Writing short stories is great fun, even more so when you get them published. To that end, here is a list of things that are good to do:

Short Stories For Fun and Profit

• Begin Story with Pivotal Point
• To appeal to women male characters must be emotionally accessible.
• To appeal to a man the male character must be someone that a man would follow.
• Look for the First Sentence that will suck people into the story. You need a dynamite first paragraph.
• Don’t include anything be it hardware, an idea, a weapon, computer – anything that is not used or required later in the story. Why? the reader becomes confused wher things are mentioned that don’t appear in the story.
• Don’t have the main character doing anything for nothing. Everything in the story must move the plot forward.
• Write the end of the story first. You need to know where the story is going and where and how it ends or you will never get there. You will literally write forever.
• Do not have characters that share the same first letter in their names.
• When writing fiction, especially science fiction, avoid telling us how warp drive works. No one cares or wants to know. Concentrate on the story. The interplay of the interactions between the characters. That’s where the story is.
• Avoid vulgar language unless it adds to the story, is appropriate to a character, or has some bona fide reason for being included.
• Should you choose to include foreign words or phrases please include their English translation in parenthesis. Capisci? (understand in Italian).

This list is a good start. Good luck.