Writing

From Chekhov to James Joyce, the short story defined modern fiction. Subsequently, it became a form defined by America. Here, one of the great US writers explains why he came to prefer the story to the novel.

An anecdotal account of my experience writing and selling "India World" to Tor.com

I wrote stories for over a decade before I began to think that I might have enough material for a collection, and when I sat down with those stories with the vague idea that the ones I chose for a book should share a theme, I was startled to find that although I’d been reading story collections for many years, I didn’t know what made for a successful one.

From Charles Dickens’ nineteenth century work Bleak House to modern classics like the Divergent series, the English language is full of great novels written in the present tense. If you are working on your first book or first novel, writing in the present tense can be a great way to hook readers and create suspense. Choosing between different verb tenses is one of the most important decisions you can make when writing the first draft of a fiction novel or short story; the present tense can give your writing an unmatched sense of immediacy.

The following is adapted from the introduction to 100 Years of the Best American Short Stories. A story is a noise in the night. You may be lying there quietly resting in the international house of…

Featuring short story and flash fiction writers, and editors.

Lord Chesterfield called the novel “a kind of abbreviation of a Romance.” Ian McEwan described the more compact novella as “the beautiful daughter of a rambling, bloated, ill-shaven giant.” William…

Learn to write engaging short fiction by ditching conflicts and resolutions

Based on my years of experience in the writing game, I’ve come up with a list of 24 essential rules for creating short stories that will engage, entertain and enthral. Feel free to use them w…