"I love short stories," says Ian Rankin. "I love writing them and reading them. Every novelist I know likes the short story form, and they're great admirers of people who do it well." Here are three of his writing tips:

CUT THE SLACK

2,000 words doesn't sound like very much. So what can you leave out? "A short story is a fantastic discipline for a writer. You've got to try to get across as much information as possible in very few words. Write something down, then start taking out a word or a phrase. Does the passage still makes sense? You'll be surprised how much you can take out, and at the end it's usually better."

GRAB THE READER'S ATTENTION

A good novel seizes the reader's attention in the first chapter, but a short story doesn't have that long. Have you hooked your reader in the first sentence, or the first paragraph? Are they compelled to read on? "The opening sentence is the most important sentence in a short story," says Rankin. "You've got to grab the reader from the very start. You usually do that with an arresting opening sentence, they need to be compelled to go to the second sentence, then the third."

THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX

"Short stories are a great laboratory. You're free to experiment. You can take risks. It's all about experimenting with different voices, perspectives and time frames. You can write short stories set in the future or in the past. A crime story doesn't have to be about a detective, it can be from the bad guy's point of view. It could be morally ambiguous, or light-hearted. You don't need a whodunit element, you need a central character who is coming up against a situation they've never had to deal with before."

Source: Scotsman