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Stories and short stories in particular tend to come from that ever-elusive repository filed "where I get my ideas from". If you sit down specifically to write a short story it is unlikely to come at you, because, let's face it, a keyboard and a flashing cursor aren't the most inspirational of sights.

My simple advice is, if you want to write a short story, then don't. However, if something suddenly flashes across your brain that makes you think "Heck, what a brilliant idea that is", then hold all calls and get to your favourite writing medium straight away, because if it truly is a brilliant idea then you're going to be bashing away at those keys all day and all night.

Before I dive in further, notice how this advice differs from that traditionally given to novelists - to succeed in that genre you do have to treat writing as a profession and write every day, even if your brain is bleeding from staring at a blank screen for ten hours solid. So, lucky you - you have found the spark that could turn into a self-contained mini masterpiece.

Step one is the fun part. Write it down and don't stop. If you feel you need to stop then more than likely your idea wasn't that great to begin with, so file it away under "work in progress" and hope that another angle strikes you that will make your initial idea zing anew.

Then comes step two. Save it. Then go to bed and come back a week or so later having dealt with bills and tax returns, nagging children and life in general. Examine what you wrote in some quiet moment. Unless you are an official genius, much of what you produced will suck. The grammar and choice of phrases will be all over the shop - but if you still feel that the story you told is exciting, intriguing, unique or all three then it's worth giving it another shot. Find yourself a quiet period do a rewrite. Be ruthless. No, I mean it - ruthless. Cut out everything that doesn't give depth to your characters or move the plot forward. Rinse and repeat.

What you should end up with is a short story that inspires you, is spelled correctly and has characters with whom you empathize - if you don't love it then how do you expect your readers to react?

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