Neophyte writers tend to believe that there is something magical about ideas and that if they can just get a hold of a good one, then their futures are ensured.
From Lynn Abbey
When I have an idea, it goes from vague, cloudy notion to 100,000 words in a heartbeat.
For me, writing a short story is much, much harder than writing a novel.
A good short-story writer has an instinct for sketching in just enough background to ground the specific story.
Short-story writing requires an exquisite sense of balance. Novelists, frankly, can get away with more. A novel can have a dull spot or two, because the reader has made a different commitment.
I've read short stories that are as dense as a 19th century novel and novels that really are short stories filled with a lot of helium.
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