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 novels (so easier, right?) and, in a lot of cases, short fiction tells part of a story rather than trying to deal with the whole thing.

Well, enough is enough. Flip these ‘positives’ on their heads and you get a different picture...

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 to our previous blog, ‘Why Your Rejection Letter Means Nothing’. This might help you understand where journals come from when they decide not to publish, but today I’m interested in what you can do with this information and how you can use it when moving forward.