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Q&A

Posts tagged short-story

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Q&A What sort of details do potential short story beta readers need?

I am considering uploading a trio of related short stories to Dropbox as a quick way to share them with potential beta readers. Before I actually link them elsewhere, I feel I should have at least ...

2 answers  ·  posted 5y ago by Philip Rowlands‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A Where do I go looking for an editor?

I have several completed short stories, and I'm considering having them line-edited before I submit them. But I have no idea where to look for editors. How do I know who's any good? Where do I loo...

1 answer  ·  posted 6y ago by Standback‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

Question short-story editing
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Q&A How to seek an audience? [closed]

I write mainly short stories and poetry, and am unsure of what social media platform will garner more attention to this type of writing. Is there a tried and true social media that will get me more...

2 answers  ·  posted 8y ago by yasaaMoin‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A Avoiding repeating "I" and "you" in an epistolary piece

I've had two recent ideas for short stories that I feel would be best written as epistolary pieces where the main character is basically giving a monologue. I know that there will be a lot of 'I's ...

1 answer  ·  posted 8y ago by TheBrilliot‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

Question fiction short-story
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Q&A What editing can I expect for a translation of a previously-published story?

A friend of mine has published a short story in Hebrew, and I'm currently translating it into English, for submission to short fiction magazines. If accepted, will the editing process be any diffe...

0 answers  ·  posted 10y ago by Standback‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A Should the opening of a short story mirror the ending?

When I was in school, my English teacher told me that a short story's beginning should mirror its ending, or at least the conclusion should in some way parallel the starting point of the story; but...

2 answers  ·  posted 9y ago by Strategy Thinker‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A What information should I provide when submitting a translated, previously-published story?

A friend of mine has published a short story in Hebrew, and I'm currently translating it into English, for submission to short fiction magazines. Is any information about the original publication ...

0 answers  ·  posted 10y ago by Standback‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A How to make a debate/discussion between characters less dry?

I've asked questions in the past about dialogue and I've read some questions about balancing dialogue with plot, however I have discovered yet another corner case in my writing. In my story Cured, ...

1 answer  ·  posted 10y ago by Seanny123‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A What factors to consider when choosing an e-book platform?

Some students that I mentor have written a number of short stories that they want to publish now. I am totally new in this area. I did preliminary research which indicates that there are now a nu...

1 answer  ·  posted 11y ago by Javeer Baker‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A The ethics of multiple contest submissions

So I'm gearing up to write an actual full-length novel and I've decided that the best way to test the mettle of my writing (and make a couple of bucks in the process) is to enter a few writing cont...

2 answers  ·  posted 12y ago by Jed Oliver‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A How can I find short-story spinoffs for my fantasy epic?

I write epic fantasy; I've written two trilogies in a joint setting, and am writing further books in the same setting. I would like to start writing short stories for my setting as well - stories ...

1 answer  ·  posted 12y ago by Standback‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A What marketing techniques are effective for short story eBook collections?

I have a collection of short stories that I'm currently selling in the Amazon Kindle marketplace, and one of the biggest hurdles to actually getting my works read is lack of exposure. My passive p...

2 answers  ·  posted 12y ago by Strozykowski‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A Magazines taking submissions for short stories?

Does anyone have or know of a list of magazines (print or online) accepting submissions for short stories? It would be nice if it could be broken out by genre and payment rates (if applicable).

1 answer  ·  posted 12y ago by Steven Drennon‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A When to accept an editor's rewrite request?

So there's an editor who has accepted a story of mine for publication... but he wants me to change the ending. Normally I'm pretty open to editorial changes, but in this case the proposed changes a...

1 answer  ·  posted 13y ago by JSBձոգչ‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A Ideas for short story - not sure how to proceed

I don't want to take a break from writing my novel, but this other idea for a zombie apocalypse short story keeps invading my brain. The questions is, should I halt my book progress to write this...

2 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by Aspen the Artist and Author‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A Is it more optimal to make a longer story or leave it at three pages?

I have short story that is three pages and a paragraph. It's based off a short story by one of my favorite authors in order to learn their prose. Three pages seems a bit short. I think the length o...

1 answer  ·  posted 9y ago by Towell‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A Main male character description

I've been asked to write a story as an assignment. It should have as the main male character an unusually smart, clever, insightful and thoughtful guy who is somewhat reserved and mysterious. The p...

4 answers  ·  posted 10y ago by user9933‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A How do I tell my short story?

Based on this outline, I'm not sure how to to best re-tell this story. In particular, I'm not sure if I should tell the story as a first person "narrator," or in the third person? What are the adva...

2 answers  ·  posted 9y ago by user13617‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A What should be in a cover letter for short story submission to a magazine?

It's been about five years since I last submitted any of my work for publication, and my memory of what I was taught then to put in my cover letter is getting rusty. What kind of information sho...

2 answers  ·  posted 13y ago by justkt‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A What will be the copyright situation if I self-publish an anthology of my unpublished short stories?

If I'm planning on self-publishing an anthology of unpublished short stories that I wrote, do I also need to copyright each story, or will the entire anthology's copyright suffice for each story?

2 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by D. Michael Martindale‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A Going from worldbuilding to writing a short story

In the past I never had the urge to write, except for poetry, which has always helped me to deal with my emotions. Lately, I have done a lot of world building. Rarely with the intention of writing ...

2 answers  ·  posted 7y ago by Ludi‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A Writing a story with 10 POV characters (about a reality game show)

I want to write a short-story about 10 players in a post-apocalyptic zombies game show, split between teams, the last survivor wins. I already have the rules, the challenges and some characters. T...

1 answer  ·  posted 7y ago by Aiman Vargas‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A How can I turn my short story into a novel?

I just wrote last week about Sleeping Beauty but a different version of it. (I changed the characters, and the conflict, and mostly everything except the fact that one of the main characters is cur...

3 answers  ·  posted 9y ago by sarahellie‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A Is it possible to write a short story in 500 words?

There is a short story contest where the limit is five hundred (500) words and I want to know if that is a possible limit for a short story?

7 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by Felisha‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

Question short-story
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Q&A How do I stop my characters falling in love?

So I'm writing a short story based in a WW2 American military base camp stationed in Germany. It's about A Jewish Soviet soldier that, with the help of an American soldier and a series of coinciden...

5 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by brandi‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A Can I modify and turn my published short stories into a novel?

I'm writing some short stories that are all connected and are set in the same universe, because I planned to put them together into a novel later. My question is: If I publish those short stories, ...

2 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by Tomas Oier‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A Should I write in a style that is more conducive to a situation I am describing or write it the way I normally write?

I am writing a short story that describes a dream that I had as a child. I wrote a first rough draft and had my girlfriend read it to give me some feedback. One thing she criticized is my writing s...

1 answer  ·  posted 5y ago by user3661841‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A Approaches to criticizing short fiction

What is a reasonable scholarly approach to breaking down short pieces of prose? Is it word choice? Is it structure? Is it themes, and how well they are used? Use of symbolism and its efficacy? Mete...

1 answer  ·  posted 5y ago by AGirlHasNoName‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A What are some ways to make absurdity of certain ideas in fiction more palatable?

I am writing a science-fiction short story where there are a lot of pseudoscientific ideas being dealt constantly. I was wondering how to reduce the absurdity of some of those ideas using literary...

1 answer  ·  posted 5y ago by repomonster‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A Is this imagery?

Would this small paragraph in my short story be considered as imagery? (Rose is looking for a painting) Rose and Mr. Howard stepped inside. There were cobwebs everywhere. Lots and lots of old...

0 answers  ·  posted 5y ago by CatbusTotoroDustbunnies07‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A What are some good ways of switching from third-person limited point of view to third-person omniscient point of view?

I am thinking of writing a short story which starts with a character narrating then ends up being narrated by an omniscient character. What are the best ways of making this transition? I can't thin...

3 answers  ·  posted 5y ago by puffofsmoke‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A Shortening an already short story [closed]

I am new to this group but not new to writing in many forms... I have a great story that flows from my fingers -- got it to about 1500 words - but it must be 1000 for a competition. This has take...

1 answer  ·  posted 5y ago by DebraR‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A What if my published short story is made a movie or a novel, without my permission?

I am writing a short story and thinking of publishing it in the next month. But then, I had a doubt. What if somebody takes it, expands it and changes it a bit and makes a movie or a novel out of ...

0 answers  ·  posted 5y ago by Raj‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A Is there a story structure for a non-traditional hero (an extreme introvert)?

I'm trying to write a story of transformation, in which an extremely introverted and non-confrontational person goes through a traumatic experience, and in the finale takes a stand in defense of th...

1 answer  ·  posted 5y ago by user422780‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A Dealing with inability to sustain interest in an idea

I frequently have the problem of starting a story with an idea—either one recently conceived or one held in mind for months, even years—only to find it bland or boring after a day or so and abandon...

5 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by user289661‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A Do Short Stories Need Definitive Endings?

I'm looking to create a few short stories that are in a shared universe of sorts and I'm curious whether or not I need to have a definitive ending to a story. I'm thinking that the "end" would be m...

2 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by Dylan Beck‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A How do I start writing? [closed]

I have so many great ideas! I've completed several stories in my head but i've never put any to paper. How do I start? How do you start?

0 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by System‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A Where to go to get my story critiqued?

I have recently completed a short story work of mine. I have published it on Wattpad, and I've sent the Google Docs link of it to several friends. I am kind of new to writing in general, and Wattpa...

0 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by B.fox‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A Is there a word or a sets of words that describe a persons beautiful dead face?

Imagine you're a protagonist in a story and you find a dead body, you go up to the corpse and find it's bloody face to be beautiful. How would you describe the corpse's face? Is there a specific wo...

4 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by Static‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A How do I show dust/ ashes being blown away by the wind in a story?

I don't want to straight up say that the dust/ ash was blown away, I want it to have a creepy vibe to it so it's more interesting. So is there any way to show (not tell) ashes being blown away by ...

2 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by Rat‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A How to come up with original ideas for stories?

I seem to have several ideas for fanfiction novels. I'm working on a long fanfiction at the moment that's quite complex and I'm trying to practice editing. I would like to write some original sh...

3 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by egan‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

Question short-story
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Q&A Writing a letter from the future

I'm writing a letter from the future to my dear friends, posing as the child they're about to have. The main aim of the letter is to be amusing, but also to give some perspective (you don't need to...

2 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by JP.‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A How does one write fluff?

So in watching playthroughs of various video games, because I do that when I find something interesting, I had this strong urge to write some fluff. However, when I sat down to think of it, any kin...

3 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by Dragonmark‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A How to use short stories to explore a new setting and potential characters for a novel?

I'm an aspiring fantasy and sci-fi writer and I my goal is to write a novel that is to be the first in a series within the same setting. I'm getting to a point where I can feel "the world coming to...

2 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by H3R3T1K‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A Why are 'Episodic' books so uncommon

The vast majority of fictional books are one continuous story, which are closer in style to what films are in a visual medium. I was thinking about why we don't see more books that would be closer...

2 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by MissingPear‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A Where should I pitch a book of short stories in English accompanied by French translations?

I have a collection of original short stories, all of which have been published in English in literary magazines. A French translator friend recently translated the stories into French (I speak Fre...

2 answers  ·  posted 7y ago by Deborah‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A Stories with Philosophical Conversations?

I'm working on a short story that has two characters debating a philosophical view. Other than the inherent conflict built into the two opposing stances taken by the characters on the topic, it av...

1 answer  ·  posted 7y ago by William L‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A How to publish a collection of short stories?

I have a collection of short stories. I want to publish them. I need help in this. Should I pay for publishing or are there any agencies that publish/encourage budding short story writers?

0 answers  ·  posted 7y ago by surendra nath‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A How to writer longer stories for a SciFi novel?

I'm writing science fiction short stories and intend to later expand and stitch them together into a science fiction novel. My problem is that (e.g.) the scenery is left / the destination point is...

1 answer  ·  posted 7y ago by mYnDstrEAm‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A Short Story Outline Issues

I am writing a short story that has very little action that focuses mainly on the main character's development. I have tried outlining some of the major interactions with characters, the important ...

2 answers  ·  posted 7y ago by Vicky Mae‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭