Writing great fantasy short stories - 6 key elements

Written by Kiara Maharaj, 28 August 2024

Dragons, misadventure, mystery, worldbuilding, character development. Writing a short story is already a challenging task, but writing a fantasy short story is arguably double the challenge. How would you encapsulate all the worldbuilding that comes with a new fantasy setting in such limited words? How would you include all the rich elements of the fantasy genre without brushing over them? How can you write a fantasy short story to feel both fulfilling and end in a way that makes the reader want more?

In this blog post, I'm so excited to share 6 key things to write a crisp fantasy short story, as well as share my process for my recent short story: The Inventory of Semi-Precious Creatures. I have been writing short stories for almost 10 years, and even published my first anthology The Polkadot Files last year. All my stories follow the misadventures of a cowardly assistant named Thug, and his godlike boss and they travel the multiverse and collect tales. My stories are episodic and Thug find himself in a new setting, meeting new characters, and overcoming new obstacles in each story. I still feel as if I have a lot more to learn before truly mastering the short story, but here are 5 key things I've learned so far.

The Short Story

Short stories are a little, episodic pockets of adventure. I find them so enjoyable to read and to write. They can be extremely fulfilling as a reader because they are short enough to finish in one setting. They are like daydreams, whisking you on an adventure before breakfast. Or a midnight snack, one that you can pick out from the fridge when nobody else is awake, and enjoy it for yourself. From a writer's perspective, the small word count of a short story seems like a limitation. But what if it was an advantage? And what if you could write short stories that are even better than a full-length novel?

As writers, we often get an idea for an exciting story, and we feel motivated in the beginning to start it, but slowly lose that motivation until a new idea sparks. Thus we are left with multiple unfinished projects. With the short story format, we can hone those new ideas every time we get one, and actually tell a complete tale and do justice with the idea.

Don't re-invent the wheel

There's one thing we can assume about the reader if they are reading our story: that they already understand the genre they are reading and thus know certain tropes, character archetypes, and common themes in the fantasy genre. This way we don't have to start from scratch. We don't have to re-invent the wheel. If we say "this character is a sorceress" we don't have to further explain what a sorceress does. We can move on to the more important things such as how this sorceress uses her powers and how she got them. Is she cursed? Did she sacrifice something? What's the catch? What tools does she need to use her abilities?

If we say the protagonist meets a pegasus, the avid fantasy reader would already know that a pegasus is a horse with wings. We don't have to further explain its anatomy, but instead we can focus on showing the relationship between the protagonist and the pegasus. This way it becomes a more unique, interesting, & meaningful story, rather an information dump.

We can also assume these things about certain settings. For example: in my story, the main character is a cowardly assistant to a god-like being, and they travel to different planets, realms, dimensions across the multiverse by using portals. Portals are a common occurrence in fantasy stories. It's safe to assume that anybody who reads my story will know that a portal can transport you from A to B. So there is no need for me to write a paragraph on the mechanics of a portal.

Rather I wrote about the things that make the portals in my stories unique. They are all embedded on different kinds of trees, which grow in Thug's personal pocket dimension called The Island of Doors.

Thug was beginning to get familiar with the portals on the island. Each one held some clue of what he could expect from the world within it. While most portals were large and majestic and almost always intimidated him, this one was a naive, dainty thing. He hoped they would be quick so he could return to his alcove at the Mansion where it was safe.
The wind picked up as they stepped into the portal, leaves swallowing them whole.
- Excerpt from The Fruits of Ho'o

Gathering inspiration

Ideas and inspiration can sprout at any time. The problem is we don't know when something will inspire us for an artwork or story we'll create in the future. In the moment we are simply fascinated and enamored by that thing. This is why so many writers tend to keep a notebook - a second brain repository for collecting all the sentences, phrases, words, emotions, and descriptions that inspire them.

And after that, a mischievous pixie based on the red jasper. The Emberling Pixie is a tiny winged creature that glows and flickers like embers of a fire.

At this point I still had no idea it would be a short story. It was simply my imagination and fascination with fantasy creatures and gemstones running loose. the creatures were abandoned for almost a year. Until January 2024, I was going through my old sketchbooks and an old painting from 2021 inspired me again. Its depicting a chest floating in a forest with ghostly blue outlines of animals circling it.

This is how ideas generate: we collect our unique fascinations, capture them somehow in a sketchbook or notebook, and over time our brain makes connections between multiple fascinations. In this case, The Inventory of Semi-Precious Creatures was a result of a combination of two of my fascinations: fantasy creatures and gemstones.

The First Scene

In a short story, we don't have the luxury of a blurb, prologue, or lengthy introductions. The first scene is the where the action needs to take place. Think of the most suspenseful, exciting, shocking part of the story - and start the story with it. In a way, it's more impactful than the climax. It's where you need the reader to become invested in the characters.

One way to do this is to have a character who represents the key aspects and themes of the story, and start with their action.

For example: In Rick Riordan's The Demigod Diaries, the opening scene starts with Luke Castellan inviting the reader into his crazy life as a demigod. And later, another short story opens with the protagonists Percy Jackson and Annabeth on a picnic date, and Annabeth telling Percy he forgot about something.

In the first short story in The Last Wish, the scene opens with a strange, unpleasant man with white hair and a sword strapped to his back. He tries to order beer and a room for the night but the innkeeper denies him, leading to a quick fight. We later learn this strange, violent man is actually our protagonist, The Witcher.

In my story about the semi-precious creatures, I needed to introduce the reader to the entire concept of gemstone creatures as soon as possible.

This led me to create The Howlite Pegasus. He's the first encounter the reader has of a semi-precious creature. He also answers key questions such as: what is it like being inside a gemstone? Who is the gemkeeper? What does she do? What are her powers? What's his reason for helping Polkadot and Thug?

Let the characters tell the story

Dialogue is a powerful element for showcasing multiple things at once: from a character's personality, their background and education level, to relationships. But in the short story especially, we can also share descriptions in dialogue, instead of doubling the word count and writing a description in prose.

One way to achieve description in dialogue is when one character is asking questions while the other more knowledgeable character answers questions. Examples of such characters who introduce the worlds to the main character and the reader are Hagrid, Gandalf, Kelsier, and Haymitch.

For example, in this interaction between Polkadot and the Gemkeeper:

Another way is to have a character or two characters "think aloud" - about events that already happened or about future events. This is also a great way to show a character's fears and flaws and even an opportunity for foreshadowing. The best example I can think of is the dialogue between Sherlock and Watson. We are mostly kept in the dark about Sherlock's thought process, until Watson prompts him to explain something.

And example from my story:

This way a short story becomes more than just jumping from one block of description to another. The reader is more closely part of the adventure and living the story with the characters.

Mystery

So now we've got the reader interested in our story, invested in our characters, and past the first scene. Our new task is to harness that interest and carry it throughout to the ending. One of the best ways to ensure the reader keeps turning pages is to include a mystery - a question unanswered, or a clue to a bigger unseen puzzle, or a ticking time bomb. Such things keeps a reader in suspense and at the edge of their seat, with the desire to have this mystery resolved.

In my story, the mystery revolves around a stolen gemstone. Who stole it from the Gemkeeper and what do they want to do with it? Is it related to the mystery behind how the semi-precious creatures broke free from their gemstones?

At the end of the story, make sure to include a scene - most likely the climax - where this mystery gets resolved. Throughout the story, you could leave enough information for the reader to make a conclusion and solve the mystery themselves, and then confirm their theories in the climax, making them feel part of the story, like one of the characters. Or you could leave a "red herring" - something that misleads them into thinking they know what they outcome will be, but then completely shatter or surprise them with the truth. Both ways are great methods to write a satisfying climax.

Segue to the next story

A "segue" is a convenient and smooth transition from one point of the narrative to another. In a novel, we can have segues between chapters by ending a chapter in a cliffhanger, or dialogue, or plot point. In a short story, especially in an episodic short story series like The Polkadot Files, we can segue to the next story. This is an element I try to include in the ending of all my short stories, either by introducing a new character who may have been behind certain unexplained problems, or having a quick action sequence of the beginning of a new problem.

In The Polkadot Files each story has its own plot, and can make sense on its own without having to read the entire series. But, there is also a larger plot mapping across all of Thug's misadventures. When reading my stories, there are certain things a reader will start to question: why does Thug have to obey his boss all the time? Is Thug powerful? Where did the portals come from? How old is Thug? What kind of creature is he, exactly? Why do they collect these stories?

These are all part of the larger story connecting across multiple short stories. At the end of The Inventory of Semi-Precious Creatures, the Gemkeeper gives Thug a gift, and they discuss the next steps they have to take to capture the remaining rogue creatures, some of which have escaped through portals and landed in other worlds.

Conclusion

I hope this blog post inspired you to start exploring the short story format. Completing a short story usually takes me between 1 to 2 months, but it feels incredibly fulfilling to complete something, instead of struggling through a full-length novel for several years. Maybe this is the thing that could help you overcome writer's block.

I would love to make more posts about writing fantasy stories. What questions do you have and what would you like to discuss? What are your favorite tropes of fantasy and your less favorite ones?

If you are interested in reading The Polkadot Files, I share more about my worldbuilding and development over on my Patreon. Volume I is also published in paperback and E-book, with Volume II on the way - hopefully it will be published in 2025. Thank you for reading! And I hope you'll enjoy the adventure.

With love and magic,

Kiara.