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Write Short Stories - And Get Them Published: Teach Yourself
Written by one of the country's leading experts on the short story, this book is ideal if you want to write creatively in a genre that is increasingly attracting attention from publishers, and which offers plenty of competition and festival opportunities for you to showcase your work.This new edition includes uptodate material on web resources and outlets and provides new information on self-publishing. In addition it discusses genres such as micro-fiction, and throughout is fully updated with new resources, events, slams and competitions.It will help unlock your imagination and creativity, and to discover stories you didn't know you had. It will help you to observe the world around you more sharply, as well as to structure, shape and polish your story. It is full of practical exercises that will both inspire imagination and refine skills, and confidence-building suggestions and hints.
208 pages, CD-ROM
First published November 25, 2011
22 people are currently reading
342 people want to read
About the author
Zoë Fairbairns
22 books15 followersZoe Fairbairns was born in England on 20 December 1948, and educated at the University of St. Andrews, Scotland, and the College of William and Mary, USA. She has worked as a freelance journalist and a creative writing tutor, and is the former poetry editor of Spare Rib. She has also held appointments as Writer in Residence at Bromley Schools (1981-3 and 1985-9), Deakin University, Geelong, Australia (1983), Sunderland Polytechnic (1983-5) and Surrey County Council (1989).
Her first novel, Live as Family, written when she was seventeen, was published in 1968, and her second, Down: An Explanation (1969), was published a year later while she was still at university. Both novels employ a first-person narrative to explore issues of personal and community responsibility. Her short stories have been included in many anthologies, including Tales I Tell My Mother: A Collection of Feminist Short Stories (1978) and Brilliant Careers (2000). She has also contributed to poetry anthologies, including The Faber Book of Blue Verse (1990). In the 1970s her writing centred on environmental and social concerns, and she produced reports for CND and Shelter. In 1984, with James Cameron, she published Peace Moves: Nuclear Protest in the 1980s, an account of the anti-nuclear protest movement.
Benefits (1979), a tense, dystopian novel, marked her return to fiction and to women's issues, and five further novels, which consolidated her reputation as a feminist writer, followed: Stand we at Last (1983), spans 120 years and three continents and chronicles the lives of five generations of women against a background of Victorian repression, prostitution, the suffragette movement, the devastation of war and the rise of the women's movement; Here Today (1984), which was awarded the 1985 Fawcett Society Book Prize, is an exploration of feminist themes in a crime setting; Closing (1987), is a sharp portrait of working women caught between feminisim and Thatcherism; and Daddy's Girls (1992), is a saga of three sisters in a family full of guilty secrets. Zoe Fairbairns' most recent novel, Other Names, was published in 1998. Her latest book is a collection of short stories, How Do You Pronounce Nulliparous? (2004).
From the author's website:
Born:
England, 1948.
Family:
Second of three daughters.
Parents:
Conscientious. Furious. Funny. Gave great parties. Had huge rows. Got divorced.
Religion:
Born with an open mind. Christened into Church of England. Educated by Catholic nuns. (Don’t ask. Or Click here) Secularist.
Employment status? (Employed full-time, employed part-time, unemployed, self-employed, retired?)
All of the above.
Blog, Twitter, Facebook?
None of the above. But I welcome friendly, interesting, emails from friendly, interesting people, and I do my best to reply in kind.
Contact her at: zoe@zoefairbairns.co.uk
Her first novel, Live as Family, written when she was seventeen, was published in 1968, and her second, Down: An Explanation (1969), was published a year later while she was still at university. Both novels employ a first-person narrative to explore issues of personal and community responsibility. Her short stories have been included in many anthologies, including Tales I Tell My Mother: A Collection of Feminist Short Stories (1978) and Brilliant Careers (2000). She has also contributed to poetry anthologies, including The Faber Book of Blue Verse (1990). In the 1970s her writing centred on environmental and social concerns, and she produced reports for CND and Shelter. In 1984, with James Cameron, she published Peace Moves: Nuclear Protest in the 1980s, an account of the anti-nuclear protest movement.
Benefits (1979), a tense, dystopian novel, marked her return to fiction and to women's issues, and five further novels, which consolidated her reputation as a feminist writer, followed: Stand we at Last (1983), spans 120 years and three continents and chronicles the lives of five generations of women against a background of Victorian repression, prostitution, the suffragette movement, the devastation of war and the rise of the women's movement; Here Today (1984), which was awarded the 1985 Fawcett Society Book Prize, is an exploration of feminist themes in a crime setting; Closing (1987), is a sharp portrait of working women caught between feminisim and Thatcherism; and Daddy's Girls (1992), is a saga of three sisters in a family full of guilty secrets. Zoe Fairbairns' most recent novel, Other Names, was published in 1998. Her latest book is a collection of short stories, How Do You Pronounce Nulliparous? (2004).
From the author's website:
Born:
England, 1948.
Family:
Second of three daughters.
Parents:
Conscientious. Furious. Funny. Gave great parties. Had huge rows. Got divorced.
Religion:
Born with an open mind. Christened into Church of England. Educated by Catholic nuns. (Don’t ask. Or Click here) Secularist.
Employment status? (Employed full-time, employed part-time, unemployed, self-employed, retired?)
All of the above.
Blog, Twitter, Facebook?
None of the above. But I welcome friendly, interesting, emails from friendly, interesting people, and I do my best to reply in kind.
Contact her at: zoe@zoefairbairns.co.uk
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
January 19, 2013
The Teach Yourself books cater for readers of all abilities/of differing lifestyles by providing short "crash-course" style sections for busy writers or commuter readers, and each short but comprehensive chapter has a summary of "10 things to keep in mind" at the end which acts as an excellent revision tool. If this isn't enough, the book also offers plenty of exercises with which to try out the techniques described.
Following these exercises through would result in an excellent and diverse portfolio of work in itself. If you ever find yourself dry of inspiration for creative writing, a quick dip through the suggested projects provides plenty of inspiration. Fairbairns also gets you thinking outside the box and testing your limits; something every writer needs to succumb to in order to really reach creative potential.
The content takes you through all stages of writing from background information to genre, plot, style, content and editing techniques and then goes on to approach ways of publishing you work; a section which is frank and honest. Fairbairns also illustrates her points with references to plenty of short stories and anthologies which offer the reader a wealth of potential material to read for pleasure and research.
Fairbairns offers a balanced approach to her teachings of the craft with detailed explanations, examples and references told authoritatively but with humour, yet she is also refreshingly to the point and honest; encouraging yet realistic about the sort of success a writer can hope to achieve.
Following these exercises through would result in an excellent and diverse portfolio of work in itself. If you ever find yourself dry of inspiration for creative writing, a quick dip through the suggested projects provides plenty of inspiration. Fairbairns also gets you thinking outside the box and testing your limits; something every writer needs to succumb to in order to really reach creative potential.
The content takes you through all stages of writing from background information to genre, plot, style, content and editing techniques and then goes on to approach ways of publishing you work; a section which is frank and honest. Fairbairns also illustrates her points with references to plenty of short stories and anthologies which offer the reader a wealth of potential material to read for pleasure and research.
Fairbairns offers a balanced approach to her teachings of the craft with detailed explanations, examples and references told authoritatively but with humour, yet she is also refreshingly to the point and honest; encouraging yet realistic about the sort of success a writer can hope to achieve.
September 2, 2013
This book is a practical guide to writing short stories. With advice on everything from grammar and structure, characters and finding the plot, to how to actually get your stories published, this book is a useful tool for an aspiring writer.
Zoe Fairbairns' writing is humorous and straight-talking. The book is full of exercises in which Fairbairns encourages you to write outside of your comfort zone and to really push the boundaries. The tips are great.
Why, then, am I only giving this book 3 stars? The answer: typos. In this book there were numerous occasions on which I found words omitted from sentences, or additional words here and there. In an ordinary book this irritates me, but in a book advising you on how to get writing published? I would have thought "proofread" would be right up there. Pretty inexcusable.
Zoe Fairbairns' writing is humorous and straight-talking. The book is full of exercises in which Fairbairns encourages you to write outside of your comfort zone and to really push the boundaries. The tips are great.
Why, then, am I only giving this book 3 stars? The answer: typos. In this book there were numerous occasions on which I found words omitted from sentences, or additional words here and there. In an ordinary book this irritates me, but in a book advising you on how to get writing published? I would have thought "proofread" would be right up there. Pretty inexcusable.
February 12, 2013
This book is chock-full of exercises and practical advice for short fiction writers. While some of the links or markets listed are aimed primarily at British authors only, this didn't detract from the wealth of encouragement, inspiration, and examples within the book. I particularly found the "10 Things to Try" and the "10 Things to Keep in Mind" summary lists at the ends of each chapters to be useful, as were the bullet lists of what each chapter contains that precede each chapter. I'll keep this writing text on my shelf for future inspiration in my own writing and for teaching moments with my students.
October 22, 2019
3.5 Stars. Zoe Fairbairn's book contains practical advice and exercises to learn how to write short fiction stories. I enjoyed the snippets of stories scattered throughout and found this book both informative and interesting. I won Write Short Stories-and Get Them Published through Goodreads Giveaways.
October 21, 2019
I could not have wished for a better book. I have some novel drafting experience and know some of the theory behind that, but short stories are new to me. This book provided a systematic discussion of the writing process that was aimed at the writing beginner but also still had many useful tips in terms of story structure and many good writing prompts for me. I was teetering between writing another novel draft or a bunch of short stories for NaNoWriMo; now I'm determined to give the latter a try and feel confident that this will be a fun and rewarding process!
November 29, 2015
I'm doing a Creative Writing course with the Open University and as quite a few of the assignments will be of a short story nature I thought this book may be of help in guiding me in the right direction. My thoughts were justified as this book has all the best advice, exercises and examples to get you started. I'm sure I will keep referring back to this book for inspiration and to keep me on the straight and narrow.
November 19, 2015
Good example of its type. No nonsense, cut-to-the-chase advice with lots of pointers and suggestions.
November 27, 2018
Great advice and good excercises, got many useful links from this book that i will be following up, and a lot of avenues i hadn't considered. great advice
April 13, 2025
The three greatest scientific discoveries of the twentieth century were: DNA, the contraceptive pill and cut-and-paste.
This was a lovely book on short stories, absolutely full of writing prompts and ideas, I really wish I'd read it at the start of my masters in creative writing!
The only downside to this book is that some of the info about getting published is a little dated (published in 2011) but the rest of the advice is still relevant, a really helpful guide to writing a short story.
This was a lovely book on short stories, absolutely full of writing prompts and ideas, I really wish I'd read it at the start of my masters in creative writing!
The only downside to this book is that some of the info about getting published is a little dated (published in 2011) but the rest of the advice is still relevant, a really helpful guide to writing a short story.
April 20, 2022
Simple and to the point. Probably best for those who are starting out.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews