Short Story Writing for Fun and No Profit
Feb 25, 2021 9:01 pm
Hello from London,
Some time ago, wanting the satisfaction of seeing some finished work, I turned my attention to short stories, while still working on longer works in the background.
It's a very different form of writing. "Obviously", you might say, but the exact differences aren't obvious unless you've tried writing in the style. I've got some free short stories linked for you below to illustrate the point.
In a short story, you don't have the space for that, so you learn new tricks. In Only the Wicked, the first episode of my World of Skills series, I had to do a lot in a very small space. So I made the characters more eccentric, I made events move faster, I was less subtle. I rewrote it several times, reducing sentence length, finding sharper, quicker ways to get to my point and making the spoken narrative as snappy as possible. I was happy with the result and decided to make a series of it.
Getting Short Stories Published
I've self-published most of my short stories. Some are unpublished. None have been printed in a magazine or anthology.
That's not for want of trying. I have a not-insignifciant collection of rejection emails.
The competition for publication in magazines is fierce. The magazines themselves have a specific style that each prefers, and if you don't always write in that style, or you don't write "that kind of story", then publication can be all but impossible unless your name recognition is sufficient to draw their attention.
I suppose some people write specifically for publication in these magazines. I write the stories I enjoy writing, then I compare them to the styles of the magazines to see if any of them might be interested. If my end goal for my short stories was publication in these magazines, that would be an inefficient way to go about it.
Finally, the pay sucks. At a maximum of 8 cents a word, and more generally around 1-3 cents a word, nobody's going to be paying the rent by churning out short stories. You try to get published for the pleasure of seeing your work in print, not for the income.
...Shadows
I have a completed short story, which we'll refer to as "Shadows", that has been doing the rounds of the different magazines for nine months now. I think it's one of the best I've ever written. If the feedback is anything to go by, I'm right, because almost every magazine I've submitted it to has taken the time to write a personal note with feedback alongside the rejection.
This never happens. Rejections are usually pre-written emails that say "No thanks" in a polite way, and leave it at that. Here they've reacted to the story with a paragraph on why they liked it and why it wasn't for them. They don't typically have time for that given the hundreds of stories they receive. In some cases they held on to it for a long time before rejecting it, which implies it came pretty close to a "yes".
If I can't find a home for ...shadows in one of the magazines, I won't edit it for resubmission (I've been invited to resubmit to a couple of magazines) because for me, the story is in the past, and I've moved on. I'll publish it, probably on my Patreon first, and here a month later. I really want to know what people think of it, so I'm less and less willing to wait for a positive response from a magazine.
Author Spotlight
A couple of novels from other authors for you to look at this week. Both of the novels below are free, for different reasons.
Turning the Hourglass by Matthew Keeley
The author is giving this story away free (click on the link below).
Historian Dyrne Samson doesn’t want to read about the past anymore. Now he visits it. Abandoning university lecturing, he joins a classified organisation, hidden beneath the streets of New London. Their time-distortion pods let him witness any historical event he chooses. Almost. Visiting his own timeline is forbidden – the only reason he can’t return to the one event he’ll never forget.
Former student Copil Tailor was unlike any other Dyrne mentored. The only two ‘synths’ on campus – cloned from genes of the dead – they battled synthphobia daily. Dyrne’s guilt-ridden night terrors began the day Copil killed himself. And they haven’t stopped. So when headlines report the death of Copil’s famous mother, Dyrne seizes his chance to act. Manipulating pivotal decisions throughout her timeline from the pods could change Copil’s life. And death.
Spirit Warriors by Chris C Howard
This is a review copy. That means that you can sign up to receive a copy, and if approved by the author, you get the whole book. In return, however, you should review the novel on the platforms requested.
Who would’ve thought being a reject would be this dangerous
Tyrique was nothing more than a lanky 16-year-old boy from the hood looking for a way out for him and his family until he decided to rob houses with some of his homeboys from the neighborhood.
Selena is from the OTHER side of town where spending thousands of dollars on a pair of heels is an afterthought. She stumbles her way through the backbiting smog that is the high school social order until she is nearly killed by Tyrique and his accomplices’ failed robbery attempt.
That was when all Hell broke loose, LITERALLY. Turns out the strange creatures they had been seeing were more than just a figment of their borderline insane imaginations.
These terrible beasts aren’t just there for show and if Tyrique and Selena don’t embrace their gift and figure out how to defeat these demons, they won’t make it to see 17.
That's it for this week. Feel free to react to anything I've written (hit reply). The best part of writing is interacting with you guys.
Thanks for reading!
Nick.
FOLLOW ME ON
My Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads | Amazon | Patreon
