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What Is a Short Story? by Jerry Jenkins
Don’t make the mistake of referring to short nonfiction articles as short stories. In the publishing world, short story always refers to fiction. And short stories come varying shapes and sizes:
Traditional: 1,500-5000 words Flash Fiction: 500-1,000 words Micro Fiction: 5 to 350 words Is there really a market for a short story of 5,000 words (roughly 20 double-spaced manuscript pages)?
Some publications and contests accept entries that long, but it’s easier and more common to sell a short story in the 1,500- to 3,000-word range.

And on the other end of the spectrum, you may wonder if I’m serious about short stories of fewer than 10 words (Micro Fiction). Well, sort of.
They are really more gimmicks, but they exist. The most famous was Ernest Hemingway’s response to a bet that he couldn’t write fiction that short. He wrote: For sale: baby shoes. Never worn.

That implied a vast backstory and deep emotion.
Writing a short story is an art, despite that they are so much more concise than novels. Which is why I created this complete guide.
How to Come Up with Great Short Story Ideas
1. Recognize the germ.
Much fiction starts with a memory—a person, a problem, tension, fear, conflict that resonates with you and grows in your mind. 
That’s the germ of an idea that can become your story.
2. Write it down.
Write your first draft to simply get the basics of the story down without worrying about grammar, cliches, redundancy or anything but the plot.
3. Create characters from people you know.
Characters come from people you’ve or have known all your life (relatives). 
Brainstorming interesting, quirky, inspiring, influential people and mix and match their looks, ages, genders, traits, voices, tics, habits, characteristics. The resulting character will be an amalgam of those.
4. Get writing.
The outlining and research has to end at some point.  
You’ve got to start getting words onto the page.
Interested in reading more about these strategies? Click here to read my in-depth blog post on how to come up with story ideas.
How to Structure Your Short Story
Regardless whether you’re an Outliner or a Pantser like me (one who writes by the seat of their pants),  I recommend a basic story structure.
It looks like this, according to bestselling Dean Koontz:
Plunge your main character into terrible trouble as soon as possible. (That trouble will mean something different depending on your genre. For a thriller it might be life-threatening. For a romance it might mean choosing between two suitors.) Everything your character does to try to get out of the trouble makes it only worse. Eventually things appear hopeless. Finally, everything your character has learned through all that trouble gives him what he needs to win the day—or fail . That structure will keep you—and your reader—engaged.