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Many writers fantasize the day they accept the Pulitzer Prize or Newberry Award for their novel they slaved over for years. Few authors daydream about receiving two contributor copies after having a short story published. Yet, writing short stories can improve your writing skills and increase your marketability.
SENSE OF COMPLETIONWriting short stories gives you a sense of completion. Writers often complain, “It took me years and years to get my novel just right.” Novels are like spaghetti sauce, simmering for days; whereas short stories are like the noodles—boiling and ready in twenty minutes.
Completing a manuscript gives a feeling of accomplishment. Just like an artist enjoys displaying a finished painting, most writers love to share their work. How wonderful it feels when a complete piece can be revealed for enjoyment or critique. In any profession, it is important to experience accomplishments, such as an architect who views her new building or an author seeing her work in print from beginning to end.
PUBLICATION CREDITS
Getting anything published is hard work. You must be dedicated to rewriting, rewriting, and more rewriting. You have to research the market, learn proper manuscript format, and write a brilliant cover letter. Getting a short story published is like playing a good game of miniature golf—it’s not as easy as it looks, but with knowledge, skill, and practice, you can do it.
Many markets exist for your short stories from magazines with a circulation of 200,000 to hard-back anthologies to your writer’s group newsletter. Contests for shorter works fill writing websites and magazines, and many of these are paying markets or have a modest monetary award accompanying first through third place. A lot of magazines do pay in copies, but some give you a check.
EXPAND YOUR RANGE
Short stories present an opportunity to work on different genres. For example, a writer’s group sponsors a Halloween short story contest. Most of the members work on other genres throughout the year, such as westerns, romance, or mysteries. For this contest, each person creates a spooky story. The writer’s group does not publish the winning entries, and members are free to submit their ghostly tales to other contests and magazines.
Many writers start out in one particular genre. They begin writing what they love to read. Because people have read romance or science fiction all their life, they decide to try these genres with their novels. But what if there’s a mystery inside these authors, ready to spill out if it is just allowed? A short story is the perfect place to expand into the mystery genre.
WORK ON THE CRAFTYou can use short stories to strengthen your writing skills. Maybe you need to work on writing realistic dialogue or fitting all five senses into your description. Perhaps you want to use flashbacks, but can’t seem to make smooth transitions. Or a friend, who critiqued your opening chapters, said your main character was typical and boring.
Try working out these problems in a short story, focusing on improving those particular weaknesses.
A CURE FOR WRITER’S BLOCKWriting a short story may help you overcome writer’s block. When writing a long piece, sometimes you find yourself in a rut and become frustrated. You avoid working on your manuscript and may waste time cleaning out your files or e-mailing your long, lost cousin. Why not do something more productive and write a short tale?
Writing something different can give you the oomph you need to continue with your novel. Your subconscious has a chance to take over and solve your plot problems. Just make sure to keep paper handy to jot down ideas for your novel.
The next time you ponder, “Why should I waste time writing a short story?” Remember what they can do for you. Short stories can improve your writing skills, enhance your marketability, and bring you a step closer to publishing that great American novel.
Margo is teaching a short fiction class for children's and YA writers, starting on April 11. It's a NEW class! For more information, please see this link: http://wow-womenonwriting.com/WOWclasses.html#MargoDill_WritingChildrenTeensShortFiction
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I am happy to host author Nava Atlas today and her book: The Literary Ladies’ Guide to the Writing Life. She has written a wonderful post on how juggling motherhood and a career has been a struggle for centuries! Her book is amazing because she poured through letters, journals, essays, memoirs, and more to find quotes from 12 classic women authors to create a book that is an inspiration for writers everywhere. This would be a perfect book for a high school English teacher or college writing teacher. I use my copy when giving presentations and for daily inspiration. Read what these authors had to say about motherhood. Then click on the Amazon link below to find out more about the book!
Classic Authors on Motherhood and the Juggling Act
by Nava Atlas
When discussing the challenges faced by women authors of the past in The Literary Ladies’ Guide to the Writing Life, one of the questions I’m asked with startling regularity is why it has always been so difficult to master the work/life/motherhood balance. It was grueling for Harriet Beecher Stowe in the nineteenth century; and while it may have been somewhat easier for Madeleine L’Engle in the twentieth, it was just as guilt-inducing. For those of us who write today, there are still no easy answers.
I’m not one to bandy about gender stereotypes, but it’s hard to dispute that in traditional relationships women still bear the greatest share of childcare and household management. This is tricky enough in situations where both partners work, and even more so in instances where the woman’s work is something she actually likes and that gives her creative gratification. The impulse is always to put others first—if not our kids, then our parents, or our partner, or our community. How dare I take this time to write, our guilty mind frets, when there’s so much to do, and when so-and-so needs me?
In times past, if a woman wanted to give her all to her writing pursuits, she often had to forego family life. Fewer than half of well-known women authors of past generations were mothers. Of the twelve authors I focus on in this book, only four were mothers (Harriet Beecher Stowe, Madeleine L’Engle, L.M. Montgomery, and George Sand), and that’s a fairly accurate reflection of how the profession was in the past. Now, more women writers than ever want to enjoy a fulfilling creative life as well as a family. It’s comforting to learn that women authors of the distant and not-so-distant past, like most of us, muddled through as best they could, and dealt with daily disruptions and longer interruptions. And yes, they felt guilty, acknowledged it, and wrote anyway. They just couldn’t help it.
Harriet Beecher Stowe was the mother of seven children. Despite the rigors of raising a large family, attending to household duties, and doing paid writing to help with expenses, she burned to write the anti-slavery story that would become Uncle Tom’s Cabin. She expressed her desire for a private place to write and for more domestic help. She also wrote of her guilt, as in an 1841 letter to her husband: “Our children are just coming to the age when everything depends on my efforts. They are delicate in health, and nervous and excitable and need a mother’s whole attention. Can I lawfully divide my attention by literary efforts?”
Stowe was devastated when her toddler son died of cholera, but later, she claime
I like short stories. I like being able to read an entire plot arc in 15-20 minutes, to be able to pick up a story and read the whole thing at the doctor's office or while waiting in the car while someone runs an errand.
It's probably a good thing that I like short stories so much since I've been reading quite a few of them in my picture book submissions. Because word counts tend to be similar between a short story and a picture book manuscript, I can see how the two could be confused. In fact I talked about this recently in my Short Story MS vs Picture Book MS: There is a difference post. I'm not going to recap that discussion here. What I thought I would do instead is discuss some of the things that make a good short story.
Good short stories have:
- A complete story arc.
Yes, that's right. A good short story has a beginning, a middle, and an end. If it doesn't the tale is probably an anecdote or even just a scene from something longer. - Compelling characters.
Just because you have fewer words doesn't mean your characters get to be types. If your character is an uninteresting stereotype, then I'm not any more inclined to read his/her 5 page story than I was to read his/her 500 page novel. - Focused.
Since you are working in a smaller (word) space, a short story has to be more tightly focused than a novel. There often can't be any subplots, and there tend to be fewer supporting characters. Take as an example the difference between Orson Scott Card's "Ender's Game" and Ender's Game. The short story does not mention Ender's siblings and the politics of Earth. It also starts earlier and ends earlier in the novel's plot line. - Judicious use of summary.
You can get away with more summary in a short story, but you still can't use it much. After all, scenes are so much more interesting to read.
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Saturday Writers is a great writing group in St. Peters, MO that meets on the last Saturday of most months. They sponsor a contest each year for short stories, and ANYONE can enter. Are you trying your hand at writing short stories? If so, consider entering this contest. It could lead to publication. If you teach high school or have older kids at home that love to write, your high school/college-age students can enter this contest! 
SO, here are the details. You still have a month left to get your entries ready.
2010 Saturday Writers 9th Annual Short Story Contest
DEADLINE: November 1, 2010 (postmarked) Word Limit: 2010 (as in the year 2010)
Contest is open to all writers. Open subject, open genre. (Please, no pornography or gore.)
Prizes: 1st place – $100, 2nd place – $50, 3rd place – $25, 4th place – $15, 5th place – $10. 6-10th places receive certificates. Winners may be invited to submit their story to Cuivre River Anthology.
Entry fee: $7 per story Maximum of three entries per person (separate fee for each entry)
· Members of Saturday Writers, OWL, MWG, or other MWG Chapters: $5 per story
· Checks payable to: Saturday Writers.
· Short stories only (no poems, essays or articles) must be in English
· Unpublished at time of submission and the original work of the contestant
· Contestants retain all rights to their stories
· Standard manuscript format: 8 1/2 x 11 paper
· Two copies of each entry
· Typed and double-spaced on one side of the paper
· Pages numbered, title of entry on every page
· Times New Roman 12-point
· Paper clip pages together (do not staple)
· No name or other identifying information should appear anywhere on entry
· Attach a separate cover sheet and include: story title, name, address, e-mail, phone number, and MWG chapter name (if applicable)
· Do NOT send by certified mail!
· Mail fee and two copies of each entry, flat, not folded, by November 1 (postmark) to:
2010 Saturday Writers
9th Annual Short Story Contest
c/o Pat Wahler
18 Pershing Lake Drive
St. Peters, MO 63376
Keep a copy of your entry because stories will not be returned. Winners’ names will be announced during the December Saturday Writers meeting. For a list of winners, visit the Saturday Writers CONTESTS page in December: www.saturdaywriters.org Certificates and prizes will be mailed by the end of December 2010. Questions? E-mail Pat Wahler, [email protected]
And if you are looking for some books on short story writing, try these:
I can think of a few things that scare me: rejection letters, unpaid bills, and me in a thong. But I'm talking really scary, the things that send chills up your spine when you read a short story. It takes a certain type of writer who can plow the depths of darkness, build suspense, and twist a story ending so the reader doesn't see it coming.
What are some other elements scary stories need in order to be truly scary? Here are a few tips from a great book on horror writing, aptly named On Writing Horror, by the Horror Writers Association.
Suspenseful Beginnings:
You might launch your story with the mud having already filled up the entire basement and swallowed the plumber, but it's far creepier to show the mud growing mysteriously over time before the plumber kicks the bucket. You want to find a starting place close enough to the action to be compelling but distant enough to allow for suspense; that's a delicate (and difficult) balance to strive for in every story.
Find the Thing that Frightens You:
Giving a strategic glimpse of what frightens you can lessen the effect of writing about that thing's impact on you, and it can, at the same time, increase the impact of that thing (whatever it is) on your readers. Find the single facet of that thing that frightens you--that which most everyone can relate to--and use that one facet as a weapon to frighten your readers.
End with a Twist:
An ending that defies expectation and adds a new twist can make for a memorable story, but please remember, I said twist, not gimmick. The gimmick, that which is utterly unexpected because there has not been even a telepathic hint of its possibility, risks totally blowing the suspension of disbelief and ruining all your previous hard work.
Those are just a few excerpts from On Writing Horror. If you are a horror writer, it's a great reference book that you'll want on your shelf.
The popularity of horror novels and stories attest to the fact that most of us love a scary story. They get our blood pumping, our adrenaline rushing, and bring out our most primal instinct: fear.
Here are a few things that make a story scary for me:
- The fear of what could happen
- The probability that it will happen
- Believability, even if the subject matter may seem unbelievable
- If the story is true
In celebration of Halloween, I'd like a
treat from you. And this is not a
trick question. Excuse the pun, couldn't resist!
What frightens you? What makes a story scary to you as a writer or reader?
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Many writers fantasize the day they accept the Pulitzer Prize or Newberry Award for their novel they slaved over for years. Few authors daydream about receiving two contributor copies after having a short story published. Yet, writing short stories can improve your writing skills and increase your marketability.
Margo is teaching a short fiction class for children's and YA writers, starting on April 11. It's a NEW class! For more information, please see this link: http://wow-womenonwriting.com/WOWclasses.html#MargoDill_WritingChildrenTeensShortFiction
I was just about to give up on writing short stories and focus more on blogging but after reading your reasons to write short stories, I will keep on going. Thanks for the advice Margo!
Margo, this post was spot on! I also have been focusing more on writing short fiction in the past two years. It's really fun because you can play around with different genres without investing a ton of time in case a storyline doesn't work! I also began writing my first stories for middle-grade readers this past fall and already got an encouraging rejection from Highlights. Your class sounds really fun and affordable!
@catina: I'm so glad! It is so easy to get discouraged and wonder if we are wasting our time. I actually came up with this because of an argument that existed in a critique group I belonged to. I was OBVIOUSLY on the side that believes short fiction is important!
@Renee: So true--not everyone is cut out for a novel or memoir or nonfiction work or etc. Thank God we are all different!
I wish I had better fiction writing skills. But if I'm going to dabble in fiction, I do prefer the short story. I like the economy of it, and it's seems so much less daunting!