Short Story Form

[kcr]

Just a question as I am sititng here watching the ice and snow pile up:

Someone, Poe, I think, defined a short story as something that dealt with one problem affecting a minimal number of people over a minimal amount of time. Do you think that is a good definition, or do you find it too limiting?

[Kilroy003]

1. It seems limiting.

If Poe said it, it would be worth a little more examination for wiggle room.

Could it just be one person inflicted by a minimal number of problems? A short story about an individuals survival in the wilderness, for example.

[kcr]

2. But wouldn't

the problem be survival, and the indivual challengrs just aspect of the one meta problem?

It seems that the idea behind the qoute is limitation, or maybe focus: a short story needs a tight focus to be effective. Or, at least that's what I took from it.

So maybe the better question is does a short story need a tight focus in order to be readable and effective?

[Kilroy003]

3. You are skilled at answering your own questions.

All stories require tight focus to ensure readability.

[kcr]

4. Hee

Then just top play devils advocate -- why do you say that? Why is story with a diffused focus less effective than one with a tight focus?

[Kilroy003]

5. Not always less effective, just not very readable,

at least in my experience.

When a story starts to wander all the heck over the place, I either get lost or lose interest.

[flordehinojos]

6. that is also what was demanded from us by a "fiction-writing" teacher we

had a while back...it may be hard to do but that is where the blood, sweat and tears of writing may come in.

[oneighty]

7. No, it is not limiting.

A short story should be told with as few words as possible unless one is being paid by the word in which case the story can really get screwed up.

Poe never found a word he did not like making reading his 'Stuff' often very difficult and sometimes impossible.

Not only that but if I had to follow rules I would never write a word.

Rules dampen a free spirit!

180

[iamjoy]

8. It Is What Defines The Genre

In a short story there isn't a lot of "time" to introduce tons of characters or have a complex plot. You'll also notice there are few short stories that are historical fiction* and short story mysteries have very little character development. Why? In the case of history it is hard to give modern readers a proper feel for an unfamiliar setting without going into a good amount of description. The story might then be unbalanced (in terms of the narrative modes). As for mystery, the plot is so crucial with all the details carefully woven in that there isn't a lot of room for character development. Anyway, if one is reading a quick mystery, they may care more about the story, not the character.

* When I say historical fiction short stories - I don't mean ones that were written in the past about the author's era (Jack London's "To Build A Fire"), I mean for someone in the twenty-first century to write a short story set in the Crusades (for example).

[Ready4Change]

9. Too limiting.

What if there are no people? What if it's fiction and they are immortal? What if it involves the survival of civilizations?

But the first part, dealing with one problem, is dead on. There should be nothing in a short story that isn't essential for bringing that problem to a resolution. And, imo, for it to be a good short story, the problem should be resolved with a twist or surprise of some sort.

People think short stories are easier because they are short. I don't agree.

[WindRavenX]

10. Personally, I love it

It's very powerful when you are comfortable working both abstractly (in order to carry the theme of a piece, I've found that the more abstract a theme is, the more easy it is to write in concrete ways about it...if that makes sense) and concretely.
F.Scott Fitzgerald does amazing work...I think he's better than Hemingway. I try to emulate Fitzgerald because I think he had the short story form down perfectly.

[janx]

11. Too limiting.

There can be a number of problems or a few different facets of a larger problem. And despite the compressed nature of the short story form, it can actually encompass a large chunk of time, depending on how it is written.

But hell, it may be as good a place as any to start. ;-)