One of the main differences between reading a novel and a short story is that with the novel, you come to get familiar with the characters. As in a feature film or a TV series. Then in writing a short story, not only should you grab the reader's interest within the first few paragraphs, but you must get the reader acquainted with and in agreement and interest with the character or characters themselves. Why should the reader care about your character, in such a short time? It would be not only because they're curious as what's going to happen in the story, but also because they like and feel like they KNOW the character.
So it's not just "what's going to happen to Bob" with regards to this ghost that's following him around, which tells him unless he gets up the balls to ask that girl out on a date, that it's going to either continue to torment him or go over to the girl's place and tell her himself that Bob has a crush on her. It's also that Bob drinks too much Coca-Cola while doing his homework at night and never finishes any homework he ever starts, and he tries countless pimple-fixing-products on his face but none of them ever seem to work.
One of the earliest tasks in a short story, and not a lot of time to do it.
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