 Short Stories: January 16, 2019 Issue [#9325] |
This week: Your Cup of Tea Edited by: NaNoNette  
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3. Letter from the Editor
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| Dear readers and writers of short stories, I am NaNoNette and I will be your guest editor for this issue. |
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Your Cup of Tea
How long does it take you to sip a cup of tea?
The question: How long is a short story? gets asked over and over by many writers.
As with everything, there have been those who would give you hard numbers. And you can have those if it helps you.
Short stories range from 1,000 to 30,000 words.
But numbers are so clinical. They don't make you feel anything. They don't entertain. Except those of you who have a special penchant for numbers. Maybe writing can be your therapy?
What you should ask yourself is how long does it take to enjoy your short story.
 Edgar Allan Poe says you should be able to smoke a cigar while reading a short story. Unfortunately, cigars have fallen out of fashion with most of us. I, for one, am not able to tell you how long it would take me to smoke a cigar. And I don't plan to ever find out.
There are many more modern ways to figure out how long a short story should be.
Ask yourself:
 How long does it take to sip a cup of tea?
 How long does it take the train to drive from my station to work?
 How many hours does my flight from my home city take to my vacation destination?
 How long do I want to tan at the beach?
 How long do I read in bed until I doze off?
The truth about the length of a short story is that it should be long (or short) enough to entertain for a limited amount of time. In that limited amount of time, you should introduce your world, your characters, your plot, and give a satisfying conclusion. Or torture your readers with an open ending. Cliffhangers don't count. That's not a short story. It's a serial. Different animal altogether. 
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| |  | Invalid Item
This item number is not valid.
#2179416 by Not Available. |
| | | Invalid Item
This item number is not valid.
#2179460 by Not Available. |
| | | THE PATERNAL STAG (E)
Samantha and the stag becomes friends and later she finds out something about the stag...
#2179551 by M M KHAN  |
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I received the following replies to my last Short Stories newsletter "Titles"
dragonwoman  wrote: I guess I'm lucky, often I get a title before I get a story!
That's got to be helpful with your story as you know what to write about.
BlueJay wrote: Thanks for the good advice about titles and for including my story in the Editor's Picks.
You're welcome.
Quest-YELLOW-Thanks Schnujo wrote: Hello! You have spotted the junkiest side of me while writing! I seem to miss the implication of 'catchy' every time I try. None of my stories or poems attract attention through their titles. For example I am tagging one of my worst titled story ever, but at the same time, I liked writing it. "Invalid Item"
Roots isn't that bad. It can mean a few things. It does make me want to find out what type of root you're talking about. Then, it'll be up to your story to keep me reading. I probably won't read a short story about the square root of 5. But then again, maybe I would ... |
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