Writing is a curious business. Short stories are harder to write than books, a lot of the time. You see, if you have the ability to write and getting the words on the page is not a problem then a book is just so much easier to write than something a lot shorter. 80,000 words plus gives you a lot of room for development. You can explore interesting ideas that suggest themselves during the writing and develop all your charectors and ideas very effctively.

In short stories you do not have that luxury. Short stories quickly become long stories if you start developing sub-plots, and that is bad if a short story is what you are after.

Keeping everything within 10,000 words can be quite a challenge, expecially as a short story still has to have a beginning, middle and end and draw the reader in. However 10,000 words is still not as tough as flash fiction or micro fiction. Flash fiction is around 1,500 words, and that can be very tough indeed. It has to tell a story to completion, draw the reader in and yet has very limited words to do it in. It is only a certain type of story that would be any good to work at this kind of short length. Flash fiction, of around 150 words is much harder still. 150 words is not much at all, and I’ve only ever managed one piece of micro fiction this short. I have to say it is a length that I don’t like at all. Quite apart from being the most difficult to write well, the results always feel like the Banana Republic of writing. They’re a con; so short they leave the reader wondering why there is no more.

Books are always going to be my favourite to write. I just like developing ideas and constructing intricate worlds. I think the fact that I’ve had five published, with at lweast one more done and on the way plus several others that were discarded after being finished. Some people might baulk at the idea of writing something so massive as a book, but I tell you that it is so much easier than a short story. If you can develop ideas and get the words out on the page, a book will always be the easier to write. After all, if you struggle to get more than a few words together before you run out of puff and inspiration, then you need a lot more practice at being a writer. Because practice is the key to everything.