If you dig into a writing group, you’ll likely discover two camps: short story writers and novelists. Short story writers specialize in a greater number of short pieces of fiction (let’s say up to 10,000 words), while novelists spend their time writing fewer long works (an “average” adult novel is 80,000 – 100,000 words). Writers in both of these camps basically want the same thing: to improve their craft and to be published and read.

Many writers move between camps, if you will. Some view short story writing as practice for eventual novel writing. Novelists may view short stories as a way to hone their skills without spending months to years on a single story.

I’m part of that last group.

I wrote three short-ish novels before I decided to write a short story. I didn’t really know how to write a short story – I may or may not…