Read a Short Story and Determine the Elements

When I'thousand not writing web log posts for Lulu or drafting site copy, I'm writing short stories. I'll probable never exist a novelist, nor exercise I aspire to write long-class. But I practice draft something like 30 brusque stories a yr because I beloved writing and discover the challenge of creating fiction with constricted word count fun.

I'd like to take a moment to expect at the key elements of great short stories I've observed and learned from great writers and teacher over the years.

What makes a great short story?

Curt stories have to achieve a lot of story in only a few words. There are four elements that really make a story stand out: character, plot, setting, and tension. Balancing these elements is the offset step to making your brusque story amazing.

What are the iv elements of a Short Story?

i. Characters
2. Plot
iii. Setting
4. Tension

Character

Kurt Vonnegut said that your short story should have "at least one character [your reader] can root for." He also said, "Every character should want something." Amongst the plethora of writing communication, Vonnegut has to offer, these two points about characters are among my favorites.

Commencement comes crafting a grapheme who wants something. When I was younger, I never put a lot of thought into what my characters wanted. I treated them equally caricatures, not imagining my characters to exist real. Obviously, this was a mistake and my stories suffered for it.

When nosotros think of our characters every bit people with wants and desires, nosotros can amend understand them and create better stories about them. Your short fiction will probably focus on only a few characters, and so y'all can really go to know them. You should effort to go to the eye of what your protagonist wants.

I always write a line or two defining what a graphic symbol wants, usually later I've written a rough typhoon and considered for a fourth dimension that character in their story.

For example, I drafted a story a few months ago about a woman who gets a telephone call from her expressionless brother. Certainly, the story leans on the weird and fantastical side, but here'due south the judgement I wrote for my protagonist later I finished the first draft:

Veronica wants unmedicated happiness without the weight of her family and obligations hamstringing her.

In the story itself, I never delve into her issues with her family (across some allusions to strain) nor her medically induced attempts at happiness (aside from a line most sifting among pill bottles in her purse). What Veronica wants doesn't touch on the story in a large way, but understanding what she wants enabled me to better visualize her and bring her to life on the folio.

And from knowing our character, it becomes possible to brand them someone your reader tin can root for. I can't call back of a single curt story I've read that had a truly unredeemable protagonist. Consider Flannery O'Connor'due south classic, A Skillful Human is Hard to Notice. The Grandmother is a nuisance to her family unit and ultimately leads them all to a terrible cease. Yet it is hard non to root for her every bit the story unfolds. Possibly because nosotros know with fair certainty what she wants, merely too in role because O'Connor is a masterful storyteller.

Regardless, a character the reader wants to meet succeed drives the story forrard and gives that character depth and humanity. We need a character we tin can attach ourselves as well and then we can feel involved in the story.

Plot

I kind of detest the idea of plot in a piece of work of fiction. It should merely happen, right? Like, we start with an idea, add some events around that thought, work the characters into people we can run across and feel for, and refine the text until the story is washed. Where does the plot fit in?

Here's a definition I think helps explain why plot matters: "the sequence of events inside a story which affect other events through the principle of cause and effect." What I like about this definition is that it doesn't demand that you create a plot; rather information technology must be acknowledged.

I'm not writing down the private events that make up the plot or some dialog or flowery descriptions. I'm writing these things into each other, coming out the other side with a story—the plot is a byproduct.

That doesn't hateful you tin ignore the plot. Every writer and teacher I've floated my idea of ignoring plot to take scoffed. The plot cannot be ignored. For a brusk story though, you can think about the plot a little less than you would for a novel. Allow your characters drive the story and allow the plot naturally evolve.

Setting

I have to say; the setting is my favorite office of curt fiction. Dissimilar a longer piece, you won't exist visiting many locations inside your story. The settings you practice visit actually demand to shine.

The setting also gives your story texture and depth, making the place and time real for the reader through carefully shared details. You also can actually play with form in the setting by creating a sense of place in a variety of interesting ways.

Take, for instance, The Curt Happy Life of Francis Macomber by Ernest Hemingway. In this story, Hemingway establishes the setting without specifying exactly where we are. By placing a premium on the shade, mentioning the "dirty boots" and "broiled carmine" of Macomber's face, we get a picture of a rustic, hot location. Hemingway puts u.s. on the African plains without explicitly telling u.s.a. that's where we are; rather he paints a motion-picture show that reminds us, whether or not nosotros've been to Africa, of what that identify should be similar.

This masterful use of setting also establishes the tone of the story. Across telling us where the action of the story is happening, the setting reveals the moods and emotions of the characters, while giving a further reference point the reader tin cling too.

In my experience of reading and creating short fiction, the setting is the most often underutilized elements. Don't miss an opportunity to add important texture to the story in a lush setting.

Tension

We ofttimes refer to tension as Disharmonize, but essentially what it ways is the chemical element of your short story that drives the activeness. What makes the protagonist do what they do? What forces the actions that lead to the events of the story?

I don't similar to define this element as Conflict because that almost demands at that place be some confrontation or altercation. Tension, to me, is more accurate because there need not exist whatever resolution or winner in the story.

Rather, I adopt tension; elements that raise our concerns, that make us wonder what will happen side by side and how our protagonist will react to those events. Elements that can exist dangerous, just tin as well be sad or heartwarming or even frustrating. The tension volition propel the story.

Nearly of my stories kickoff with a point of tension and develop from there. From the earliest idea to the completed story, the i constant is the tension that drives the activity.

Bringing the Pieces together

Writing any kind of fiction volition use the four elements I covered in this slice. We're not touching on anything unique to curt story writing all on its ain. The constraints on length shift how we think about these of import elements.

Read a Short Story and Determine the Elements

Source: https://blog.lulu.com/4-elements-of-great-short-stories/

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