Best ways to improve my short story craft?

[Celia24]

I should start by saying I'm a published short story writer. I've had 4 stories published from my early to mid 20s, but now early 30s I'm struggling.

In the last two years I've focused on novel writing and I'm editing my first book. I'm getting positive feedback from my editors (with changes too of course) and had an excerpt included in an anthology last year.

But for the last 3 years I have struggled to get a short story published. I've either received flat out rejections or nice rejections. 'We really enjoyed getting the chance to read it and the themes explored but...' or one this week 'The editors deliberated over your story for a long time' but ultimately not right for the magazine at this time/we'd love to see more.

I keep getting 'almost, but not quite' responses. How can I improve?

You need to target your stories. Magazines have formats, issues they focus on, styles and also word limits. Make sure that you know about these for every publication you want to submit to and keep to them when writing. Obv read the stories they are publishing. Following these 'guidelines' (but they are rules) won't guarantee acceptance but will give you a much better chance.