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can make your breakthrough with publications in literary magazines, on radio, or through the major competitions open to unpublished manuscripts, such as the Bridport prize, the Raymond Carver award and the Commonwealth short-story prize. 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 short story, ‘Burning Chrome’.
