OK.. I am curious as to how certain things work in short stories, after reading so many of them in school, i began to think of some things.
When writing a short story, what would you recommend the length to be? eg. 3,000 - 5,000.
What you will hear most often is that a short story must be as long as it is. I know that sounds a bit stupid on first glance, but essentially, when you are writing a short story, every piece should add something important to the whole. No wasted space. No dawdling. Your best bet for getting an idea of your particular genre's "sweet-spot" lengths where a sale is a touch easier would be to check out
www.duotrope.com, click on your genre, sort by pay, and click on all the top tier magazines and see what they suggest for their lengths accepted. In the end, though, your story will find its own length.
Where is the pay? What is the average pay for a good little short story?
In my genre, Sci-Fi/Fantasy, you won't be making a living off the pay. Pro-rates tend to hover around 5-7 cents per word (with a few higher), semi-pro rates around 1-2 cents per word (with a few higher). I suspect most of the other genres are similar with a handful of magazines that pay extremely sweet rates but are hideously difficult to get published in.
What NOT to do in a short story?
Don't ramble. Make it interesting. What is it about the short stories you have read that has kept your attention? What about them has lost your attention? Outside of not boring the reader, short stories can be great places to experiment with styles that will not hold up in a lengthier novel. So just have fun with your writing.
Finally, is the system for getting your short published the same as a books?
Not quite. In the short story world, you submit your stories to each market, wait for a response, and then submit to a new market if that response is rejection. And there will generally be a lot of rejection. For example, according to my spreadsheet, my stories which have found a home have averaged about 6 rejections each before finding that home. Which doesn't speak for the stories I've had to retire for submission because they are so bad. But my writing has grown over time, so I expect fewer total rejections on my more recent stories than on my older ones, some of which I have finally retired from submission after realizing they are rather hideous beasts themselves. So you submit, wait, submit again, wait, and during all of that write more short stories so you don't go bonkers waiting on one response.
If you decide to try your hand at short stories, when you have finished your first draft and edited it as much as you can, try posting it in SYW, and the gang in there will help you examine where your writing can improve. I definitely suggest doing as much as you can personally to your story before posting it for others, though, because critiquing takes a lot of time out of people, so it is not polite to waste their time commenting on things you already know are "wrong".
Most of all, if you are going to write some short stories, have fun with them.
-Michelle
