Writing a publishable short story for a journal or a magazine is not easy, especially if you’re writing flash fiction, short shorts, or the very short story.

The most important thing a writer should keep in mind is that a 200-2,000-word story still must have a beginning, a middle and an end.  Within this structure there must be some sort of conflict that is brought to a believable resolution within the context of the story.  This conflict doesn’t have to be in-your-face shouting.  It can be a quiet, loving disagreement between a husband and wife or between a girlfriend and boyfriend.  Or the conflict can be internal, a protagonist having self-doubt.  Just be sure to get some conflict in there.

How the conflict will be resolved is what gives the reader a reason to keep reading.

What also gives the reader a reason for reading is whether or not there is at least one “round” character in your story.  A round character must want something; but he or she must also have some sort of internal conflict.  This internal conflict is on top of the external conflict of the story.  A “flat” character has no doubt about what is going on.  And although flat characters are necessary, if all the characters in your story are flat the reader won’t find the story very interesting.  So, make sure there is at least one round character in your story.

The other main thing a writer has to be concerned about is proofreading.  Before hitting that send button proofread your story again and again and again looking for misspellings, punctuation mistakes, bad grammar and unnecessary words.  All unnecessary words must be taken out.

If you use metaphors or similies be sure they’re original.  “Her hair was red as fire” or “He ran like a deer” or “She sang like a bird” are all cliches.  Cliches will get your story rejected so fast that “Your head will spin.”