What goes into #writing a short story? and why don’t more #Booktok creators talk about the short story? This form of fiction, I think, is more interesting than full books, and much more difficult to write, because every piece of a short story is absolutely vital. This week, I published a short story I edited at least a dozen times on my blog, I hope you’ll read it. #reading #writingtips #bookrecs
From personal experience, writing short stories is like sculpting a precious gem—each word and sentence must be carefully chosen because there is simply no room for filler or digression. Unlike novels, which can meander through broad themes and multiple plotlines, short stories require a focused approach. A story should tackle one or two main problems or themes with emotional intensity and formal precision. One thing I’ve found especially challenging is striking the right balance between brevity and depth. For example, when I was working on my own short story titled "The Old Guard," I had to edit repeatedly over a couple of years, cutting down subplots and trimming descriptions while making sure the core emotional tension remained intact. The story focuses on themes like isolation, desire, and social confrontation, set in Washington during the spring and summer of 2020. All of this had to be condensed into about four thousand words—just enough for one sitting but packed with resonance. Short stories are underestimated, especially on platforms like TikTok where BookTok creators tend to focus on longer books or nonfiction. But short stories have a powerful ability to embody what some critics call a 'rigid economy'—they deliver highly concentrated emotional or thematic questions that a novel might elaborate on with many layers. Reading classic authors such as J.D. Salinger’s "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" or John Cheever’s collections shows how masterful writers use restraint and focus to amplify emotional crises. These stories exemplify how combining a significant thematic issue with formal constraints produces unforgettable literature. For aspiring writers, I recommend dedicating ample time to revision. In my case, multiple rounds of feedback from writing groups and MFA professors were critical in honing the final draft. Accepting the necessity to remove even good content is part of the process—short stories demand ruthless editing. If you want to appreciate this form more deeply, try reading contemporary short story collections or exploring blogs that publish new work regularly. Engaging with short stories not only improves your understanding of narrative economy but also enriches your reading experience by offering powerful stories that can be finished in a single sitting.