Short stories are fun to write and they don’t take much time. For example, it took me a little over one hour to write The Traveler while sitting at a table on my rooftop in Vietnam. In my opinion, short stories don’t require the detail and resolution of a full-length novel. Instead, you hit your readers with a provocative idea and let them take it from there. Stephen King is a master at this. If you’re not familiar with his short story works, check out Children of the Corn, Four Past Midnight, 1922, and The Mist, all of which went on to become movies or novellas. The real draw of…