Hot answers tagged short-story
15
Two things:
I prefer to read stories where there are no overt themes being highlighted by the author (or else they're so subtle I can't tell, or not noticeable because the characters and what's going on are too interesting). Choosing themes first then constructing a story to illustrate them will probably end up sounding contrived.
I find when I focus on ...
14
Some Preliminary Words...
I'm not entirely sure that withholding a character's name is the best way to go about producing an aura of mystery. In fact, this is something that I've seen in a lot of early writers (and I even did it a few times myself back in high school), but which almost never works. Usually, the reader just finds it incredibly annoying. Even ...
13
I can't say if it's reasonable or not, but it's not unheard of. There is also the fact that the editor does like your story.
The biggest pro of going through with this is that you get your story published, but is it worth it? As you said, you are changing the timbre of the piece, and if it makes it something you're not happy with it might not be worth doing ...
12
The Tennessee Screenwriting association lists all 20 plots. That's all there are. If you find a story, it will use one (or several of them) but for many centuries, this list hasn't changed.
For example, the nanobot story mentioned by Claudiu has the same basic plot as Golem (16th century) or Frankenstein's monster (1818) or Icarus (ancient greeks). There ...
12
The standard initial market for a short story is a literary magazine. Famous examples include The New Yorker for literary fiction and poetry. For science fiction and fantasy genres, notable options include Fantasy & Science Fiction, Asimov's, and others. As a general rule more prestigious magazines are able to be more choosy on what they end up ...
11
Rather than focusing on a single point as if you are writing an essay, you may want to focus on an ethos you want to create.
View your story as world-building (this is something you will find Orson Scott Card, author of Ender's Game reference frequently). The world you are building will reward certain behaviors by your characters and punish others. The ...
10
This is called a "simultaneous submission," and a well-organized contest should have a clear-cut rule on whether or not they're allowed.
If a particular contest doesn't call simultaneous submissions out specifically, the safest is to try and contact them and make sure what their rules are. At very least, be absolutely certain you can contact them and ...
9
If your work is appealing, it should work.
Have you ever asked for a book to a friend, read it, fell in love with it, and started buying everything by that author? It happened to me with the Wheel of Time series, and with Jules Verne's works.
So, by giving away the books, you're doing what a friend would do: give you the chance to know the author, the ...
9
It is absolutely acceptable. If your story requires a shift in scenes, for example, it would be totally appropriate to indicate that with some form of break. Whether you identify this by using extra space, an image, or any other means is ultimately a matter of personal preference. The main point is that you are using a common device to let your reader know ...
8
Writers of the Future is for SF/F, but it's the longest-running contest in the genre, and carries significant fame and prestige. No other contest comes close. WotF is specifically for unpublished writers, and occurs once a quarter. Check the website for entrance dates and other information.
8
If "100k" and "50k" are word-counts (and in this context, that's certainly what I'd expect), that's "novella" (for ~50k words) up to "novel-length" (at 100k words).
According to FictionFactor's word-count page, a "short story" is typically between 1000 and 7500 words, "novel" spans the 50k to 110k word span and novellas clock in at the 20k to 50k word mark.
...
8
It depends on the magazine. Many publications have submission guidelines, and you might check those for what anything required in the cover letter. I found an interesting variety of requests with a few minutes of googling.
Asimov's Science-Fiction is clear on what they want:
Your cover letter should contain the length of your story, your publishing ...
8
Tread with caution. A lot of caution.
Free stories to promote the author is a marketing strategy. As such, there are situations where it can be wonderful; situations it can be disastrous; situations it can be utterly harmless and entirely insignificant.
I think these are the central questions you've got to ask yourself when considering writing freebies ...
8
I assume your students are interested in self-publishing. Traditional publishing is a whole different ball game.
Key Factors To Consider
Rights. One of the main draws of self-publishing is that you keep all your rights over your work. However, plenty of sub-par services exist which'll be happy to take 'em off your hands. Before posting work anywhere, and ...
7
As the other answers suggest, this is largely an approach to be decided upon by the author - will work for some, and not for others.
Stephen King said in "On Writing" that he preferred to get the story out and focus on theme afterwards. In fact, he considered it a part of revising and editing.
I tend to agree with him, in that I have discovered the more I ...
7
It depends.
For example, type "Time", or any other such common word, in Amazon. You will find there is more than book with that exact title. Certainly, when searching for books, I have found many books with the exact same title. In such cases, I use the author or genre to narrow down my search.
On the other hand, if the book is in the same genre, then it ...
7
Yes, chapters are appropriate for the most part. If you're writing genre fiction, your editor will almost certainly separate into chapters if you don't, anyway--readers often rely on them.
If you're not writing genre fiction, of course, you can do whatever the heck you like :) but what is important to keep in mind is that novellas are notoriously hard to ...
6
If you have a point that you do want to convey, this is certainly a legitimate practice. You shouldn't make artificial points just to have them, however.
It is important to ensure that your point does not become too contrived, as well. There are cases where everything should be a microcosm of your main theme, but they are rare, even in a short story. You ...
6
I think we already have a question about generally marketing a book, so I keep the first part short (hopefully the second also):
Get a blog (oh, you have one, good!) and post about your stories, pricing, etc.
Tell it your family, friends, colleagues
Make meaningful posts to other forums, blogs, or other sites (like what you are doing here). Do not mention ...
6
I wouldn't say you need to know anything new, but I think you need to know a new side of the old stuff.
Writing short stories is a distinct skill: there are people who are masters at it, and people who are much better with more space. A Gabe says, the basic elements of fiction are the same whether the work is long or short, but the way you use these ...
6
It very much depends on the quality of the contest, and that depends in turn on the quality of the judges and whether they provide any sort of feedback to the authors. "Did I win or not?" is pretty crude measure of quality.
I was at the Writers of the Future awards ceremony recently here in Los Angeles, and I was struck by the fact that every winner ...
6
I had the same problem as well. I've got key scenes scattered here and there (though mine tend to be near the end) that inspire me, and no idea how to get there.
Sad to say, the only solution I've found is to write, throw it all away, and rewrite. Rinse and repeat many, many times. Even if it starts off as embarrassingly awkward, it's a base to work from.
...
5
(Nathen nailed it above, however)
I have written a short story, and the main character is referred to as "he" right the way through - the idea being that this character is very guarded and mysterious. My plan was to not reveal the name of the character because that would be too personal and would allow the reader to "get to know" the character, which is ...
5
There are no completely original plots. There are authors who have managed to put an original spin on an old idea, however. But when you boil the basic plot down, it's going to be the same as thousands, if not millions, of other stories out there. The trick to writing a good book is to take an existing plot and add your own personal spin to it to create an ...
5
Two tips for submissions (no matter how short the story is):
Write just a letter/email and ask for permission to send them your story.
In this letter (like in every cover letter) you should describe your story and yourself shortly and you should put in there, why they should publish your story. Why is it fantastic? Why do people really want to read it? ...
5
I'd say that it doesn't matter at all.
Titles are not required to be unique. A little searching can reveal dozens of short stories and novels that have shared titles, all without hurting recognition or sales. I would only be concerned about this if one of two things apply:
The work whose title you share is very well-known in your genre. In that case ...
5
How prolific are you?
I'm pretty prolific, so I honestly don't worry too much about what rights I'm selling - I try to work with good publishers, and then assume that they'll do a good job selling the work associated with the rights I've granted them. But that's because it's not that big of a deal if I give rights to someone who doesn't deserve them - I'll ...
5
I have a series of short stories that I have published under a pen name, and I had a lot of difficulty getting any exposure or sales. Each short story was a stand alone story, and I priced them at $0.99 each. I then combined them together (five stories) into a collection that I listed at $2.99. The first couple of months I would sell a few short stories and ...
5
To expand on the comment by John Smithers, one of the advantages of an epic fantasy is the grand scale upon which your story is built. Usually an epic fantasy either contains a lot of characters or covers a considerable time span. Ideas for short stories can come from either of those two sources (or a host of others).
In writing my epic fantasy, I found ...
5
Agents generally do nothing for short stories. I have never heard of an agent representing a short story to a literary journal of any kind, since the 15% that they get from a sale would be too trivial of a sum to be worth their money.
There are two things that an agent could potentially do for you at this stage in your career:
Help you publish a short ...
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