By Richard White
What makes a Short Story? My thoughts only, there are no rules. Others will disagree. If it looks and tells like a story, then it is one.
SHORT
Nobody will say how short a story should be, but I know from my own reading habits that shorter tends to be better. Too short and it becomes flash fiction, which works differently, too long and it turns into a novella, which is more like a novel.
Perhaps 1,000 to 8,000 words in length, but there’s no rule.
LIMITED SCOPE
Only 1, 2 or 3 characters.
Not many locations or settings, ideally one.
Developing one idea, leading to an emotional climax.
A single event in a single time frame.
It must be complete in itself.
PROSE
Description, narration and dialogue. (Poetry works in a different way.)
As in any prose writing, with Propulsion (Holding readers in what will happen next.)
And adhesion. (Seductiveness of words. Plausibility.) Compellingly readable.
FICTION
Because it is a story and must tell like one.
A story can be based on a lived experience, but it must work as a story, and will need constructing as one, which will likely diverge from the truth.
It is narrative fiction, so it tells a story from beginning to an ending.
STORY
The way life episodes work and the way stories work are different.
A story tells the incidents that form a plot. Incidents are also called plot-points.
A story may need an opening, a climax and an ending.
There is beauty and satisfaction in a well-told story. A news story is not a story, but a Fairy Story, a fable, a folk tale and an anecdote are.
Reading stories may enable you to create a conventional one, but you must read a lot.
A satisfying short story will usually be satisfying to write.
I start with an idea. Others start with a character or a situation. I expect change before an ending, and something that is recognisable as an ending.
I have read several published short stories that express an angst or existential feeling but merely use a stream of words. For me that is revealing but not satisfying.
I expect a short story to be emotional and conclude as an experience.