Change the names and a few cities. Your family may still want to bitch about it but you would have taken away their one bullet.

Why not just use a Nom De Plume and change some names?

#ShortStory, #Novel, #WritingAdvice

@GrBland -- Know up front that writing compelling short stories is a bit more difficult than writing novel length. There are two fundamental reasons for that. One has to do with time and the other is approach. In a novel length piece, one has the time to flesh out characters and generate great word pictures for scenes, moods, and action. That luxury doesn't exist in the average short story, and is barely adequate in the novella.

Short stories are studies in economy of word. That is, one learns to use few words to accomplish a great deal. Short stories, by their nature, do not contain fluff to any extent and every word has to be aimed at advancing the story. There is no room for divergent plots to any great extent, either. Plot in short stories needs to be direct and as straight as possible.

So, one has to hit the ground running with fully rounded characters at the start. The approach that works best for me is to know how the story will end. Exactly what it is I want to say, that thing the reader will carry away and hopefully not forget for some time. I have been called the O. Henry of Science Fiction because I have a love for twist endings that take the reader by surprise or at least cause them to have a WTF moment. In your case, based on what you've said, your message is the most important part of the story and that means you'll have to know exactly where you're going before you write a single word.

Another thing to consider is POV. Choose carefully. Also, in the short story, that first couple to three line grabber is important. Much more important than in the novel where one can use the first paragraph or two to pull in the reader.

A good question. It's not uncommon for writers of fiction to make their protagonist effectively an avatar for themselves. So, you could reimagine those stories through a third party perspective eyes. Which also gives you more licence to add additional colour if you so wish. I'll be keen to hear how it goes.