Living as a Writer

Exploring the Craft

Writing Successful Short Stories in 2022

Typing - writing short stories.
Photo by T. S. Wulandari on Unsplash

This is not the post about writing short stories I had planned. Several months ago, I thought I had a handle on each type of short story that can be written today and sold in today’s markets. I was sure how writers should approach writing these stories. But I’m less certain about any of it because I don’t write for all potential markets in all the forms.

Short Stories and Short Fiction

The term short stories has been morphing and is being overtaken by the term short fiction. The difference is subtle, and yet significant. Short fiction encompasses more. Yet, aren’t stories the same as fiction? Yes, but here’s what seems to be different. Especially in the realm of self-publishing, novellas and novelettes are being included in short fiction. And often they are described as short stories. Much like what happened with the term blurb, which self-publishing uses to mean a book description, the traditional usage of short story is no longer valid.

Thus, talking about short stories has become more complex. Magazines, ezines, and anthologies have specific guidelines listed for length, payment, and genre. Writers must adhere to them if they hope to have a story accepted. These markets usually also describe the types of stories they seek. Often they are looking for high literary quality, even for speculative fiction.

Also, serial markets, like Vella, Wattpad, Tales, and Radish, have specific rules on length, content, and payment, but only by investigating what’s popular on each platform can a writer decide what type of story to submit.

Likewise, short books (novelettes and novellas) published independently are similarly free of gatekeepers and only need to satisfy the marketplace of readers within a genre. Or, another way to look at it is, the readers are the gatekeepers.

Reader Magnets are entirely up to the writer. Whatever story and whatever length the writer thinks will entice readers to read a full novel, or sign up for a newsletter is what’s required. Only trial, error, and experience can tell a writer what they should do.

The Only Advice for Writing Short Stories

What I can say is, research and understand what a given market (magazine, ezine, anthology, serial, short book, or reader magnet) needs from a story. This isn’t new. There are just more choices. Each has different requirements. It takes more research.

A writer can always sit down and write the stories of their heart, then figure out where to place them. But it is more efficient, for the working writer, to decide which market they intend to place the story in before they write. Ensuring the right elements make it into the story. It means writing to market by understanding which markets are for which stories.

Reminder: Stop Comparing Your Career with Everyone Else’s

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This thread made the rounds during the holidays and garnered attention and comments by long time writers even during the whole RWA explosion. From what I saw, the reaction was nearly universal: you’re never too old, and stop comparing where you are to where others are. Their road isn’t your road.

This idea if you haven’t reached some milestone of success (in any endeavor) by age X (some arbitrary number usually less than 35) is an idea we need to resist and resist hard.

Everyone’s journey is different. Everyone’s life circumstances are different. I think we all know this, yet so many of us, myself included, fall to the trap of wanting someone else’s success.

I’ve been writing since I was in high school but publishing was out of reach until recently. I know I couldn’t have written the novel I just turned in at any earlier stage in my life. I didn’t have the experiences that make up the book’s subject and themes. I didn’t have the skills, nor the opportunity to gain those skills until recent years.

But that’s my journey. Rebecca F. Kuang and Samantha Shannon wrote stellar books before they were twenty-five. Each of their journeys is unique. N. K. Jemisin didn’t find success until her forties. Her journey is unique.

It’s easy to see the success of others and wonder why we’re not having ours at the same time. But embrace your individual journey. It’s unique; it’s yours, and your books will reflect your unique life and be better for it.

Creative Recharge

We’re at that time of year many of us find hectic and demanding. Then we flow right into the new year and feel pressure (external or internal) to make resolutions and changes. All of this can harm you, for real. It can also beat your creative energies into submission so deep you won’t see them until April. What’s a creative writer to do?

If you can follow advice such as slow down, take everything one minute at a time, breathe and make mindful choices, go ahead, maybe all you need is a reminder to do those things. But what about the rest of us? I’m no therapist, but I’ve found a few concrete things that work for me.

Health

First, I keep to my health routine. Sure I eat more than I should during the holidays, but I don’t eat everything that looks good. I pick the things I enjoy the most. If I overdo so much I feel guilty, then my creative energy suffers. I exercise according to my normal schedule. Those endorphins feed creativity.

That Mindfulness Thing

A lot goes into living a mindful life, but the element I try to stick to is being single-minded in purpose and task. We can’t do everything. Multi-tasking is a proven a fallacy. It’s time-slicing. Think about that. We only have so much time, and when we think we’re multitasking, we’re just dividing that limited time into smaller and smaller chunks. Concentration goes up the chimney. One task, one focus. I get more tasks done and they are better quality. I do this all the time, but the end of the year and start of a new one invite disruption and I have to guard actively against it.

Reading

As I’ve written before, reading fires creative synapses as well or better than anything else. Make time to read. Retreat to your favorite spot and enjoy a good book, story, or collection of poems. I can’t read more than a paragraph without ideas flowing.

Routine

Finally, if you have a creative work routine, keep it. I may not work as many hours, and I might skip a day or two, but generally, I keep writing. I do it not because I’m working toward a deadline (though I have deadlines) but because I love writing. Writing is my creative release AND my creative regeneration. Writing today makes me want to write tomorrow.

Enjoy the season. Allow it to rebuild and restore your creative self. Don’t let it dictate your actions and knock you down.

How do you keep your creative writing life active and energized through the holiday season?

Never Too Old to Write

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One thing among many NaNoWriMo is good for, is starting that book you’ve always meant to write. You get the pep-talks, a community of encouragement, and guided writing sprints. Whether you succeed in writing 50,000 words, a full month dedicated to the effort of writing can be enough to kick-start a writing life.

Adopting a writing life can happen at any age. The thirty-under-thirty lists are great but as a reader, I also want the fifty-over-fifty list. I want books written by people who’ve lived long and interesting lives. Books are memories shared. I want to re-live someone else’s memories even made up ones in a novel.

Anyone who can write can become an author. There are no qualifications to being a novelist. You need not be young, or older. You also don’t need any special tools. You can write by hand or on a computer, on an ancient typewriter, or a smartphone. The only requirements to writing a novel are:

  • Have a story to tell
  • Write all of it

So if you have a story, write it. Someday you may write a novel, and if you start now, someday is today. Even if you just start NaNoWriMo today you can be part of the communal effort and launch your writing life. Those ten or twenty thousand words you write between now and December first are ten or twenty thousand words you won’t have to write later.

Are you ready to start your writing life?

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