1. Something must change in a short story. Something must happen. It can’t end with everyone being exactly the same as when it began. Readers expect to go on some kind of a journey. Take them there.
2. You must know how it is going to end before you start. We have all spent years of our life meandering hopelessly through writing short stories hoping to find the end. The story could go on for ever unless you know where it’s heading.
3. You can’t have too many characters in a short story, there just isn’t time to introduce them. Think of it as a play with a small cast. Not too much description or detail. Concentrate on what happens or how moods change.
4. Pretend someone has asked you to describe your short story in one sentence. If you can’t do that, it often means that it’s too complicated. Or that you haven’t thought it through.
5. Make your characters interesting: make them people that you’d want to know more about. It’s a bad idea to write about boring people, dull folk or wordless creatures. Readers can yawn very easily: try not to give them any excuse to yawn at your story.
6. Write what you know. That way you won’t get caught out. I tried very hard to write a short story about revenge. I’m not good at revenge, I’m too lazy. It was a failure. Similarly, I don’t write about high fashion, banking or group sex.
7. Read other people’s short stories not to copy them or steal them but to see what works. Try William Trevor, Alice Munro, Jane Gardam and Roddy Doyle. You will learn what works well. Don’t get depressed, just write your own.
8. Remember if you are Irish or live in Ireland you have a headstart. People love telling stories and listening to them.
9. Sorry for sounding like a school teacher – old habits die hard – but if you don’t start now and try one, you will never know whether you can write a short story. They don’t write themselves, you have to start them and finish them.
10. You are halfway there already.