Short Stories
Short stories are generally around 2000 to 4000 words in length. Although they can be significantly longer. Many short stories are created to comply with competition word counts which can vary the story lengths considerably.
Below are the openings to a couple of my short stories, as well as links to the full version and other short stories. I hope you enjoy reading them.
The opening to 'My Name Is Tony'
Finding the back door open, Tony went outside. He liked being outside; inside was hot and stuffy, but here the garden was warm and sunny and wide open. He could hear the birds singing and all sorts of other interesting noises. It was the churning and clunking from the side of the house that made him go to investigate. But all was quiet when he got there, except the gate swinging on its hinges.
'The gate's normally shut.' he thought and taking the opportunity to explore, went through into the front garden. He could hear the churning noise again, but quieter than before. Outside the front gate he saw a large lorry, with men feeding bags into the back of it. 'Dustmen.' he thought.
Tony was outside; he never went out on his own. He got close to the lorry, when the men were away, it seemed exciting, but it smelt horrible - of cabbage or worse. This put him off looking in the lorry.
You can read the whole short story here. This was written in 2013 and appeared in a West Sussex Writers Anthology publshed in 2017.
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The Flat
What would you do if you found a body in your bath one morning, while you were cleaning your teeth. This is the story of what happened to Jenny.
Read the full story here
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