Jen
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Why is Worldbuilding in a Short Story so Tricky?
Here, I talk about worldbuilding as being the creation of an alternative reality and world rather than a reality built on Earth. The problems with worldbuilding within a short piece of fiction come because there is barely enough words to build the story you want in the current world, let alone a place that is…
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Why Writing a Short Story is Harder Than Writing a Novel
Have you ever had to deal with people saying ‘At least short story writing is easier than novel writing’? Dan and I write short stories as well as publish them and this comment is one we hear often. On the surface, this is an understandable assumption to make. Short stories involve far fewer words than…
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The Secret to Turning a Rejection into an Acceptance
From experiencing both sides of the rejection process, I know that they are not easy to give or receive. I’ve written some short stories that I felt were pretty good and they have been knocked back by magazine after magazine. Now, after being heavily involved in Firewords, the reasons for some of our rejections led…
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Meet the Team: Dan, Editor
In this series of blogs we meet the team who bring you Firewords, starting with our Editor-in-Chief, Dan Burgess. (Interview by Jen Scott, Associate Editor.)Dan Burgess is a name many of you will be familiar with. Although I work with him daily, he can be a fairly reticent character (sorry, Dan). Now this is my…