Three Things I’ve Learned While Writing Prequel Short Stories

Plus some of my tips for writing short stories you love

Hello, friends, and welcome to another post by the Kindness Cafe! Today I’m going to be talking about writing prequel short stories. I’ve personally had a lot of experience with prequel short stories. I’ve written five to date, and they’re so fun to write! (My published short story, Cecil’s Conundrum, actually takes place during my book series Project Royalty.)

One of the things I love about writing prequel short stories is that they have the opportunity to surprise you: they can reveal something new about your main character, they can find inconsistencies in your plot, and they can even jumpstart your career (like Cecil’s Conundrum did for me!)😉

There’s a lot to get into, so let’s get started!

#1: Be open.

When I start writing a prequel short story, I usually already know something about the main character, especially if they’ve already appeared in Project Royalty. For instance, the main character in my newest short story likes to garden, so that was the main plot point I knew I should use going forward. But my characters tend to surprise me no matter what.

This year, after five weeks of working on the story, I realized the main character was an artist. So, in my second draft, I added more foreshadowing and scenes with him as an artist, which made it seem less random and more relevant to the rest of the story.

If I had never written a short story with that main character, I might not have discovered he was an artist, which is something I can use in my main series moving forward.

#2: Know something about the timeframe or setting before you start working.

Last year, I wrote a short story about my character Sylvie* who lives in the enclave Oakwood. I had already done a bunch of worldbuilding for Oakwood – what it looked like, who lived there, how the kingdom worked — so I was able to draw on that worldbuilding to make Sylvie’s story more intriguing and well-written. It’s still one of my favorite short stories to date, and I think that’s partly due to all the work I had done before I even started to write the story.

#3: Have fun!

Don’t forget to enjoy yourself while you’re getting to know your characters better. I like to think of my short stories as “practice” for working on my novel – I can change or edit anything I want in a low-stress environment while pulling from what I already know.

I usually have a loose outline before I start writing a short story, but I let the characters and plot tell the story and adjust the outline as needed. I make sure to have fun!

Have you written any prequel short stories before? Do you have any tips for writing prequel short stories? I’d love to hear about your experience in the comment section below!

*all names have been changed for character privacy*

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