Everybody is different. Personally, before I had been given an opportunity to write a short story, or even had any desire to write a short story, had anyone asked me what my perception was of short story writing, I would respond that I thought it was probably quite easy - that it was certainly an easier mode of writing to pursue.

Roll forward a couple of years and I now find myself eating my words. Having initially tried and failed to write a number of short stories, I then found myself attending various workshops to try to understand why I was failing so miserably at grasping this art. And so, through a lot of study and practice I slowly learnt that there is indeed a large amount of skill required when it comes to writing short stories, and that patience with both the story and the pace at which the story is born are crucial to your short story writing success.

There are lots of reasons why short stories are hard to write:

• There is often an under-estimation of just how hard short stories are to write. This in itself is a hindrance, because it means that a lot of individuals approach the task of short story writing when they are under-prepared and with over expectations of their ability to fulfil the task in hand.

• Lack of preparation. Writing a short story well is an art; it requires study and practice. Many people find it difficult to write a short story because they haven't spent sufficient time reading other short story writers, or looking into the skills and techniques needed to grasp short story writing.

• A difficulty in jumping right into the action! Short stories are by default…short!! This means that you are limited in the number of words that you have available for setting the scene at the beginning of the piece, and so you must be brave and leap right into the action. For writers who are used to writing longer novellas or novels, this can be challenging.

• The need to use diction well. Some short stories don't use any diction, relying solely on the narrator to guide the reader through the story. Others use diction as the focus of the text, and this helps set the pace, action and tone of the piece. But with only a few hundred or thousand words at your disposal, the use of diction has to be perfect if it is going to work as the driving force throughout the story.

• The need to use language well. For those stories that steer away from the use of diction as the driving force of the story, descriptive language needs to take centre stage. But as with diction, the use of words and thus the use of time are limited significantly in a short story. Often individuals find it very difficult to write a short story because they find it very hard to make every word of language count.

So in short, writing short stories is difficult as you need to be as well prepared as you would be for writing a novel and above all make sure that every word really counts.