Writing short stories

I've submitted a few travel articles, and now I'm turning to short story writing. Because, after all, that's what I really am, or that's what I want to be: a fiction writer.

Years ago I finished writing my first short story. After that, I didn't touch it for a long, long time. I was a pro at procrastination, but only as concerned my writing. I did not know what kind of return I would get for it, or if indeed I would get any. That's how I was then.

In the past two weeks I have re-written my short story, composed another and begun rewriting that one too, and I have been gathering ideas for other short stories in my head.

But before going further, I decided to do a bit of research. I have been collecting names of literary periodicals and web-publications and organizing them in a word document, along with their website address and a few details about their guidelines, such as word count limit.

I also wanted to know what types of short stories are being published today. It all depends on the publication and what they're looking for, of course. It is however very difficult to follow the publication's suggestion and read samples of their contributors' work, as one must either buy a paper copy or pay for an online subscription. When I add up all the potential markets for my stories, it becomes rather expensive. I bought copies of two well-known literary periodicals for 10$ each and figured I would start there. I began to read. And immediately felt out of the loop.

In one periodical, there was one or more elements of the following in every short story: death, divorce, drugs, strong alcohol consumption as a means of forgetting, run-down apartments located next to the proverbial crack-house, murder, suggestions of child abuse, and of course monologues riddled with mistakes-made-on-purpose to make the speaker look "authentic." Needless to say, not my style of writing.

From what I've read in this publication I am forced to come to the conclusion that the list of contributors at the back of the book must be composed entirely of people on anti-depressants. When did the world become so grim? Even the poetry. Or, maybe, especially the poetry. There was one promising-looking poem entitled "Moonlight." The words were beautiful. Until I came to the last sentence: "And then he died." Or something like that.

I have heard that one must suffer to write. I don't believe it. Not for one second. Because if it were true, I would not be able to write. Should I just give up  now, because I have not seen someone die, because I did not live in a place where people get drunk and cows get slaughtered by the hundreds, or because the only drug (singular, not plural) I have ever done was a half-joint of marijuana on my 26th birthday?

I have been making up stories in my head since I was a kid. I think it's about time I got them down on paper. Even if they aren't frought with death, blood, drugs and crack-houses.