Top Tips for Short Story Writers

How can you make your short story stand out? Here is some advice from the people who know - some of the nominees and judges of this year's BBC National Short Story Award.

Jeremy Page

(nominated for Do It Now, Jump the Table)

“The secret of a good short story is it lasts 20 minutes but lingers for much longer. It might be with a sense of unravelling, or an extraordinary moment, or a beguiling image, but you should never quite finish a short story - that's for the reader to do.”

Mark Haddon

(nominated for Bunny)

Treat every story like a crime scene. Take it to pieces."

Mark Haddon

“Read voraciously and read forensically, whether it's stories you admire or stories you detest. There is a lesson in every one, tricks to steal, potholes to avoid. Treat every story like a crime scene. Take it to pieces. How many adverbs are there? How much does the narrator know? How long are the sentences? How detailed is the description of the physical world..? Because those are precisely the questions you have to answer when you're writing yourself, and if you can't read with that kind of focus it will be impossible to write with that kind of focus.”

Ian Rankin

(author and award judge)

“Don't fret about length. If you have a great idea but it's only going to stretch to a couple of pages, that's fine. The story is as long as it needs to be.”

Hilary Mantel

(nominated for The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher)

Look at your first and last paragraphs. Can you do without either or both?"

Hilary Mantel

“When editing, look at your first and last paragraphs. Can you do without either or both?”

Jonathan Buckley

(nominated for Briar Road)

“My tip would take the form of a reading list. Donald Barthelme would be there, along with Yasunari Kawabata, Diane Williams, Gyula Krúdy, Ben Marcus, Dorthe Nors, Tommaso Landolfi, Dawn Raffel, Bohumil Hrabal, Guy Davenport, Sylvia Townsend Warner and Juan Rulfo. I’d hope that the reader would arrive at the conclusion that the only rule of short story writing is that there are no rules. The possibilities of short fiction are limitless.”

Sarah Hall

(judge and 2013 winner for Mrs Fox)

“Be Ruthless.”