What Exactly Is a Short Story? PDF

What Exactly Is a Short Story? In a recent class I'was asked “What is a short story?” My first answer was that it was something that could be read in one sitting and brought an illumination to the reader, sudden and...

What Exactly Is a Short Story? In a recent class I'was asked “What is a short story?” My first answer was that it was something that could be read in one sitting and brought an illumination to the reader, sudden and golden like sunlight cracking through heavy cloud. | went on to 5 say that in my opinion a “real” short story was closer to poetry L thanto the novel. 6 Not all my students were convinced. Let's discuss word count: when is a short story too long to still be a short story? Is there an official point where a short story becomes a novella, " another 10 where a novella becomes a novel? Is Hemingway's The Old Man & the Sea truly a novel? Let's set an i,\\/imit of Words. FOr ~ Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961) now let's agree that stories up to 10,000 words in length are short ~ ofWasthean most 5 American author and one influential writers of L stories. his generation. a I'm not tiing to be definitive here, so let’s look at some 15 of the short story. My favorite is Benét's,2 “something that can be read in an hour and remembered for a lifetime.” One writer said, “The theme of a novel will not fit into the of a short story; it's like trying to squeeze a mural® into the frame of a miniature. L. And as in a miniature painting, the details need to be sharp.” The short story is an example of one facet of human nature. Often a character undergoes 20 some event and experiences something that offers him or her change. This is why it's said that short stories usually “say something,” often a small something, but sometimes delivered with such precision that the effect is exquisite, even a life-changing moment for some readers, something similar to a religious experience or to witnessing a never-to-be-repeated L. scenein nature. %25 The perfect short story is written with a poet's sensitivity for language, with a poet’s precision. The shape and sounds and rhythms of the words are more commonly part of the effect than they usually are in the novel. Just as in a poem, the bare words themselves are never the complete meaning. They interact with each other. Their sounds do things. How they are placed on the page matters. The poem tries to create a piece of truth, an insight into being 30 human, and the form is so tight, so sparse that we can argue over exact meanings long into | L. the night. e —~ ) " Anovella is longer than a short story but shorter than a novel. 2 Stephen Vincent Benét (1898-1943) was an American author. 3 Amural is a large work of art usually painted or drawn directly onto a wall. What Exactly IS a Short Story? 81