Shorter stories: epiphany or twist

Blimey. I don’t believe I’ve ever suffered from anything resembling writer’s block before – not like this. I have a very short space of time to write a short (1,000 word) story on the theme “Doubles” for Manchester magazine

Going through my stories I couldn’t find anything that even tenuously linked to the theme, so now I‘m wondering if I should just write something new. In fact I already did – I sent two shorts yesterday, and then recalled them because they were no good. A combination of tight deadlines, other projects and an enigmatic theme seem to be conspiring against me.

As Marquez remarks in his superb autobiography, “