Writing a short story – where do you start? - National Centre for Writing

Don't over-think word counts

Don't worry too much about rules, about how long the perfect piece of flash fiction should be, or the perfect short story. I think story competitions are great, it's good to have something to aim for, somewhere to send your work to, but sometimes/often stories won't obey competition word-length rules. They just have to be the length they're going to be. The more you actually write stories the more you'll find what suits your voice. I can't imagine the great American writer Lydia Davies producing a story which is as long as the stories of the great Canadian writer Alice Munro. Davies is happiest being pithy whilst Munro likes plenty of pages to roam around in.