The fabulous flash fiction writer Simon Larter sold another of his short stories to an anthology for science fiction. I believe that's his third such sale, so congratulations to one of my critting partners!
This reminded me that I have long tried to prod myself to write some short fiction in order to get a couple sales to have on my bio. The problem is that short fiction doesn't come naturally to me. When I think up stories, they always seem to be in novel-sized lengths. I think I even write better in the long form. With novels I can sprinkle in exposition in subtle ways that don't jar the reader, while in short stories I have trouble figuring out how to get everything across to the reader without turning dialogue into excuses to provide exposition.
Today I took a look at my three attempts at short stories, each in varying stages of completeness. None make me feel good the way my novels do, but I see some promise in them, if I can just nail down where exactly I need to improve them. So I began polishing and fleshing them out. Perhaps my crit buddies can help a little, if I'm lucky.
Any of you out there masters of short story telling? If you'd like to read mine in their rough form and give me advice, just let me know!