It’s cold today and I LOVE it. The heat is on, the sky is cloudy and it looks like it might rain. I have candles lit in the kitchen and my house feels so cozy and warm in contrast to outside. Am I the only one who enjoys a cold and rainy day? I love rain, I really do. I adore thunderstorms too, though when there’s high wind. Oh, and give me snow and I’m in heaven.

I’m an inclement weather lover!

So, enough about the weather. I finished a short story recently, (I would categorize a short story as anything under 10k). It was the second short I’ve done in the last six months. I find short stories extremely difficult to write. Writing a good one is more difficult than writing a full length novel, imo, since you have such a limited space in which to develop your characters and tell your story. I enjoy writing them because they’re a challenge.

But I never said I was good at them. I do the very best I can with them and I like to write them. Whether or not they’re good is in the eye of the reader.

Here’s the basic laws I obey for a short story. (I apply these same rules for long fiction too, plus some.)

1.) Make your main character sympathetic. Make the reader care about what happens to him/her. Sink your emotional claws in within the first couple paragraphs.

2.) Make every word count. Cut out all the fat.

3.) Show every emotion, never tell.

4.) Sensory detail, sensory detail, sensory detail — what do things sound, feel, smell, taste like? Add a lot it in order to immerse the reader in the setting.

5.) Twist at the end with something major that affects the fate of the character the reader has invested herself in.

6.) The last sentence should ring loud and clear even after the reader had finished the story.

I love to read really well written short fiction. I don’t normally read literary fiction for fun, but I do love the Best American Short Story anthologies that come over every year. And when I was a kid, I LOVED O. Henry.

Do you like to read shorts? Do prefer longer fiction? Why or why not?

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Also, the truly wonderful Adrienne Jones is guest blogging over on Maverick Authors today. I’m offering a giveaway of one of her novels, The Hoax.

Go on over, check her out, and enter to win the book!