Short fiction · 6 beats
Best for: literary and genre short stories (roughly 1,500 to 7,500 words). A compact single-arc shape: one central character, one turn, one change. Enter late, leave early, and let a single decisive moment carry the whole piece.
Percentages show roughly where each beat lands in the finished story — the midpoint of a 110-page screenplay is page 55.
Open in motion, close to the moment that matters. Establish the character, the place, and the tension in the first lines; a short story has no room for a slow runway.
The disturbance that sets the story going: the choice, arrival, or pressure the rest of the story will answer.
The situation deepens. Raise the cost, narrow the options, and let the central tension tighten toward a decision.
The pivot the whole story is built around: a revelation, reversal, or choice that changes how the character or the reader sees things.
The peak of pressure: the character acts (or fails to), and the story's question is answered in the doing.
The aftermath in a few strokes: what changed, what it cost, the resonant final image. Land it and get out.
Short Story Arc is built into One More Draft — pick it in the story wizard and every beat above becomes a slot in your outline, with Quill, your story editor, coaching each one. Free to start.
Start a story with Short Story Arc
