World building in short stories

Farhana Shaikh shares her advice for world building in short stories, where word count is at a premium and efficiency is essential.

This article is part of our Early Career Writers’ Resources pack World Building, made possible by Arts Council England. Discover more here →

Unlike a novel where you have the freedom, both in terms of world length and time, to lay down the foundations of your world and the environment your character inhabits, a short story must achieve this in just a few thousand words. So how does world-building work in short fiction?

Stay in the moment

It’s important to remember that a short story is a moment or an event. Keeping your story focused to this pivotal moment will help to ensure that you are being true to the form and aren’t simply writing an extract of a longer work.

Focus on the story not the world

One of the mistakes I often see writers making is to start their short story by explaining the world. This often has the opposite effect of what is intended. Rather than drawing the reader into the story, it leaves them feeling overwhelmed. Use maps and timelines to build your world but when it comes to writing the story leave your research at the door. Focus on the story itself, rather than the world.

Be playful

It’s worth remembering that you can take big risks in a short story with language and form. Think about what constraints you can set that are relative to the world you’ve created. Be playful as this might help to make your story have a bigger impact. For example, rather than adopt a formal structure, could you create a story in the form of a list, or repeat a certain word at the start of every sentence? Experiment and see what works.

Know your character

Developing and understanding your character – the language, the clothes they wear, the technology they use, is all part of world-building. Use character profiles to get closer to your character and understand their motivations. If a character isn’t pulling their weight, cut them out.

Your world and character must be believable

Think carefully about what you’re character observes and how they behave. Their world should be as normal to them as yours is to you. If they suddenly marvel at something or start explaining how something works this can take readers out of the story.

The characters’ world should be as normal to them as yours is to you.

Start as close to the end as possible

Beginner playwrights are taught to arrive late on the scene and leave early. This advice is particularly useful here. For example, you may need to write your way into this new world that you’ve created but cutting this out during the revision process will help to quicken the pace and add immediacy.

Trust your reader

As writers we often overwrite and over-explain and while it’s important to leave enough clues for the reader so they can make the right connections, it’s important to trust them too. A good exercise to help you get the balance right is to cut as many words as possible and see if you can still make sense of the story without losing the essence of what you’ve written.

Edit, edit, edit

Every word, every sentence, every paragraph really needs to earn its place in a short story. If it’s not necessary, cut it.

World Building

Discover how to create your own unique worlds with Kieron Gillen, Abi Daré, Farhana Shaikh and Ian Nettleton.

Browse the other resources in this pack:

‘All of writing is a magic trick’ — Kieron Gillen

Multi-award-winning comics writer Kieron Gillen joins us on the podcast to discuss his methods for world building.

Abi Daré on world building in The Girl With The Louding Voice

Abi explains how she uses voice and tone to explore and reveal the world of her story.

Writing Science Fiction: World Building — a free online self-paced course

Sign up for a free, self-paced online course hosted by Ian Nettleton.

Farhana Shaikh shares her advice for world building in short stories, where word count is at a premium and efficiency is essential.

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