Readers enjoy short Love Stories in collections, anthologies, magazines, websites. But Love Stories are among the most challenging tales to write.

The challenge is the length. A Romance novel follows the couple as they form a relationship to the level of commitment. How can you do that in the limited space of a short story?

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A short story is typically 1,000-10,000 words long. This lends itself to plots which unfold within a few hours or a few days. But relationships—at least the kind of relationship worthy of commitment—take weeks, months or years to develop, as the partners get to know and trust each other and work out compromises. Falling in love may happen fast, but building a relationship takes time

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The solution: the couple already know each other well before the story starts.