong was sticking to the typical writer’s formula ‘show, but not tell’. To introduce much weight and depth to the iconic villain character, I have incorporated his entire life into the story and worst of all, way too much conversations to add thrilling narrative. After all, this is a short story, no one needs how he becomes a Batman. He is a Batman. Period.
Each character or location we add has the potential to add 500 to 1000 words to our story. To avoid this dilemma, Mary Robinette brings out a formula to check our story’s ideal length and requirement. The formula is not mandatory, but can be a useful diagnostic tool.
L=((C+S)*750*M)/1.5
L=Length
C=Characters
S=Stages
M=Mice quotient or threads
For this short story, she allows a maximum of two characters and one location.
2. Conflict (Two sentences, Two Minutes)
Conflicts are all about your character trying to achieve a goal but fail. It is a try-fail cycle.
What is your character trying to do, and why? — First sentence.
What is stopping them? — Second sentence.
What I Wrote
It all started when people tried to ride this toy, which throws people out. However, because of his age factor, he didn’t meet the height to ride on this one, failing in his dream.
3. Throw A Conflict (Five Sentences, Five Minutes)
Each action that your character takes should have a consequence. This is described as ‘Yes, But/No, And’
Yes, But — Character makes progress towards a goal, but they were pushed back from it.
No, And — They did not make progress towards their goal, and they were pushed farther back from it.
But before doing all that, we need to find the Mice Quotient element of our story. Mine is a Character story. Internal conflict, a struggle, and failure of a character.
What I Wrote
He hugs the toy on the coaster but thrown off the next minute. He tied his legs with a rope, again he fell succumbing to the failure. His father advised him, warned him not to try until he attains the right age. Some people attended his injuries, and others laughed at his condition. Whatever the effort may be, he always ended up failing. But like his mother, who fought cancer until her last breath, had taught him never to step back, never to stop trying.
4. Resolving A Conflict (Five Sentences, Five Minutes)
The next try-fail cycle that your character does is going to be a success. This will be described as ‘Yes, And/No, But’
Yes, And — Movement towards the goal and a continuation towards the goal (multiple try-fail cycles).
No, But — There is a setback again, but still they get something towards the goal.
Three-Quarter Effect
“A phenomenon in psychology is when someone is doing something at about the three-quarter point is when it seems it like they can’t possibly finish it. Part of what is going on apparently, mentally, is that you assume you have that much longer to go, instead of realizing you have only a quarter of the time to go.”
What I Wrote
One day, while rummaging through his box of toys, he stumbled on big and heavy heel baby shoes. This boy had the habit of holding his milk bottle between his legs while drinking and never tried to use his hands. So mom made a plan to tie his legs with heavy bottom shoes. Naturally, it forced him not to raise his leg and in some days he began using his hands to hold the bottle. An idea sparked in his mind and he ran to his dad to buy new shoes.
5. The Ending (Three Sentences, Three Minutes)
In the ending, we need to close the Mice Quotient element we opened. We will be mirroring the first three sentences in the opening. By this technique, the story will have a beginning, a middle, and the end.
What I Wrote
Now, he bridged the gap with the foot folder and he is comfortable in holding himself to the toy. He still falls but knows how to rise again. He never waited for the opportunity, but he created the one. Life always works that way.
Footnote
The workshop was a roller coaster fun ride. This is not the mandatory formula to write a short story, unnecessary to follow every step but I have learned many useful insights from it.
