Short Stories

Tips for short story writing: Up to a challenge? Pull out your keyboard and give it a shot: All right, today’s the big day. I’m offering you some information to work with and inviting you to write a short story. When you’re done, put it on your blog [...]
Tips for writing short stories — Hooks: What are they and how do you use them?: I know it sounds obvious: The “hook” is the opening sentence or paragraph of your story and it is supposed to draw your reader’s interest, get them reading and, hopefully, [...]
Tips for writing short stories — Focus on a single character: Jill is 21 years old, just over 5′ 3″ tall, 130 pounds, short blond hair, blue eyes, lopsided smile which she compensates for by leaning her head slightly to the [...]
Tips for writing short stories: Focus on a single action or event: As part of the “short” in short stories, it’s important to focus your story on a single action or event in a character’s life. That doesn’t mean you won’t need [...]
Tips for writing short stories: ‘Short’ is the key word: By definition, short stories are, well, short. Most magazine writing guidelines or anthology editors I’m acquainted with would consider a short story to be no longer than 1,500-5,000 words (that [...]