What Is the Style of a Short Story?

Elements

• A short story is less complex than a novel and is likely to explore a single plot, setting and incident. The amount of characters is usually limited and the plot typically covers only a short amount of time. The writer uses a range of writing devices and can tell the story from various points of view. As the style of a short story can be varied, its length is more commonly used to define it. A classic definition of the short story is that it can be read in one sitting and modern definitions categorize short stories as works of fiction no shorter than 1,000 words or longer than 20,000 words.

Characters

• It is important for any story to include characters to move the story and keep the reader entertained. The goal is to make the reader care about the characters, in order to keep him reading. Characterization is the term for the way an author presents the characters in his short story. The author does this by writing about the thoughts and actions of a character, conversations between characters and the author's own opinion, which can be implicit or explicit.

Story Presentation

• The point of view in a short story can be varied. A third person omniscient point of view may be used, in which an omniscient narrator can see outside and inside the character and interpret the plot line freely. A third person point of view is written in an objective manner, without insight into the behavior or thoughts of the character. In a first person point of view, the author writes from the perspective of a character in the story.

Structure

• Short stories may not contain the same dramatic structure as longer types of fiction due to their condensed style. While longer fictional forms often have an introduction, complication, rising action, climax and resolution, short stories may not follow a dramatic pattern at all. Dramatic conflict is a very common characteristic of the short story. A short story often begins in the center of the action and lead quickly to a crisis or climax. Many short stories will have an abrupt ending that remains open to interpretation, although some authors may include a moral lesson or practical lesson in the story's ending.