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Short stories are almost always written to a word count, and getting the story down while staying within this word count is something you have to keep in the back of your mind at all times. Looking back, although I haven't always taken my own advice, I'd always recommend writing a short story plotted to exact length. None of this, "well, I can always expend it for a novel if I want."

Mind you, I've done that a couple times, and both those novels are the ones I've written that never sold. Maybe they would with more work, but pooh! After working up two complete stories with the same characters and plot, I lost interest and it showed.

Way back when, I started out writing science fiction/fantasy stories, and sent them off to the appropriate magazines. I'll admit, I never got one published, but I did receive some decent feedback on them. Enough to keep me encouraged. The last one, though, told me that if I changed my adversaries to Indians, and my locale from space to a ranch, I'd be writing a western. When one considers most people call Star Wars a space western, that doesn't seem so bad, but it didn't fly with this particular editor. His words got me thinking. It's a fact I know more about animals than space aliens, more about and land and crops than light years and mass, and gravitational pull, so I might as well turn to what I knew most about.

That's where Liar's Trail came from, a genuine, old-fashioned western. But being female, I didn't see anything wrong with a woman taking a strong part, and so I made her the honcho, However, being aware that men didn't do much business with young women, I kept her dead father in the background, obstentiously running the show through her. Did it work? I've had a lot of people say so, and it was a 2004 Eppie finalist in the western category.

It also seems to prove to a certain degree the old adage that says stick with writing about what you know--at least to some degree.

Still, all was not lost when it came to short stories. I gave up on science fiction, although after several years of further writing experience I've still got a notion to rework one of those sitting in the bottom of my reject drawer. I went on to base a western short on a fact, and wound up a finalist for the 2007 Spur Award in short fiction. (The Spur is awarded by Western Writers of America.) I will admit I figured the story for a specific word length and to end it there. It seemed to work. Another short western was a runner up in another contest a few years ago, and I'm getting decent feedback on a couple others. My advice is, write short stories or novels, but don't try to make the same subject matter work for both.

C.K.Crigger
www.ckcrigger.com
http://ckcrigger.blogspot.com