ABSTRACT
Most fiction writers start with the short story. It gives them the opportunity to find their own voice, to learn the fundamentals of narrative composition, and, most importantly, to produce a complete piece of work over a limited timescale. If you’re aiming for a professional career, you can make your breakthrough with publication in literary magazines, on radio or through the major competitions open to unpublished manuscripts, such as the Stand competition, the Flannery O’Connor award and the Raymond Carver award. Muriel Spark first got herself noticed by winning a competition in the London Observer. Thirty years later, William Gibson was commissioned to write a novel on the strength of a single story, ‘Burning Chrome’.
