Short Stories

I feel that a short stories should both have a restriction on its length as well as have a central theme with should be expressed with the help of characters, situations and narration. Not possessing either of these qualities devoids it of being called as a short story. I would definitely call a 200 pages, theme centered writing a novel and a 10 pages life story of a person a novel.

A short story needs to have a gripping narration and shouldn't bore the reader. Details should be sufficient but they should not form the core of the story. 

I have started writing stories (not short stories) because of IndiContests. I think that its time for me to try writing short stories too.

I hardly read books and one short story whose name I would like to share with you'll is 'Under the Banyan tree' by R K Narayanan. It is a wonderful story about an old man, a story tellers living in a village and entertaining the village crowd every night with his stories. Unfortunately, towards the end he loses his power of captivating the audience with his stories which he himself realises and bids good bye to it.

Now, its your turn 

So how short should be a short story acc to you?

I feel that being theme centered is more important than the length which can vary anything between 1 and 20-25 pages.

I think a restriction on length of a story is definitely good, and adding to yours, I also think it should be expressed with some dialogues too; just narration without dialogue might tend to be monotonous.

If the short story is one part, and not a short story series, the details in narration should eventually form the core of the story too, right?

Hi Ranjith... i must say you opened an usefulthread.........

it would have been nice to get your views about the 'headings' you've put...

I feel short story should be

-single theme centred

-span of the event shouldn't be much long

-shouldn't be crowding of characters

-no character should be heroic/larger than life

-shouldn't have shaggy baggy naration in the  middle

-ending should never be predictable

-can leave a loose end from where another story can arise

All these are my personal viewpoints only ...

Hi Ranjith... i must say you opened an usefulthread.........

it would have been nice to get your views about the 'headings' you've put...

I feel short story should be

-single theme centred

-span of the event shouldn't be much long

-shouldn't be crowding of characters

-no character should be heroic/larger than life

-shouldn't have shaggy baggy naration in the  middle

-ending should never be predictable

-can leave a loose end from where another story can arise

All these are my personal viewpoints only ...

I love READING and WRITING Short Stories. 

According to me, short stories are those stories which give out beautiful messages even though they are short. Importatnt qualities would be Nice Plot, Interesting Twists and a Meaningful message.

I've written only one story till nowThe response I got was awesomeIt really inspired me and now I'll be writing more short Stories.

Sometimes I write Ficticious stories, sometimes I write Real ones. When I write Real ones, its something which happened either to me or my family or friends. If its ficticious then its something that I've read in newspapers or something which came in my dreams.

Favorite Short-Story writer would be the one who writes TINKLE. 

Bloggers means CAPTAIN AWESOME aka Animesh

Poo, that was so sweet of you. Thank you very much

Captain Awesome

1. short story according to me makes the best of both things that you have mentioned-it must have a certain word limitation (you wont call a story short if its like 40 pages or something :P) and of course it should be focussed on a particular theme at the same time.

2. Good wordplay i think is the essence of a short story. expressions should be concise but at the same time they should convey precisely the crux of the point. not too many characters i think, are required for a short story.

3. I have written about 4 short stories till now. one was total crap :P i didnt like it myself, so didnt post on my blog :P two i have posted and i think they got quite a good response. good response not in the sense, MANY people commented and stuff, but in the sense i could understand that the people who read it, liked it :) and at the end, thats what matters to me. My favorite teacher after reading my first short story said she cried, so i can brag about a GOOD response cant i?? :P

The recent one i have written is due for posting :)

and inspiration? oh i just pay attention to what happens around me :P

4. What i have written till now, can be called fictitious, because in no way it is related with MY life (one was a love story, and one was a sort of suspense mix :P) but in the undercurrent, i can say that the crux of the entire thing was taken from what i had seen and observed. one was about a mother's love and that so obviously is related to my life.

the theme other one is something, i have mused upon a LOT. so that gave way into a story too... so they are not INSPIRED by my life, but in a way, DERIVED from my life and ppl around me :)

5. my favorite short story writer would be Ruskin Bond without a doubt. Because in simple language, simple characters, simple day-to-day narrations he touches my heart so so much. i feel so much in sync with the world around me when i read his stories!

one thing i would like to add, Ranjith Ji, you made it so hard for me to choose one writer, i love so many other short story writers too!! :P

One of them is Jeffrey Archer. I dont KNOW how he pulls of some things so brilliantly. If i had to vote for a versatile writer, it would be him :)

another is Kushwant Singh. I simply ADORE the way he writes a short story too :)

ok i should stop here now, or you would end up reading my ENTIRE list of short story writers i love!!

this was a very enjoyable thread. thanks :)

Jeff is a Novelist na

he IS a novelist. but he has written many short stories too. I have read all of his short story collection, and i simply love them :)

Oh. Need to download. Thanks KirtiI didn't know at all

Have you read, "A Twist in the tale"? Its a short story collection and all of them are better than another.

Dowloaded that

Ani i have ALL short stories of Archer to date. And do like that book... Christina Rosenthal is one of my all time favourites. But some stories in A twist in the Tale(Old love) and Thereby hangs a tale(caste off) are stories that always stay with me :)

oh i simply LOVE Jeffrey Archer's works :)

I am with you on this

Short stories are generally enjoyable and crisp.  I am sure lot of the bloggers have potential to become short story writers.

• What according to you is a short story: Is it a story that has certain limitations on the word count or a story that focuses on one minor topic and derives the best out of it i.e. theme centered

I think word limit, say a few pages makes a good short story.

• What are the things that make up a short story and which of those qualities is the most important

I think the fast paced and taut writing.

• Your experience with short story writing, your inspiration and the response you have received

I have written some short stories on my blog for the Contests held here. The response has been good but I am yet to win anything from Indi itself!

• If you are involved in short story writing, are most of them fictious or derived from or inspired by your life?

My short stories are inspired from my life, infact most of them are true stories.

• Who is your favorite short story writer (not blogger) and why

Munshi Premchand. He is a magician of short stories. The best of Hindi writers. I read his stories regularly, just an amazing writer. Do read him if you have time!

I have read all his writings many times

i have read Premchand too. as kids we used to have some of his stories in our Hindi text and when my mom saw i liked them, she got me to read his other short stories and novels too :)

I had read all Hindi authors at least thrice when I was in class 10th. Almost all creations of almost all of them

I have bought a short story collection by Munshi Premchand to learn to read Hindi. Read 5-6 of them.

I had written a post about this long back. You can check it out here.

http://www.luciferhouseinc.blogspot.in/2011/07/how-to-write-story.html

I am still trying to understand. I do not like reading short stories so much as novels. But recently I have purchases Anton Checkov collection, Guy De Maupassant collection and 4 books of Sahitya Akademi compilation to read and understand what makes a good story and incorporate these things in my writing.

• What according to you is a short story: Is it a story that has certain limitations on the word count or a story that focuses on one minor topic and derives the best out of it i.e. theme centered

           I have shared my views on the blog post link I have shared above. I am still trying to discover

• What are the things that make up a short story and which of those qualities is the most important

          Again it is there in my post.

• Your experience with short story writing, your inspiration and the response you have received

         Written close to 20 posts. Mostly write for contests an pormpts. Response was amazing for the first one. It came 7th in a contests with 70                  other entries. After that it has been mixed

• If you are involved in short story writing, are most of them fictious or derived from or inspired by your life?

         Both. But usually the ones with some inpiration from real life get best response.

• Who is your favorite short story writer (not blogger) and why

          Arthur Conan Doyle. He is the only author whose short stories I really enjoyed. The character of Holmes, the well laid out cases and how he               solves it all make very interesting read.

• ... and anything else that you would like to mention....

         Nope