Love short stories. I’ve been reading — and writing them, sporadically — since I was at school. Recently came back to writing them again, first through songwriting, then poetry, then flash fiction — and now back to some longer form short stories, the connecting influence between all genres being a love of storytelling. Your article is such a useful reminder on how to approach the writing of short and flash fiction. Also love the quote from Raymond Carver — I’ve been re-reading a lot of his short stories and poetry of late, trying to write short fiction like a poet. I also love Alice Munro’s writing — the novelistic breadth and depth in shorter pieces of work. I’m bookmarking your article for hints, when I next get stuck writing one of my own!

Oh — and your suggestion to use short fiction to explore a character? I’ve been meaning to do that for a while, in relation to the beginnings of a play I started late last year, to help me deeper explore the characters and their motivations. Thanks also for the reminder on that!