Some readers have contacted me and asked for advice on how to go about writing a short story. No matter where you are in your writing there are seven tasks, call them rules that you need to be aware of.

The first is the old familiar one – write what you are interested in. When you are starting of writing this makes great sense. If it’s twenty years since you last read a romance novel then you are going to have a hard time writing about it. If you are a member of your local WI or football club then it might not be that difficult to centre a story around that environment.

When you start to develop the knack for writing then move on, you’ll be more comfortable then with research and all that goes with writing about topics you are unfamiliar with.

My second rule is find someone you can talk to, someone who will read your story, critically, and tell you what they like, and perhaps more important don’t like about your story. From a personal perspective I avoid family, they’re inclined to pho-ho your writing or tell you ‘oh that’s beautiful, that’s really good.’ Ask them what they like about it and they haven’t a clue. There is one exception here: my sister can spot a spelling mistake a mile away and much to my regret I’m awful bad at spelling.

It pays dividends, in  my view, to join a writers group, here you will get a critical appraisal of your work, you’ll be able to see how other writers are developing and you’ll be surprised at just how much you will learn watching and listening to others as they grown and develop.

My third rule, I’ve touched on it above is to check your grammar and spelling. Send a piece of work into a publisher with silly grammar mistakes, or spelling mistakes and you’ll get a rejection letter by return of post. Tip use a spell checker but don’t rely upon it.

The fourth rule is read your story out loud. You might sit at your computer and read the story into yourself twenty, thirty times and it may sound great but until you read it out aloud you won’t have an idea of how it flows. That’s another benefit of joining a writers group as you read your story to others you’ll see how the words trip off the lips.

Twice above I’ve mentioned writers group and this is my next, and perhaps my strongest recommendation join a writers group or writers class. Not only will you learn the craft of writing more quickly and have your bad habits spotted but you’ll have support there when you need it.

My last two rules of the road kind of run hand in hand. The first is read short stories, and the second is write short stories.

If you don’t read how can you expect to master the genre. You wouldn’t expect to make the grade as a doctor if you didn’t have hands on experience, why should it be any different with writing?

And of course if you don’t write how can you expect to get rid of all those nasty little gremlins that lie within you. Again it’s like a doctor if he only examined patients when he felt like it well he’d never make it as a doctor.

As far as writing is concerned I strongly suggest you find a time and place and write for a fixed amount of time. It might only be half an hour, it might be at five in the morning, it might be for forty minutes before going to bed. Writing is a lonely occupation and to that end requires discipline the suggestions above will teach discipline.

That’s Kevin’s seven rules. There is one more I might add and in a sense it is more important than the rest, enjoy yourself.