Feb 25, 2025
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How Long is a Short Story?
A friend on facebook asked me today just exactly what a short story is. The answer? Anything you want it to be. Okay, okay, I know, that’s not a useful answer. The difficulty with this question is that there doesn’t seem to be any one answer that is correct. I’ve done research in the past and one of the things I’ve seen is that it really depends on who you ask. For the purposes of the 2018 Short Fic Challenge - just do what feels right. If you want to give yourself a word goal or limit? Great. If you want to just kinda write the story and see what happens. That’s great too. If you sit down to write a short story and it keeps growing until it’s a novel? Congrats - you wrote a freaking novel! Meri, @merigreenleaf, and I will be here to encourage you no matter what. Want more specifics? Check these out: 1. Christopher Fielden did the research and wrote a short post about the ranges he has found for each story type - How Long is a Short Story?
2. Bookfox did some research into how long some famous stories by different authors are (as well as a nifty graphic at the end with similar info to Fielden’s post) - What is the Perfect Length for Short Stories?
3. Are you writing with the hopes of submitting it to a specific publication or contest? Great! Check their submission guidelines. They should at least have a maximum word count. (if they have no real guidelines it may not be worth your time) Hope this helps ~ Ruthie
Plotting your book using moral code
by John Matthew Fox Timeline: 0:00 Intro 0:36 Show the Central Moral Issue of Your Story 1:43 Start Challenging Your Protagonist’s Values/Morals 3:32 Show Your Protagonist Moving from Moral Weakness to Moral Strength 5:13 Create a Moral Dilemma 7:09 Showcase Moral Complexity in Dialogue 8:37 Hero Takes Dubious Moral Steps to Defeat Antagonist 10:05 Moral Decision in the Climax 11:56…
Best Writing Advice of 2025
As 2025 shutters to a close, I wanted to take a moment to reflect on some of the amazing writing/publishing gems I’ve learned from some amazing content creators in the writing community like BookFox, Alyssa Matesic, and other editors and writers who inspired me, challenged me to rethink my writing approach and grow as a writer. Here is my list of the top three writing advice I learned from 2025…
10 First Paragraph Strategies That Make Readers Drop Everything
By John Matthew Fox 0:00 Intro 0:11 Start with Character Change 1:33 Start with a Relationship 3:01 Start in the Middle of the Action 4:34 Start with Your Book’s Essence 5:27 Allude to Forthcoming Action 7:01 Start with a Broad Lens 8:37 Start with Mystery 9:34 Establish the Status Quo 10:57 Begin with a Singular Sense 12:03 Begin with a Voice John Matthew Fox, founder of Bookfox,…