How do I know if my story idea is strong enough for short fiction?

This is the question I sat with for years before understanding: strength in short fiction isn't about the grandness of the idea. It's about specificity and what you actually observe. A strong short story idea has one clear emotional or psychological center—a moment of recognition, a shift in understanding, something that made you pause in real life and think *that matters*. When I write, I start by asking: what did I notice that most people walk past? What small detail or interaction revealed something true? Your idea is strong enough when you can sit with it quietly and feel that strange magnetism—not excitement, but recognition. The idea doesn't need to be original in premise. "A woman sorts through her dead mother's things" is universal. But *your* woman, *your* mother, *your* observation of how a particular sweater holds memory—that's the specificity that makes it sing. Trust what makes you pause. That's your compass.