Now, learn the master key for writing great short stories, and the strategies for using them to advance your writing career
As most writers will tell you, the hardest fiction form to master is the short story. To be successful, a short story needs to have "emotional wallop," and in under 7,000 words.
Not easy to do.
In this book, #1 bestselling writing teacher James Scott Bell explains the essential ingredient for a successful short story, no matter the genre. He shows how any writer—whether planner or "pantser"—can use this key to unlock infinite story possibilities.
And turn readers into fans.
Which is part of the strategy for short story writing today. With the coming of the digital revolution in publishing, short fiction presents possibilities beyond a one-time sale to a literary journal. Writers can use stories to increase discoverability, grow as a writer, generate some side income, and get back in touch with the sheer joy of writing.
This book uses examples from the best stories by undisputed masters of the craft, including Ernest Hemingway, Raymond Carver, John Cheever, Stephen King and Irwin Shaw.
In addition, five complete stories are included to show you the master key in action.
Once you've been through this book, even once, you'll be well on your way to crafting short stories that readers love—which will build your fan base and boost your long-term writing career.
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If you've been around a while, you'll know that I used to write a lot of short stories. Then, Nick pulled me into working on The Tether and it's been a couple of years since I've written anything of my own. I thought that maybe short stories might be a good place to get back to my own work so I picked up this book.
The Good: There are some great tips about what makes a good short story and for those not familiar with Kindle Direct Publishing, there's a pretty decent walk through on how to get your books into e-book format and up on Amazon.
The Bad: Over half of this book is made up of short stories. When I bought the book, I was expecting a lot more information on actually writing stories. The author takes a bit of time to actually work up to what he considers the "key" is and then doesn't really expand a lot on it. The book feels like a series of one or two blog posts that a bunch of filler was added to so that it could be marketed and sold as a book.
The Summary: For $3.99, I really expected more out of this book. I will take the blame for not realizing just how much space 5 short stories do take up in a book of this size, but I also feel that when a book states that it's about writing short stories, more than 47% of the book should be about that topic. Did I get anything out of it? Yep. Did I get enough? That I'm just not sure of.
PS If you got this far, I'm going to give you a tip. If you'd like to know the "secret" to good short story writing, head over to Goodreads and read a few of the reviews. It will save you $3.99.
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