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Introduction to the Short Story
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Definition: What is a short story?
A short story is a work of fiction that focuses on one important event in the lives of a small number of central characters and that can usually be read in one sitting.
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Definition: What is a short story?
A short story is a work of fiction that focuses on one important event in the lives of a small number of central characters and that can usually be read in one sitting.
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Types of Short Story Story of Setting Story of Character Quality
Fantasy Realistic Biographical Commercial Interpretive Escapist Historical Story of Plot
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A short story has six basic elements:
Plot Setting & Mood Conflict Character Point of View Theme
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Plot = the framework of a story
Plot is the arrangement of related events that makes the story hang together. Plot can also be referred to as the structure of a short story. Structure concerns how the story is told.
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The plot or structure of a short story has five basic parts:
Exposition: introduces the characters, setting, and background situation of the story. Exposition can also be called the Basic Situation of the story.
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The plot or structure of a short story has five basic parts:
Initial Incident: introduces complications and obstacles that increase the tension of the story conflict.
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The plot or structure of a short story has five basic parts:
Rising Action: these events show conflict between the protagonist and antagonist. They usually escalate becoming more and more intense from the initial incident to the climax.
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The plot or structure of a short story has five basic parts:
Climax: that moment in the story when tension rises to its highest point and the conflict comes to a head.
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The plot or structure of a short story has five basic parts:
Resolution: describes how the conflict is finally resolved and the story comes to an end. Resolution of conflict is also called the denouement of a story.
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A Plot Diagram Suspense Falling Action
Setting –time, place and conditions Characters: protagonist and antagonist
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Setting & Mood Setting – time, place, and concrete situation of the story (narrative), details of setting usually introduced in the exposition of the plot and added little by little.
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Setting & Mood Mood – sometimes known as the “atmosphere” of the story, it’s the overall feeling an author gives to a story. The mood the reader is put into when reading the story.
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Conflict: the “story problem” that must be resolved.
also called the “overall conflict” or the “central conflict”
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4 Kinds of Conflict Man vs. Man Man vs. Self Man vs. Nature
Man vs. Society
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2 Types of Conflict External Internal
External = a character struggles with a force outside himself or herself. Internal = a character struggles within his or her own mind with emotions, decisions, etc.
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Characters “In the best stories, characters come alive. We care about their dreams, fears, and frustrations, just as if they were real people in our lives.”
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Characters Protagonist - ?
Protagonist – main character / clearly central to the story with all major events having some importance to him or her.
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Characters Antagonist - ?
Antagonist – any character who opposes or struggles against the protagonist. Question: Does the antagonist always have to be a character (a person) in the story?
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Characters Main Major Minor Dynamic Static Flat Round Stock Narrator
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Characterization: the process by which authors communicate their characters to the readers
Direct characterization Indirect characterization
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Point of View – the perspective from which a story is told
First Person Point of View – Third Person Omniscient Point of View Third Person Limited Point of View Third Person Objective Point of View
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First Person PoV Reader Narrator
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Third Person Omniscient PoV
Narrator Reader
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Third Person Limited PoV
Narrator Reader
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Third Person Objective PoV
Narrator Reader
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Theme – the message the author intends to communicate by telling the story
Can there be more than one theme found in a short story? A story’s themes are often universal truth’s, which are suggested by the specifics of a story.
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Literary Elements used in short stories
Foreshadowing – ? Foreshadowing – the use of clues that tell the reader what is going to happen as the story unfolds. Foreshadowing is often used as a device by which the writer uses to arouse the reader’s interest and increase suspense.
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Suspense Suspense - ? Suspense – the uncertainty or anxiety that a reader feels about what is going to happen next in a story.
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Suspense – a question? Why do writers use suspense in short stories?
Answer: to hold the reader’s interest
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