What Is A Short Story And What Are The Key Components In A Short Story?

A short story may have all the elements of a short novel - complete plot and developed characters - but because of the lack of space, they tend to be structrured quite diferently from novels.

Some of the key components of a successful short story are:

Integrity: it should form a coherent whole. This means that everything -language, dialogue, etc -should contribute to the overall effect. A novel may ramble, but a short story can't.

Economy: you can't have a long introduction. THe reader has to get involved quickly; the story's themes and mood need to be established.

Epiphany: typically, something has to change in the course of the story - either the character(s) learn something, or their lives change decisively, or we (the reader) learn something or have our perceptions challenged in some way. This moment of "showing" is what the great short story writer James Joyce called epiphany. A similar idea is the "twist in the tale."

Ending: you can't just stop. A good short story needs to give the reader a feeling of closure, or at least a sense of having read somethnig complete. Otherwise it's just a sketch.

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