Learning About Short Stories

A short story is a brief work of fiction that contains many of these elements:

​Conflict

Conflict: a struggle between opposing forces

In an external conflict, a character struggles against an outside force. An internal conflict takes place in the mind of a character.

​Plot

Plot: the sequence of events in the story

Exposition introduces the characters and setting. The rising action introduces the conflict and increases its intensity. The climax is the turning point of a story. The falling action is the part of the story when the conflict lessens in intensity. The resolution is the story’s conclusion.

Setting

Setting: the time and place of the action in a story

Mood is the emotional atmosphere that the setting sometimes conveys.

​Characters

Characters: the people or other beings in a story

Character traits are a character’s qualities and attitudes. Characterization is the way the author reveals a character’s traits. The author may state traits directly (“Ross is strong”) or reveal traits indirectly by showing what the character says, thinks, and does.

​Theme

Theme: the central message expressed in a story

A theme may be directly stated by the author or implied, suggested indirectly through what happens to the characters.

​Point of View

Point of View: the perspective from which a story is told

First-person point of view: a character in the story tells the story. Third-person point of view: a narrator outside the story tells the story.

​Literary Devices

Literary Devices: tools that writers use to enhance their writing

Foreshadowing uses clues early in the story to hint at future events. A flashback interrupts the story to reveal past events. Irony is a contradiction between appearance and reality, between expectation and outcome, or between meaning and intention.