You learn by writing short stories. Keep writing short stories. The money’s in novels, but writing short stories keeps your writing lean and pointed. – Larry Niven

As a short story writer, I can’t help but be a little disheartened here, but Larry has said nothing that any writer doesn’t know already.  So I will continue to chop away at the tree of my stories and find the meaty pulp of life somewhere inside it.

A little quote about the work and process

People on the outside think there’s something magical about writing, that you go up in the attic at midnight and cast the bones and come down in the morning with a story, but it isn’t like that. You sit in back of the typewriter and you work, and that’s all there is to it.
– Harlan Ellison