tips on stort stories

Since this happens to be a group for teen WRITERS... We thought it only appropriate that we give you opportunities to show off your writing skills. But, we know that many of you don't get too many opportunities to see just what it takes to write those best seller stories... though we do believe that you can do it.

So as we start out on our first ever short story contest, we thought it might be helpful to give you some tips on how to write a short story that stands out... after all, you do want to win, don't you?

1. You need a conflict. Internal or external... something must cause problems for your character.
2. setting... we need to know where your character is... leave us hints to give us a sense of our surroundings. Characters do not float around in a big, black blah.... unless you specifically say that they are floating around in a big black blah.
3. Try to avoid words like "was" or "had" or ly adverbs. These types of words can turn into crutches that stop you from fully describing what's going on. for example... "She was going to the library." EW. bad. now how about, "Under her arm, Suzie held a stack of books that continuously slipped out from her grip. They were overdue, and if she hurried, she could avoid owing another couple of cents that she didn't have."
4. Show, don't tell. As mentioned above.
5. A lesson must be learned. The character must come away with a different point of view than they had at the beginning.
6. And please... open the story where the story begins. Backstories don't help anyone. your reader must learn things on a need to know basis. And... end the story where the story ends. We don't always need to hear about what their life was like after the story ends.

I hope these tips were of some use to you =) Good luck!