Why Short Stories Are My Favorite To Write

and some fun facts about them!

When you think of a famous writer, who do you think of?

Maybe you think of Arthur Conan Doyle or Agatha Christie, both of whom established firm roots in the mystery genre? Or perhaps Louisa May Alcott, whose book Little Women gained hundreds of readers in a short period of time? Or Jane Austen, who is now known as one of the best Regency writers of all time?

You probably know that each of these writers have very impressive accolades and have written splendid books (most of which I’ve read!). But what if I told you that each of these writers ALSO wrote short stories…and some of those short stories would go on to define their careers for the better?

In this post, I’m going to talk about short stories: their history, some of the most well-known ones, and how they’ve helped me in my writing. There’s a lot to get through, so let’s get started!

Here are some fun facts about short stories.

• Short stories started as oral traditions, mainly for the Greeks, who told a TON of famous short stories such as “The Iliad” and “The Odyssey.”

• The first written short stories were discovered in Egypt, dating back to 2000 BCE.

• In the early 6th century BCE, the Greeks revolutionized the short story when they created Aesop’s fables, many of which still exist today as morals for what to do (and what not to do).

• After the fall of the Greek empire, there was a steady decline of short stories that continued into the late Middle Ages and beyond.

• Short fiction took off again in the 19th and 20th centuries after a long decline: many famous authors like F. Scott Fitzgerald, P.G. Wodehouse, James Joyce, Agatha Christie, and Dorothy Sayers wrote short stories for newspapers to pay bills.

• Some of the best short stories of all time include “The Lottery”, “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allen Poe, “A Rose For Emily” by William Faulkner, “The Metamorphosis” by Franz Kafka, and “The Gift of the Magi” by O. Henry.

Sources: 1, 2, 3

I personally love writing short stories because they challenge me. For short stories, the general rule is 1,000 to 10,000 words. Any more and it would be a novella; any less and the story would be microfiction. It’s super fun (and stretches my brain) to have a strict word limit! It makes each of my words that much more important.

I’ve written a short story every summer for the past three years for a writing class. My first short story was about a boy living in an orphanage during World War II, and rereading it now, there are countless errors with voice, tenses, characters, etc. But each short story I’ve written since then has helped my writing grow.

In 2023, I wrote a multi-POV mystery story with a sweet romance and fantasy elements. I loved being able to make up whatever I wanted with fantasy (versus all the historical accuracy and fact checking I had to do with historical fiction). At that point in my life, I KNEW that fantasy was the genre I was meant to write.

For the summer of 2024, I wrote a backstory to one of my characters in my work in progress who hasn’t yet appeared in my series. I had never written about him before, so I loved getting to know the character in more depth by using the short story as my medium. It forced me to really think deeply about who he was and how he would show his personality in such a tight word limit.

I also wrote a brand new story that’s getting PUBLISHED this year! (I can’t tell you too much about it yet, but it’s also fantasy, if you were wondering!)

Short stories have helped me grow as a writer. They take my ideas and make them into something concrete. They provide a jumping off point that I can come back to when I’m feeling stuck. They get me thinking about my characters and how they will grow and change in a short period of time. They shake up my writing as I try new dynamics to experiment within the format. They’re also one of the best indicators that my writing is getting better; looking back at my short stories over the past three years, they’ve steadily improved. And they’re one of my favorite things to write!

I’d love to know if short stories have helped you grow in your writing too! Have you read any of the ones I listed above? Pop a comment below!

Would you like more writing resources? Check out My Writing Compilation Post!

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