How to Write Short Stories And Use Them to Further Your Writing Career (Bell on Writing)

I learned some new things that inspired my imagination.Read it twice. May read it again. Great book.I am working on a new story now,

Good nook to get started with short stories. The short stories are helpful, but maybe one less story another chapter on instruction.

Well put and easily understood to improve my reader’s emotional bonding with my protagonists

I have enjoyed several of James Scott Bell’s books on writing and, while this one has a few good tips and insights, it also has a lot of padding.While the chapter offering step-by-step instructions on how to publish to Amazon seemed almost like filler, the second half of the book is nothing but a short collection of short stories. While this might be useful as a reference for some readers, it strikes me more as padding out the page count with works from the public domain (and one by the author himself). Perhaps this was a missed opportunity to for the author to break down and analyze each work to better fortify the advice he gives in previous chapters?Whatever the case, there are still words of wisdom in the book, and I am glad yo have read it. I just was not expecting a short book on writing short stories to contain a short collection of them.

I must preface this review by making it clear that I’m posting an unpaid review as a person who mainly plans on writing stories as a side career to my full-time job. This kindlebook of How To Write Short Stories And Use Them to Further Your Writing Career by James Scott Bell appealed to me because I write short freestyle stories for fun, which has also helped other areas of my life in creative ways (i.e. spiritual benefits such as more lucid dreams that have helped me see into what may be taking place in my life in the near future andor ideas on how to prepare for it if the event is to take place regardless). I have freely posted some of my freestyle stories on my blogs and I’m ready to create opportunities to take my short story writing to another level. Fortunately, this kindlebook appeared in an Amazon recommendation to me as I was becoming even more aware that I’m going to have to create more opportunities for myself (courtesy of me also being exposed to Don’t Wait For Opportunity, Create It by S. Baker). Some of the following informative details in this content packed kindlebook; keeping your joy alive by just writing something for the fun of it, details on the Amazon kindle select program, places to go for writing prompts such as the mention of the Writer’s Digest website, using short stories for imagination building, an example of a short story from the mention of Girls In Their Summer Dresses by Irvin Shaw, other short stories for more examples in this kindlebook for writing short stories, and more.

Short, concise, informative, and entertaining. James Scott Bell, in "How to Write Short Stories And Use Them To Further Your Writing Career" provides the most basic explanations without talking down to the reader. He defines the short story and fully explains its structure and the elements that make a story work. He uses examples of excerpts and full stories, including one of his own, showing he definitely practices what he preaches.But there is much more. Designed for the 21st century, Bell describes using technology such as the Kindle platform, and discusses methods of publication and promotion. Step-by-step instructions on marketing are given. Here, too, it is obvious Bell practices what he preaches.Covering the full gamut, this book looks at high tech and low tech applications. There is a how-to chapter that presents a variety of low-tech methods of creating a story, from developing ideas to building characters, settings, and themes. The reader is introduced to prompts and lists and other ways writers get ideas.Bell seems much like a writer's writer. He knows the craft and the business. He understands the past and has a firm hold on the present. He is not afraid to share. I will be reading more of his nonfiction and fiction.

I recently attended an MFA program open house and, as a novelist, was conferring with a short story writer. I mentioned that I just could not wrap my head around the concept of writing a short story. They, in turn, said they had the same problem with novel length work. I've been wanting to read a resource that specifically dealt with writing the short story.Lo & behold, on November 11, I get the email notification of JSB's latest book launch. I was expecting him to resolve the mystique of the short story. But, as Mr. Bell teaches in all of his book, it's not mystique, but technique. And laser focus. This book is a quick read, so won't bust your time budget (or give you an excuse to avoid your own writing for very long 8-)In addition to getting straight to the heart of successful short fiction, Mr. Bell takes the extra steps of giving you some brainstorming ideas, of teaching how to put short fiction to work in the totality of your publishing career, as well as providing 4 short story examples at the end of the book. The first 2 were excellent short story examples. The last two---call it preference, but I would not use those stories as examples to refer to.This book gets high marks from me because between his short and simple explanation of the crux of good short fiction, then providing a couple good examples of short stories, it really helps create a more solid understanding in my mind of the perceived mysteries of short fiction writing. I can't wait to try it out for myself! 8-) There are some typos in the text, but it's not a deal breaker. The teaching and examples remain solid.I recommend.

The advice this book has to offer is literally summed up in a single sentence, the content of which is no great revelation if you have read anything else about story. There is almost nothing about structure beyond the broadest generalisations and the text is substantially over in just 39 of those advertised 112 pages.The remainder of the text is some advice on publishing and a pointless rehash of Amazon's own instructions on how to publish on a Kindle. The rest of the book is a bunch of example short stories with no commentary on how they represent the ideas presented in the text.

I have read many books on the art of novel writing because the long story form has always been of deep interest to me. When I started out on my short story and novel writing course in August last year, my first assignment was to research the short story market and find out the submission details for at least ten publications in my genre. For the next part of this assignment I had to write my own short and send it to my tutor, along with the list of publications and websites I had found. The research was easy, but when it came to getting down to the writing of the story I realised that I didn't have a clue where to start. All of the books I had read on the craft had been about writing novels.Thanks to this amazing little book by James Scott Bell, I have gained the confidence to finally get my short stories out of my head and into the world.A must read for anyone interested in the short story form.

Being at a cross-roads in my writing career, as well as a long-time fan of James Scott Bell, this short book gave plentiful food for thought. A more detailed guide to short story writing would be needed to take one much further in the creative process, but his 'shattering' concept & e-marketing scheme both seem excellent ideas. Clearly laid out & easily readable as always.

This book is pretty short on content. I was expecting a little more. It was well written and succinct about explaining what makes a short story work. I just wish the book itself wasn't such a short story.

I'm going through all of JSB's books on writing and they are all brilliant reads. This has inspired me to write more of my own short stories.