Writing and Publishing Short Stories

In the rush for publication, writing for radio is often forgotten, and the irony is that radio is probably the largest commissioner of short stories in the UK and Ireland. Put BBC Radio 4 Short Story in your search bar and you will find a treasure trove of recordings read by our greatest performers. 

You can listen to stories from some of the best short story writers the world has to offer. These stories, like those at live events, are also written to be read out and listened to, and there is a vocal performance (usually by professional actors and only occasionally by the author). But there aren’t the visual cues we get from watching a reading. This sounds obvious, I know, but it requires a recalibration of your writing – it’s a style that sits in between writing to be read and writing to be read out.

Here are some useful tips given to me by my first radio producer, Heather Larmour. Firstly, it pays to be mindful that radio slots tend to be in the afternoon (… think parents listening with children in the car on the school run). You can tackle serious issues, but don’t be too bleak or depressing, and strong language wouldn’t be encouraged. Consider how intimate the radio experience is – this makes your words so much more powerful and potentially shocking than they would be in written form. And using fast dialogue is fine on the page, but it can be difficult to read out and confusing to the listener; remember there will be only one reader and not a cast (you are not writing a play). 

There are BBC studios all around the UK, each of which commission work, so you might have more of a fighting chance with your local studio than by trying to get noticed in London, say – simply due to the number of writers hoping for that spot. The great news is that you can earn up to £500 for a new story. Doesn’t sound like a lot to you? Compare it to the fact that the average debut novelist gets less than £1000 for their 120,000-word opus.

This is an abridged version of an article taken from the Writers' & Artists' Yearbook 2023, available to order now from Bloomsbury.com

Paul McVeigh began his writing career in Belfast as a playwright, and has written comedy, short stories and flash fiction, as well as a novel, The Good Son (Salt Publishing 2015) which won the Polari First Book Prize and the McCrea Literary Award. His work has been performed on radio, stage and TV, and his short stories published in anthologies, newspapers and literary journals. Paul has taught creative writing at Brighton, London, Swansea and Wolverhampton universities and abroad, and is a judge for several international literary prizes. He co-founded the London Short Story Festival, is Associate Director at the Word Factory, and currently acting Head of Literature for the Arts Council of Northern Ireland. For more information, visit Paul's website.

Author picture (c) Roelof Bakker