I’ve always loved short stories. I discovered the short stories of Damon Runyon and Sherlock Holmes as a teenager. As a new mom, I could squeeze in a complete story before dropping off into an exhausted sleep.
Although most of my writing ideas take shape as novels, I’ve learned a very important technique from reading short stories: write tight.
Write Tight
New novelists have a tendency to take all the room of a book and fill it up with a lot of unnecessary words.
If I look at each chapter as a short story with a goal that must be reached within a specific word count, I trim the long passages of description, get rid of tiresome explanations, and punch up the dialogue.
Description, especially, is the area where I have benefited from reading short stories. No matter what I am describing, person, place, or thing, a succinct , vivid description in one sentence will stick with readers longer than a detailed paragraph. And within a novel, I can revisit those descriptions, dropping reminders of a person’s eye color or the night’s humidity, echoing the first description. If I rein in my word count, it give me more space for plot and characters development.
I also love how many short stories have a kicker ending, a twist that makes the whole experience wonderfully satisfying. I don’t know if you can do that kind of a twist in a novel but I’d like to figure out how.
Bonus Benefits
When I am getting restless in my reading material and want to find a new author to rave about it, I read anthologies. I can sample many different writers in a short period of time, and if their short stories intrigue me, I can check out their novels. If a short story doesn’t hold me interest or lets me down, I have only wasted one night, instead of weeks with a novel that disappoints.
Another benefit is that short story writing allows aspiring novelists to get material published and before readers while waiting for their novel to be discovered. I thoroughly enjoyed writing a crime fiction short story because of the challenge it presented.
Which do you prefer to read, short stories or novels? Which do yo like to write?
How would you explain where it came from? This prompt was inspired by a real-life mystery
If you like writing short fiction, need a break from your novel, or just want a challenge, flash fiction may be the right form for you. I had read about these stories of less than 1,000 words as scrolled through writing advice blogs, but I didn’t consider writing one until I picked up some copies of 
At a recent meeting of my writers’ group, 
With the Olympics in full swing, I thought a prompt about them would be fun. Can you think of a new sport for the Winter Olympics?
