Short stories have never been a passion of mine - to read or write. However, I have written a few of them over the past few years, but I don’t think they are great or anything. There’s the problem. If I don’t think they are great, why on earth would anyone (meaning an editor) want to publish them? They wouldn’t, so I’ve been thinking that I need to “fix” those few short stories…and make them great.

Also, for research purposes - and the fact that I can’t concentrate long enough to read novels at the moment - I made a decision to buy an old copy of Fantasy & Science Fiction, which has evolved into Asimov’s Science Fiction. This copy of the magazine/book (whatever you might want to call it, I’ll call it a book because it doesn’t resemble a magazine to me) is dated July 1991. It includes an article written by Orson Scott Card, and numerous short stories.

I plan on reading it from cover to cover and seeing if it helps me to write better short stories. Maybe I’ll recognise something that I’m doing wrong. Maybe there will be some tricks that I haven’t been aware of before now. I’m not sure how I’ll go, but even if I just enjoy the stories, it will be $2 well spent.

Filed under: Books & Movies