Element Of A Short Story

If you're new to short story writing, information technology can be intimidating to call up of fitting everything you need in a story into a small word count. Are there certain elements of a short story you'll need to know in order for your story to be great?

Writers struggle with this all the time.

elements of a short story

You might want to develop deep graphic symbol backgrounds with a huge cast of characters, amazing settings, and at to the lowest degree two subplots. And that's swell. But that wouldn't be writing a brusk story.

You might effort to cutting some of these things, and so all the sudden you lot don't have a character arc or a climax or an ending.

Every story has basic elements; a short story's bones elements are but more than focused than a novel'due south. But all those elements must be at that place, and yes, they need to fit into a short word count.

In this article, you'll larn what you demand to make sure your short story is acompletestory—with three famous short story examples. These story elements are what you should focus on when writing a short slice of fiction.

The Key to Compelling Stories: It's NOT Dun, Dun, DUUN!

When I first started writing, I mainly worked on horror curt stories. I wanted to create that dun, dun, DUUUN! moment at the end of all of them. You know the i. In the movies it's where the screen goes to blackness and you're left feeling goosebumps.

I remember the commencement writing contest I entered (correct here at The Write Practise!), I submitted a story that I thought was pretty decent, but didn't really remember would win.

I was right; it did non win.

Just mainly I wanted the upgrade I'd purchased: feedback from the judge. She was great and told me my writing was skilful and tight, but there was i major issue with my story.

The dun, dun, DUUN!

I'd tried to cultivate really meant my story but . . . cut off. There was no ending. There wasn't fifty-fifty a complete climax. I got it ramped up and so simply . . . stopped.

That feedback changed me equally a short story writer. It fabricated me really pay attention to what needed to exist in a story versus what was unnecessary.

I studied short stories. I made annotation of what an writer did and where. I basically taught myself story structure.

This may seem obvious, simply a short story, even though it'southward curt, even so needs to exist a story.

Then permit's start with the nuts.

P.S. If you desire to larn more about the five major steps y'all need to complete to write a curt story, read this commodity.

What Is a Story?

I know a man who consistently tells stories during parties. (Sort of like this guy!)

He starts out well but then goes off on tangent afterwards tangent, ultimately not actually getting to any sort of point.

New people (re: characters) are introduced, then dropped. New events are mentioned, but non resolved. Past the time he gets to the finish of his "stories," optics have glazed over and the "punchline," equally it were, falls flat.

What this man is telling is a brusk story, and he's doing information technology terribly.

A story, no thing the length, can be boiled down to a graphic symbol wanting something, having a difficult fourth dimension getting it, and finally either getting it or non.

That's it.

Stories are actually uncomplicated when you wait at the basics. This is why writing brusque stories will brand you a better writer.

Short stories force a author to practise nailing structure and pace. If you nail those things, you'll be able to write stories of any length (and non diameter people at parties).

And like novel-length stories, short stories contain certain elements in order to hold up the structure and pace.

For each story element below, I'll use three classic stories as examples:

Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery"
Edgar Allen Poe'southward "The Cask of Amontillado"
O. Henry'south "The Gift of the Magi"

Take a few minutes to refresh your retentivity past clicking on the links of each, if yous wish.

9 Key Elements of a Short Story

When it comes down to the elements of a brusk story, focus on 9 cardinal elements that make up one's mind if the short story is a completestory or a half-baked one.

ane. Grapheme

Characters in books are well-drawn. There's a lot of fourth dimension spent on developing grapheme depth and backstory. That's not needed for brusque stories.

Short stories need one central character and 1 or ii other major characters. That's most information technology. In that location isn't plenty room to have a ton of characters and a story will veer away from the fundamental plotline if a large bandage is present.

The reader doesn't demand to know everything most this character. They don't even demand to know their physical appearance if it's not vital to the story. Your character traits in short stories tin be so minimal, they don't even need a proper noun.

This doesn't hateful the protagonist is a static character who is basically a zombie on a couch. They all the same have to be a dynamic character, i that changes throughout the story.

When you lot're thinking of character creation for short stories, you don't need to dive into too much detail. Two to three character details are normally enough.

Come across how the three short story examples used in this article develop characters:

The Lottery

The main character is Tessie Hutchinson.

We don't know much virtually Tessie, other than she's unkempt and arrives belatedly with a slew of jokes. You'll no doubt annotation here that this story has a lot of characters, not only ii or iii.

Simply find only a few of the other characters are fleshed out much at all. The other characters of notation here are:

Mr. Hutchinson
Mr. Summers
Quondam Man Warner.

The Cask of Amontillado

This curt story has significantly fewer characters:

The main character
Montresor
Fortunato.

The Gift of the Magi

There are only two named characters:

Della, the main character
Jim, Della's husband

ii. Want/Goal

The central character needs to want something—even if it'southward a drinking glass of water, as Kurt Vonnegut famously said. (They tin can also not want something. But they accept to accept an opinion either way.) The story is their quest to go said something.

Manifestly, in existent life people want multiple things, often at once and oft in contrast to each other. But in a curt story, the goal needs to be focused and relatively simple.

This want/goal is important to the story plot. This is what drives the character's decisions every bit they move throughout the space of your story. The goals in the short story examples are:

The Lottery

Tessie, every bit with every other person who shows up at the lottery, doesn't want to get chosen.

The Cask of Amontillado

Montresor wants revenge for an insult Fortunato threw his way while drunk.

The Gift of the Magi

Della wants to give her husband a Christmas gift.

iii. Conflict

Obstacles and complications need to make the protagonist'southward journeying hard, and these conflicts should raise the stakes equally the protagonist tries to achieve their want/goal.

In books, multiple things need to get in the mode of the character completing the goal, but in short stories, there tin can be equally little as i conflict.

Disharmonize stems from the adversary, whether that's an external baddie (character conflicts with each other), an internal issue, nature, or gild being against them. Here's how conflict works in our three examples:

The Lottery

Tessie conflicts with the other townsfolk, her husband (who is more rule-abiding than she is), and the overall way of life the lottery is forcing.

The Cask of Amontillado

The principal conflict is this supposed insult Fortunato made to Montresor. Interestingly, even though this story is a rather fell revenge story, there isn't much surface conflict happening.

Fortunato essentially walks to his ain decease without much protestation. Montresor also goes through an internal conflict toward the end when he hesitates, only for a moment, over what he is doing.

The Gift of the Magic

Della has a more than straightforward conflict with poverty: she'due south only got a dollar or two and wants to purchase a nice souvenir for her hubby.

4. Decisions

If characters sit around watching the earth become past, there's no story plot. A character needs to make decisions at every turn to drive the story forrad.

Your want/goal is the reason behind these decisions, simply the conflict is what's driving the need to even make them.

Let'southward go dorsum to Vonnegut'south thought of a character wanting a glass of water (goal).

Say that character was lost in the desert (conflict). They'd do anything to get a glass of water, wouldn't they? That drinking glass of water is the primary source of them living correct at that moment, and everything revolves effectually that.

They're not going to make a move without information technology being in service of that ultimate goal.

In brusk stories, the protagonist'south chief goal is the driving force behind their decisions for the few grand words we spend with them.

Amongst the decisions made in the three case stories are these:

The Lottery

Tessie decides to protest the results of the lottery in the hopes of not getting stoned to death.

The Cask of Amontillado

Montresor decides to keep walling up Fortunato subsequently his slight hesitation over whether this was really a good idea to become his revenge.

TheGift of the Magic

Della decides to cut her hair off and sell information technology in club to afford a gift.

v. Climax

This is the element of most stories that'southward missing when someone tells a deadening story at a party. This is the exciting part, the punchline, the ultimate point of the unabridged story.

This is where the character goes up against the baddie in a terminal showdown and either wins or loses. This is the ultimate answer to the What If Question we talked nearly earlier.

The climax for each of our examples is:

The Lottery

Tessie "wins" the lottery and fights the results (to no avail).

The Cask of Amontillado

Montresor chains Fortunato in the wall and he realizes what'south happening to him.

TheGift of the Magic

Della and Jim requite each other the gifts and realize those gifts are currently "pointless" because each of them sold what they would apply the gift for.

6. Catastrophe

The ending is short, often just a couple of sentences in a curt story. This is where everything is wrapped up.

It follows the climactic fight and winds down the remaining character and plot points, letting readers exhale and showing them what comes next for the character. (This is not the time to dun, dun, DUUN!)

This is often missing in short stories.

Ambiguous endings are fine, simply the authormustgive a glimpse of what happens to the chief graphic symbol.

The Lottery

Tessie is stoned to death so the townsfolk can go back to their normal lives.

The Cask of Amontillado

Montresor decides to keep on sealing Fortunato behind the wall, despite the feeble protests from the homo.

TheGift of the Magic

Della and Jim realize they really gave each other the gift of love and go well-nigh their Christmas.

7. Alter

When you lot come across conflict in real life, yous brand decisions, which lead to change. It's the same for the characters.

They change throughout this little adventure they're on, and so do their circumstances.

If they're in the same place at the stop of the story they were at the beginning, did annihilation even happen?

The Lottery

Tessie's change is pretty obvious: she'south dead. Before that, though, she changes from joking and disregarding this weird tradition to getting very scared and angry very speedily.

The Cask of Amontillado

Montresor is freed from his irksome frenemy, and as well knows a little bit more than nearly himself and what he's capable of.

TheGift of the Magic

Della and Jim realize the truthful gift wasn't anything that could be bought and are happy with the honey they've shared rather than worrying about cloth things.

eight. Betoken of view (POV)

Choose 1 point of view and stick to it.

This is essential in a short story. You practise not have enough room to go head-hopping or switching points of view with each paragraph.

Yous desire your reader to be with your character the whole fourth dimension, otherwise they will lose interest.

If yous need a indicate of view refresher, read this article.

Here's the point of view in each of the curt story examples:

The Lottery

Third-person omniscient

The Cask of Amontillado

First person

TheGift of the Magic

Third-person express

ix. Setting

Even brusque stories should have a decently drawn setting.

This is tricky considering, again, you don't accept room to exist describing every little thing.

Yous'll need to weave in the setting equally you tell the story and stick to the essentials.

Notice the iii example stories have something in common: a rather ambiguous setting.

The Lottery

Nosotros know Tessie lives in what seems to be an agrestal minor town. We don't know where, what time period, or why the lottery exists.

The Cask of Amontillado

Our wine lovers in "The Cask of Amontillado" are mostly in the family crypt.

TheGift of the Magic

We know Della and Jim live in a small, run-downward apartment. We don't know where or when.

The reader doesn't know much almost the setting in any of these stories, just they don't needto know much. The plot hums along simply fine without all those details.

What a Short Story is Not

Information technology's often the instance that the writer lets the muse take over when story writing.

In this case, what ends upwards on the folio is often flowy sentences that sound profound and a "story" that sounds more like the ramblings of poor Fortunato.

It'south fine to allow a story writing go loose and to play with language. Innovation is experiementation.

But when a author does this, it's ofttimes non truly a short story, or a story at all. It might be profound. Information technology might exist quote-worthy.

But information technology too might non exist a story.

A curt story is not:

Short stories are not poems. Poetry doesn't accept the burden of having to tell a story (though it can, I know that, so don't come at me). Short stories are stories with story structure. Yous can write them with poetic language, but there must be a story in there.
Brusque stories are not plotless. Stream of consciousness is a not bad way to write morning time pages, to get in the mood to write, to journal, etc. It's not a great way to write a short story. Again, short stories are stories. They take to have a plot.
Curt stories do not have subplots. Call back that guy I talked about at the first of this commodity? When he went off on tangents, he was getting into subplot territory. There is no room in a short story for subplots.

Stick with one major event that's happening to one main character.

A Annotation on "Rules"

I've been working with writers long enough to know that some of you reading this commodity are telling me off, peculiarly with the last section.

I get it. You lot desire to exist artistic. You desire to follow your muse.

You want to do what I've but told you not to do.

Hither's the matter: rules are meant to be cleaved. I will give you that.

If yous want to experiment and find a way to insert a new subplot and resolve information technology in every paragraph, do it. But in order to break the rules, you lot need to chief them first.

Start by including each of these story elements in yourcurt story.

When yous tin ensure you have each story chemical element consistently, so you can get crazy.

Which chemical element do you need the most practice on? Tell u.s. in the comments.

Do

Revisit a short story you've written. Take fifteen minutes to clarify the story.

Look for each of these nine elements. Choose one missing chemical element and add information technology. (If i isn't missing, then cull one element to beef up.)

When you're done, share your findings and piece of work in the practice box beneath. Then requite feedback to someone else!

Enter your practice here:

Sarah Gribble

Sarah Gribble is the author of dozens of brusk stories that explore uncomfortable situations, basic fears, and the full general awe and fascination of the unknown. She just released Surviving Death, her first novel, and is currently working on her next book.

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