How do you Define a Short Story?

How do you exactly define a short story? How short is it? How long is it?

To tell you honestly, I don't really know, and no one really does...Actually, you will spend a life time trying to figure out what exactly it is! Your time is well-spent writing one than fretting about what it is or is not!

However, here are a few points I gathered that might help you to define a short story:

• It should produce a single response in the reader
• It usually highlights a single character's conflict with his inner being or others i.e. the action centres on one character
• It should be possible to read it at a single seating -should not days
• It usually highlights a single setting and covers a short time period
• It is usually focused on one theme
• It has a singular plot i.e. no subplots and no double plots

I am sure that this list will grow as days go by...

Interestingly, I learned to write short stories long before I even knew what they were! So, in short, knowing or not knowing what a short story is will not make us good writers. Believe me...

Here is what we are going to do: use our common sense. We are not going to get deterred by some rigid definitions. Rather, we are going to let our minds soar and take us places. To produce the best results, the mind should not be hemmed in by so many rules and definitions. In fact, you should feel free to break one or two rules. Who knows where that my take you?

Writing is an art. That simply means you can come up with your own style. Some writers have actually developed unique styles and techniques that have affected and influenced other writers. In short, feel free to do what you fancy! But be careful not to stray too far! Always use your common sense, i.e. writer's sense.

Once you get the hang of it, you are going to see that definitions do not really matter...

To get the best results, we are going to follow this little maxim that I have invented, "Flexibility takes you everywhere; rigidity takes you no where!"

How about a short short story to illustrate this? Cool!

It was a hot day in October, and we were fanning ourselves with our note books when our English teacher stormed into the classroom with a mean scowling look on his face. He stood in front and peered into every corner of the classroom like an eagle. The room immediately went dead quiet.We stared back at him with round eyes of fear.

"Take out your composition books, and write a story between 300 and 350 words about 'an unusual experience'..." he barked. "You should be through by the end of this period. I am going for a meeting; but I will come to collect the stories at the end of the period."

With that he stormed out of the class. You should have heard the din as cries of revulsion filled the air. Everyone in class hated composition writing - everyone that is except me. With a grin on my face, I grabbed my book and immediately began to scribble away.

My classmates who always seemed to have perpetual writer's block unhappily scribbled away little drafts of their plots before beginning to write. But as for me, I discovered that if I made a draft, I could not just stick to it. Everything changed as I wrote, with new ideas pouring from every angle.

The word limit - what a dismal restriction! I had problems sticking to that. It was an impossible feat. My imagination would not let me! Instead, I always followed the rule that our teacher had set: 350 words is equal to one and a half pages. I always tried my best to stick to that, but of course reducing the size of my handwriting to stay within the limit. A physical count always revealed that I grossly exceeded that word limit.

While my classmates wasted time trying to alter their stories to have exactly between 300 and 350 words, I let my imagination soar...reducing my handwriting if necessary, and never exceeding one and a half pages.

The teacher returned with a furious look, snatched away our stories and stormed out of the classroom. Interestingly, I had managed to finish on time, but most of my classmates had not, probably because of wasting time tempering with their work so as to stay within that narrow and unreasonable boundary.

When the stories came back, I had scored the highest. Why? Because I had stuck to the limit? Far from it! (In fact a physical count would reveal about close to 500 words!) Because my story made interesting reading - that's why. It was so interesting that the teacher could not realise that I had exceeded the limit. My fellow classmates who had made a thorough and thus rigid draft, and stuck to the word limit had appalling results.

Okay, end of story!

The lesson? I succeeded because I was flexible and reasonable.

So what exactly is a short story?

Here is the answer: not important!

For now this will suffice: A short story is short, but not too short. The conclusion is the destination. The journey is short, but intensely eventful and unforgettable!

To find out more about the short story, check out this page in Wikipedia.

Are you now ready for do-it-as-you-learn?

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