The Power of Short Stories in Building Your Publication Portfolio
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You can listen above or on your favourite podcast app or read the notes and links below. Here are the highlights and the full transcript is below.
Subscribe: Spotify | Apple | RSS | More
You can listen above or on your favourite podcast app or read the notes and links below. Here are the highlights and the full transcript is below.
Show notes
• Short stories help writers experiment with different themes, structures, and genres
• Publication in literary journals and anthologies provides validation and confidence
• Writing within strict word limits teaches concision and precision with language
• The submission process develops resilience and understanding of publishing timelines
• Each rejection is an opportunity to revise and improve your work
• Professional relationships with editors are crucial for long-term writing success
• Flash fiction and experimental forms can stretch your creative abilities
• Short stories can later serve as reader magnets for indie authors
• Maintaining a submission tracking system increases chances of publication
• Reading and deconstructing published short stories helps improve your own craft
Check out the show notes on my website at amrapajalic.com/podcast for handouts referencing opportunities mentioned in this episode, plus author guides based on these discussions.
• Publication in literary journals and anthologies provides validation and confidence
• Writing within strict word limits teaches concision and precision with language
• The submission process develops resilience and understanding of publishing timelines
• Each rejection is an opportunity to revise and improve your work
• Professional relationships with editors are crucial for long-term writing success
• Flash fiction and experimental forms can stretch your creative abilities
• Short stories can later serve as reader magnets for indie authors
• Maintaining a submission tracking system increases chances of publication
• Reading and deconstructing published short stories helps improve your own craft
Check out the show notes on my website at amrapajalic.com/podcast for handouts referencing opportunities mentioned in this episode, plus author guides based on these discussions.
Transcript of episode
Welcome : 0:04
Welcome. Today I'm talking about how short stories help build your publication history, and I wanted to talk about this because, if you're a writer and you're wanting to build up your confidence, find your voice, start getting published and building your portfolio, short stories are a great way to do that. So I'm going to talk today about how short stories can help you refine your skills, find your voice, build a publication history. So these are lessons that I learned myself firsthand, and I'm also going to share some tips about how to go about this and use short stories in the best way possible. So for myself, early in my writing career, novels felt overwhelming. I did a course, a diploma, in professional writing and editing, and that course was wonderful because we had the opportunity to do different subjects, and one of the subjects was called writing short stories, and we had one whole year of learning about different types of short stories, different formats, different lengths and how you know writing them and finding opportunities for publications. And through this journey and this subject, I had the opportunity to sort of experiment with different themes and structure. I tried various genres and found what I wanted to write, and I published my first short story. So at that time there was a anthology that was published every year by a very respected publisher in Australia. It was called Best Australian Stories and they had different editors who were responsible for collating and editing that anthology.
My first story publication 1: 2:00
And one and one year I think it was 2004, there was a public call out and I submitted my short story, and this short story was titled Siege and it was based on my husband's experience, my husband's family's experiences, about living in Sarajevo under siege during the war, in Sarajevo, under siege during the war, the Balkan War of 1992 to 1995. And to write that story I had to engage in research and I was also able to use details from their letters that they wrote about what day-to-day life was like. And then I also had some inspiration like um. And then I also had uh, some inspiration about a real life couple who were called sade. It was uh, romeo and juliet who sadly uh were trying to escape the city because um, one of them was bosnian, one of them was serb and uh perished in that journey. And and so I wrote this short story in this burst of beautiful inspiration and I submitted it to this anthology and I had it accepted and after it was published, this anthology was reviewed and I received a review mention. So what that means is that in a review of the actual anthology they mentioned my story and gave me a beautiful you know blurb, a beautiful little sentence about it.
Building my portfolio: 3:37
And then I submitted the year after and I also had another short story published and these opportunities were the building grounds for me to build my confidence as a writer, to find out also what it was that I wanted to write. So through that I saw that the personal side of my writing, that writing about my culture and about things that I cared about and doing that advocacy side of it was where my heart was and that's where I needed to put my energy. And then also, when I finished my debut novel and was looking for an agent, these were things that I was able to put in my cover letter to showcase my success, to showcase that I had, you know, built up publication, history and an audience and was then able to take that as a stepping stone, and this is why short stories are a great opportunity to do that. So over the years I had many, many short stories that won and placed in competitions and were published in journals to competitions or submit them for publication sometimes because I'm looking for a way to build up my confidence, especially in the early years, when it took me a really long time to finish a book and to take me years in some instances to write books, and so those short story publication opportunities really gave me that confidence and kind of fed my soul so that I would keep going with it. Now I have gotten faster with writing novels and I don't need it anymore.
Reader magnets and collections: 5:35
However, I do use them in a different way, where, as an indie author, I am using them as reader magnets. I am using them as reader magnets, so where I am actually using them to write short stories or to develop deleted scenes as short stories that I then offer to readers of my books to sign up to my newsletter and get access to that. And so one of the things that I really always wanted to do and I think it's what every writer dreams about which is having their short stories published in a short story collection. Unfortunately, short story collections are not really desired much by many publishers anymore, and usually they will look to publish short story collections by writers that they have an ongoing relationship with. So the first book that I published under my press, fishookin Press, was my short story collection, so I titled it the Cuckoo's Song, which is one of the short stories in it, which is one of the short stories in it, and it gave me the opportunity to put all of my stories together to write sort of a narrative about my writing journey and the inspiration and to develop teaching notes to be able to support students or teachers wanting to use this short story collection in some way. And you know that was a very proud moment for me and it just means so much for me that I've still got these short stories in a collection and so they've given me so many opportunities and they keep giving me opportunities.
Find your voice: 7:17
So I wanted to talk now about why short stories matter for writers. So when you're writing short stories, you have the opportunity to find your voice. This is something that I struggled with also as an emerging writer, in terms of what is it that I wanted to write about, what is it that I wanted to say? I've had many evolutions as an author and that's something I'll discuss in an upcoming episode and sometimes I chase trends and sometimes I sort of steer away from my journey, and short stories can kind of give you that opportunity where you might want to experiment in certain genres and see is this something that you want to do? Is this something that you want to commit to? Is this something that you want to commit to? And by writing it in a short story format you can see whether that fits in with your writing journey and with where you are wanting to position yourself.
Refine your skills: 8:15
It really gives you the opportunity to refine your skills, because when you are writing a short story and if you're looking to publish it, usually every competition or publication has a word count where they want a specific word count, and so writing to that word count really teaches you to be concise. But also taking a longer form short story and editing it down really gives you the opportunity to see what is it that needs to be in there. What are the most important bones? Raymond Carver, who is a prolific, was a prolific short story writer and sort of used by every emerging writer to learn about the craft and has beautiful short stories and you know all his stories are in collections and I would encourage you to read his stories and find them. He had an editor who you know made it a point of cutting down by half everything that he writes, and so you know, short stories really make you look at the essence of the story and to be concise with your words and make sure that you are using the strongest words possible to get your story across. So it really helps with that side of it. It gives you those quick wins because publishing short stories helps to build your confidence and it also helps to build your credibility.
Building confidence: 9:45
I found myself struggling in my emerging years in terms of am I a good writer? Do I have what it takes? Is this something that I should be dedicating time to? And even though writing is something I absolutely have to do, writing for publication can be very hard and it puts you in a. It can put you in some difficult, um and challenging positions where you have to really fight to find the resilience within yourself, and so having um short stories published and having those wins really boosts you up and it really gives you that sense of yes, I'm on the right path and this is what I need to keep doing. It opens doors. Having short stories published. It can lead to residencies, competitions and even, like in my case, it led me to an agent and then it led me to a publisher, and that was what embarked me on my traditional publishing journey, and I did have a wonderful publishing journey where I had my debut novel published. I edited an anthology Growing Up Muslim in Australia, which really helped for me to solidify my writing skills and my editing skills, and so you just never know, by putting yourself out there, what opportunities that will create.
Submission process: 11:16
One of the other reasons that short stories are really important is to learn about the submission process. In the traditional publishing world everything takes a really really long time. I have submitted short stories to journals and waited a year before they were accepted. When I submitted my novel to my agent, I think it took eight months until I was picked up agent. I think it took eight months until I was picked up when we submitted it to publishers. It was a quick turnaround because my agent was facilitating that, and so they create more of a sense of urgency and deadlines. But then after my novel was accepted for publication, it was nearly two years until it was published and probably about three years from the time I started the submission process to my agent to then having it published and out into the world.
Literary journals: 12:13
And it's the same with short stories journals. Literary journals usually have very small staff. They work on a shoestring budget. They rely on volunteers, they are prestigious and so everyone sort of sees them as an opportunity to cut their teeth in the industry and to get that first wave of experience. And so they get a lot of submissions and so it can take a very, very long time to get you know through this process.
Building resilience: 12:47
And writing short stories helps for you to understand and build that resilience around traditional publishing processes, because submitting a short story and waiting for a year is agonizing, but submitting a novel and waiting for that long is even more agonizing. So in one sense it sort of helps build that resilience where you're like okay, I have strategies to deal with this. I know that it is out on submission, I need to turn my mind to other things, to creating other content, to keep building my portfolio, and so it helps with that psychological process also. It also helps to develop resilience. There are not many of us that sort of have those wins straight up and usually most of us have to work at our craft, work at building up that submission process, building up that portfolio, getting published, building the credibility. There are not many people.
Changing landscape: 13:56
I mean it has happened where people have submitted, had that dream run, had the bidding wars, but even if they do, there is still a downturn at some point in their writing career, because nothing stays the same. Things are constantly changing and so I have read many stories from traditionally published authors who have had those dream runs, who got the huge advances and thought this is it, this is what my life is, and then their novels were published. They did not achieve the sales that they expected and suddenly the next book their advance is dropping significantly. It's harder to get published because in the traditional publishing world, if you do not pay out your advance and you do not earn out the investment that the publisher has made, they're not really willing to take a risk on you. Before, decades, before, they would put in the work to grow an author and to build up that publication history and that fan base, that publication history and that fan base. Unfortunately, now there are a lot of pressures and economic pressures in terms of publishers being able to turn a profit, being able to sustain their business practice and, as a result, it makes them very risk averse in terms of investing in books. And so as soon as they see that an author is not earning out their advance, is not making the sales that they expected or wanted. They are wanting to take a risk on another author, and that then makes it harder for that author to continue their publishing journey within the traditional publishing world. They can, um, they just have to go to another publisher and they have to consider smaller publishers, more independent publishers, and look at those opportunities.
Resilience: 15:58
Um, so that resilience is really important in the writing world and if you are wanting to dedicate yourself to being a writer, to being an artist, there are a lot, of, a lot more losses, especially in the beginning, than there are wins. As you get deeper into it, and this is the point that I'm at. I create my wins, I make my successes about my own journey and what it is that I am wanting to achieve. So I don't, for example, make it about you know, the sales. I make it about what am I achieving in terms of putting out there into the world. Unfortunately, when you are emerging, it's about different ways of marking success. It's about the publication history, it's about what are the publications that you're being published in, and so it can take a lot out of you in that way, by writing short stories and having them published, you have the opportunity to improve your craft through editing, and I can't emphasize this enough.
Working with editors: 17:12
You need to be able to work with an editor and get input and feedback and improve your writing, and there are many emerging writers who write, and you know we all do this. We all think our writing is perfect and amazing and beautiful because, in one sense, you have to believe it. You have to believe that about yourself in order to submit it, in order to let it go out into the world. However, every piece of writing and every writer benefits from having an editor, from having someone looking at their work and giving them feedback. And when you are publishing in the traditional model with journals, or having a novel published, you will work with an editor and the editor will have views about what your piece should be and they will direct that, and that is something that you need to learn about and you need to work with Now.
Editorial direction: 18:19
In some instances, with an editor, you might not agree with that direction. So, for example, when I had my novel on submission and I had two publishers and two editors who made offers and wanted to work on my novel, I met with each of the editors and they each had a very different vision of what that novel should be and how we should refocus it, and so I went with the editor that aligned more with my vision. So, as an emerging writer, you might have to make decisions about do you work with the editor about aligning your piece with their vision in order to get that publication credit or not? In some instances it might cost you that publication opportunity. Usually with short stories it might not be that much in terms of that developmental edit and that change. Usually with a short story they see what it is and then they're wanting to make editorial changes. But it can happen, and so these are things that you need to think about and you need to decide about.
Editing process: 19:35
Personally, when I was an emerging writer, I did not care Anything that the editor wanted. I just made changes. I just went with it because I was of the view that I have found an editor who sees something in my writing. It speaks to them and I'm going to trust what they want to put out into the world and I just want that opportunity to get my writing out there, and working with editors really helped to improve my writing. So at every stage of my writing journey I have benefited from editors who have really taught me about the craft. So even when I started my freelance writing journey, I had a lot of generous editors who worked to edit and refine my freelance articles.
Using software: 20:30
Until now, I'm at the point where I can produce a very good copy of a piece, an opinion piece, that does not need anything other than some copy editing. And the same is true of novels. I have written so many novels now that I feel quite confident in the structure and in that aspect of it. But I still do have a proofreader, somebody who reads through my books, who takes that human eye, who picks up things that I could not pick up, could not see, and that software that I use so I use ProWritingAid as editing software does not pick up. So you know it's great at picking up. You know passive voice and picking up when I've used pronouns too much. So you know starting sentences with I, I, I too many times. By the way, that's called the Mexican dance I, I, I, I, and it's something that you know many writers do. So it helps me to pick up some of those things. But it doesn't help to pick up the nuances of language, which is where my proofreader comes in, who is a former English teacher and is excellent at doing that. So these are all the reasons why writing short stories will help you in your writing journey and help you develop as a writer, and you know all the different skills that you need as a writer.
Getting short stories published: 22:06
So I want to talk now about how to get stories published. So how do you start? So one of the most important thing is read short stories. I cannot emphasize that enough. You need to read short stories, you need to buy anthologies, you need to get subscriptions to journals, especially to journals that you want to submit. These days, a lot of journals have different submission processes for people who are subscribers and people who are non-subscribers, because if you are a subscriber, you are supporting them in running their business in publishing, and then you know they are wanting to read your submission sooner and be a part of the community in terms of you know, read short stories and review them, comment about them online, online on social media, promote them, connect with writers, buy anthologies by different writers or buy short. So a short story collection is a collection that's been written by one writer and an anthology is a collection that has been written by many writers, and I would encourage you to buy both. It's really interesting to look at a collection by the same author and to look at what are the different voices and different experimentations that they have undergone in their journey.
Read: 23:39
There are also some short story collections that sort of tell a narrative. So they might be separate short stories but they are part of a bigger picture and sort of still have a bit of a narrative echo. And it's also really important to read anthologies and read stories by different writers and see all of the styles and all of the ways that stories can be told. When you are reading these short stories, it's really important to deconstruct them. It's really important to look at them. Have a pencil or a pen, whatever you feel comfortable with I usually use a pencil, I don't really like using a pen on my books and actually deconstruct. What is the orientation, how is that set up? What are the transition sentences? What are some great examples of descriptive language that the author has used? What is it that they are doing different? And really deconstruct and sort of dig deep into that so that you can understand how short stories are constructed and also learn about the craft of writing.
Get on mailing lists: 24:47
Get on mailing lists. So join writing centres and get on their mailing lists and track competition and publishing opportunities. Add them to your diary and write to the deadline. That's what I have done a lot in my emerging writing journey. I was constantly tracking mailing lists from, you know, writers Victoria Writing, new South Wales, all of these places that I was on the mailing list. I was looking at submission opportunities. I was looking at things that aligned with what I was doing and then adding them to my diary, using them as a deadline. When I was part of writing groups, I would then use my writing groups for the critiquing and the editing part and make sure that I would meet those deadlines. And so, you know, use that also as momentum, because sometimes you're writing in a vacuum and it's like, well, what's the point? Who's going to read this? When are they going to read this? But if you have deadlines that you're creating for yourself, that gives you some momentum, it gives you something to work towards and it makes you feel like you are setting up the building blocks of what you're doing.
Enter competitions: 25:56
Enter competitions Really important to enter competitions. So look for opportunities that don't have high entry fees. There are sometimes some competitions that don't look that great where they have a high entry fee but then the prizes attached are not really feasible and I sometimes get suspicious of those, because I do know that there are some operators out there who are sort of inventing these opportunities and just using them for um, to collect, you know, entry fees from uh people. And I did, uh take part in that. I remember once where I found this online journal, um, it looked okay on paper, I submitted and then, you know, they did like a short list and all this, and then I sort of followed them for a little bit and I realized, oh, this is a bit sus. I think this is someone just creating an opportunity. So do that bit of vetting and look at who is running this short story competition, what are the prizes attached, who are the judges, and you know there are many opportunities that don't have that high entry fee. And the other thing is, once you're on the mailing list for these competitions, they'll keep sending you emails when they are open for submissions. So they'll keep sending you emails when they are open for submissions and that's an opportunity for you to then consider submitting again.
Keep submitting: 27:26
I have had competitions that I submitted multiple times and you know, the first time I didn't get anywhere and then the second time I got shortlisted and then the third time I won a prize and actually won some money attached to it. So it is worth being persistent and putting in that work and continuing to submit, research the editors and the judges before submitting. You know, look at what is it that they like? Sometimes with judges, you know a lot of them are in the industry. They're writers themselves. You can read their writing, kind of get a sense of their themes and their likes, and so that can up your chance in terms of success and in terms of being submitted. It's just like when you are submitting to a traditional publisher and you are looking at the editor and you are looking at what sort of books have they published, what are the things that they like, and then you're like well, this is the editor that I think this book would work for. And the same thing applies for judges and editors of competitions.
Readers are subjective: 28:33
As writers, we are people. As people, we all have our own tastes, and writing and art in general is very subjective. You know we can all talk about what is great art and what is great writing, but we also know that there are examples of what people pile on as terrible writing that have actually appealed to millions of people in terms of you know, story or in terms of art, and so I really don't believe in that perspective that art or writing should be highbrow or it should be a certain type um, I really do believe that um, writing is about connecting with people and it is about the readers. And um, I don't believe that people should be commenting about what is good and what is bad. Um, even when we look at the you know writing industry, um, or like the indie writing industry, a lot of people write a lot of things and people might have view about views about them, like, um, smart or romance, but there are readers out there for it. So who are we to judge? That's meeting a need within them, and so writing is subjective and all it takes is one person, one reader, to connect with it and to like it, and so one editor, one judge. So do that bit of research and see can you find those connections and can you help improve your chances.
Get readers: 30:07
Get eyes on your story, you know. Join a writing group, find a writing partner, use software. So I use ProWritingAid in terms of software for editing. It really helps pick up a lot of that basic editing, even though I have been writing for basic um editing, even though I have been writing, for you know, 30 years now. I am an english teacher, I'm very well versed, um, I've done editing work for other people. I've been an editor of an anthology so I do know about the craft, I do know about writing, but I can only pick up so much for myself. I can only see so much, and so I use ProWritingAid as that first reader. But then I do need human eyes on it. I do need other people to read it. So create that network and have people that you could use for that. Even look online. There are online opportunities and it is reciprocal.
Recipricoate: 31:05
Don't expect people to read your work if you're not reading their work, and this is also where I'll caution. You don't get family and friends who are not writers themselves to read it. I mean, they will read it and give you feedback as a reader, which could still be valuable. But in terms of that editorial eye, you actually need people who understand that and can pick up on those things for you. So, as I've already talked about, you actually need people who understand that and can pick up on those things for you.
Submission process: 31:30
So, as I already talked about, you know, submitting helps you learn about the submission process. And so you know, when you write a short story, in a lot of instances you need to submit a cover letter. In that cover letter, you need to include a quick overview of your story, the word count and an indication of the theme. You need to include an introduction of yourself and then, if you get published, you need to submit a biography and a headshot. And these are all skills that you need as a writer, because when you are submitting a novel, you need to write a cover letter, you need to introduce it, you need to be able to write succinctly about it, you need to be able to identify the themes of it, or you know the quick story overview and then you need to be able to introduce yourself and your credentials. And so doing it on a small scale with short stories really helps to normalize and build up those skills really helps to normalize and build up those skills.
Biographies and headshots: 32:32
I just also wanted to take a brief moment to talk about biographies and photos and headshots. I have spent my writing life doing my own headshots and you know finding photos of myself or my husband taking them, and this is the first time in my life this year that I actually had professional headshots taken. So I don't think you need to do that, but I do think that you need to look at a photo that you can use that does get across who you are, but it's also hitting that professional side of it in terms of what we expect with a headshot. I find sometimes, when I look through publications or I look through, you know, some sort of programs, sometimes people have photos where they're not really looking at the camera or they're doing something different or something you know, where they're not actually facing the reader and kind of connecting with the reader. They're doing something different or something you know, where they're not actually facing, um, the reader and kind of connecting with the reader. I personally have a little bit of a problem with that, um, because if I'm in the position where I'm looking at the, the writer, I want to actually see who they are and I want to get a sense of who they are.
Headshots: 33:45
So I would encourage you to, you know, actually take a headshot for yourself, but actually think about it in terms of, you know, a professional headshot that captures who you are and will sort of represent you, and so having these publication opportunities and doing these things really helps, because the other thing that you have to do sometimes is you have to keep editing your biography. So when you're submitting it to certain places, you need to edit your biography for that specific publication, and so having all these different versions of your biography or different word counts sometimes they want 100 words, sometimes they want 50 words, sometimes they want 200 words. So having all those different versions also really helps, um, in terms of taking part in the publishing world and so doing these short story publications. Having these opportunities where you have to do these things and build up these skills, um just really helps to normalize it for you. Um, because you know it can be quite daunting in those early, early opportunities to have to submit a photo of yourself and to have to write a biography about yourself and sort of claim who you are. I found it very difficult to do and very difficult to sort of think about positioning myself and, honestly, practice does make perfect. The more you do these things, the more that you take part in these opportunities, the more it gets normalized and the more it just becomes something that you do when you don't sit there thinking about it and you know getting too paranoid and second guessing yourself, and so those opportunities are really important.
Revise and resubmit: 35:24
If rejected, revise and try again. Don't give up. I used to have a rule that every short story that I submitted and it didn't get published, I would revise it and I would submit it at least another five times. That was my minimum. And then I saw, as I started getting published more, I started having a better success rate where you know, at one point I would submit you know, every five stories, every 10 stories I'll get one story picked up. Then every five stories and I'll get one story picked up. And so my odds started getting better and started improving. And also sometimes when you submit a short story, you know you get to a point where you're like, oh, that's as good as I can do it, I've made it great, I've really spent time on it, and you submit it and it takes months and months for it to go through the process. And then you get that rejection and I would look at it again, and this time I would look at it through the perspective of this rejection, and so I would have more of a critical eye and I would look at it and I would revise it again and look at opportunities to improve it and then I would submit again.
Balance revision and trying new things: 36:39
Now. Obviously you do have to sort of look sometimes at things and think is it, should I just keep reworking that or should I work on new things? So I encourage you to keep writing new stories. Don't just hold on to the same three stories and keep resubmitting them. You do need to just keep writing and keep producing and keep practicing your craft, and the more that you write, the more that you're going to be able to go back to older stories and go oh, I can see now what I can improve, because your craft will have evolved. So don't take that first rejection as that means that you can't write and that you should give it up Absolutely not. Keep trying, keep submitting, keep believing and keep working on it. One thing that I would really really encourage is always, always, be professional. When you get rejected, respond politely, respond professionally. Don't ever burn bridges.
Be professional: 37:42
The publishing industry, like a lot of industries, it's a very small industry and I do know of authors who have engaged in unprofessional behavior with editors who haven't, you know, argued about a rejection or argued about editing and they have been cut loose and they are. Then, you know, when they submit, they are not looked at again because they were not great to work with, because you know who wants to work with, someone who is making their life difficult, who is not wanting to work in partnership and collaborate, and that's what you know editors are looking for, what really everyone is looking for. So, just like, if you go for a job interview and you get interviewed and you think you did great and then you get a rejection from that company, um, you know, you would not I hope anyway uh, start writing letters of complaint and calling people and abusing them and telling them about how they made a terrible decision. Um, you know, obviously, if you had, you know just cause for not getting a job, you would follow processes in terms of putting in a complaint. Um, but you know, respond politely, move on, because you want to submit there again. And the other thing is, you don't know. You know you might, um, have an experience with that particular editor. They might go somewhere else. You know, at the end of the day, people are in these industries and they will keep circling around and you don't know what else they might do in the future. So, you know, editors, they sometimes go on to be festival directors or they go on to work in a publishing house. So you need to think long term and you need to think about relationships and community and positioning yourself within that community.
Look for opportunity : 39:24
Look for opportunity If there is a theme that is attached to a particular competition or a particular anthology. Look at what you have. Look at what pieces you've got. Have you got something that you're working on in terms of a novel? Can you isolate that? Can you make that into a short story? If you have a 5,000 word short story, the word count is a thousand words, can you take that 5,000 word short story and make a version of it to meet that word count and enter it? And by doing these things, you are also learning the skills of editing, because to go through the process of and I've done this of taking a 5,000 word story and editing it down to a 1,000 story, it's a great skill. Sometimes it might not be worth it, but you know, sometimes it's worth trying it, just for that experience, just for that learning uh journey, which, um, I feel like I learned a lot through those opportunities.
Persistence is key: 40:19
The other thing I would say is persistence is key. Keep submitting, create a system. So my husband, um fikra payalich, is an amazing short story writer and he wrote 50. No, he wrote more than that, but he wrote. He had 50 short stories published in, uh, all of the journals, um, the big journals in australia and the us, um, and I then published his short story collection, complication Short Stories, under my imprint, peshukan Press, and he was incredibly persistent with his publication journey. So he had a spreadsheet that he maintained with all of the different publications and editors. He would submit a short story to a publication and as soon as he got a rejection he would submit another story. So he actually was published in the two top journals in Australia Overland and Mianjin and one of them it took him 12 tries and one of them it took him 14.
Keep trying: 41:27
And so what happened was he would submit and something he would get shortlisted and, you know, then there were some instances where he was almost put in, but then when they were looking at the whole collection they were like, oh, this short story doesn't fit into it. Um, and then, uh, he started getting editors, you know, noticing him, seeing that he is continuing to build his literary CV and his publication history, and eventually finding a short story that connected with them and that he would get published with, and so he really dedicated himself just to writing and submitting short stories and maintaining this amazing spreadsheet with a whole list of journals that he was following and publishing with and that he was reading short stories that they were publishing and getting a feel for what they were doing, and looking at short stories that he had that would match that theme. And so, you know, sometimes it takes a while to find a home, to find that right person and the right story, and it really is important that you know you dedicate yourself to it. Just like when we are looking for a job in a certain field, we have to keep writing job applications and we have to keep applying and we have to keep going to interviews. It is the same with the publishing industry. It is about the work, it is about putting yourself into that work and sometimes it's about making it about the submission rather than the publication, because we can't control who's going to publish it, who will, you know, connect with our story, how many stories we will get published? But we can control how many submissions we make. We can make a goal as to, you know, we will submit to 10 journals this month or these three months. We can make those commitments. We can say that we will write this many stories, and so by sort of creating that industry around it and creating your own version of success and dedicating yourself to the craft and to the publication process, that's when things happen. So I would really encourage you to do that and and to dedicate yourself to that.
Craft: 43:53
So I now want to touch on a little bit on the craft of writing short stories, and you know, a short story can be any length these days. Different publications have different short story lengths. You know there's argument about when does it go into a novella, um, but there are some publications that even consider, you know, 25 000 words a short story. Uh, usually, you know, you would think up to 10 000 words, but really there is a lot of flexibility, um, there aren't so many publications these days that do that really long form, um, so usually they do up to seven and a half thousand words, but it can be anything. There are different ways of writing short stories and different types of short stories, so there's no, you know, one size fits all. This is a great opportunity to experiment with the types of short stories you might want to do.
Types of stories: 44:52
So know, you could do the classic story arc, um, with the beginning, middle and end. So you know, those stories um might be written by writers like alice monroe and raymond carver, and I would really encourage you to read their short stories in the way that they are constructed. You can find a lot of them on the internet. Um, you could write a story where it's a slice of life. It doesn't have a dramatic arc, but it captures a moment, a fleeting experience that resonates with the reader and leaves them thinking about something. You could write one with a twist ending where you know stories like Roald Dahl or O Henry leaves the reader with this sense of suspense and and you don't quite know where that story was going. You think it's going in one place and it gives you that twist, uh, and leaves you reeling, um and enjoying it. I'm actually doing, uh, suspense stories with my year eight class, um, and it has been just so wonderful watching their faces as we read these short stories and we get to the end and then they're like what was that? And I love asking them what did you enjoy about it? What did you like about it? And they're all like that twist ending. Oh, didn't see it coming. And so you know those are really fun.
Experimental stories: 46:09
There could be some experimental short stories. This is an opportunity to sort of break the genre, break with convention, to try new things, um, and so look at writers, you know whether I might do it as lists or emails or diary entries. So, for example, my short story siege, it's um diary entries, uh, that my character is writing while she's under siege, um, and it's kind of giving us that insight and that personal connection, and so it gives you that opportunity to sort of experiment with form and experiment with how you can tell a short story. It could be a character study, so getting inside a character's head, a character's inner world, and really connecting with them and showing them, showing the reader. You know this different perspective and this different life. You know, when we read like I love reading for the to live vicariously through other people, to experience different things, to be challenged to, you know, see different points of view and just understand things a little bit differently, a little bit better, and so that might be something that you might want to explore in a short story. You might want to do a thematic short story, so you know where you're looking around a theme and you're trying to tell a story about that particular theme. Or you might do a genre short story.
Genre: 47:34
So I really loved having the opportunity to write do a genre short story. So I really loved um having the opportunity to write different types of short story. Like, my first story that was ever published was in woman's day and it was a romance story of 800 words. Um, and it was my first, you know, romance publication credit, and it was just wonderful to sort of get that recognition of, oh, I can write this type of thing. Um, and then I sort of started writing crime and, uh, getting my short stories published on crime, uh, journals, um, and I was like, oh, I can do that too, that's something I can explore. And so each opportunity sort of gave me that confidence where it's like, oh, that's something I can do. Um, when I first started, I was submitting and getting published in literary journals and that's what I was aspiring to, and so it really, you know, gave me that sense of confidence of, oh, I can write that sort of thing, I can do those deep things, and so that's a really great opportunity to sort of try.
Mimic: 48:31
Another way of doing it is to read short stories and to read. To sort of try Another way of doing it is to read short stories and to read you know how a writer has constructed that short story and use that as a source of inspiration and mimic that structure or adapt that theme or adapt a character from them and extend it. At the end of the day, we get inspiration from everything and so you know, you can see what when you're reading, what inspires, what tickles your muse. Some ways that you can get started with short stories is you know, start with a strong image or an idea, a single moment, a piece of dialogue. Sometimes when I'm experimenting and doing writing workshops, so you know, with my students I do a found story where I give them elements like a character, conflict, you know a place, and they have to try and imagine what that is might be as a story. I give them first sentences and then they do that stream of consciousness and they try and write a short story based on that first line. So you can engage in that sort of experimentation for yourself too. There are some online forums and online communities where you get prompts and you write to a prompt.
Experiment: 49:51
I remember once when I was really feeling in a very disconnected place with my writing. I took part in 30 Days of Poetry and I wrote a poem every day for 30 days, and it was a completely new form. It was something that I hadn't really done as a writer. I'd obviously written tragic poetry when I was a teenager, but I hadn't really gone back to it much when I became, when I sort of became a writer and entered this world, and it really created the opportunity for me to find little points of inspiration and experiment with form and experiment with voice and just find the joy of it. And I also did submit some of those poems and I did get um, those poems, uh, some poems, published, um, and that was also wonderful, uh, to see, and I do have plans at some point to do a short story, a collection of my poems, um, because you know, I don't know that it will sell, but for me it will just be a great opportunity to sort of do things for myself and to put my writing out there in a new format. And also now I'm learning about creating books with images and doing different things with formatting, um. So that's something that I might come back to and that's the other thing.
Challenge yourself: 51:12
You keep writing and keep experimenting and as you embark on this journey as a writer and you're in it for a few decades. There's a lot of work, a big body of work that you have and a lot of opportunities that you can do different things with it. So you know nothing is wasted. Don't ever think of any of your writing as wasted. It's all helping you grow and it's all helping you become who you are and find who you are, and you don't know when you'll go back to it and use it for something else. You can use constraints, so challenge yourself to write a 500-word story.
Learning from others: 51:50
So I remember we had different writers coming into this course that I was doing and talking about the different short stories that they wrote. And they came in and they were talking about flash fiction and I had not really known anything about flash fiction. So flash fiction are like really short pieces. There are some that are even like you know, where they expect 100 words could be 500 words, it could be 300 words. So it's trying to get a short story into as short a story as you can. One of the things I love doing with my writers is can a short story be six words? And then I show them short stories that are six words and they can see how words have power as how, even if a short story is six words, you could really capture depth. So, for example, baby shoes never worn, um, I don't know if that's the full story, but uh, you know, look up six word short stories and you can see how they um really have resonance and you're able to inhabit this world even in something so small. And so I challenged myself to write some flash fiction and I had success with that when I had um short stories published that were flash fiction, um, and so that was really heartening and a lot of fun. Also, because you know you're writing very short form and experimenting and sort of really looking at the power of words and the weight of words With a short story.
Begin in the middle: 53:26
Begin in the middle. You know they don't need a long set up. You're starting the heart of the story as close to the ending as possible. It is a short story. So you know you don't need a lot of exposition, a lot of things in the beginning. So just start close to. You know the middle Focus on only one character or conflict.
No subplots: 53:46
So, unlike novels, short stories don't have the opportunity for subplots. You have to cull them. So even when I've taken chapters from my novel to rework as short stories, I've had to cull anything in there that is a subplot, that is, you know, contributing to the novel, and really make it just about that story and about that moment that I'm telling. So you know if you're adding extra things, extra subplots, you know if you're adding extra things, extra subplots, take them out. It needs to be one character, one plot, one image and edit ruthlessly. It really is important about that precision of words, about really capturing the essence of the story. When you are writing a novel, obviously you need moments of shades of light and dark. You want those moments where characters are just sort of talking and connecting and it's giving us insight into characterization and you can do that because it is long form and that is what readers also love about it. But when you're writing a short story, there's no space for that. Everything that is in that story needs to contribute to what that plot is and what the purpose of that story is. Anything that does not needs to be cut ruthlessly, okay. So that's why writing short stories is wonderful and a great opportunity. So some closing remarks.
Short stories helped me: 55:13
Short stories have really been foundational in my career as a traditionally published author. They helped me build my voice, build my portfolio, build my confidence, my literary CV and the foundations of becoming a published author. Now, as an indie author, they give me other opportunities. They give me promotional opportunities in terms of using them as a reader magnet, looking for publishing opportunities, although I'm sort of not doing that as much because I'm more focused with my author business, but there are still opportunities there. So you know, it's a really great way of opening doors. Um, I would really you know, look at you, encourage you to look at your writing journey and wherever you are and see um, you know how writing short stories can help develop your craft and improve your craft. I think at any space on your writing journey they can do that for you. So I would really want you to think about how can this help you in your writing journey.
Shownotes: 56:24
So I just wanted to remind you that there are show notes on my website. So amrapajaliccom slash podcast website. So amrapajaliccom slash podcast a-m-r-a-p-a-j-a-l-i-c slash podcast. You will find the show notes, but you will also find handouts that reference some of the things that I talked about in this episode so that you can use them and find, you know, opportunities for yourself. And also I'm creating um author guides and how to based on these episodes. So if you wanted to, um get those that can also help you in your writing journey.
My collection The Cuckoo's Song: 57:05
Um, if you wanted to, you can also, you know, check out my collection and check out complication great examples of um. You know different short stories and way to write them. Um, and, you know, look for other writers also. Um, you know there are a lot of really famous writers and their short stories online that you can access and that you can read and that will really help you with that development of craft. Um, please touch base with me, connect with me online. Um write a comment on my podcast show notes. Uh, tell me you know about your short story, uh experiences and your writing journey. Um and how uh this is helping you. Thank you for joining me. Thank you for tuning into am to Amra's Armchair Anecdotes. If you enjoyed today's episode, don't forget to subscribe and follow for more insights, stories and inspiration From my armchair to yours. Remember, every story begins with a single word.
Welcome. Today I'm talking about how short stories help build your publication history, and I wanted to talk about this because, if you're a writer and you're wanting to build up your confidence, find your voice, start getting published and building your portfolio, short stories are a great way to do that. So I'm going to talk today about how short stories can help you refine your skills, find your voice, build a publication history. So these are lessons that I learned myself firsthand, and I'm also going to share some tips about how to go about this and use short stories in the best way possible. So for myself, early in my writing career, novels felt overwhelming. I did a course, a diploma, in professional writing and editing, and that course was wonderful because we had the opportunity to do different subjects, and one of the subjects was called writing short stories, and we had one whole year of learning about different types of short stories, different formats, different lengths and how you know writing them and finding opportunities for publications. And through this journey and this subject, I had the opportunity to sort of experiment with different themes and structure. I tried various genres and found what I wanted to write, and I published my first short story. So at that time there was a anthology that was published every year by a very respected publisher in Australia. It was called Best Australian Stories and they had different editors who were responsible for collating and editing that anthology.
My first story publication 1: 2:00
And one and one year I think it was 2004, there was a public call out and I submitted my short story, and this short story was titled Siege and it was based on my husband's experience, my husband's family's experiences, about living in Sarajevo under siege during the war, in Sarajevo, under siege during the war, the Balkan War of 1992 to 1995. And to write that story I had to engage in research and I was also able to use details from their letters that they wrote about what day-to-day life was like. And then I also had some inspiration like um. And then I also had uh, some inspiration about a real life couple who were called sade. It was uh, romeo and juliet who sadly uh were trying to escape the city because um, one of them was bosnian, one of them was serb and uh perished in that journey. And and so I wrote this short story in this burst of beautiful inspiration and I submitted it to this anthology and I had it accepted and after it was published, this anthology was reviewed and I received a review mention. So what that means is that in a review of the actual anthology they mentioned my story and gave me a beautiful you know blurb, a beautiful little sentence about it.
Building my portfolio: 3:37
And then I submitted the year after and I also had another short story published and these opportunities were the building grounds for me to build my confidence as a writer, to find out also what it was that I wanted to write. So through that I saw that the personal side of my writing, that writing about my culture and about things that I cared about and doing that advocacy side of it was where my heart was and that's where I needed to put my energy. And then also, when I finished my debut novel and was looking for an agent, these were things that I was able to put in my cover letter to showcase my success, to showcase that I had, you know, built up publication, history and an audience and was then able to take that as a stepping stone, and this is why short stories are a great opportunity to do that. So over the years I had many, many short stories that won and placed in competitions and were published in journals to competitions or submit them for publication sometimes because I'm looking for a way to build up my confidence, especially in the early years, when it took me a really long time to finish a book and to take me years in some instances to write books, and so those short story publication opportunities really gave me that confidence and kind of fed my soul so that I would keep going with it. Now I have gotten faster with writing novels and I don't need it anymore.
Reader magnets and collections: 5:35
However, I do use them in a different way, where, as an indie author, I am using them as reader magnets. I am using them as reader magnets, so where I am actually using them to write short stories or to develop deleted scenes as short stories that I then offer to readers of my books to sign up to my newsletter and get access to that. And so one of the things that I really always wanted to do and I think it's what every writer dreams about which is having their short stories published in a short story collection. Unfortunately, short story collections are not really desired much by many publishers anymore, and usually they will look to publish short story collections by writers that they have an ongoing relationship with. So the first book that I published under my press, fishookin Press, was my short story collection, so I titled it the Cuckoo's Song, which is one of the short stories in it, which is one of the short stories in it, and it gave me the opportunity to put all of my stories together to write sort of a narrative about my writing journey and the inspiration and to develop teaching notes to be able to support students or teachers wanting to use this short story collection in some way. And you know that was a very proud moment for me and it just means so much for me that I've still got these short stories in a collection and so they've given me so many opportunities and they keep giving me opportunities.
Find your voice: 7:17
So I wanted to talk now about why short stories matter for writers. So when you're writing short stories, you have the opportunity to find your voice. This is something that I struggled with also as an emerging writer, in terms of what is it that I wanted to write about, what is it that I wanted to say? I've had many evolutions as an author and that's something I'll discuss in an upcoming episode and sometimes I chase trends and sometimes I sort of steer away from my journey, and short stories can kind of give you that opportunity where you might want to experiment in certain genres and see is this something that you want to do? Is this something that you want to commit to? Is this something that you want to commit to? And by writing it in a short story format you can see whether that fits in with your writing journey and with where you are wanting to position yourself.
Refine your skills: 8:15
It really gives you the opportunity to refine your skills, because when you are writing a short story and if you're looking to publish it, usually every competition or publication has a word count where they want a specific word count, and so writing to that word count really teaches you to be concise. But also taking a longer form short story and editing it down really gives you the opportunity to see what is it that needs to be in there. What are the most important bones? Raymond Carver, who is a prolific, was a prolific short story writer and sort of used by every emerging writer to learn about the craft and has beautiful short stories and you know all his stories are in collections and I would encourage you to read his stories and find them. He had an editor who you know made it a point of cutting down by half everything that he writes, and so you know, short stories really make you look at the essence of the story and to be concise with your words and make sure that you are using the strongest words possible to get your story across. So it really helps with that side of it. It gives you those quick wins because publishing short stories helps to build your confidence and it also helps to build your credibility.
Building confidence: 9:45
I found myself struggling in my emerging years in terms of am I a good writer? Do I have what it takes? Is this something that I should be dedicating time to? And even though writing is something I absolutely have to do, writing for publication can be very hard and it puts you in a. It can put you in some difficult, um and challenging positions where you have to really fight to find the resilience within yourself, and so having um short stories published and having those wins really boosts you up and it really gives you that sense of yes, I'm on the right path and this is what I need to keep doing. It opens doors. Having short stories published. It can lead to residencies, competitions and even, like in my case, it led me to an agent and then it led me to a publisher, and that was what embarked me on my traditional publishing journey, and I did have a wonderful publishing journey where I had my debut novel published. I edited an anthology Growing Up Muslim in Australia, which really helped for me to solidify my writing skills and my editing skills, and so you just never know, by putting yourself out there, what opportunities that will create.
Submission process: 11:16
One of the other reasons that short stories are really important is to learn about the submission process. In the traditional publishing world everything takes a really really long time. I have submitted short stories to journals and waited a year before they were accepted. When I submitted my novel to my agent, I think it took eight months until I was picked up agent. I think it took eight months until I was picked up when we submitted it to publishers. It was a quick turnaround because my agent was facilitating that, and so they create more of a sense of urgency and deadlines. But then after my novel was accepted for publication, it was nearly two years until it was published and probably about three years from the time I started the submission process to my agent to then having it published and out into the world.
Literary journals: 12:13
And it's the same with short stories journals. Literary journals usually have very small staff. They work on a shoestring budget. They rely on volunteers, they are prestigious and so everyone sort of sees them as an opportunity to cut their teeth in the industry and to get that first wave of experience. And so they get a lot of submissions and so it can take a very, very long time to get you know through this process.
Building resilience: 12:47
And writing short stories helps for you to understand and build that resilience around traditional publishing processes, because submitting a short story and waiting for a year is agonizing, but submitting a novel and waiting for that long is even more agonizing. So in one sense it sort of helps build that resilience where you're like okay, I have strategies to deal with this. I know that it is out on submission, I need to turn my mind to other things, to creating other content, to keep building my portfolio, and so it helps with that psychological process also. It also helps to develop resilience. There are not many of us that sort of have those wins straight up and usually most of us have to work at our craft, work at building up that submission process, building up that portfolio, getting published, building the credibility. There are not many people.
Changing landscape: 13:56
I mean it has happened where people have submitted, had that dream run, had the bidding wars, but even if they do, there is still a downturn at some point in their writing career, because nothing stays the same. Things are constantly changing and so I have read many stories from traditionally published authors who have had those dream runs, who got the huge advances and thought this is it, this is what my life is, and then their novels were published. They did not achieve the sales that they expected and suddenly the next book their advance is dropping significantly. It's harder to get published because in the traditional publishing world, if you do not pay out your advance and you do not earn out the investment that the publisher has made, they're not really willing to take a risk on you. Before, decades, before, they would put in the work to grow an author and to build up that publication history and that fan base, that publication history and that fan base. Unfortunately, now there are a lot of pressures and economic pressures in terms of publishers being able to turn a profit, being able to sustain their business practice and, as a result, it makes them very risk averse in terms of investing in books. And so as soon as they see that an author is not earning out their advance, is not making the sales that they expected or wanted. They are wanting to take a risk on another author, and that then makes it harder for that author to continue their publishing journey within the traditional publishing world. They can, um, they just have to go to another publisher and they have to consider smaller publishers, more independent publishers, and look at those opportunities.
Resilience: 15:58
Um, so that resilience is really important in the writing world and if you are wanting to dedicate yourself to being a writer, to being an artist, there are a lot, of, a lot more losses, especially in the beginning, than there are wins. As you get deeper into it, and this is the point that I'm at. I create my wins, I make my successes about my own journey and what it is that I am wanting to achieve. So I don't, for example, make it about you know, the sales. I make it about what am I achieving in terms of putting out there into the world. Unfortunately, when you are emerging, it's about different ways of marking success. It's about the publication history, it's about what are the publications that you're being published in, and so it can take a lot out of you in that way, by writing short stories and having them published, you have the opportunity to improve your craft through editing, and I can't emphasize this enough.
Working with editors: 17:12
You need to be able to work with an editor and get input and feedback and improve your writing, and there are many emerging writers who write, and you know we all do this. We all think our writing is perfect and amazing and beautiful because, in one sense, you have to believe it. You have to believe that about yourself in order to submit it, in order to let it go out into the world. However, every piece of writing and every writer benefits from having an editor, from having someone looking at their work and giving them feedback. And when you are publishing in the traditional model with journals, or having a novel published, you will work with an editor and the editor will have views about what your piece should be and they will direct that, and that is something that you need to learn about and you need to work with Now.
Editorial direction: 18:19
In some instances, with an editor, you might not agree with that direction. So, for example, when I had my novel on submission and I had two publishers and two editors who made offers and wanted to work on my novel, I met with each of the editors and they each had a very different vision of what that novel should be and how we should refocus it, and so I went with the editor that aligned more with my vision. So, as an emerging writer, you might have to make decisions about do you work with the editor about aligning your piece with their vision in order to get that publication credit or not? In some instances it might cost you that publication opportunity. Usually with short stories it might not be that much in terms of that developmental edit and that change. Usually with a short story they see what it is and then they're wanting to make editorial changes. But it can happen, and so these are things that you need to think about and you need to decide about.
Editing process: 19:35
Personally, when I was an emerging writer, I did not care Anything that the editor wanted. I just made changes. I just went with it because I was of the view that I have found an editor who sees something in my writing. It speaks to them and I'm going to trust what they want to put out into the world and I just want that opportunity to get my writing out there, and working with editors really helped to improve my writing. So at every stage of my writing journey I have benefited from editors who have really taught me about the craft. So even when I started my freelance writing journey, I had a lot of generous editors who worked to edit and refine my freelance articles.
Using software: 20:30
Until now, I'm at the point where I can produce a very good copy of a piece, an opinion piece, that does not need anything other than some copy editing. And the same is true of novels. I have written so many novels now that I feel quite confident in the structure and in that aspect of it. But I still do have a proofreader, somebody who reads through my books, who takes that human eye, who picks up things that I could not pick up, could not see, and that software that I use so I use ProWritingAid as editing software does not pick up. So you know it's great at picking up. You know passive voice and picking up when I've used pronouns too much. So you know starting sentences with I, I, I too many times. By the way, that's called the Mexican dance I, I, I, I, and it's something that you know many writers do. So it helps me to pick up some of those things. But it doesn't help to pick up the nuances of language, which is where my proofreader comes in, who is a former English teacher and is excellent at doing that. So these are all the reasons why writing short stories will help you in your writing journey and help you develop as a writer, and you know all the different skills that you need as a writer.
Getting short stories published: 22:06
So I want to talk now about how to get stories published. So how do you start? So one of the most important thing is read short stories. I cannot emphasize that enough. You need to read short stories, you need to buy anthologies, you need to get subscriptions to journals, especially to journals that you want to submit. These days, a lot of journals have different submission processes for people who are subscribers and people who are non-subscribers, because if you are a subscriber, you are supporting them in running their business in publishing, and then you know they are wanting to read your submission sooner and be a part of the community in terms of you know, read short stories and review them, comment about them online, online on social media, promote them, connect with writers, buy anthologies by different writers or buy short. So a short story collection is a collection that's been written by one writer and an anthology is a collection that has been written by many writers, and I would encourage you to buy both. It's really interesting to look at a collection by the same author and to look at what are the different voices and different experimentations that they have undergone in their journey.
Read: 23:39
There are also some short story collections that sort of tell a narrative. So they might be separate short stories but they are part of a bigger picture and sort of still have a bit of a narrative echo. And it's also really important to read anthologies and read stories by different writers and see all of the styles and all of the ways that stories can be told. When you are reading these short stories, it's really important to deconstruct them. It's really important to look at them. Have a pencil or a pen, whatever you feel comfortable with I usually use a pencil, I don't really like using a pen on my books and actually deconstruct. What is the orientation, how is that set up? What are the transition sentences? What are some great examples of descriptive language that the author has used? What is it that they are doing different? And really deconstruct and sort of dig deep into that so that you can understand how short stories are constructed and also learn about the craft of writing.
Get on mailing lists: 24:47
Get on mailing lists. So join writing centres and get on their mailing lists and track competition and publishing opportunities. Add them to your diary and write to the deadline. That's what I have done a lot in my emerging writing journey. I was constantly tracking mailing lists from, you know, writers Victoria Writing, new South Wales, all of these places that I was on the mailing list. I was looking at submission opportunities. I was looking at things that aligned with what I was doing and then adding them to my diary, using them as a deadline. When I was part of writing groups, I would then use my writing groups for the critiquing and the editing part and make sure that I would meet those deadlines. And so, you know, use that also as momentum, because sometimes you're writing in a vacuum and it's like, well, what's the point? Who's going to read this? When are they going to read this? But if you have deadlines that you're creating for yourself, that gives you some momentum, it gives you something to work towards and it makes you feel like you are setting up the building blocks of what you're doing.
Enter competitions: 25:56
Enter competitions Really important to enter competitions. So look for opportunities that don't have high entry fees. There are sometimes some competitions that don't look that great where they have a high entry fee but then the prizes attached are not really feasible and I sometimes get suspicious of those, because I do know that there are some operators out there who are sort of inventing these opportunities and just using them for um, to collect, you know, entry fees from uh people. And I did, uh take part in that. I remember once where I found this online journal, um, it looked okay on paper, I submitted and then, you know, they did like a short list and all this, and then I sort of followed them for a little bit and I realized, oh, this is a bit sus. I think this is someone just creating an opportunity. So do that bit of vetting and look at who is running this short story competition, what are the prizes attached, who are the judges, and you know there are many opportunities that don't have that high entry fee. And the other thing is, once you're on the mailing list for these competitions, they'll keep sending you emails when they are open for submissions. So they'll keep sending you emails when they are open for submissions and that's an opportunity for you to then consider submitting again.
Keep submitting: 27:26
I have had competitions that I submitted multiple times and you know, the first time I didn't get anywhere and then the second time I got shortlisted and then the third time I won a prize and actually won some money attached to it. So it is worth being persistent and putting in that work and continuing to submit, research the editors and the judges before submitting. You know, look at what is it that they like? Sometimes with judges, you know a lot of them are in the industry. They're writers themselves. You can read their writing, kind of get a sense of their themes and their likes, and so that can up your chance in terms of success and in terms of being submitted. It's just like when you are submitting to a traditional publisher and you are looking at the editor and you are looking at what sort of books have they published, what are the things that they like, and then you're like well, this is the editor that I think this book would work for. And the same thing applies for judges and editors of competitions.
Readers are subjective: 28:33
As writers, we are people. As people, we all have our own tastes, and writing and art in general is very subjective. You know we can all talk about what is great art and what is great writing, but we also know that there are examples of what people pile on as terrible writing that have actually appealed to millions of people in terms of you know, story or in terms of art, and so I really don't believe in that perspective that art or writing should be highbrow or it should be a certain type um, I really do believe that um, writing is about connecting with people and it is about the readers. And um, I don't believe that people should be commenting about what is good and what is bad. Um, even when we look at the you know writing industry, um, or like the indie writing industry, a lot of people write a lot of things and people might have view about views about them, like, um, smart or romance, but there are readers out there for it. So who are we to judge? That's meeting a need within them, and so writing is subjective and all it takes is one person, one reader, to connect with it and to like it, and so one editor, one judge. So do that bit of research and see can you find those connections and can you help improve your chances.
Get readers: 30:07
Get eyes on your story, you know. Join a writing group, find a writing partner, use software. So I use ProWritingAid in terms of software for editing. It really helps pick up a lot of that basic editing, even though I have been writing for basic um editing, even though I have been writing, for you know, 30 years now. I am an english teacher, I'm very well versed, um, I've done editing work for other people. I've been an editor of an anthology so I do know about the craft, I do know about writing, but I can only pick up so much for myself. I can only see so much, and so I use ProWritingAid as that first reader. But then I do need human eyes on it. I do need other people to read it. So create that network and have people that you could use for that. Even look online. There are online opportunities and it is reciprocal.
Recipricoate: 31:05
Don't expect people to read your work if you're not reading their work, and this is also where I'll caution. You don't get family and friends who are not writers themselves to read it. I mean, they will read it and give you feedback as a reader, which could still be valuable. But in terms of that editorial eye, you actually need people who understand that and can pick up on those things for you. So, as I've already talked about, you actually need people who understand that and can pick up on those things for you.
Submission process: 31:30
So, as I already talked about, you know, submitting helps you learn about the submission process. And so you know, when you write a short story, in a lot of instances you need to submit a cover letter. In that cover letter, you need to include a quick overview of your story, the word count and an indication of the theme. You need to include an introduction of yourself and then, if you get published, you need to submit a biography and a headshot. And these are all skills that you need as a writer, because when you are submitting a novel, you need to write a cover letter, you need to introduce it, you need to be able to write succinctly about it, you need to be able to identify the themes of it, or you know the quick story overview and then you need to be able to introduce yourself and your credentials. And so doing it on a small scale with short stories really helps to normalize and build up those skills really helps to normalize and build up those skills.
Biographies and headshots: 32:32
I just also wanted to take a brief moment to talk about biographies and photos and headshots. I have spent my writing life doing my own headshots and you know finding photos of myself or my husband taking them, and this is the first time in my life this year that I actually had professional headshots taken. So I don't think you need to do that, but I do think that you need to look at a photo that you can use that does get across who you are, but it's also hitting that professional side of it in terms of what we expect with a headshot. I find sometimes, when I look through publications or I look through, you know, some sort of programs, sometimes people have photos where they're not really looking at the camera or they're doing something different or something you know, where they're not actually facing the reader and kind of connecting with the reader. They're doing something different or something you know, where they're not actually facing, um, the reader and kind of connecting with the reader. I personally have a little bit of a problem with that, um, because if I'm in the position where I'm looking at the, the writer, I want to actually see who they are and I want to get a sense of who they are.
Headshots: 33:45
So I would encourage you to, you know, actually take a headshot for yourself, but actually think about it in terms of, you know, a professional headshot that captures who you are and will sort of represent you, and so having these publication opportunities and doing these things really helps, because the other thing that you have to do sometimes is you have to keep editing your biography. So when you're submitting it to certain places, you need to edit your biography for that specific publication, and so having all these different versions of your biography or different word counts sometimes they want 100 words, sometimes they want 50 words, sometimes they want 200 words. So having all those different versions also really helps, um, in terms of taking part in the publishing world and so doing these short story publications. Having these opportunities where you have to do these things and build up these skills, um just really helps to normalize it for you. Um, because you know it can be quite daunting in those early, early opportunities to have to submit a photo of yourself and to have to write a biography about yourself and sort of claim who you are. I found it very difficult to do and very difficult to sort of think about positioning myself and, honestly, practice does make perfect. The more you do these things, the more that you take part in these opportunities, the more it gets normalized and the more it just becomes something that you do when you don't sit there thinking about it and you know getting too paranoid and second guessing yourself, and so those opportunities are really important.
Revise and resubmit: 35:24
If rejected, revise and try again. Don't give up. I used to have a rule that every short story that I submitted and it didn't get published, I would revise it and I would submit it at least another five times. That was my minimum. And then I saw, as I started getting published more, I started having a better success rate where you know, at one point I would submit you know, every five stories, every 10 stories I'll get one story picked up. Then every five stories and I'll get one story picked up. And so my odds started getting better and started improving. And also sometimes when you submit a short story, you know you get to a point where you're like, oh, that's as good as I can do it, I've made it great, I've really spent time on it, and you submit it and it takes months and months for it to go through the process. And then you get that rejection and I would look at it again, and this time I would look at it through the perspective of this rejection, and so I would have more of a critical eye and I would look at it and I would revise it again and look at opportunities to improve it and then I would submit again.
Balance revision and trying new things: 36:39
Now. Obviously you do have to sort of look sometimes at things and think is it, should I just keep reworking that or should I work on new things? So I encourage you to keep writing new stories. Don't just hold on to the same three stories and keep resubmitting them. You do need to just keep writing and keep producing and keep practicing your craft, and the more that you write, the more that you're going to be able to go back to older stories and go oh, I can see now what I can improve, because your craft will have evolved. So don't take that first rejection as that means that you can't write and that you should give it up Absolutely not. Keep trying, keep submitting, keep believing and keep working on it. One thing that I would really really encourage is always, always, be professional. When you get rejected, respond politely, respond professionally. Don't ever burn bridges.
Be professional: 37:42
The publishing industry, like a lot of industries, it's a very small industry and I do know of authors who have engaged in unprofessional behavior with editors who haven't, you know, argued about a rejection or argued about editing and they have been cut loose and they are. Then, you know, when they submit, they are not looked at again because they were not great to work with, because you know who wants to work with, someone who is making their life difficult, who is not wanting to work in partnership and collaborate, and that's what you know editors are looking for, what really everyone is looking for. So, just like, if you go for a job interview and you get interviewed and you think you did great and then you get a rejection from that company, um, you know, you would not I hope anyway uh, start writing letters of complaint and calling people and abusing them and telling them about how they made a terrible decision. Um, you know, obviously, if you had, you know just cause for not getting a job, you would follow processes in terms of putting in a complaint. Um, but you know, respond politely, move on, because you want to submit there again. And the other thing is, you don't know. You know you might, um, have an experience with that particular editor. They might go somewhere else. You know, at the end of the day, people are in these industries and they will keep circling around and you don't know what else they might do in the future. So, you know, editors, they sometimes go on to be festival directors or they go on to work in a publishing house. So you need to think long term and you need to think about relationships and community and positioning yourself within that community.
Look for opportunity : 39:24
Look for opportunity If there is a theme that is attached to a particular competition or a particular anthology. Look at what you have. Look at what pieces you've got. Have you got something that you're working on in terms of a novel? Can you isolate that? Can you make that into a short story? If you have a 5,000 word short story, the word count is a thousand words, can you take that 5,000 word short story and make a version of it to meet that word count and enter it? And by doing these things, you are also learning the skills of editing, because to go through the process of and I've done this of taking a 5,000 word story and editing it down to a 1,000 story, it's a great skill. Sometimes it might not be worth it, but you know, sometimes it's worth trying it, just for that experience, just for that learning uh journey, which, um, I feel like I learned a lot through those opportunities.
Persistence is key: 40:19
The other thing I would say is persistence is key. Keep submitting, create a system. So my husband, um fikra payalich, is an amazing short story writer and he wrote 50. No, he wrote more than that, but he wrote. He had 50 short stories published in, uh, all of the journals, um, the big journals in australia and the us, um, and I then published his short story collection, complication Short Stories, under my imprint, peshukan Press, and he was incredibly persistent with his publication journey. So he had a spreadsheet that he maintained with all of the different publications and editors. He would submit a short story to a publication and as soon as he got a rejection he would submit another story. So he actually was published in the two top journals in Australia Overland and Mianjin and one of them it took him 12 tries and one of them it took him 14.
Keep trying: 41:27
And so what happened was he would submit and something he would get shortlisted and, you know, then there were some instances where he was almost put in, but then when they were looking at the whole collection they were like, oh, this short story doesn't fit into it. Um, and then, uh, he started getting editors, you know, noticing him, seeing that he is continuing to build his literary CV and his publication history, and eventually finding a short story that connected with them and that he would get published with, and so he really dedicated himself just to writing and submitting short stories and maintaining this amazing spreadsheet with a whole list of journals that he was following and publishing with and that he was reading short stories that they were publishing and getting a feel for what they were doing, and looking at short stories that he had that would match that theme. And so, you know, sometimes it takes a while to find a home, to find that right person and the right story, and it really is important that you know you dedicate yourself to it. Just like when we are looking for a job in a certain field, we have to keep writing job applications and we have to keep applying and we have to keep going to interviews. It is the same with the publishing industry. It is about the work, it is about putting yourself into that work and sometimes it's about making it about the submission rather than the publication, because we can't control who's going to publish it, who will, you know, connect with our story, how many stories we will get published? But we can control how many submissions we make. We can make a goal as to, you know, we will submit to 10 journals this month or these three months. We can make those commitments. We can say that we will write this many stories, and so by sort of creating that industry around it and creating your own version of success and dedicating yourself to the craft and to the publication process, that's when things happen. So I would really encourage you to do that and and to dedicate yourself to that.
Craft: 43:53
So I now want to touch on a little bit on the craft of writing short stories, and you know, a short story can be any length these days. Different publications have different short story lengths. You know there's argument about when does it go into a novella, um, but there are some publications that even consider, you know, 25 000 words a short story. Uh, usually, you know, you would think up to 10 000 words, but really there is a lot of flexibility, um, there aren't so many publications these days that do that really long form, um, so usually they do up to seven and a half thousand words, but it can be anything. There are different ways of writing short stories and different types of short stories, so there's no, you know, one size fits all. This is a great opportunity to experiment with the types of short stories you might want to do.
Types of stories: 44:52
So know, you could do the classic story arc, um, with the beginning, middle and end. So you know, those stories um might be written by writers like alice monroe and raymond carver, and I would really encourage you to read their short stories in the way that they are constructed. You can find a lot of them on the internet. Um, you could write a story where it's a slice of life. It doesn't have a dramatic arc, but it captures a moment, a fleeting experience that resonates with the reader and leaves them thinking about something. You could write one with a twist ending where you know stories like Roald Dahl or O Henry leaves the reader with this sense of suspense and and you don't quite know where that story was going. You think it's going in one place and it gives you that twist, uh, and leaves you reeling, um and enjoying it. I'm actually doing, uh, suspense stories with my year eight class, um, and it has been just so wonderful watching their faces as we read these short stories and we get to the end and then they're like what was that? And I love asking them what did you enjoy about it? What did you like about it? And they're all like that twist ending. Oh, didn't see it coming. And so you know those are really fun.
Experimental stories: 46:09
There could be some experimental short stories. This is an opportunity to sort of break the genre, break with convention, to try new things, um, and so look at writers, you know whether I might do it as lists or emails or diary entries. So, for example, my short story siege, it's um diary entries, uh, that my character is writing while she's under siege, um, and it's kind of giving us that insight and that personal connection, and so it gives you that opportunity to sort of experiment with form and experiment with how you can tell a short story. It could be a character study, so getting inside a character's head, a character's inner world, and really connecting with them and showing them, showing the reader. You know this different perspective and this different life. You know, when we read like I love reading for the to live vicariously through other people, to experience different things, to be challenged to, you know, see different points of view and just understand things a little bit differently, a little bit better, and so that might be something that you might want to explore in a short story. You might want to do a thematic short story, so you know where you're looking around a theme and you're trying to tell a story about that particular theme. Or you might do a genre short story.
Genre: 47:34
So I really loved having the opportunity to write do a genre short story. So I really loved um having the opportunity to write different types of short story. Like, my first story that was ever published was in woman's day and it was a romance story of 800 words. Um, and it was my first, you know, romance publication credit, and it was just wonderful to sort of get that recognition of, oh, I can write this type of thing. Um, and then I sort of started writing crime and, uh, getting my short stories published on crime, uh, journals, um, and I was like, oh, I can do that too, that's something I can explore. And so each opportunity sort of gave me that confidence where it's like, oh, that's something I can do. Um, when I first started, I was submitting and getting published in literary journals and that's what I was aspiring to, and so it really, you know, gave me that sense of confidence of, oh, I can write that sort of thing, I can do those deep things, and so that's a really great opportunity to sort of try.
Mimic: 48:31
Another way of doing it is to read short stories and to read. To sort of try Another way of doing it is to read short stories and to read you know how a writer has constructed that short story and use that as a source of inspiration and mimic that structure or adapt that theme or adapt a character from them and extend it. At the end of the day, we get inspiration from everything and so you know, you can see what when you're reading, what inspires, what tickles your muse. Some ways that you can get started with short stories is you know, start with a strong image or an idea, a single moment, a piece of dialogue. Sometimes when I'm experimenting and doing writing workshops, so you know, with my students I do a found story where I give them elements like a character, conflict, you know a place, and they have to try and imagine what that is might be as a story. I give them first sentences and then they do that stream of consciousness and they try and write a short story based on that first line. So you can engage in that sort of experimentation for yourself too. There are some online forums and online communities where you get prompts and you write to a prompt.
Experiment: 49:51
I remember once when I was really feeling in a very disconnected place with my writing. I took part in 30 Days of Poetry and I wrote a poem every day for 30 days, and it was a completely new form. It was something that I hadn't really done as a writer. I'd obviously written tragic poetry when I was a teenager, but I hadn't really gone back to it much when I became, when I sort of became a writer and entered this world, and it really created the opportunity for me to find little points of inspiration and experiment with form and experiment with voice and just find the joy of it. And I also did submit some of those poems and I did get um, those poems, uh, some poems, published, um, and that was also wonderful, uh, to see, and I do have plans at some point to do a short story, a collection of my poems, um, because you know, I don't know that it will sell, but for me it will just be a great opportunity to sort of do things for myself and to put my writing out there in a new format. And also now I'm learning about creating books with images and doing different things with formatting, um. So that's something that I might come back to and that's the other thing.
Challenge yourself: 51:12
You keep writing and keep experimenting and as you embark on this journey as a writer and you're in it for a few decades. There's a lot of work, a big body of work that you have and a lot of opportunities that you can do different things with it. So you know nothing is wasted. Don't ever think of any of your writing as wasted. It's all helping you grow and it's all helping you become who you are and find who you are, and you don't know when you'll go back to it and use it for something else. You can use constraints, so challenge yourself to write a 500-word story.
Learning from others: 51:50
So I remember we had different writers coming into this course that I was doing and talking about the different short stories that they wrote. And they came in and they were talking about flash fiction and I had not really known anything about flash fiction. So flash fiction are like really short pieces. There are some that are even like you know, where they expect 100 words could be 500 words, it could be 300 words. So it's trying to get a short story into as short a story as you can. One of the things I love doing with my writers is can a short story be six words? And then I show them short stories that are six words and they can see how words have power as how, even if a short story is six words, you could really capture depth. So, for example, baby shoes never worn, um, I don't know if that's the full story, but uh, you know, look up six word short stories and you can see how they um really have resonance and you're able to inhabit this world even in something so small. And so I challenged myself to write some flash fiction and I had success with that when I had um short stories published that were flash fiction, um, and so that was really heartening and a lot of fun. Also, because you know you're writing very short form and experimenting and sort of really looking at the power of words and the weight of words With a short story.
Begin in the middle: 53:26
Begin in the middle. You know they don't need a long set up. You're starting the heart of the story as close to the ending as possible. It is a short story. So you know you don't need a lot of exposition, a lot of things in the beginning. So just start close to. You know the middle Focus on only one character or conflict.
No subplots: 53:46
So, unlike novels, short stories don't have the opportunity for subplots. You have to cull them. So even when I've taken chapters from my novel to rework as short stories, I've had to cull anything in there that is a subplot, that is, you know, contributing to the novel, and really make it just about that story and about that moment that I'm telling. So you know if you're adding extra things, extra subplots, you know if you're adding extra things, extra subplots, take them out. It needs to be one character, one plot, one image and edit ruthlessly. It really is important about that precision of words, about really capturing the essence of the story. When you are writing a novel, obviously you need moments of shades of light and dark. You want those moments where characters are just sort of talking and connecting and it's giving us insight into characterization and you can do that because it is long form and that is what readers also love about it. But when you're writing a short story, there's no space for that. Everything that is in that story needs to contribute to what that plot is and what the purpose of that story is. Anything that does not needs to be cut ruthlessly, okay. So that's why writing short stories is wonderful and a great opportunity. So some closing remarks.
Short stories helped me: 55:13
Short stories have really been foundational in my career as a traditionally published author. They helped me build my voice, build my portfolio, build my confidence, my literary CV and the foundations of becoming a published author. Now, as an indie author, they give me other opportunities. They give me promotional opportunities in terms of using them as a reader magnet, looking for publishing opportunities, although I'm sort of not doing that as much because I'm more focused with my author business, but there are still opportunities there. So you know, it's a really great way of opening doors. Um, I would really you know, look at you, encourage you to look at your writing journey and wherever you are and see um, you know how writing short stories can help develop your craft and improve your craft. I think at any space on your writing journey they can do that for you. So I would really want you to think about how can this help you in your writing journey.
Shownotes: 56:24
So I just wanted to remind you that there are show notes on my website. So amrapajaliccom slash podcast website. So amrapajaliccom slash podcast a-m-r-a-p-a-j-a-l-i-c slash podcast. You will find the show notes, but you will also find handouts that reference some of the things that I talked about in this episode so that you can use them and find, you know, opportunities for yourself. And also I'm creating um author guides and how to based on these episodes. So if you wanted to, um get those that can also help you in your writing journey.
My collection The Cuckoo's Song: 57:05
Um, if you wanted to, you can also, you know, check out my collection and check out complication great examples of um. You know different short stories and way to write them. Um, and, you know, look for other writers also. Um, you know there are a lot of really famous writers and their short stories online that you can access and that you can read and that will really help you with that development of craft. Um, please touch base with me, connect with me online. Um write a comment on my podcast show notes. Uh, tell me you know about your short story, uh experiences and your writing journey. Um and how uh this is helping you. Thank you for joining me. Thank you for tuning into am to Amra's Armchair Anecdotes. If you enjoyed today's episode, don't forget to subscribe and follow for more insights, stories and inspiration From my armchair to yours. Remember, every story begins with a single word.
Handout
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