As you write short stories, take the readers on a journey with you and capture them with your descriptive scenes.
Develop a location for your story that readers can picture in their minds. Use all of your senses so the reader can live the experience with you and feel like he or she is there. If you are painting a beach scene, for example, hear the thunder of the waves crashing on the shore. Taste the salt from the spray. Smell the clean, crisp air. Feel the soft breeze brushing across your face.
The following example is taken from the opening of Chapter 1 of my book, Eyes Beyond the Horizon, co-authored with Eleanor Bowman and published by Thomas Nelson:
Not a leaf of the flame trees stirred on Marpi Cliff. Douglas Campbell found the stillness foreboding and unnerving. In the early morning dawn he watched the dark clouds as they formed a circle around the tiny island of Saipan. The menacing clouds hung back on the horizon, brooding, threatening with an evil intent to sweep land and sea into their possession.
Narrative is used here to tell a mini-story from the narrator’s viewpoint. It also sets the scene, so the reader can sense the approach of the typhoon and feel its momentum building.