Tackling the Short Story
SHOWING IS INTERACTIVE AND PARTICIPATORY: IT FORCES THE READER TO BECOME INVOLVED IN
THE STORY
1Short stories are always a popular choice in the composition section but how can you make yours tick all the boxes for the examiner? In this article I will attempt to dispense advice on this challenging but rewarding Paper option. Writer Claire Keegan describes short stories as being: “like a poem in that there is nothing lost. Everything is savoured. There is a strictness about it which I really admire and it takes your breath away if it’s good. It leaves you more breathless than poetry in some ways. Poetry runs off the tongue. A story doesn’t. It resonates in your head.”
In terms of the exam, short stories are designated, specific tasks in the composition section. A quotation from one of the texts on Paper 1 will be attached to inspire you but you will be marked on how you tackled the task given, not the quotation. Here’s an example from the 2015 paper:
Bono refers to “…telling the secrets of the age…” in TEXT 1. Write a short story in which a closely guarded secret is gradually revealed. To get this task right you have to make sure your story centres on the gradual revelation of a closely guarded secret. The specific nature of the tasks makes it impossible to simply memorise a short story you wrote previously and regurgitate it in the exam. You must be able to think on your feet and to do that you need to practise writing lots of short stories between now and the exam.
The next most important thing to remember is to show your story rather than to tell your story. What’s the difference between the two? Well, “telling” is the dependence on simple explanation, for example: Jennifer was talented. Showing, on the other hand, is the use of description and detail to help the reader figure stuff out for themselves: Jennifer competes in show-jumping competitions, plays cello in the school orchestra and gets As in every subject .
Why is showing better? Two reasons. First, it creates mental pictures for the reader. When reviewers use terms like “vivid,” “evocative,” or “cinematic” to describe a piece of prose, they really mean the writer has succeeded at showing, rather than merely telling.
Second, showing is interactive and participatory: it forces the reader to become involved in the story, deducing facts (such as Jennifer’s personality) for himself or herself, rather than just taking information in passively. Simply – it is more enjoyable for the reader.
Plan your story from beginning to end in advance, all the while limiting the breadth of the plot to what is possible to achieve in a 4 or 5-page short story. Novels can occur over millions of years and include a multitude of subplots, a variety of locations, and an army of supporting characters. The main events of a short story, however, should occur in a relatively short period of time (days or even minutes), and you typically won’t be able to develop effectively more than one plot, one or two main characters, and one setting. Keep it simple.
STRUCTURING YOUR SHORT STORY Short stories generally adhere to the following structure: Exposition Rising Action Crisis Falling Action Resolution
Exposition (Introduction): The exposition is about establishing setting and characters – create a specific space and time so your reader can picture when and where events will unfold.
Rising Action: (Development) In the development or rising action phase you need to introduce a problem for your character to solve or conflict between characters
Climax (Crisis):
Build up the tension to a dramatic climax perhaps by having a main character make a critical choice or deal with the consequences of their actions. This is the turning point in the action which changes the protagonist’s fate.
Falling Action Here conflict unravels and the tension eases. It may contain a final moment of suspense if the outcome is not fully clear.
Resolution (Denouement) Denouement means the ‘untying of the knot’ and here you bring the story to an end with a satisfactory resolution. Options include: Having a reversal in the fortune of the main characters, resolving a conflict or problem or having a surprise twist that catches the reader off guard.
KURT VONNEGUT’S FAMOUS SHORT STORY TIPS:
Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted. Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for. Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water. Every sentence must do one of two things– reveal character or advance the action. Start as close to the end as possible. Be a sadist. No matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them – in order that the reader may see what they are made of. Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia. Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible. To heck with suspense. Readers should have such complete understanding of what is going on, where and why, that they could finish the story themselves, should cockroaches eat the last few pages. But note he also said that: “The greatest American short story writer of my generation was Flannery O’Connor. She broke practically every one of my rules but the first. Great writers tend to do that.”!