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Defining Short Stories
by
Carol Whiteley
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- Many fiction writers start with short stories
- A short story is usually about one incident
- Short stories only have up to a few characters
Many fiction authors start out writing short stories as their first venture into the world of creative writing. But though this genre seems relatively easy to work with, writing a short story requires great skill. So what exactly is a short story?
What defines a short story? Is it simply a short novel? What’s the difference between a short story and a novella? Most writers, editors, and publishers categorize a short story as a work of fiction comprised of several thousand words, but generally not more than 5,000. The novella is usually thought of as a longer short story or a short novel and can range from 5,000 to more than 40,000 words.
Marian Gavin, author of “The Sparrow’s Mother,” calls the short story “bits and pieces of life, the brightest and the darkest. . . . Ideally, a short story is Life in a capsule.” The key word to understanding the short story format is “story”—in just a few words the best short stories tell us a tale of sight, sound, thought, and action that helps us to understand and relate to a compelling moment. What we learn from what the characters say and do during that decisive moment gives us insight into the human condition and builds our humanity.
The Short Story Versus the Novel
In their own ways, both short stories and novels help us to understand ourselves and our universe, but they do so in markedly different ways.
Of course, the most obvious difference is length, but this is not the only important distinction. Whereas a novel might center on one central story and several side stories that can span an extended period of time, generally the action in a short story revolves around just one incident that happens during a brief period of time.
In “The Second Tree from the Corner,” most of the story unfolds while the main character, Trexler, talks with his doctor during an office visit. The remainder of the story is told to readers by briefly touching on several of Trexler’s later visits to the doctor, with the wonderfully satisfying conclusion coming just five weeks after the story began.
Another difference between the short story and the novel is the number of characters. Typically, a short story will focus on only one or a few characters, whereas a novel may give us half a dozen or more.
In “The Second Tree from the Corner,” only Trexler and his doctor inhabit the pages. In Isaac Bashevis Singer’s “The Key,” readers follow the harrowing day of an elderly woman named Bessie, hearing only a few words from a neighbor and an apartment super and feeling the hovering presence of Bessie’s dead husband Sam.
…from The Everything Creative Writing Book.
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