Today’s guest blogger is Michael Sean Morris, a writer I know from a historical fiction email list and the words and energy behind the informative and delightful Pop Culture Institute:
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Here is where I have no legitimate experience (i.e., getting published) but have the theory down. Besides, the only reason I haven’t been published is a) insecurity, and b) I never send anything out. Once I get those licked I’ll be set.
My God in all things literary, F. Scott Fitzgerald (hallowed be thy name), used to take two, and no more than three, days to write a single short story. In his opinion they could easily be overwritten. Once you have the idea, sketch it out in one go, then flesh it out the same way, either the same day or the following. Put it away for 24 hours, final draft and send, before you get cold feet.
Whether it was innate talent, the speed involved, or simply the massive number of submissions, he managed to publish regularly enough that by the 1930s Scribner’s and the Saturday Evening Post were asking him for stories. He used the short stories to explore themes in his novels, as a quick form of currency, and, I suspect, preferred short fiction because it was easier to focus on as his brain was pickling from bootleg hooch.
Having tried his techniques (minus the booze) I find there’s something in them. If it’s not your thing, don’t force it, but consider this. Many literary journals publish short stories. The pay isn’t great, but it’s a credit with terrific cachet, and often the stories in them are excerpts from a novel in process, a testing of the waters, if you will. In fact, I’ve decided to market my own Chapter One in this way, as it may lend the entire project a momentum and credibility it doesn’t currently have (since I’m one of those loser know-nothings without a paper for my education 
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I’ve always believed that writing short stories is excellent exercise for novelists: the form foces the writer to think about word choices, characterizations, descriptions, and flow in ways that longer works (which, let’s face it, allow us to become a little sloppy) simply don’t. Even reading a lot of short stories is a good mental exercise: it keeps the focus clear.
Whatever your inspiration, try something challenging in your writing today. And then you’ll be … beyond the elements of style!
