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8-Jasmine

Principl
es of a
Short
Story
Jan Louis T. Reyes

What is a short story?


A brief fictional prose narrative
that is shorter than a novel and
that usually deals with only a
few characters. The short story
is usually concerned with a
single effect conveyed in only
one or a few significant
episodes or scenes. The form
encourages economy of setting
and concise narrative;
character is disclosed in action
and dramatic encounter but is

[PRINCIPLES OF A SHORT STORY]

Short Story?
What is a short story?

We ought to start by considering what a short story


is, and the following definition is well worth bearing
in mind:
A brief fictional prose narrative that is shorter than
a novel and that usually deals with only a few
characters. The short story is usually concerned
with a single effect conveyed in only one or a few
significant episodes or scenes. The form
encourages economy of setting and concise
narrative; character is disclosed in action and
dramatic encounter but is seldom fully developed.

Six important points


Here are six important points about what makes a
good short story work. Becoming familiar with them
should help you to study the stories you read, help
you think about why some stories work, or dont work,
and help you to plan your plots.
1. The story is told from the point of view of the
central character, with whom the reader identifies.
2. An element of conflict is introduced early on,
usually in the first paragraph or two.

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3. We are held in suspense as we wonder how the


character will resolve his/her conflict.
4. There is a climax at or near the end in which the
conflict is resolved.
5. The story focuses on a single event, which is a crisis
point the central character's life.
6. The story is shown through the characters, without
the narrator's intrusion.
Those are our first principles, and much of what I have
to say the following pages is related to them. The list
also represents a skeleton outline for plots.
Point one is covered in the section on Point of view.
Points two three and four are covered in the section
on Plot. Point five is covered in the sections on Plot
and Time, and point six is covered in the section on
Dramatization.

Aim to hold the reader's attention


The points below are all ways of trying to achieve the
general aim of holding the readers attention, the central
importance of which is highlighted in this quote from the
American writer John Irving. He has some good advice for
us all:
I always try to think when I am writing of someone I do
not know. The age of this unknown person is always
either elderly and impatient in the way that elderly
people can be impatient, or quite young, maybe too
young to drive a car, 15, a difficult age, and impatient in
the sense that the attention is always hopping to
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something else. I like to think that my principle task is to


get that person's attention and not lose it, and the person
has a million other things that they could be doing. If you
turn your back on that reader and just amuse yourself,
when you look back the reader will be reading another
book or watching television or gone to the movies or
fallen asleep.' [The Times Magazine 23/3/96]

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
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time and only show us as much of their background as is


necessary for the plot. Try to open each paragraph with
action. Remember it is better to appeal to the readers
senses, rather than their reason.

Never simply 'pass on information' to the


reader
The reader wants to witness the action for himself, and
nothing will put him off more than the author passing on
background information which is supposedly for his
benefit, but which slows down the action. Necessary
information can nearly always be woven into the action
smoothly and unobtrusively.

Revise the first draft


The first draft of a story is never going to be as good as it
can be, so do revise it at least once before offering it to
anyone to read. Go through it cutting out anything
superfluous, generally tightening it up, taking out the
slack. It can be helpful to let a little time, at least a couple
of days, go by between finishing the first draft and
starting the second.

Give your story a title


It is surprising how often students omitted this. A story is
incomplete without a title. If you haven't yet made a final
decision about the title, at least give it a provisional title.

Count the number of words


Be aware of the number of words, rounded up or down to
the nearest 100, in your story, and indicate the number
when sending work to an editor. Professional writers
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always measure the length of a piece of writing by the


number of words, and an editor will always expect to be
told the number of words. Of course there is no need to
actually count every one. If you are using a word
processor it should have a menu item which tells you the
number of words. If you are writing a first draft by hand
count the number of words in the first ten lines, divide by
ten to find the average number of words per line, and
multiply it by the number of lines.

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