Many people think that writing a short story should be pretty easy. After all, its only about two to four thousand words that they have to get down on the page. But, when they sit down to actually write the thing, they may discover something. Writing a short story is not as easy as it ...
Starting a short story is often the most difficult part because it is in the first few paragraphs that you establish the tone, pace and mood of the entire work. Starting your short story is a crucial point and should be handled with care. Novels allow the author some “wiggle-room” when it comes to capturing ...
Before I continue, let’s stop and get one point clear – if you are entering a short story contest to win money and/or fame, forget it. Writers don’t get money and/or fame from winning a short story contest. They get money and/or fame by getting published. Entering a short story contest should only be done ...
Whatever you want to do, never let money get in the way of it. If you can’t find a book in your local library, then you can look online. If you’ve ever wanted to write a book, there are several free courses online to get you started to being a published author. The Basics Write ...
Learn from the professionals. It’s very simple advice, but rarely taken by the short story writer who could benefit first by reading the work of his or her peers. It’s something I didn’t learn until I was in my mid-twenties and took a college course in short fiction. In that class we did several exercises ...
Most writers would assert that the qualifications of a well-written short story are limited to length, but they would be wrong. While the length of a short story is important – most are shorter than 5,000 words – there are other qualities that a work of fiction must possess in order to be considered a ...
Editing is every writer’s least favorite task because it means clipping and pruning those sentences you worked so hard to formulate. Editing a short story is sometimes even harder than editing articles because writers are usually more attached to fiction work. The key to editing your short story effectively is taking yourself away from the ...
Over the counter in the neighborhood deli hung a sign that said, “One sandwich not enough? Two sandwiches too much? Try a sandwich and a half!” Adapted for a writing class, it might be accurately transposed into, “An essay too short? A novel too long? Try a short story.” This is an in-between genre of ...
