The Art of the Short Story

[JamesSavik]

Novels get the lions share of attention in literature but, a good short story with punch and finesse is always a lot of fun to read.

 

In my opinion, the short story is more difficult to write than a novel. Not necessairly more work, but more difficult.

 

In a novel, you have room. You can take the reader on a song and dance tour, develop characters, work the setting and develop the plot for a few hundred pages. In a short story though, you've got to get down to business. Every word must carry its own weight and have purpose.

 

The definition of a short story is fairly nebulous. There is no set range for the word count. A short story is defined as shorter than a novella which is in turn, shorter and a novel. See? It's clear as mud.

 

However- the same techniques used for longer works like characterization, setting, plotting- are also used for short stories. Because the short story is a much shorter work, you've got to get down to business from the very first word. You can't wander too far afield.

 

 

The Traditional Three Act Story Structure

 

 

In the novel, you can see by the generous page counts that you've got plenty of room to maneuver. Short stories, which can also use this structure, can run the whole gamut in one page.

 

It is short stories more so than any form of prose, that prove the maxim: brevity is the soul of wit.

 

Examples;

 

If a picture is worth a thousand words, good example are better than me blathering on for a few thousand words.

 

Two authors really stand out in the world of the short story:

 

O. Henry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O._Henry

 

Saki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saki

 

You can easily find many of their stories free on the web.

 

Closer to home, our own Graeme http://www.gayauthor...g/author/graeme is very good with this form.

 

I would venture to say that the vast majority of our anthology entries are short stories.

 

I hope that I can generate some discussion and interest in this form because if you can write a good short story, you have all the tools necessary for writing a novel. It's simply a matter of more work.

 

Exercises:

 

Try out ComicFan's writing prompts. They can and have resulted in a number of posted stories.

Edited December 13, 2012 by jamessavik

[Cia]

Great post James!

[sat8997]

Matthew Halderman-Time, best short stories ever.

 

http://matthewhaldemantime.com/shortstories.html

[comicfan]

To add to your list of great short story authors - Edgar Allan Poe. Some of his works and bio may be found at http://poestories.com/