April 13, 2025 • 58 mins
Short stories offer writers a powerful pathway to develop craft, find their voice, build publication history, and create stepping stones toward novel publication success.
• Short stories help writers experiment with different themes, structures, and genres
• Publication in literary journals and anthologies provides validation and confidence
• Writing within strict word limits teaches concision and precision with language
• The submission process develops resilience and understanding of publishing timelines
• Each rejection is an opportunity to revise and improve your work
• Professional relationships with editors are crucial for long-term writing success
• Flash fiction and experimental forms can stretch your creative abilities
• Short stories can later serve as reader magnets for indie authors
• Maintaining a submission tracking system increases chances of publication
• Reading and deconstructing published short stories helps improve your own craft
Check out the show notes on my website at amrapajalic.com/podcast for handouts referencing opportunities mentioned in this episode, plus author guides based on these discussions.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome.
Today I'm talking about howshort stories help build your
publication history, and Iwanted to talk about this
because, if you're a writer andyou're wanting to build up your
confidence, find your voice,start getting published and
building your portfolio, shortstories are a great way to do
(00:27):
that.
So I'm going to talk todayabout how short stories can help
you refine your skills, findyour voice, build a publication
history.
So these are lessons that Ilearned myself firsthand, and
I'm also going to share sometips about how to go about this
and use short stories in thebest way possible.
(00:47):
So for myself, early in mywriting career, novels felt
overwhelming.
I did a course, a diploma, inprofessional writing and editing
, and that course was wonderfulbecause we had the opportunity
to do different subjects, andone of the subjects was called
(01:08):
writing short stories, and wehad one whole year of learning
about different types of shortstories, different formats,
different lengths and how youknow writing them and finding
opportunities for publications.
And through this journey andthis subject, I had the
(01:30):
opportunity to sort ofexperiment with different themes
and structure.
I tried various genres andfound what I wanted to write,
and I published my first shortstory.
So at that time there was aanthology that was published
every year by a very respectedpublisher in Australia.
It was called Best AustralianStories and they had different
(01:55):
editors who were responsible forcollating and editing that
anthology.
And one and one year I think itwas 2004, there was a public
call out and I submitted myshort story, and this short
story was titled Siege and itwas based on my husband's
(02:15):
experience, my husband'sfamily's experiences, about
living in Sarajevo under siegeduring the war, in Sarajevo,
under siege during the war, theBalkan War of 1992 to 1995.
And to write that story I hadto engage in research and I was
(02:37):
also able to use details fromtheir letters that they wrote
about what day-to-day life waslike.
And then I also had someinspiration like um.
And then I also had uh, someinspiration about a real life
couple who were called sade.
It was uh, romeo and juliet whosadly uh were trying to escape
the city because um, one of themwas bosnian, one of them was
serb and uh perished in thatjourney.
(03:01):
And and so I wrote this shortstory in this burst of beautiful
inspiration and I submitted itto this anthology and I had it
accepted and after it waspublished, this anthology was
reviewed and I received a reviewmention.
(03:22):
So what that means is that in areview of the actual anthology
they mentioned my story and gaveme a beautiful you know blurb,
a beautiful little sentenceabout it.
And then I submitted the yearafter and I also had another
short story published and theseopportunities were the building
(03:45):
grounds for me to build myconfidence as a writer, to find
out also what it was that Iwanted to write.
So through that I saw that thepersonal side of my writing,
that writing about my cultureand about things that I cared
about and doing that advocacyside of it was where my heart
(04:06):
was and that's where I needed toput my energy.
And then also, when I finishedmy debut novel and was looking
for an agent, these were thingsthat I was able to put in my
cover letter to showcase mysuccess, to showcase that I had,
you know, built up publication,history and an audience and was
(04:32):
then able to take that as astepping stone, and this is why
short stories are a greatopportunity to do that.
So over the years I had many,many short stories that won and
placed in competitions and werepublished in journals to
(05:07):
competitions or submit them forpublication sometimes because
I'm looking for a way to buildup my confidence, especially in
the early years, when it took mea really long time to finish a
book and to take me years insome instances to write books,
and so those short storypublication opportunities really
gave me that confidence andkind of fed my soul so that I
would keep going with it.
Now I have gotten faster withwriting novels and I don't need
(05:33):
it anymore.
However, I do use them in adifferent way, where, as an
indie author, I am using them asreader magnets.
I am using them as readermagnets, so where I am actually
using them to write shortstories or to develop deleted
scenes as short stories that Ithen offer to readers of my
(05:56):
books to sign up to mynewsletter and get access to
that.
And so one of the things that Ireally always wanted to do and
I think it's what every writerdreams about which is having
their short stories published ina short story collection.
Unfortunately, short storycollections are not really
(06:16):
desired much by many publishersanymore, and usually they will
look to publish short storycollections by writers that they
have an ongoing relationshipwith.
So the first book that Ipublished under my press,
fishookin Press, was my shortstory collection, so I titled it
(06:38):
the Cuckoo's Song, which is oneof the short stories in it,
which is one of the shortstories in it, and it gave me
the opportunity to put all of mystories together to write sort
of a narrative about my writingjourney and the inspiration and
to develop teaching notes to beable to support students or
teachers wanting to use thisshort story collection in some
(07:02):
way.
And you know that was a veryproud moment for me and it just
means so much for me that I'vestill got these short stories in
a collection and so they'vegiven me so many opportunities
and they keep giving meopportunities.
So I wanted to talk now aboutwhy short stories matter for
(07:23):
writers.
So when you're writing shortstories, you have the
opportunity to find your voice.
This is something that Istruggled with also as an
emerging writer, in terms ofwhat is it that I wanted to
write about, what is it that Iwanted to say?
I've had many evolutions as anauthor and that's something I'll
discuss in an upcoming episodeand sometimes I chase trends and
(07:46):
sometimes I sort of steer awayfrom my journey, and short
stories can kind of give youthat opportunity where you might
want to experiment in certaingenres and see is this something
that you want to do?
Is this something that you wantto commit to?
Is this something that you wantto commit to?
And by writing it in a shortstory format you can see whether
(08:07):
that fits in with your writingjourney and with where you are
wanting to position yourself.
It really gives you theopportunity to refine your
skills, because when you arewriting a short story and if
you're looking to publish it,usually every competition or
publication has a word countwhere they want a specific word
(08:31):
count, and so writing to thatword count really teaches you to
be concise.
But also taking a longer formshort story and editing it down
really gives you the opportunityto see what is it that needs to
be in there.
What are the most importantbones?
Raymond Carver, who is aprolific, was a prolific short
(08:55):
story writer and sort of used byevery emerging writer to learn
about the craft and hasbeautiful short stories and you
know all his stories are incollections and I would
encourage you to read hisstories and find them.
He had an editor who you knowmade it a point of cutting down
(09:15):
by half everything that hewrites, and so you know, short
stories really make you look atthe essence of the story and to
be concise with your words andmake sure that you are using the
strongest words possible to getyour story across.
So it really helps with thatside of it.
It gives you those quick winsbecause publishing short stories
(09:39):
helps to build your confidenceand it also helps to build your
credibility.
I found myself struggling in myemerging years in terms of am I
a good writer?
Do I have what it takes?
Is this something that I shouldbe dedicating time to?
And even though writing issomething I absolutely have to
(10:01):
do, writing for publication canbe very hard and it puts you in
a.
It can put you in somedifficult, um and challenging
positions where you have toreally fight to find the
resilience within yourself, andso having um short stories
published and having those winsreally boosts you up and it
(10:23):
really gives you that sense ofyes, I'm on the right path and
this is what I need to keepdoing.
It opens doors.
Having short stories published.
It can lead to residencies,competitions and even, like in
my case, it led me to an agentand then it led me to a
(10:46):
publisher, and that was whatembarked me on my traditional
publishing journey, and I didhave a wonderful publishing
journey where I had my debutnovel published.
I edited an anthology GrowingUp Muslim in Australia, which
really helped for me to solidifymy writing skills and my
(11:07):
editing skills, and so you justnever know, by putting yourself
out there, what opportunitiesthat will create.
One of the other reasons thatshort stories are really
important is to learn about thesubmission process.
In the traditional publishingworld everything takes a really
really long time.
(11:28):
I have submitted short storiesto journals and waited a year
before they were accepted.
When I submitted my novel to myagent, I think it took eight
months until I was picked upagent.
I think it took eight monthsuntil I was picked up when we
(11:49):
submitted it to publishers.
It was a quick turnaroundbecause my agent was
facilitating that, and so theycreate more of a sense of
urgency and deadlines.
But then after my novel wasaccepted for publication, it was
nearly two years until it waspublished and probably about
three years from the time Istarted the submission process
to my agent to then having itpublished and out into the world
(12:13):
.
And it's the same with shortstories journals.
Literary journals usually havevery small staff.
They work on a shoestringbudget.
They rely on volunteers, theyare prestigious and so everyone
sort of sees them as anopportunity to cut their teeth
in the industry and to get thatfirst wave of experience.
(12:36):
And so they get a lot ofsubmissions and so it can take a
very, very long time to get youknow through this process.
And writing short stories helpsfor you to understand and build
that resilience aroundtraditional publishing processes
(12:57):
, because submitting a shortstory and waiting for a year is
agonizing, but submitting anovel and waiting for that long
is even more agonizing.
So in one sense it sort ofhelps build that resilience
where you're like okay, I havestrategies to deal with this.
I know that it is out onsubmission, I need to turn my
(13:20):
mind to other things, tocreating other content, to keep
building my portfolio, and so ithelps with that psychological
process also.
It also helps to developresilience.
There are not many of us thatsort of have those wins straight
up and usually most of us haveto work at our craft, work at
(13:45):
building up that submissionprocess, building up that
portfolio, getting published,building the credibility.
There are not many people.
I mean it has happened wherepeople have submitted, had that
dream run, had the bidding wars,but even if they do, there is
still a downturn at some pointin their writing career, because
(14:06):
nothing stays the same.
Things are constantly changingand so I have read many stories
from traditionally publishedauthors who have had those dream
runs, who got the huge advancesand thought this is it, this is
what my life is, and then theirnovels were published.
They did not achieve the salesthat they expected and suddenly
(14:31):
the next book their advance isdropping significantly.
It's harder to get publishedbecause in the traditional
publishing world, if you do notpay out your advance and you do
not earn out the investment thatthe publisher has made, they're
not really willing to take arisk on you.
Before, decades, before, theywould put in the work to grow an
(14:58):
author and to build up thatpublication history and that fan
base, that publication historyand that fan base.
Unfortunately, now there are alot of pressures and economic
pressures in terms of publishersbeing able to turn a profit,
being able to sustain theirbusiness practice and, as a
(15:18):
result, it makes them very riskaverse in terms of investing in
books.
And so as soon as they see thatan author is not earning out
their advance, is not making thesales that they expected or
wanted.
They are wanting to take a riskon another author, and that
then makes it harder for thatauthor to continue their
(15:43):
publishing journey within thetraditional publishing world.
They can, um, they just have togo to another publisher and
they have to consider smallerpublishers, more independent
publishers, and look at thoseopportunities.
Um, so that resilience is reallyimportant in the writing world
and if you are wanting todedicate yourself to being a
(16:07):
writer, to being an artist,there are a lot, of, a lot more
losses, especially in thebeginning, than there are wins.
As you get deeper into it, andthis is the point that I'm at.
I create my wins, I make mysuccesses about my own journey
(16:28):
and what it is that I am wantingto achieve.
So I don't, for example, makeit about you know, the sales.
I make it about what am Iachieving in terms of putting
out there into the world.
Unfortunately, when you areemerging, it's about different
(16:48):
ways of marking success.
It's about the publicationhistory, it's about what are the
publications that you're beingpublished in, and so it can take
a lot out of you in that way,by writing short stories and
having them published, you havethe opportunity to improve your
craft through editing, and Ican't emphasize this enough.
(17:12):
You need to be able to work withan editor and get input and
feedback and improve yourwriting, and there are many
emerging writers who write, andyou know we all do this.
We all think our writing isperfect and amazing and
beautiful because, in one sense,you have to believe it.
(17:35):
You have to believe that aboutyourself in order to submit it,
in order to let it go out intothe world.
However, every piece of writingand every writer benefits from
having an editor, from havingsomeone looking at their work
and giving them feedback.
And when you are publishing inthe traditional model with
(18:00):
journals, or having a novelpublished, you will work with an
editor and the editor will haveviews about what your piece
should be and they will directthat, and that is something that
you need to learn about and youneed to work with Now.
In some instances, with aneditor, you might not agree with
(18:23):
that direction.
So, for example, when I had mynovel on submission and I had
two publishers and two editorswho made offers and wanted to
work on my novel, I met witheach of the editors and they
each had a very different visionof what that novel should be
(18:45):
and how we should refocus it,and so I went with the editor
that aligned more with my vision.
So, as an emerging writer, youmight have to make decisions
about do you work with theeditor about aligning your piece
with their vision in order toget that publication credit or
(19:08):
not?
In some instances it might costyou that publication
opportunity.
Usually with short stories itmight not be that much in terms
of that developmental edit andthat change.
Usually with a short story theysee what it is and then they're
wanting to make editorialchanges.
But it can happen, and so theseare things that you need to
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think about and you need todecide about.
Personally, when I was anemerging writer, I did not care
Anything that the editor wanted.
I just made changes.
I just went with it because Iwas of the view that I have
found an editor who seessomething in my writing.
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It speaks to them and I'm goingto trust what they want to put
out into the world and I justwant that opportunity to get my
writing out there, and workingwith editors really helped to
improve my writing.
So at every stage of my writingjourney I have benefited from
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editors who have really taughtme about the craft.
So even when I started myfreelance writing journey, I had
a lot of generous editors whoworked to edit and refine my
freelance articles.
Until now, I'm at the pointwhere I can produce a very good
copy of a piece, an opinionpiece, that does not need
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anything other than some copyediting.
And the same is true of novels.
I have written so many novelsnow that I feel quite confident
in the structure and in thataspect of it.
But I still do have aproofreader, somebody who reads
through my books, who takes thathuman eye, who picks up things
(21:03):
that I could not pick up, couldnot see, and that software that
I use so I use ProWritingAid asediting software does not pick
up.
So you know it's great atpicking up.
You know passive voice andpicking up when I've used
pronouns too much.
So you know starting sentenceswith I, I, I too many times.
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By the way, that's called theMexican dance I, I, I, I, and
it's something that you knowmany writers do.
So it helps me to pick up someof those things.
But it doesn't help to pick upthe nuances of language, which
is where my proofreader comes in, who is a former English
teacher and is excellent atdoing that.
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So these are all the reasonswhy writing short stories will
help you in your writing journeyand help you develop as a
writer, and you know all thedifferent skills that you need
as a writer.
So I want to talk now about howto get stories published.
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So how do you start?
So one of the most importantthing is read short stories.
I cannot emphasize that enough.
You need to read short stories,you need to buy anthologies,
you need to get subscriptions tojournals, especially to
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journals that you want to submit.
These days, a lot of journalshave different submission
processes for people who aresubscribers and people who are
non-subscribers, because if youare a subscriber, you are
supporting them in running theirbusiness in publishing, and
then you know they are wantingto read your submission sooner
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and be a part of the communityin terms of you know, read short
stories and review them,comment about them online,
online on social media, promotethem, connect with writers, buy
anthologies by different writersor buy short.
So a short story collection isa collection that's been written
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by one writer and an anthologyis a collection that has been
written by many writers, and Iwould encourage you to buy both.
It's really interesting to lookat a collection by the same
author and to look at what arethe different voices and
different experimentations thatthey have undergone in their
(23:39):
journey.
There are also some short storycollections that sort of tell a
narrative.
So they might be separate shortstories but they are part of a
bigger picture and sort of stillhave a bit of a narrative echo.
And it's also really importantto read anthologies and read
stories by different writers andsee all of the styles and all
of the ways that stories can betold.
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When you are reading theseshort stories, it's really
important to deconstruct them.
It's really important to lookat them.
Have a pencil or a pen,whatever you feel comfortable
with I usually use a pencil, Idon't really like using a pen on
my books and actuallydeconstruct.
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What is the orientation, how isthat set up?
What are the transitionsentences?
What are some great examples ofdescriptive language that the
author has used?
What is it that they are doingdifferent?
And really deconstruct and sortof dig deep into that so that
you can understand how shortstories are constructed and also
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learn about the craft ofwriting.
Get on mailing lists.
So join writing centres and geton their mailing lists and
track competition and publishingopportunities.
Add them to your diary andwrite to the deadline.
That's what I have done a lotin my emerging writing journey.
(25:03):
I was constantly trackingmailing lists from, you know,
writers Victoria Writing, newSouth Wales, all of these places
that I was on the mailing list.
I was looking at submissionopportunities.
I was looking at things thataligned with what I was doing
and then adding them to my diary, using them as a deadline.
When I was part of writinggroups, I would then use my
(25:25):
writing groups for thecritiquing and the editing part
and make sure that I would meetthose deadlines.
And so, you know, use that alsoas momentum, because sometimes
you're writing in a vacuum andit's like, well, what's the
point?
Who's going to read this?
When are they going to readthis?
But if you have deadlines thatyou're creating for yourself,
that gives you some momentum, itgives you something to work
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towards and it makes you feellike you are setting up the
building blocks of what you'redoing.
Enter competitions Reallyimportant to enter competitions.
So look for opportunities thatdon't have high entry fees.
There are sometimes somecompetitions that don't look
that great where they have ahigh entry fee but then the
(26:11):
prizes attached are not reallyfeasible and I sometimes get
suspicious of those, because Ido know that there are some
operators out there who are sortof inventing these
opportunities and just usingthem for um, to collect, you
know, entry fees from uh people.
(26:31):
And I did, uh take part in that.
I remember once where I foundthis online journal, um, it
looked okay on paper, Isubmitted and then, you know,
they did like a short list andall this, and then I sort of
followed them for a little bitand I realized, oh, this is a
bit sus.
I think this is someone justcreating an opportunity.
So do that bit of vetting andlook at who is running this
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short story competition, whatare the prizes attached, who are
the judges, and you know thereare many opportunities that
don't have that high entry fee.
And the other thing is, onceyou're on the mailing list for
these competitions, they'll keepsending you emails when they
are open for submissions.
So they'll keep sending youemails when they are open for
(27:19):
submissions and that's anopportunity for you to then
consider submitting again.
I have had competitions that Isubmitted multiple times and you
know, the first time I didn'tget anywhere and then the second
time I got shortlisted and thenthe third time I won a prize
and actually won some moneyattached to it.
So it is worth being persistentand putting in that work and
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continuing to submit, researchthe editors and the judges
before submitting.
You know, look at what is itthat they like?
Sometimes with judges, you knowa lot of them are in the
industry.
They're writers themselves.
You can read their writing,kind of get a sense of their
themes and their likes, and sothat can up your chance in terms
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of success and in terms ofbeing submitted.
It's just like when you aresubmitting to a traditional
publisher and you are looking atthe editor and you are looking
at what sort of books have theypublished, what are the things
that they like, and then you'relike well, this is the editor
that I think this book wouldwork for.
And the same thing applies forjudges and editors of
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competitions.
As writers, we are people.
As people, we all have our owntastes, and writing and art in
general is very subjective.
You know we can all talk aboutwhat is great art and what is
great writing, but we also knowthat there are examples of what
people pile on as terriblewriting that have actually
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appealed to millions of peoplein terms of you know, story or
in terms of art, and so I reallydon't believe in that
perspective that art or writingshould be highbrow or it should
be a certain type um, I reallydo believe that um, writing is
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about connecting with people andit is about the readers.
And um, I don't believe thatpeople should be commenting
about what is good and what isbad.
Um, even when we look at theyou know writing industry, um,
or like the indie writingindustry, a lot of people write
a lot of things and people mighthave view about views about
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them, like, um, smart or romance, but there are readers out
there for it.
So who are we to judge?
That's meeting a need withinthem, and so writing is
subjective and all it takes isone person, one reader, to
connect with it and to like it,and so one editor, one judge.
So do that bit of research andsee can you find those
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connections and can you helpimprove your chances.
Get eyes on your story, you know.
Join a writing group, find awriting partner, use software.
So I use ProWritingAid in termsof software for editing.
It really helps pick up a lotof that basic editing, even
(30:25):
though I have been writing forbasic um editing, even though I
have been writing, for you know,30 years now.
I am an english teacher, I'mvery well versed, um, I've done
editing work for other people.
I've been an editor of ananthology so I do know about the
craft, I do know about writing,but I can only pick up so much
for myself.
(30:45):
I can only see so much, and soI use ProWritingAid as that
first reader.
But then I do need human eyeson it.
I do need other people to readit.
So create that network and havepeople that you could use for
that.
Even look online.
There are online opportunitiesand it is reciprocal.
Don't expect people to read yourwork if you're not reading
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their work, and this is alsowhere I'll caution.
You don't get family andfriends who are not writers
themselves to read it.
I mean, they will read it andgive you feedback as a reader,
which could still be valuable.
But in terms of that editorialeye, you actually need people
who understand that and can pickup on those things for you.
So, as I've already talkedabout, you actually need people
who understand that and can pickup on those things for you.
(31:30):
So, as I already talked about,you know, submitting helps you
learn about the submissionprocess.
And so you know, when you writea short story, in a lot of
instances you need to submit acover letter.
In that cover letter, you needto include a quick overview of
your story, the word count andan indication of the theme.
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You need to include anintroduction of yourself and
then, if you get published, youneed to submit a biography and a
headshot.
And these are all skills thatyou need as a writer, because
when you are submitting a novel,you need to write a cover
letter, you need to introduce it, you need to be able to write
succinctly about it, you need tobe able to identify the themes
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of it, or you know the quickstory overview and then you need
to be able to introduceyourself and your credentials.
And so doing it on a smallscale with short stories really
helps to normalize and build upthose skills really helps to
normalize and build up thoseskills.
I just also wanted to take abrief moment to talk about
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biographies and photos andheadshots.
I have spent my writing lifedoing my own headshots and you
know finding photos of myself ormy husband taking them, and
this is the first time in mylife this year that I actually
had professional headshots taken.
So I don't think you need to dothat, but I do think that you
(32:57):
need to look at a photo that youcan use that does get across
who you are, but it's alsohitting that professional side
of it in terms of what we expectwith a headshot.
I find sometimes, when I lookthrough publications or I look
(33:17):
through, you know, some sort ofprograms, sometimes people have
photos where they're not reallylooking at the camera or they're
doing something different orsomething you know, where
they're not actually facing thereader and kind of connecting
with the reader.
They're doing somethingdifferent or something you know,
where they're not actuallyfacing, um, the reader and kind
of connecting with the reader.
I personally have a little bitof a problem with that, um,
because if I'm in the positionwhere I'm looking at the, the
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writer, I want to actually seewho they are and I want to get a
sense of who they are.
So I would encourage you to, youknow, actually take a headshot
for yourself, but actually thinkabout it in terms of, you know,
a professional headshot thatcaptures who you are and will
(34:00):
sort of represent you, and sohaving these publication
opportunities and doing thesethings really helps, because the
other thing that you have to dosometimes is you have to keep
editing your biography.
So when you're submitting it tocertain places, you need to
edit your biography for thatspecific publication, and so
having all these differentversions of your biography or
(34:22):
different word counts sometimesthey want 100 words, sometimes
they want 50 words, sometimesthey want 200 words.
So having all those differentversions also really helps, um,
in terms of taking part in thepublishing world and so doing
these short story publications.
Having these opportunitieswhere you have to do these
things and build up these skills, um just really helps to
(34:44):
normalize it for you.
Um, because you know it can bequite daunting in those early,
early opportunities to have tosubmit a photo of yourself and
to have to write a biographyabout yourself and sort of claim
who you are.
I found it very difficult to doand very difficult to sort of
think about positioning myselfand, honestly, practice does
(35:06):
make perfect.
The more you do these things,the more that you take part in
these opportunities, the more itgets normalized and the more it
just becomes something that youdo when you don't sit there
thinking about it and you knowgetting too paranoid and second
guessing yourself, and so thoseopportunities are really
important.
If rejected, revise and tryagain.
(35:28):
Don't give up.
I used to have a rule thatevery short story that I
submitted and it didn't getpublished, I would revise it and
I would submit it at leastanother five times.
That was my minimum.
And then I saw, as I startedgetting published more, I
(35:49):
started having a better successrate where you know, at one
point I would submit you know,every five stories, every 10
stories I'll get one storypicked up.
Then every five stories andI'll get one story picked up.
And so my odds started gettingbetter and started improving.
And also sometimes when yousubmit a short story, you know
you get to a point where you'relike, oh, that's as good as I
(36:10):
can do it, I've made it great,I've really spent time on it,
and you submit it and it takesmonths and months for it to go
through the process.
And then you get that rejectionand I would look at it again,
and this time I would look at itthrough the perspective of this
rejection, and so I would havemore of a critical eye and I
(36:32):
would look at it and I wouldrevise it again and look at
opportunities to improve it andthen I would submit again.
Now.
Obviously you do have to sortof look sometimes at things and
think is it, should I just keepreworking that or should I work
on new things?
So I encourage you to keepwriting new stories.
(36:52):
Don't just hold on to the samethree stories and keep
resubmitting them.
You do need to just keepwriting and keep producing and
keep practicing your craft, andthe more that you write, the
more that you're going to beable to go back to older stories
and go oh, I can see now what Ican improve, because your craft
will have evolved.
So don't take that firstrejection as that means that you
(37:14):
can't write and that you shouldgive it up Absolutely not.
Keep trying, keep submitting,keep believing and keep working
on it.
One thing that I would reallyreally encourage is always,
always, be professional.
When you get rejected, respondpolitely, respond professionally
(37:39):
.
Don't ever burn bridges.
The publishing industry, like alot of industries, it's a very
small industry and I do know ofauthors who have engaged in
unprofessional behavior witheditors who haven't, you know,
argued about a rejection orargued about editing and they
have been cut loose and they are.
(38:01):
Then, you know, when theysubmit, they are not looked at
again because they were notgreat to work with, because you
know who wants to work with,someone who is making their life
difficult, who is not wantingto work in partnership and
collaborate, and that's what youknow editors are looking for,
what really everyone is lookingfor.
So, just like, if you go for ajob interview and you get
(38:23):
interviewed and you think youdid great and then you get a
rejection from that company, um,you know, you would not I hope
anyway uh, start writing lettersof complaint and calling people
and abusing them and tellingthem about how they made a
terrible decision.
Um, you know, obviously, if youhad, you know just cause for
(38:44):
not getting a job, you wouldfollow processes in terms of
putting in a complaint.
Um, but you know, respondpolitely, move on, because you
want to submit there again.
And the other thing is, youdon't know.
You know you might, um, have anexperience with that particular
editor.
They might go somewhere else.
You know, at the end of the day, people are in these industries
(39:05):
and they will keep circlingaround and you don't know what
else they might do in the future.
So, you know, editors, theysometimes go on to be festival
directors or they go on to workin a publishing house.
So you need to think long termand you need to think about
relationships and community andpositioning yourself within that
community.
Look for opportunity If there isa theme that is attached to a
(39:28):
particular competition or aparticular anthology.
Look at what you have.
Look at what pieces you've got.
Have you got something thatyou're working on in terms of a
novel?
Can you isolate that?
Can you make that into a shortstory?
If you have a 5,000 word shortstory, the word count is a
thousand words, can you takethat 5,000 word short story and
make a version of it to meetthat word count and enter it?
(39:50):
And by doing these things, youare also learning the skills of
editing, because to go throughthe process of and I've done
this of taking a 5,000 wordstory and editing it down to a
1,000 story, it's a great skill.
Sometimes it might not be worthit, but you know, sometimes
it's worth trying it, just forthat experience, just for that
(40:11):
learning uh journey, which, um,I feel like I learned a lot
through those opportunities.
The other thing I would say ispersistence is key.
Keep submitting, create asystem.
So my husband, um fikrapayalich, is an amazing short
story writer and he wrote 50.
(40:33):
No, he wrote more than that,but he wrote.
He had 50 short storiespublished in, uh, all of the
journals, um, the big journalsin australia and the us, um, and
I then published his shortstory collection, complication
Short Stories, under my imprint,peshukan Press, and he was
(40:55):
incredibly persistent with hispublication journey.
So he had a spreadsheet that hemaintained with all of the
different publications andeditors.
He would submit a short storyto a publication and as soon as
he got a rejection he wouldsubmit another story.
So he actually was published inthe two top journals in
(41:19):
Australia Overland and Mianjinand one of them it took him 12
tries and one of them it tookhim 14.
And so what happened was hewould submit and something he
would get shortlisted and, youknow, then there were some
instances where he was almostput in, but then when they were
looking at the whole collectionthey were like, oh, this short
(41:40):
story doesn't fit into it.
Um, and then, uh, he startedgetting editors, you know,
noticing him, seeing that he iscontinuing to build his literary
CV and his publication history,and eventually finding a short
story that connected with themand that he would get published
(42:00):
with, and so he really dedicatedhimself just to writing and
submitting short stories andmaintaining this amazing
spreadsheet with a whole list ofjournals that he was following
and publishing with and that hewas reading short stories that
they were publishing and gettinga feel for what they were doing
(42:23):
, and looking at short storiesthat he had that would match
that theme.
And so, you know, sometimes ittakes a while to find a home, to
find that right person and theright story, and it really is
important that you know youdedicate yourself to it.
(42:43):
Just like when we are lookingfor a job in a certain field, we
have to keep writing jobapplications and we have to keep
applying and we have to keepgoing to interviews.
It is the same with thepublishing industry.
It is about the work, it isabout putting yourself into that
work and sometimes it's aboutmaking it about the submission
(43:07):
rather than the publication,because we can't control who's
going to publish it, who will,you know, connect with our story
, how many stories we will getpublished?
But we can control how manysubmissions we make.
We can make a goal as to, youknow, we will submit to 10
journals this month or thesethree months.
We can make those commitments.
(43:28):
We can say that we will writethis many stories, and so by
sort of creating that industryaround it and creating your own
version of success anddedicating yourself to the craft
and to the publication process,that's when things happen.
So I would really encourage youto do that and and to dedicate
(43:51):
yourself to that.
So I now want to touch on alittle bit on the craft of
writing short stories, and youknow, a short story can be any
length these days.
Different publications havedifferent short story lengths.
(44:12):
You know there's argument aboutwhen does it go into a novella,
um, but there are somepublications that even consider,
you know, 25 000 words a shortstory.
Uh, usually, you know, youwould think up to 10 000 words,
but really there is a lot offlexibility, um, there aren't so
many publications these daysthat do that really long form,
(44:32):
um, so usually they do up toseven and a half thousand words,
but it can be anything.
There are different ways ofwriting short stories and
different types of short stories, so there's no, you know, one
size fits all.
This is a great opportunity toexperiment with the types of
short stories you might want todo.
So know, you could do theclassic story arc, um, with the
(44:56):
beginning, middle and end.
So you know, those stories ummight be written by writers like
alice monroe and raymond carver, and I would really encourage
you to read their short storiesin the way that they are
constructed.
You can find a lot of them onthe internet.
Um, you could write a storywhere it's a slice of life.
It doesn't have a dramatic arc,but it captures a moment, a
(45:19):
fleeting experience thatresonates with the reader and
leaves them thinking aboutsomething.
You could write one with atwist ending where you know
stories like Roald Dahl or OHenry leaves the reader with
this sense of suspense and andyou don't quite know where that
story was going.
(45:39):
You think it's going in oneplace and it gives you that
twist, uh, and leaves youreeling, um and enjoying it.
I'm actually doing, uh,suspense stories with my year
eight class, um, and it has beenjust so wonderful watching
their faces as we read theseshort stories and we get to the
end and then they're like whatwas that?
And I love asking them what didyou enjoy about it?
(46:02):
What did you like about it?
And they're all like that twistending.
Oh, didn't see it coming.
And so you know those arereally fun.
There could be some experimentalshort stories.
This is an opportunity to sortof break the genre, break with
(46:23):
convention, to try new things,um, and so look at writers, you
know whether I might do it aslists or emails or diary entries
.
So, for example, my short storysiege, it's um diary entries,
uh, that my character is writingwhile she's under siege, um,
and it's kind of giving us thatinsight and that personal
connection, and so it gives youthat opportunity to sort of
experiment with form andexperiment with how you can tell
(46:43):
a short story.
It could be a character study,so getting inside a character's
head, a character's inner world,and really connecting with them
and showing them, showing thereader.
You know this differentperspective and this different
life.
You know, when we read like Ilove reading for the to live
(47:04):
vicariously through other people, to experience different things
, to be challenged to, you know,see different points of view
and just understand things alittle bit differently, a little
bit better, and so that mightbe something that you might want
to explore in a short story.
You might want to do a thematicshort story, so you know where
(47:26):
you're looking around a themeand you're trying to tell a
story about that particulartheme.
Or you might do a genre shortstory.
So I really loved having theopportunity to write do a genre
short story.
So I really loved um having theopportunity to write different
types of short story.
Like, my first story that wasever published was in woman's
day and it was a romance storyof 800 words.
(47:46):
Um, and it was my first, youknow, romance publication credit
, and it was just wonderful tosort of get that recognition of,
oh, I can write this type ofthing.
Um, and then I sort of startedwriting crime and, uh, getting
my short stories published oncrime, uh, journals, um, and I
was like, oh, I can do that too,that's something I can explore.
(48:06):
And so each opportunity sort ofgave me that confidence where
it's like, oh, that's somethingI can do.
Um, when I first started, I wassubmitting and getting
published in literary journalsand that's what I was aspiring
to, and so it really, you know,gave me that sense of confidence
of, oh, I can write that sortof thing, I can do those deep
things, and so that's a reallygreat opportunity to sort of try
(48:31):
.
Another way of doing it is toread short stories and to read.
To sort of try Another way ofdoing it is to read short
stories and to read you know howa writer has constructed that
short story and use that as asource of inspiration and mimic
that structure or adapt thattheme or adapt a character from
them and extend it.
(48:51):
At the end of the day, we getinspiration from everything and
so you know, you can see whatwhen you're reading, what
inspires, what tickles your muse.
Some ways that you can getstarted with short stories is
you know, start with a strongimage or an idea, a single
(49:11):
moment, a piece of dialogue.
Sometimes when I'mexperimenting and doing writing
workshops, so you know, with mystudents I do a found story
where I give them elements likea character, conflict, you know
a place, and they have to tryand imagine what that is might
be as a story.
I give them first sentences andthen they do that stream of
(49:35):
consciousness and they try andwrite a short story based on
that first line.
So you can engage in that sortof experimentation for yourself
too.
There are some online forumsand online communities where you
get prompts and you write to aprompt.
I remember once when I wasreally feeling in a very
disconnected place with mywriting.
(49:56):
I took part in 30 Days ofPoetry and I wrote a poem every
day for 30 days, and it was acompletely new form.
It was something that I hadn'treally done as a writer.
I'd obviously written tragicpoetry when I was a teenager,
but I hadn't really gone back toit much when I became, when I
(50:19):
sort of became a writer andentered this world, and it
really created the opportunityfor me to find little points of
inspiration and experiment withform and experiment with voice
and just find the joy of it.
And I also did submit some ofthose poems and I did get um,
(50:41):
those poems, uh, some poems,published, um, and that was also
wonderful, uh, to see, and I dohave plans at some point to do
a short story, a collection ofmy poems, um, because you know,
I don't know that it will sell,but for me it will just be a
great opportunity to sort of dothings for myself and to put my
writing out there in a newformat.
(51:02):
And also now I'm learning aboutcreating books with images and
doing different things withformatting, um.
So that's something that Imight come back to and that's
the other thing.
You keep writing and keepexperimenting and as you embark
on this journey as a writer andyou're in it for a few decades.
(51:23):
There's a lot of work, a bigbody of work that you have and a
lot of opportunities that youcan do different things with it.
So you know nothing is wasted.
Don't ever think of any of yourwriting as wasted.
It's all helping you grow andit's all helping you become who
you are and find who you are,and you don't know when you'll
go back to it and use it forsomething else.
(51:43):
You can use constraints, sochallenge yourself to write a
500-word story.
So I remember we had differentwriters coming into this course
that I was doing and talkingabout the different short
stories that they wrote.
And they came in and they weretalking about flash fiction and
I had not really known anythingabout flash fiction.
(52:06):
So flash fiction are likereally short pieces.
There are some that are evenlike you know, where they expect
100 words could be 500 words,it could be 300 words.
So it's trying to get a shortstory into as short a story as
you can.
One of the things I love doingwith my writers is can a short
story be six words?
And then I show them shortstories that are six words and
(52:31):
they can see how words havepower as how, even if a short
story is six words, you couldreally capture depth.
So, for example, baby shoesnever worn, um, I don't know if
that's the full story, but uh,you know, look up six word short
(52:53):
stories and you can see howthey um really have resonance
and you're able to inhabit thisworld even in something so small
.
And so I challenged myself towrite some flash fiction and I
had success with that when I hadum short stories published that
were flash fiction, um, and sothat was really heartening and a
(53:15):
lot of fun.
Also, because you know you'rewriting very short form and
experimenting and sort of reallylooking at the power of words
and the weight of words With ashort story.
Begin in the middle.
You know they don't need a longset up.
You're starting the heart ofthe story as close to the ending
as possible.
It is a short story.
So you know you don't need alot of exposition, a lot of
(53:38):
things in the beginning.
So just start close to.
You know the middle Focus ononly one character or conflict.
So, unlike novels, short storiesdon't have the opportunity for
subplots.
You have to cull them.
So even when I've takenchapters from my novel to rework
as short stories, I've had tocull anything in there that is a
(54:01):
subplot, that is, you know,contributing to the novel, and
really make it just about thatstory and about that moment that
I'm telling.
So you know if you're addingextra things, extra subplots,
you know if you're adding extrathings, extra subplots, take
them out.
It needs to be one character,one plot, one image and edit
ruthlessly.
It really is important aboutthat precision of words, about
(54:25):
really capturing the essence ofthe story.
When you are writing a novel,obviously you need moments of
shades of light and dark.
You want those moments wherecharacters are just sort of
talking and connecting and it'sgiving us insight into
characterization and you can dothat because it is long form and
that is what readers also loveabout it.
(54:46):
But when you're writing a shortstory, there's no space for
that.
Everything that is in thatstory needs to contribute to
what that plot is and what thepurpose of that story is.
Anything that does not needs tobe cut ruthlessly, okay.
So that's why writing shortstories is wonderful and a great
(55:07):
opportunity.
So some closing remarks.
Short stories have really beenfoundational in my career as a
traditionally published author.
They helped me build my voice,build my portfolio, build my
confidence, my literary CV andthe foundations of becoming a
(55:29):
published author.
Now, as an indie author, theygive me other opportunities.
They give me promotionalopportunities in terms of using
them as a reader magnet, lookingfor publishing opportunities,
although I'm sort of not doingthat as much because I'm more
focused with my author business,but there are still
opportunities there.
(55:49):
So you know, it's a reallygreat way of opening doors.
Um, I would really you know,look at you, encourage you to
look at your writing journey andwherever you are and see um,
you know how writing shortstories can help develop your
craft and improve your craft.
(56:11):
I think at any space on yourwriting journey they can do that
for you.
So I would really want you tothink about how can this help
you in your writing journey.
So I just wanted to remind youthat there are show notes on my
website.
So amrapajaliccom slash podcastwebsite.
(56:40):
So amrapajaliccom slash podcasta-m-r-a-p-a-j-a-l-i-c slash
podcast.
You will find the show notes,but you will also find handouts
that reference some of thethings that I talked about in
this episode so that you can usethem and find, you know,
opportunities for yourself.
And also I'm creating um authorguides and how to based on
these episodes.
So if you wanted to, um getthose that can also help you in
(57:03):
your writing journey.
Um, if you wanted to, you canalso, you know, check out my
collection and check outcomplication great examples of
um.
You know different shortstories and way to write them.
Um, and, you know, look forother writers also.
Um, you know there are a lot ofreally famous writers and their
(57:26):
short stories online that youcan access and that you can read
and that will really help youwith that development of craft.
Um, please touch base with me,connect with me online.
Um write a comment on mypodcast show notes.
Uh, tell me you know about yourshort story, uh experiences and
(57:47):
your writing journey.
Um and how uh this is helpingyou.
Thank you for joining me.
Thank you for tuning into am toAmra's Armchair Anecdotes.
If you enjoyed today's episode,don't forget to subscribe and
follow for more insights,stories and inspiration From my
(58:07):
armchair to yours.
Remember, every story beginswith a single word.
Welcome.
Today I'm talking about howshort stories help build your
publication history, and Iwanted to talk about this
because, if you're a writer andyou're wanting to build up your
confidence, find your voice,start getting published and
building your portfolio, shortstories are a great way to do
(00:27):
that.
So I'm going to talk todayabout how short stories can help
you refine your skills, findyour voice, build a publication
history.
So these are lessons that Ilearned myself firsthand, and
I'm also going to share sometips about how to go about this
and use short stories in thebest way possible.
(00:47):
So for myself, early in mywriting career, novels felt
overwhelming.
I did a course, a diploma, inprofessional writing and editing
, and that course was wonderfulbecause we had the opportunity
to do different subjects, andone of the subjects was called
(01:08):
writing short stories, and wehad one whole year of learning
about different types of shortstories, different formats,
different lengths and how youknow writing them and finding
opportunities for publications.
And through this journey andthis subject, I had the
(01:30):
opportunity to sort ofexperiment with different themes
and structure.
I tried various genres andfound what I wanted to write,
and I published my first shortstory.
So at that time there was aanthology that was published
every year by a very respectedpublisher in Australia.
It was called Best AustralianStories and they had different
(01:55):
editors who were responsible forcollating and editing that
anthology.
And one and one year I think itwas 2004, there was a public
call out and I submitted myshort story, and this short
story was titled Siege and itwas based on my husband's
(02:15):
experience, my husband'sfamily's experiences, about
living in Sarajevo under siegeduring the war, in Sarajevo,
under siege during the war, theBalkan War of 1992 to 1995.
And to write that story I hadto engage in research and I was
(02:37):
also able to use details fromtheir letters that they wrote
about what day-to-day life waslike.
And then I also had someinspiration like um.
And then I also had uh, someinspiration about a real life
couple who were called sade.
It was uh, romeo and juliet whosadly uh were trying to escape
the city because um, one of themwas bosnian, one of them was
serb and uh perished in thatjourney.
(03:01):
And and so I wrote this shortstory in this burst of beautiful
inspiration and I submitted itto this anthology and I had it
accepted and after it waspublished, this anthology was
reviewed and I received a reviewmention.
(03:22):
So what that means is that in areview of the actual anthology
they mentioned my story and gaveme a beautiful you know blurb,
a beautiful little sentenceabout it.
And then I submitted the yearafter and I also had another
short story published and theseopportunities were the building
(03:45):
grounds for me to build myconfidence as a writer, to find
out also what it was that Iwanted to write.
So through that I saw that thepersonal side of my writing,
that writing about my cultureand about things that I cared
about and doing that advocacyside of it was where my heart
(04:06):
was and that's where I needed toput my energy.
And then also, when I finishedmy debut novel and was looking
for an agent, these were thingsthat I was able to put in my
cover letter to showcase mysuccess, to showcase that I had,
you know, built up publication,history and an audience and was
(04:32):
then able to take that as astepping stone, and this is why
short stories are a greatopportunity to do that.
So over the years I had many,many short stories that won and
placed in competitions and werepublished in journals to
(05:07):
competitions or submit them forpublication sometimes because
I'm looking for a way to buildup my confidence, especially in
the early years, when it took mea really long time to finish a
book and to take me years insome instances to write books,
and so those short storypublication opportunities really
gave me that confidence andkind of fed my soul so that I
would keep going with it.
Now I have gotten faster withwriting novels and I don't need
(05:33):
it anymore.
However, I do use them in adifferent way, where, as an
indie author, I am using them asreader magnets.
I am using them as readermagnets, so where I am actually
using them to write shortstories or to develop deleted
scenes as short stories that Ithen offer to readers of my
(05:56):
books to sign up to mynewsletter and get access to
that.
And so one of the things that Ireally always wanted to do and
I think it's what every writerdreams about which is having
their short stories published ina short story collection.
Unfortunately, short storycollections are not really
(06:16):
desired much by many publishersanymore, and usually they will
look to publish short storycollections by writers that they
have an ongoing relationshipwith.
So the first book that Ipublished under my press,
fishookin Press, was my shortstory collection, so I titled it
(06:38):
the Cuckoo's Song, which is oneof the short stories in it,
which is one of the shortstories in it, and it gave me
the opportunity to put all of mystories together to write sort
of a narrative about my writingjourney and the inspiration and
to develop teaching notes to beable to support students or
teachers wanting to use thisshort story collection in some
(07:02):
way.
And you know that was a veryproud moment for me and it just
means so much for me that I'vestill got these short stories in
a collection and so they'vegiven me so many opportunities
and they keep giving meopportunities.
So I wanted to talk now aboutwhy short stories matter for
(07:23):
writers.
So when you're writing shortstories, you have the
opportunity to find your voice.
This is something that Istruggled with also as an
emerging writer, in terms ofwhat is it that I wanted to
write about, what is it that Iwanted to say?
I've had many evolutions as anauthor and that's something I'll
discuss in an upcoming episodeand sometimes I chase trends and
(07:46):
sometimes I sort of steer awayfrom my journey, and short
stories can kind of give youthat opportunity where you might
want to experiment in certaingenres and see is this something
that you want to do?
Is this something that you wantto commit to?
Is this something that you wantto commit to?
And by writing it in a shortstory format you can see whether
(08:07):
that fits in with your writingjourney and with where you are
wanting to position yourself.
It really gives you theopportunity to refine your
skills, because when you arewriting a short story and if
you're looking to publish it,usually every competition or
publication has a word countwhere they want a specific word
(08:31):
count, and so writing to thatword count really teaches you to
be concise.
But also taking a longer formshort story and editing it down
really gives you the opportunityto see what is it that needs to
be in there.
What are the most importantbones?
Raymond Carver, who is aprolific, was a prolific short
(08:55):
story writer and sort of used byevery emerging writer to learn
about the craft and hasbeautiful short stories and you
know all his stories are incollections and I would
encourage you to read hisstories and find them.
He had an editor who you knowmade it a point of cutting down
(09:15):
by half everything that hewrites, and so you know, short
stories really make you look atthe essence of the story and to
be concise with your words andmake sure that you are using the
strongest words possible to getyour story across.
So it really helps with thatside of it.
It gives you those quick winsbecause publishing short stories
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helps to build your confidenceand it also helps to build your
credibility.
I found myself struggling in myemerging years in terms of am I
a good writer?
Do I have what it takes?
Is this something that I shouldbe dedicating time to?
And even though writing issomething I absolutely have to
(10:01):
do, writing for publication canbe very hard and it puts you in
a.
It can put you in somedifficult, um and challenging
positions where you have toreally fight to find the
resilience within yourself, andso having um short stories
published and having those winsreally boosts you up and it
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really gives you that sense ofyes, I'm on the right path and
this is what I need to keepdoing.
It opens doors.
Having short stories published.
It can lead to residencies,competitions and even, like in
my case, it led me to an agentand then it led me to a
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publisher, and that was whatembarked me on my traditional
publishing journey, and I didhave a wonderful publishing
journey where I had my debutnovel published.
I edited an anthology GrowingUp Muslim in Australia, which
really helped for me to solidifymy writing skills and my
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editing skills, and so you justnever know, by putting yourself
out there, what opportunitiesthat will create.
One of the other reasons thatshort stories are really
important is to learn about thesubmission process.
In the traditional publishingworld everything takes a really
really long time.
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I have submitted short storiesto journals and waited a year
before they were accepted.
When I submitted my novel to myagent, I think it took eight
months until I was picked upagent.
I think it took eight monthsuntil I was picked up when we
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submitted it to publishers.
It was a quick turnaroundbecause my agent was
facilitating that, and so theycreate more of a sense of
urgency and deadlines.
But then after my novel wasaccepted for publication, it was
nearly two years until it waspublished and probably about
three years from the time Istarted the submission process
to my agent to then having itpublished and out into the world
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.
And it's the same with shortstories journals.
Literary journals usually havevery small staff.
They work on a shoestringbudget.
They rely on volunteers, theyare prestigious and so everyone
sort of sees them as anopportunity to cut their teeth
in the industry and to get thatfirst wave of experience.
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And so they get a lot ofsubmissions and so it can take a
very, very long time to get youknow through this process.
And writing short stories helpsfor you to understand and build
that resilience aroundtraditional publishing processes
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, because submitting a shortstory and waiting for a year is
agonizing, but submitting anovel and waiting for that long
is even more agonizing.
So in one sense it sort ofhelps build that resilience
where you're like okay, I havestrategies to deal with this.
I know that it is out onsubmission, I need to turn my
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mind to other things, tocreating other content, to keep
building my portfolio, and so ithelps with that psychological
process also.
It also helps to developresilience.
There are not many of us thatsort of have those wins straight
up and usually most of us haveto work at our craft, work at
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building up that submissionprocess, building up that
portfolio, getting published,building the credibility.
There are not many people.
I mean it has happened wherepeople have submitted, had that
dream run, had the bidding wars,but even if they do, there is
still a downturn at some pointin their writing career, because
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nothing stays the same.
Things are constantly changingand so I have read many stories
from traditionally publishedauthors who have had those dream
runs, who got the huge advancesand thought this is it, this is
what my life is, and then theirnovels were published.
They did not achieve the salesthat they expected and suddenly
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the next book their advance isdropping significantly.
It's harder to get publishedbecause in the traditional
publishing world, if you do notpay out your advance and you do
not earn out the investment thatthe publisher has made, they're
not really willing to take arisk on you.
Before, decades, before, theywould put in the work to grow an
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author and to build up thatpublication history and that fan
base, that publication historyand that fan base.
Unfortunately, now there are alot of pressures and economic
pressures in terms of publishersbeing able to turn a profit,
being able to sustain theirbusiness practice and, as a
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result, it makes them very riskaverse in terms of investing in
books.
And so as soon as they see thatan author is not earning out
their advance, is not making thesales that they expected or
wanted.
They are wanting to take a riskon another author, and that
then makes it harder for thatauthor to continue their
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publishing journey within thetraditional publishing world.
They can, um, they just have togo to another publisher and
they have to consider smallerpublishers, more independent
publishers, and look at thoseopportunities.
Um, so that resilience is reallyimportant in the writing world
and if you are wanting todedicate yourself to being a
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writer, to being an artist,there are a lot, of, a lot more
losses, especially in thebeginning, than there are wins.
As you get deeper into it, andthis is the point that I'm at.
I create my wins, I make mysuccesses about my own journey
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and what it is that I am wantingto achieve.
So I don't, for example, makeit about you know, the sales.
I make it about what am Iachieving in terms of putting
out there into the world.
Unfortunately, when you areemerging, it's about different
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ways of marking success.
It's about the publicationhistory, it's about what are the
publications that you're beingpublished in, and so it can take
a lot out of you in that way,by writing short stories and
having them published, you havethe opportunity to improve your
craft through editing, and Ican't emphasize this enough.
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You need to be able to work withan editor and get input and
feedback and improve yourwriting, and there are many
emerging writers who write, andyou know we all do this.
We all think our writing isperfect and amazing and
beautiful because, in one sense,you have to believe it.
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You have to believe that aboutyourself in order to submit it,
in order to let it go out intothe world.
However, every piece of writingand every writer benefits from
having an editor, from havingsomeone looking at their work
and giving them feedback.
And when you are publishing inthe traditional model with
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journals, or having a novelpublished, you will work with an
editor and the editor will haveviews about what your piece
should be and they will directthat, and that is something that
you need to learn about and youneed to work with Now.
In some instances, with aneditor, you might not agree with
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that direction.
So, for example, when I had mynovel on submission and I had
two publishers and two editorswho made offers and wanted to
work on my novel, I met witheach of the editors and they
each had a very different visionof what that novel should be
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and how we should refocus it,and so I went with the editor
that aligned more with my vision.
So, as an emerging writer, youmight have to make decisions
about do you work with theeditor about aligning your piece
with their vision in order toget that publication credit or
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not?
In some instances it might costyou that publication
opportunity.
Usually with short stories itmight not be that much in terms
of that developmental edit andthat change.
Usually with a short story theysee what it is and then they're
wanting to make editorialchanges.
But it can happen, and so theseare things that you need to
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think about and you need todecide about.
Personally, when I was anemerging writer, I did not care
Anything that the editor wanted.
I just made changes.
I just went with it because Iwas of the view that I have
found an editor who seessomething in my writing.
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It speaks to them and I'm goingto trust what they want to put
out into the world and I justwant that opportunity to get my
writing out there, and workingwith editors really helped to
improve my writing.
So at every stage of my writingjourney I have benefited from
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editors who have really taughtme about the craft.
So even when I started myfreelance writing journey, I had
a lot of generous editors whoworked to edit and refine my
freelance articles.
Until now, I'm at the pointwhere I can produce a very good
copy of a piece, an opinionpiece, that does not need
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anything other than some copyediting.
And the same is true of novels.
I have written so many novelsnow that I feel quite confident
in the structure and in thataspect of it.
But I still do have aproofreader, somebody who reads
through my books, who takes thathuman eye, who picks up things
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that I could not pick up, couldnot see, and that software that
I use so I use ProWritingAid asediting software does not pick
up.
So you know it's great atpicking up.
You know passive voice andpicking up when I've used
pronouns too much.
So you know starting sentenceswith I, I, I too many times.
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By the way, that's called theMexican dance I, I, I, I, and
it's something that you knowmany writers do.
So it helps me to pick up someof those things.
But it doesn't help to pick upthe nuances of language, which
is where my proofreader comes in, who is a former English
teacher and is excellent atdoing that.
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So these are all the reasonswhy writing short stories will
help you in your writing journeyand help you develop as a
writer, and you know all thedifferent skills that you need
as a writer.
So I want to talk now about howto get stories published.
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So how do you start?
So one of the most importantthing is read short stories.
I cannot emphasize that enough.
You need to read short stories,you need to buy anthologies,
you need to get subscriptions tojournals, especially to
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journals that you want to submit.
These days, a lot of journalshave different submission
processes for people who aresubscribers and people who are
non-subscribers, because if youare a subscriber, you are
supporting them in running theirbusiness in publishing, and
then you know they are wantingto read your submission sooner
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and be a part of the communityin terms of you know, read short
stories and review them,comment about them online,
online on social media, promotethem, connect with writers, buy
anthologies by different writersor buy short.
So a short story collection isa collection that's been written
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by one writer and an anthologyis a collection that has been
written by many writers, and Iwould encourage you to buy both.
It's really interesting to lookat a collection by the same
author and to look at what arethe different voices and
different experimentations thatthey have undergone in their
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journey.
There are also some short storycollections that sort of tell a
narrative.
So they might be separate shortstories but they are part of a
bigger picture and sort of stillhave a bit of a narrative echo.
And it's also really importantto read anthologies and read
stories by different writers andsee all of the styles and all
of the ways that stories can betold.
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When you are reading theseshort stories, it's really
important to deconstruct them.
It's really important to lookat them.
Have a pencil or a pen,whatever you feel comfortable
with I usually use a pencil, Idon't really like using a pen on
my books and actuallydeconstruct.
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What is the orientation, how isthat set up?
What are the transitionsentences?
What are some great examples ofdescriptive language that the
author has used?
What is it that they are doingdifferent?
And really deconstruct and sortof dig deep into that so that
you can understand how shortstories are constructed and also
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learn about the craft ofwriting.
Get on mailing lists.
So join writing centres and geton their mailing lists and
track competition and publishingopportunities.
Add them to your diary andwrite to the deadline.
That's what I have done a lotin my emerging writing journey.
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I was constantly trackingmailing lists from, you know,
writers Victoria Writing, newSouth Wales, all of these places
that I was on the mailing list.
I was looking at submissionopportunities.
I was looking at things thataligned with what I was doing
and then adding them to my diary, using them as a deadline.
When I was part of writinggroups, I would then use my
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writing groups for thecritiquing and the editing part
and make sure that I would meetthose deadlines.
And so, you know, use that alsoas momentum, because sometimes
you're writing in a vacuum andit's like, well, what's the
point?
Who's going to read this?
When are they going to readthis?
But if you have deadlines thatyou're creating for yourself,
that gives you some momentum, itgives you something to work
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towards and it makes you feellike you are setting up the
building blocks of what you'redoing.
Enter competitions Reallyimportant to enter competitions.
So look for opportunities thatdon't have high entry fees.
There are sometimes somecompetitions that don't look
that great where they have ahigh entry fee but then the
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prizes attached are not reallyfeasible and I sometimes get
suspicious of those, because Ido know that there are some
operators out there who are sortof inventing these
opportunities and just usingthem for um, to collect, you
know, entry fees from uh people.
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And I did, uh take part in that.
I remember once where I foundthis online journal, um, it
looked okay on paper, Isubmitted and then, you know,
they did like a short list andall this, and then I sort of
followed them for a little bitand I realized, oh, this is a
bit sus.
I think this is someone justcreating an opportunity.
So do that bit of vetting andlook at who is running this
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short story competition, whatare the prizes attached, who are
the judges, and you know thereare many opportunities that
don't have that high entry fee.
And the other thing is, onceyou're on the mailing list for
these competitions, they'll keepsending you emails when they
are open for submissions.
So they'll keep sending youemails when they are open for
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submissions and that's anopportunity for you to then
consider submitting again.
I have had competitions that Isubmitted multiple times and you
know, the first time I didn'tget anywhere and then the second
time I got shortlisted and thenthe third time I won a prize
and actually won some moneyattached to it.
So it is worth being persistentand putting in that work and
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continuing to submit, researchthe editors and the judges
before submitting.
You know, look at what is itthat they like?
Sometimes with judges, you knowa lot of them are in the
industry.
They're writers themselves.
You can read their writing,kind of get a sense of their
themes and their likes, and sothat can up your chance in terms
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of success and in terms ofbeing submitted.
It's just like when you aresubmitting to a traditional
publisher and you are looking atthe editor and you are looking
at what sort of books have theypublished, what are the things
that they like, and then you'relike well, this is the editor
that I think this book wouldwork for.
And the same thing applies forjudges and editors of
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competitions.
As writers, we are people.
As people, we all have our owntastes, and writing and art in
general is very subjective.
You know we can all talk aboutwhat is great art and what is
great writing, but we also knowthat there are examples of what
people pile on as terriblewriting that have actually
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appealed to millions of peoplein terms of you know, story or
in terms of art, and so I reallydon't believe in that
perspective that art or writingshould be highbrow or it should
be a certain type um, I reallydo believe that um, writing is
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about connecting with people andit is about the readers.
And um, I don't believe thatpeople should be commenting
about what is good and what isbad.
Um, even when we look at theyou know writing industry, um,
or like the indie writingindustry, a lot of people write
a lot of things and people mighthave view about views about
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them, like, um, smart or romance, but there are readers out
there for it.
So who are we to judge?
That's meeting a need withinthem, and so writing is
subjective and all it takes isone person, one reader, to
connect with it and to like it,and so one editor, one judge.
So do that bit of research andsee can you find those
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connections and can you helpimprove your chances.
Get eyes on your story, you know.
Join a writing group, find awriting partner, use software.
So I use ProWritingAid in termsof software for editing.
It really helps pick up a lotof that basic editing, even
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though I have been writing forbasic um editing, even though I
have been writing, for you know,30 years now.
I am an english teacher, I'mvery well versed, um, I've done
editing work for other people.
I've been an editor of ananthology so I do know about the
craft, I do know about writing,but I can only pick up so much
for myself.
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I can only see so much, and soI use ProWritingAid as that
first reader.
But then I do need human eyeson it.
I do need other people to readit.
So create that network and havepeople that you could use for
that.
Even look online.
There are online opportunitiesand it is reciprocal.
Don't expect people to read yourwork if you're not reading
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their work, and this is alsowhere I'll caution.
You don't get family andfriends who are not writers
themselves to read it.
I mean, they will read it andgive you feedback as a reader,
which could still be valuable.
But in terms of that editorialeye, you actually need people
who understand that and can pickup on those things for you.
So, as I've already talkedabout, you actually need people
who understand that and can pickup on those things for you.
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So, as I already talked about,you know, submitting helps you
learn about the submissionprocess.
And so you know, when you writea short story, in a lot of
instances you need to submit acover letter.
In that cover letter, you needto include a quick overview of
your story, the word count andan indication of the theme.
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You need to include anintroduction of yourself and
then, if you get published, youneed to submit a biography and a
headshot.
And these are all skills thatyou need as a writer, because
when you are submitting a novel,you need to write a cover
letter, you need to introduce it, you need to be able to write
succinctly about it, you need tobe able to identify the themes
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of it, or you know the quickstory overview and then you need
to be able to introduceyourself and your credentials.
And so doing it on a smallscale with short stories really
helps to normalize and build upthose skills really helps to
normalize and build up thoseskills.
I just also wanted to take abrief moment to talk about
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biographies and photos andheadshots.
I have spent my writing lifedoing my own headshots and you
know finding photos of myself ormy husband taking them, and
this is the first time in mylife this year that I actually
had professional headshots taken.
So I don't think you need to dothat, but I do think that you
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need to look at a photo that youcan use that does get across
who you are, but it's alsohitting that professional side
of it in terms of what we expectwith a headshot.
I find sometimes, when I lookthrough publications or I look
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through, you know, some sort ofprograms, sometimes people have
photos where they're not reallylooking at the camera or they're
doing something different orsomething you know, where
they're not actually facing thereader and kind of connecting
with the reader.
They're doing somethingdifferent or something you know,
where they're not actuallyfacing, um, the reader and kind
of connecting with the reader.
I personally have a little bitof a problem with that, um,
because if I'm in the positionwhere I'm looking at the, the
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writer, I want to actually seewho they are and I want to get a
sense of who they are.
So I would encourage you to, youknow, actually take a headshot
for yourself, but actually thinkabout it in terms of, you know,
a professional headshot thatcaptures who you are and will
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sort of represent you, and sohaving these publication
opportunities and doing thesethings really helps, because the
other thing that you have to dosometimes is you have to keep
editing your biography.
So when you're submitting it tocertain places, you need to
edit your biography for thatspecific publication, and so
having all these differentversions of your biography or
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different word counts sometimesthey want 100 words, sometimes
they want 50 words, sometimesthey want 200 words.
So having all those differentversions also really helps, um,
in terms of taking part in thepublishing world and so doing
these short story publications.
Having these opportunitieswhere you have to do these
things and build up these skills, um just really helps to
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normalize it for you.
Um, because you know it can bequite daunting in those early,
early opportunities to have tosubmit a photo of yourself and
to have to write a biographyabout yourself and sort of claim
who you are.
I found it very difficult to doand very difficult to sort of
think about positioning myselfand, honestly, practice does
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make perfect.
The more you do these things,the more that you take part in
these opportunities, the more itgets normalized and the more it
just becomes something that youdo when you don't sit there
thinking about it and you knowgetting too paranoid and second
guessing yourself, and so thoseopportunities are really
important.
If rejected, revise and tryagain.
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Don't give up.
I used to have a rule thatevery short story that I
submitted and it didn't getpublished, I would revise it and
I would submit it at leastanother five times.
That was my minimum.
And then I saw, as I startedgetting published more, I
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started having a better successrate where you know, at one
point I would submit you know,every five stories, every 10
stories I'll get one storypicked up.
Then every five stories andI'll get one story picked up.
And so my odds started gettingbetter and started improving.
And also sometimes when yousubmit a short story, you know
you get to a point where you'relike, oh, that's as good as I
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can do it, I've made it great,I've really spent time on it,
and you submit it and it takesmonths and months for it to go
through the process.
And then you get that rejectionand I would look at it again,
and this time I would look at itthrough the perspective of this
rejection, and so I would havemore of a critical eye and I
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would look at it and I wouldrevise it again and look at
opportunities to improve it andthen I would submit again.
Now.
Obviously you do have to sortof look sometimes at things and
think is it, should I just keepreworking that or should I work
on new things?
So I encourage you to keepwriting new stories.
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Don't just hold on to the samethree stories and keep
resubmitting them.
You do need to just keepwriting and keep producing and
keep practicing your craft, andthe more that you write, the
more that you're going to beable to go back to older stories
and go oh, I can see now what Ican improve, because your craft
will have evolved.
So don't take that firstrejection as that means that you
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can't write and that you shouldgive it up Absolutely not.
Keep trying, keep submitting,keep believing and keep working
on it.
One thing that I would reallyreally encourage is always,
always, be professional.
When you get rejected, respondpolitely, respond professionally
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.
Don't ever burn bridges.
The publishing industry, like alot of industries, it's a very
small industry and I do know ofauthors who have engaged in
unprofessional behavior witheditors who haven't, you know,
argued about a rejection orargued about editing and they
have been cut loose and they are.
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Then, you know, when theysubmit, they are not looked at
again because they were notgreat to work with, because you
know who wants to work with,someone who is making their life
difficult, who is not wantingto work in partnership and
collaborate, and that's what youknow editors are looking for,
what really everyone is lookingfor.
So, just like, if you go for ajob interview and you get
(38:23):
interviewed and you think youdid great and then you get a
rejection from that company, um,you know, you would not I hope
anyway uh, start writing lettersof complaint and calling people
and abusing them and tellingthem about how they made a
terrible decision.
Um, you know, obviously, if youhad, you know just cause for
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not getting a job, you wouldfollow processes in terms of
putting in a complaint.
Um, but you know, respondpolitely, move on, because you
want to submit there again.
And the other thing is, youdon't know.
You know you might, um, have anexperience with that particular
editor.
They might go somewhere else.
You know, at the end of the day, people are in these industries
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and they will keep circlingaround and you don't know what
else they might do in the future.
So, you know, editors, theysometimes go on to be festival
directors or they go on to workin a publishing house.
So you need to think long termand you need to think about
relationships and community andpositioning yourself within that
community.
Look for opportunity If there isa theme that is attached to a
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particular competition or aparticular anthology.
Look at what you have.
Look at what pieces you've got.
Have you got something thatyou're working on in terms of a
novel?
Can you isolate that?
Can you make that into a shortstory?
If you have a 5,000 word shortstory, the word count is a
thousand words, can you takethat 5,000 word short story and
make a version of it to meetthat word count and enter it?
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And by doing these things, youare also learning the skills of
editing, because to go throughthe process of and I've done
this of taking a 5,000 wordstory and editing it down to a
1,000 story, it's a great skill.
Sometimes it might not be worthit, but you know, sometimes
it's worth trying it, just forthat experience, just for that
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learning uh journey, which, um,I feel like I learned a lot
through those opportunities.
The other thing I would say ispersistence is key.
Keep submitting, create asystem.
So my husband, um fikrapayalich, is an amazing short
story writer and he wrote 50.
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No, he wrote more than that,but he wrote.
He had 50 short storiespublished in, uh, all of the
journals, um, the big journalsin australia and the us, um, and
I then published his shortstory collection, complication
Short Stories, under my imprint,peshukan Press, and he was
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incredibly persistent with hispublication journey.
So he had a spreadsheet that hemaintained with all of the
different publications andeditors.
He would submit a short storyto a publication and as soon as
he got a rejection he wouldsubmit another story.
So he actually was published inthe two top journals in
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Australia Overland and Mianjinand one of them it took him 12
tries and one of them it tookhim 14.
And so what happened was hewould submit and something he
would get shortlisted and, youknow, then there were some
instances where he was almostput in, but then when they were
looking at the whole collectionthey were like, oh, this short
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story doesn't fit into it.
Um, and then, uh, he startedgetting editors, you know,
noticing him, seeing that he iscontinuing to build his literary
CV and his publication history,and eventually finding a short
story that connected with themand that he would get published
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with, and so he really dedicatedhimself just to writing and
submitting short stories andmaintaining this amazing
spreadsheet with a whole list ofjournals that he was following
and publishing with and that hewas reading short stories that
they were publishing and gettinga feel for what they were doing
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, and looking at short storiesthat he had that would match
that theme.
And so, you know, sometimes ittakes a while to find a home, to
find that right person and theright story, and it really is
important that you know youdedicate yourself to it.
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Just like when we are lookingfor a job in a certain field, we
have to keep writing jobapplications and we have to keep
applying and we have to keepgoing to interviews.
It is the same with thepublishing industry.
It is about the work, it isabout putting yourself into that
work and sometimes it's aboutmaking it about the submission
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rather than the publication,because we can't control who's
going to publish it, who will,you know, connect with our story
, how many stories we will getpublished?
But we can control how manysubmissions we make.
We can make a goal as to, youknow, we will submit to 10
journals this month or thesethree months.
We can make those commitments.
(43:28):
We can say that we will writethis many stories, and so by
sort of creating that industryaround it and creating your own
version of success anddedicating yourself to the craft
and to the publication process,that's when things happen.
So I would really encourage youto do that and and to dedicate
(43:51):
yourself to that.
So I now want to touch on alittle bit on the craft of
writing short stories, and youknow, a short story can be any
length these days.
Different publications havedifferent short story lengths.
(44:12):
You know there's argument aboutwhen does it go into a novella,
um, but there are somepublications that even consider,
you know, 25 000 words a shortstory.
Uh, usually, you know, youwould think up to 10 000 words,
but really there is a lot offlexibility, um, there aren't so
many publications these daysthat do that really long form,
(44:32):
um, so usually they do up toseven and a half thousand words,
but it can be anything.
There are different ways ofwriting short stories and
different types of short stories, so there's no, you know, one
size fits all.
This is a great opportunity toexperiment with the types of
short stories you might want todo.
So know, you could do theclassic story arc, um, with the
(44:56):
beginning, middle and end.
So you know, those stories ummight be written by writers like
alice monroe and raymond carver, and I would really encourage
you to read their short storiesin the way that they are
constructed.
You can find a lot of them onthe internet.
Um, you could write a storywhere it's a slice of life.
It doesn't have a dramatic arc,but it captures a moment, a
(45:19):
fleeting experience thatresonates with the reader and
leaves them thinking aboutsomething.
You could write one with atwist ending where you know
stories like Roald Dahl or OHenry leaves the reader with
this sense of suspense and andyou don't quite know where that
story was going.
(45:39):
You think it's going in oneplace and it gives you that
twist, uh, and leaves youreeling, um and enjoying it.
I'm actually doing, uh,suspense stories with my year
eight class, um, and it has beenjust so wonderful watching
their faces as we read theseshort stories and we get to the
end and then they're like whatwas that?
And I love asking them what didyou enjoy about it?
(46:02):
What did you like about it?
And they're all like that twistending.
Oh, didn't see it coming.
And so you know those arereally fun.
There could be some experimentalshort stories.
This is an opportunity to sortof break the genre, break with
(46:23):
convention, to try new things,um, and so look at writers, you
know whether I might do it aslists or emails or diary entries
.
So, for example, my short storysiege, it's um diary entries,
uh, that my character is writingwhile she's under siege, um,
and it's kind of giving us thatinsight and that personal
connection, and so it gives youthat opportunity to sort of
experiment with form andexperiment with how you can tell
(46:43):
a short story.
It could be a character study,so getting inside a character's
head, a character's inner world,and really connecting with them
and showing them, showing thereader.
You know this differentperspective and this different
life.
You know, when we read like Ilove reading for the to live
(47:04):
vicariously through other people, to experience different things
, to be challenged to, you know,see different points of view
and just understand things alittle bit differently, a little
bit better, and so that mightbe something that you might want
to explore in a short story.
You might want to do a thematicshort story, so you know where
(47:26):
you're looking around a themeand you're trying to tell a
story about that particulartheme.
Or you might do a genre shortstory.
So I really loved having theopportunity to write do a genre
short story.
So I really loved um having theopportunity to write different
types of short story.
Like, my first story that wasever published was in woman's
day and it was a romance storyof 800 words.
(47:46):
Um, and it was my first, youknow, romance publication credit
, and it was just wonderful tosort of get that recognition of,
oh, I can write this type ofthing.
Um, and then I sort of startedwriting crime and, uh, getting
my short stories published oncrime, uh, journals, um, and I
was like, oh, I can do that too,that's something I can explore.
(48:06):
And so each opportunity sort ofgave me that confidence where
it's like, oh, that's somethingI can do.
Um, when I first started, I wassubmitting and getting
published in literary journalsand that's what I was aspiring
to, and so it really, you know,gave me that sense of confidence
of, oh, I can write that sortof thing, I can do those deep
things, and so that's a reallygreat opportunity to sort of try
(48:31):
.
Another way of doing it is toread short stories and to read.
To sort of try Another way ofdoing it is to read short
stories and to read you know howa writer has constructed that
short story and use that as asource of inspiration and mimic
that structure or adapt thattheme or adapt a character from
them and extend it.
(48:51):
At the end of the day, we getinspiration from everything and
so you know, you can see whatwhen you're reading, what
inspires, what tickles your muse.
Some ways that you can getstarted with short stories is
you know, start with a strongimage or an idea, a single
(49:11):
moment, a piece of dialogue.
Sometimes when I'mexperimenting and doing writing
workshops, so you know, with mystudents I do a found story
where I give them elements likea character, conflict, you know
a place, and they have to tryand imagine what that is might
be as a story.
I give them first sentences andthen they do that stream of
(49:35):
consciousness and they try andwrite a short story based on
that first line.
So you can engage in that sortof experimentation for yourself
too.
There are some online forumsand online communities where you
get prompts and you write to aprompt.
I remember once when I wasreally feeling in a very
disconnected place with mywriting.
(49:56):
I took part in 30 Days ofPoetry and I wrote a poem every
day for 30 days, and it was acompletely new form.
It was something that I hadn'treally done as a writer.
I'd obviously written tragicpoetry when I was a teenager,
but I hadn't really gone back toit much when I became, when I
(50:19):
sort of became a writer andentered this world, and it
really created the opportunityfor me to find little points of
inspiration and experiment withform and experiment with voice
and just find the joy of it.
And I also did submit some ofthose poems and I did get um,
(50:41):
those poems, uh, some poems,published, um, and that was also
wonderful, uh, to see, and I dohave plans at some point to do
a short story, a collection ofmy poems, um, because you know,
I don't know that it will sell,but for me it will just be a
great opportunity to sort of dothings for myself and to put my
writing out there in a newformat.
(51:02):
And also now I'm learning aboutcreating books with images and
doing different things withformatting, um.
So that's something that Imight come back to and that's
the other thing.
You keep writing and keepexperimenting and as you embark
on this journey as a writer andyou're in it for a few decades.
(51:23):
There's a lot of work, a bigbody of work that you have and a
lot of opportunities that youcan do different things with it.
So you know nothing is wasted.
Don't ever think of any of yourwriting as wasted.
It's all helping you grow andit's all helping you become who
you are and find who you are,and you don't know when you'll
go back to it and use it forsomething else.
(51:43):
You can use constraints, sochallenge yourself to write a
500-word story.
So I remember we had differentwriters coming into this course
that I was doing and talkingabout the different short
stories that they wrote.
And they came in and they weretalking about flash fiction and
I had not really known anythingabout flash fiction.
(52:06):
So flash fiction are likereally short pieces.
There are some that are evenlike you know, where they expect
100 words could be 500 words,it could be 300 words.
So it's trying to get a shortstory into as short a story as
you can.
One of the things I love doingwith my writers is can a short
story be six words?
And then I show them shortstories that are six words and
(52:31):
they can see how words havepower as how, even if a short
story is six words, you couldreally capture depth.
So, for example, baby shoesnever worn, um, I don't know if
that's the full story, but uh,you know, look up six word short
(52:53):
stories and you can see howthey um really have resonance
and you're able to inhabit thisworld even in something so small
.
And so I challenged myself towrite some flash fiction and I
had success with that when I hadum short stories published that
were flash fiction, um, and sothat was really heartening and a
(53:15):
lot of fun.
Also, because you know you'rewriting very short form and
experimenting and sort of reallylooking at the power of words
and the weight of words With ashort story.
Begin in the middle.
You know they don't need a longset up.
You're starting the heart ofthe story as close to the ending
as possible.
It is a short story.
So you know you don't need alot of exposition, a lot of
(53:38):
things in the beginning.
So just start close to.
You know the middle Focus ononly one character or conflict.
So, unlike novels, short storiesdon't have the opportunity for
subplots.
You have to cull them.
So even when I've takenchapters from my novel to rework
as short stories, I've had tocull anything in there that is a
(54:01):
subplot, that is, you know,contributing to the novel, and
really make it just about thatstory and about that moment that
I'm telling.
So you know if you're addingextra things, extra subplots,
you know if you're adding extrathings, extra subplots, take
them out.
It needs to be one character,one plot, one image and edit
ruthlessly.
It really is important aboutthat precision of words, about
(54:25):
really capturing the essence ofthe story.
When you are writing a novel,obviously you need moments of
shades of light and dark.
You want those moments wherecharacters are just sort of
talking and connecting and it'sgiving us insight into
characterization and you can dothat because it is long form and
that is what readers also loveabout it.
(54:46):
But when you're writing a shortstory, there's no space for
that.
Everything that is in thatstory needs to contribute to
what that plot is and what thepurpose of that story is.
Anything that does not needs tobe cut ruthlessly, okay.
So that's why writing shortstories is wonderful and a great
(55:07):
opportunity.
So some closing remarks.
Short stories have really beenfoundational in my career as a
traditionally published author.
They helped me build my voice,build my portfolio, build my
confidence, my literary CV andthe foundations of becoming a
(55:29):
published author.
Now, as an indie author, theygive me other opportunities.
They give me promotionalopportunities in terms of using
them as a reader magnet, lookingfor publishing opportunities,
although I'm sort of not doingthat as much because I'm more
focused with my author business,but there are still
opportunities there.
(55:49):
So you know, it's a reallygreat way of opening doors.
Um, I would really you know,look at you, encourage you to
look at your writing journey andwherever you are and see um,
you know how writing shortstories can help develop your
craft and improve your craft.
(56:11):
I think at any space on yourwriting journey they can do that
for you.
So I would really want you tothink about how can this help
you in your writing journey.
So I just wanted to remind youthat there are show notes on my
website.
So amrapajaliccom slash podcastwebsite.
(56:40):
So amrapajaliccom slash podcasta-m-r-a-p-a-j-a-l-i-c slash
podcast.
You will find the show notes,but you will also find handouts
that reference some of thethings that I talked about in
this episode so that you can usethem and find, you know,
opportunities for yourself.
And also I'm creating um authorguides and how to based on
these episodes.
So if you wanted to, um getthose that can also help you in
(57:03):
your writing journey.
Um, if you wanted to, you canalso, you know, check out my
collection and check outcomplication great examples of
um.
You know different shortstories and way to write them.
Um, and, you know, look forother writers also.
Um, you know there are a lot ofreally famous writers and their
(57:26):
short stories online that youcan access and that you can read
and that will really help youwith that development of craft.
Um, please touch base with me,connect with me online.
Um write a comment on mypodcast show notes.
Uh, tell me you know about yourshort story, uh experiences and
(57:47):
your writing journey.
Um and how uh this is helpingyou.
Thank you for joining me.
Thank you for tuning into am toAmra's Armchair Anecdotes.
If you enjoyed today's episode,don't forget to subscribe and
follow for more insights,stories and inspiration From my
(58:07):
armchair to yours.
Remember, every story beginswith a single word.
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