{"id":50,"date":"2020-06-11T21:12:03","date_gmt":"2020-06-11T21:12:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/buildingblocks\/chapter\/the-short-story\/"},"modified":"2020-06-11T21:12:03","modified_gmt":"2020-06-11T21:12:03","slug":"the-short-story","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/buildingblocks\/chapter\/the-short-story\/","title":{"raw":"6.1 The Short Story","rendered":"6.1 The Short Story"},"content":{"raw":"\nShort stories, like essays, have beginnings, middles, and endings. Sometimes, they play with that structure\u2014starting in the middle, for example, and then using a flashback<\/strong> to the past to explain the beginning of the story to the reader\u2014but let\u2019s begin with their simplest form, especially if writing stories is new to you.\n\nStories have a protagonist<\/strong>, also called the main character<\/strong>. <\/em>This person typically wants something. It could be anything: love, a decent night\u2019s rest, to have one last chance to gaze on a particular postage stamp. It\u2019s your job as the writer to make sense of the main character\u2019s desire. Why does she want to look at that particular postage stamp so much? What does it mean to her? The reason behind this desire will help the reader to identify with the main character and to become invested in her story. This is crucial. If we don\u2019t care why she wants to see the stamp, we\u2019re hardly going to stick around to read the rest of the story.\n\nStories also typically have an antagonist<\/strong>. Many antagonists are human\u2014the mother who forbids the main character to jet off to see the postage stamp, for example. But an antagonist can also be a force: the main character\u2019s lack of money to buy that plane ticket, incipient blindness that will prevent her from seeing the stamp when she gets to it, or debilitating anxiety that means she has practically no prospect of making the journey. Even the repressive regime of the character\u2019s country, the one that prevents her from travelling to see the stamp, could be an antagonistic force.\n\n\n\n
Table 6.1 Dos and don'ts of short stories<\/caption>\n
Things to always do<\/th>\nThings to never do<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
\n
    \n \t
  • Show, don't tell, readers what to think.<\/li>\n \t
  • Use vivid, descriptive language employing the five senses.<\/li>\n \t
  • Include a conflict.<\/li>\n \t
  • Incorporate specific, surprising details.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n
\n