I've always had great trouble writing short stories. I've always wanted to, but I can't seem to condense my thoughts into a shorter image. I even had trouble doing NaNoWriMo because there were so many parts of my plot I had to skip over for time reasons. I'm the sort of person who wants to have a goal and finish whatever it is I'm doing by the end of the goal.
I digress.
Short stories can be fun, they are more concise and easier to read sometimes. The characters become more background in my opinion, and the plot reigns free. If you can write a short story, I congratulate you. I'm working on it.
What is a short story though?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short_story
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flash_fiction
http://www.fictionfactor.com/articles/wordcount.html
I find the third article to be very helpful with word counts and how long you should make your works. So if you're wondering how long a short story is exactly, hopefully those things will help you.
What happens in a short story?
In my experience, short stories are kind of like fairy tales, often they are fairy tales. They contain three things:
- A hero/heroine
- A moral
- things happening rapidly.
Let's explore this further.
The Hero/Heroine
Obviously, your hero/heroine is very important to your story. Without one, you can't have a real story. If you look at kids short stories, the hero/heroine is always someone usually with a character problem or big dreams, they need to overcome an obstacle of some sort, but it can't be very big because the writers don't have pages upon pages upon pages to write.
The hero/heroine can really be anything, as long as they are the central focus. I would venture to say most short stories are mainly focused on one character and one problem that is not very complex.
The Moral
In my experience, while writing a short story there's a moral to them that is very clear. It could be making sure you're punctual, the errors in procrastination, why you have to clean up after ourselves, chasing after dreams, something like that. It can be a big or small moral as long as it can be condensed. I would say we wouldn't find a moral like "what is love?" in a short story and expect to find the entire meaning in it.
Things Happening Rapidly
This kind of goes without saying because if you're writing something that's under 7500 words, you need to be to the point, no extra words, little to no back story, no rambling. It's not necessary to write about exactly how your hero/heroine's room looks down to how she stores her makeup, there just isn't time. Short stories are sort of like a chapter in a novel, they focus on one event.
Now, I don't claim to be a huge brilliant short story writer, but I think what I've said applies to most short stories. I am learning to write them, they just aren't my strong suit.
Do any of you out there write short stories? Or do you stray away from them? Why?
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