Getting started in the shorties again

I think the best way to get into writing anything, whether it's a different length piece or a different genre, is to start reading that thing. Read short stories and your mind will become accustomed to them again.

relax.... and let your mind wander - it will lead you to your story ;-P

I agree with bsolah. Granny over at WN used to advocate what she called "the short story diet": read nothing but short stories for the period of a month. You'll internalize the form and come up with tons of ideas--it really works!

My suggestions, for what they're worth:

1. Pick up a collection of shorts, Best American Short Stories (they publish one annually), O'Henry Awards, Pushcart, or something like an Asimov magazine if you want to write genre, and read then from beginning to end once, then go back and read them again and analyse the POV, voice, characterization, use of language etc. to see how the writers did what they did.

2. Now start writing. Set yourself a goal - one a day/week/month. They don't have to be good, just written to a point where you feel you've got a good first draft.

3. Don't rearead them or edit them. Just keep accumulating stories for a week/month/three months until your writing muscle is more flexible.

4. Read 'Fiction in General and Short Stories in Particular' by Rust Hills or Janey Burroway's book on fiction or any other fiction how-to recommended by fellow writers.

5. Learn a little about the Hero's Journey which offers a good framework for developing stories that respond to human's intuitive needs. (The Writer's Journey by Christopher Vogler' is a useful book.)

6. Find some writing peers who are also writing short stories and share your work.

7. Keep reading short stories wherever you find them.

8. Keep track of snippets, germs, sights and scenes that in themselves might not offer a complete story but will provide fodder for something once 'the other shoes drops'.

9. Have fun. Short stories are a great way to switch from one preoccupation or idea to another in a short time, so you never need get bored by what you're writing.

Hope this helps.

LP

A strong emotional jolt can sometimes get a story going - I thrive on revenge stories (for imagined slights, paranoid delusions and minor traffic faux pas) but I can get a story out of the shock of seeing a car accident or the indignation I feel watching the news.

I dip into the emotional sludge to get cups of stories.