Crafting the Short Story

By Susan Palmquist

Create Character that your readers will love

Getting your readers to enjoy reading about your character and his or her story is vital and you’ll learn how to do specifically for this shorter form.

Research and find the best suited market for your story

• Language: English
• Publisher: Susan Palmquist
• Release date: Nov 17, 2015
• ISBN: 9781310024603

Susan Palmquist

An Adams Media author.

Book preview

Writing Great Fiction Series

Crafting the Short Story

Susan Palmquist

Copyright © 2015 Susan Palmquist

Published by Coldstream Publishing

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced electronically or in print without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in reviews

Introduction

Chapter 1-What is a Short Story?

Chapter 5-Creating Your Characters

Chapter 6-Point of View

Introduction

Welcome to the fourth book in the Writing Genre Fiction series. This one’s all about writing the short story. Whether you’re a novelist who wants to try their hand at a shorter form or someone new to writing, I hope you’ll find this book helpful on your road to publication. In Crafting the Short Story I’ll take you step by step through the whole process from plotting your tale to creating characters who readers will love.

Okay, let’s get started…

Chapter 1-What is a Short Story?

In this chapter we’ll kick things off by looking at the market outlook for short stories and then define what actually determines if something is a short story or not.

Short stories have always been the lifeblood of magazines. However, with the decline and closing of publications many people have predicted the death of the short story. The good news is it’s not all doom and gloom. While it’s true many magazines have cut down (or completely halted), their acquisition of short stories, thanks to online magazines, e-zines, publishers, (and not to mention Amazon Kindle), their present and future status has never looked brighter.

I’m in no way going to discourage you from trying the print market as a home for your short story. If that’s your dream market then I say go for it. However, I do think that online and electronic publications offer you the best chance of seeing your byline, and here’s why.

Most people have a phone, iPad, or some type of e-reader which means just about anyone can read a short story anywhere, and at any time. Even in line at the post office or waiting to pick the kids up from school. We pack so much into our lives each day that sometimes a short story is all we have time to read. I think it’s a trend that’s going to continue indefinitely so it’s the number one reason why I think short stories are here to stay.

Some publishers also sell short stories in e-book form. Amazon also has a category for short reads too which is perfect if you ever want to publish your own work. The good news is with both these avenues you get paid royalties in the same way you would with