The Short Story: Everything You

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The Short Story Everything Youve Always Wanted
To Know, But Were Afraid To Ask

• Notes and Observations About the Tools a Writer
  Has To Use to Create His or Her Best Work

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Why the short story anyway?

• Short stories are written to mostly either
  entertain or to develop a theme. Hopefully,
  either way, it entertains and engages the reader.

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Theme

• Well use the following definition of theme this
  year in our discussions
• Theme a writers point of view about life that
  is developed within the story, but is usually not
  directly stated. It is not a lesson or moral.

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The Five Elements of the Short Story

• The five elements of the short story are
• 1. Plot
• 2. Character
• 3. Setting
• 4. Style
• 5. Atmosphere

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1. Plot

• Simply put, plot can be described as the events
  of the story, what its about. Usually, what the
  story is about involves some kind of conflict. In
  fact, if there were no conflict, it would be a
  rather dull story
• Lets look at conflict

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Conflict

• There are two kinds of conflict.
• A. Internal conflict
• B. External conflict
• A. Internal conflict is the conflict that occurs
  within a character, usually the protagonist. We
  often express this conflict as Person vs.
  Him/Herself. We can see this kind of conflict
  examined in the story A Sunrise On the Veld,
  where we read of a young teen finding himself
  suddenly forced to examine his attitudes about
  life and responsibility.

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External Conflict

• B. External conflict
• The second type of conflict found in any kind of
  story is external conflict. This is conflict
  between the protagonist and some other force. We
  can categorize them as
• 1. Person vs. person/society
• 2. Person vs. Nature/Supernature
• 3. Person vs. Machine/Technology
• We could include others you may have heard of,
  such as Person vs. Timeas long as you understand
  the concept that conflict makes the story
  interesting.

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Plot and the Happy Whale

• The plot line of a typical short story can be
  represented in a visual way. It could look like
  this, a happy whale

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The 6 Elements of Plot

• A. Opening Situation is where character, plot,
  setting, style and atmosphere are introduced.
• B. Inciting Force is the point in the story that
  begins the conflict. It is often a decision made
  by a character, usually the protagonist.
• C. Rising Action are the events of the plot
  leading to the climax.
• D. Climax is the highest point of action or the
  turning point of the story (sometimes both).
• E. Falling Action are the events of the plot
  leading to the resolution.
• F. Resolution is the conclusion where the
  conflicts of the plot are tied up or resolved.

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2. Character

• Protagonist is the character or person around
  whom the action of the story revolves.
• Antagonist is the character or force that
  opposes the protagonist.

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How is Character Revealed?

• A. Through his appearance (Clothing, name,
  gender, height, weight)
• B. Through her actions (Interests, deeds)
• C. Through information given directly by the
  author through the narration (the telling of the
  story)
• D. Through what other characters say about her
• E. Through what the character says about himself.

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3. Setting

• Setting is the time and place of the story.
• When setting is not directly stated, and it often
  is not, look for clues that help you determine
  where and when the story takes place.
• Identify everything you can about setting when
  asked to find it. For example, you could say
  about a story that it takes place in a one-room
  school house in winter in a small Canadian town,
  probably in the Maritimes, during the 1940s or
  1950s.

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4. Style

• Style is the way the author tells the story.
• A. Point of view is the way we talk about from
  whose view we hear the story. This can be
• 1st Person Point of View which occurs when a
  character from the story is telling the story.
  (I, we)
• 3rd Person Point of View which occurs when a
  narrator, who may or may not be a character in
  the story, tells the story. (they, he, she)
• When the narrator is not a character in the
  story, we say the author is telling the story
  from an omniscient point of view. This means the
  narrator sees and knows all..sort of like God.

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Style

• B. Use of language which refers to the way the
  author combines all those words in our language
  to tell the story.
• Ask yourself
• Does the author use simple or elevated diction
  (words)?
• Does the author express herself using plain or
  figurative language?
• Does the author use long or short or any
  descriptions of people and places?
• Does the author use symbol?

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Style

• C. Dialogue Does the author utilize dialogue, or
  tell the story from the outside? Dialogue helps
  make the story feel more immediate..as though
  youre listening in on people youve met,
  learning about whats happening to them and how
  they feel about it.

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5. Atmosphere

• Atmosphere is another way of talking about the
  mood created in the story.
• Ask yourselfis the story
• Happy? Sad? Mellow? Tense? Suspenseful? Scary?
  Funny? Intense? Depressing? Oppressive?
• Atmosphere is determined primarily by plot and
  setting.

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Comments or questions?

• This is an overview of the short story. An author
  uses these tools, like a cook uses flour and eggs
  and butter or a carpenter uses his tools of
  hammer and nails and wood and a saw to create a
  new thing. The skill that these people use in
  using their tools is what determines the quality
  of the end product.