What is a Short Story?

            The definition of a short story is as strict or loose as each individual author wants it to be. There are some aspects of a short story that apply to each and every short story, while there are other aspects that can vary greatly from each story. And of this definition alone we see that a short story is always unique.

            Expanding on the idea of uniqueness: a story can be told twice, re-telling the exact same events. But when told from a different perspective, it brings about a whole new light in how the events are viewed. That evil guy trying to destroy the world? Turns out that from his perspective, he is simply trying to preserve his hometown from all the changes it is under-going. This might be a big of an extreme case, but the point is that any story can be completely different from another, with the same characters and events, if it is simply told from a different perspective.

            Perspective can also be switched not from character to character, but from first person to third person, and even to third person omniscient. All different types of narration can drastically change how a story is perceived. In first person narration, the reader is stuck with one character’s point of view. This is not necessarily a good or bad thing, it is simply the author’s choice. In the third person, the reader reads the story from the point of view of someone who is detached from the events. In omniscient narration, the reader is detached again, but the nature of the narration allows the reader to be all-knowing.

            Some aspects of short stories are always the same. Characterization, setting, plot (Freytag’s triangle) are examples of these. Characterization is simply how the author of the story chooses to portray the characters in the story. This controls how the reader interacts with the character; the author is usually aiming to create a certain emotion between the reader and any given character.  Without characterization the reader cannot connect with the characters in any significant way. Setting is another aspect that exists in every short story; a simple time and place gives great significance. For example, Lord of the Rings would not be Lord of the Rings if it were not set in Middle Earth. You simply couldn’t have the same story set in 2200 A.D. in Japan for obvious reasons.

The plot of a story is arguably what makes stories unique from one another, though in reality it’s a combination of each element of the story. The plot, which includes its characters and setting, can almost always be mapped to Freytag’s Triangle from the exposition, to the rising action, point(s) of conflict, more rising action, a climax, falling action and a resolution. The combination of all of this truly gives a story its uniqueness, separating itself apart from other stories simply by the meat of the story; what is actually happening?

But there are so many elements of a story that don’t necessarily have to exist to qualify as a short story. Morals are usually considered when a story comes to an end, teaching an important “life lesson” to the reader. Several of the stories we read for this class did not have a moral, or if it did it was not exactly clear-cut. We can also learn other things from stories. For example, a detailing of how a character explored the remains of the Titanic – this teaches the reader, if on a very shallow level, how ocean exploration works. Subplots are another aspect of short stories which don’t necessarily have to exist for the progression of the short story, but they provide another aspect or view on the story, perhaps even told from a different perspective!

There are also several types of short stories that can alter how the short story is defined. While a memoir of events is usually thought to be long, we can see from In the Loyal Mountains by Rick Bass that it can also be a short story! This is a re-telling of events from the protagonists point of view, a personal account. Although it is a fictional memoir, it is still a memoir of the protagonist detailing a very specific time in his life.

A short story can have so many different definitions, it is extremely difficult to tack just one onto it. What we can say, however, is that the decisions are entirely up to the author in how they choose to portray their short story. There is an understanding that the reader needs to be able to make a quick connection (because they are generally so short) and be able to understand the events and the characters.