SOURCE: Bradfield, Scott. “Art on the Short Side.” Writer's Digest 78, no. 6 (June 1998): 23-5.

In the following essay, Bradfield offers advice to aspiring fiction writers on the art of the short story.

The best part about being a short-story writer is that there's no chance anyone will try to corrupt you with money. Short stories are never sold in high six-figure paperback auctions; nobody will ever offer you a sizable advance for a short story you're thinking about writing (no matter how many serial-killers you've got in it); and in Hollywood, where producers work hard all day figuring out ways to turn down projects so they don't have to read them, stories are considered too “small” for the “big” screen.

In fact, there's so little chance that any of us foolhardy short-story writers will be corrupted by money the thought doesn't even enter our fantasy lives, and so pester...