Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Principl
es of a
Short
Story
Jan Louis T. Reyes
Short Story?
What is a short story?
1 | Page
Openings
Try to establish a specific time and place in the opening
paragraph. Don't open with generalizations, but with a
particular event at a particular time. Begin with the
central character involved in some aspect of the main
theme of the story. Avoid using the first paragraph to fill
in background information.
Point of view
This is perhaps the main area in which problems occur.
My recommendation is that you stick with your central
character's experience of the action all the time. Don't
jump away from his/her immediate experience by
showing him/her from someone else's point of view, such
as another character's or the narrator's.
Whether you use the central characters point of view, or
one of the other options, the important thing is that the
point of view should be controlled and consistent, and not
haphazard.
Action
Interaction between characters is the life-blood of short
stories, so keep your characters in the spotlight all the
3 | Page
5 | Page