Sitemap
Zayne Harbison

Zayne Harbison

I am a volunteer beta-tester, student, and aspiring founder. My life experiences include priesthood, retail, technology, filmography, and extreme sports.

How To Write A Short Story: For Beginners

August 23, 2025 | By: Zayne Harbison

2 min readAug 24, 2025

--

Press enter or click to view image in full size
pencil shavings
Photo credits — (Eduardo Casajús Gorostiaga at Unsplash) CC-BY-SA

This one was hard for me, even as a lifelong film student. You have to put the pen to paper. That is number one. If you don’t, you won’t. That simple. Furthering your skills is a matter of practice, dedication, and pride. You put those efforts into your writing, and you will see an instant jump in the ratings that you get from those close to you. They may play dumb or act docile about it, but just give it time. It takes some authors years to get it right.

That does not mean that you cannot enjoy what you do, and it most certainly does not mean that you cannot get paid for being good at something that you enjoy. There are writing contests, ghost writing opportunities, and other practices that can pay you and pay you well as a beginner. For me, it was rev.com, a website that pays contractors to type all day. My fingers could have lifted the moon by now if I did not need a spacesuit to get there.

Get Zayne Harbison’s stories in your inbox

Join Medium for free to get updates from this writer.

Go to the market and get your supplies. It will be easy. Maybe not, considering that you do not have a pen and a pad to write your list on. Oh, well. You will have to try it. See what happens. You might do better than what I can suggest here. Ask the clerk for some ideas, too!

Supplies

  1. Pencils
  2. Erasers (super important, always!)
  3. Paper
  4. Folders (to keep the topics separate)
  5. A good story (for inspiration!)

From there, you are set! You are well on your way to becoming the writer that you always wanted to be. It can take a while to get it just right or to find the genre that suits you best, but you will get there. It just takes time. Be proud of your work and share it often. Sometimes, you just have to try new things and put yourself out there. I hope that this article has been useful to you. Thank you for reading!

--

--

Zayne Harbison
Zayne Harbison

Written by Zayne Harbison

I am a volunteer beta-tester, student, and aspiring founder. My life experiences include priesthood, retail, technology, filmography, and extreme sports.