A short story is a type of story written in paragraphs that can usually be read in one sitting. It centers on a single event or a few connected events, aiming to create a specific feeling or atmosphere. The short story is one of the oldest forms of writing and has appeared as legends, myths, folktales, fairy tales, tall tales, fables, and anecdotes in many ancient cultures worldwide. The modern version of the short story began in the early 1800s.

Definition

The short story is a special type of writing. Short stories use elements like plot and themes, similar to novels, but usually in a simpler way. While short stories are different from novels or novellas, writers often use the same writing techniques. Sometimes, the short story is called a genre.

It is difficult to clearly define what makes a short story. One classic idea is that a short story can be read in one sitting, a thought Edgar Allan Poe discussed in his essay "The Philosophy of Composition" (1846). H.G. Wells said the purpose of a short story is to create something lively and meaningful, which can be scary, emotional, funny, or insightful, and should take between 15 to 50 minutes to read aloud. William Faulkner believed a short story focuses on characters, and a writer's job is to record their actions and words.

Some writers think a short story must follow a strict structure. Somerset Maugham believed a short story should have a clear plan, including a beginning, a climax, and a conclusion. Hugh Walpole agreed, saying a story should include events, quick actions, and unexpected changes that lead to a satisfying ending.

However, Anton Chekhov disagreed. He thought a short story should feel like a moment from life, not a complete story with a clear beginning or end. His stories often leave the ending open, letting readers decide for themselves.

Sukumar Azhikode described a short story as a short, intense story that focuses on a single event or moment. Flannery O'Connor said writers might see short stories as a way to express their personal and artistic ideas. They may also avoid being grouped into specific categories or forms.

William Boyd, a British author, said the term "short story" began to have its modern meaning in the 1880s, after first being used for children's tales. In the early to mid-20th century, short stories were written in many different ways, making it harder to define them clearly. Longer stories that are not novels are sometimes called "novellas" or "novelettes" and may be grouped into collections. Today, the short story is similar to poems, plays, novels, and essays, but it is not always studied as much as these other forms.

Length

Short stories usually have between 1,000 and 4,000 words. However, some short stories can have up to 15,000 words. Stories with fewer than 1,000 words are sometimes called "short short stories" or "flash fiction."

There is no fixed length for a short story. What counts as a short story can vary depending on the genre, country, time period, or the person giving the definition. The way short stories are written often depends on the needs of the publishing industry. As publishing changes, so does the way short stories are written and submitted.

For example, the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America set a guideline for the Nebula Awards, stating that short stories should have fewer than 7,500 words.

History

Short stories have a long history, beginning with oral storytelling traditions. These traditions created long stories, such as the Ramayana, the Mahabharata, and Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey. Oral stories were often told in rhyming or rhythmic verse, with repeated sections or special phrases, like Homeric epithets. These styles helped storytellers remember and share stories more easily. While the full story might be told over many performances, short parts of the story could be shared in one telling. These parts can be considered oral short stories.

Another ancient form of short story was the anecdote, a short, realistic story that teaches a lesson. Many Roman anecdotes were collected in the 13th or 14th century as the Gesta Romanorum. Anecdotes stayed popular in Europe until the 18th century, as seen in the fictional letters of Sir Roger de Coverley.

In Europe, oral storytelling began to be written down in the early 14th century. Giovanni Boccaccio’s Decameron and Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales are examples of books filled with short stories. These stories range from humorous tales to more serious fiction, often placed within a larger story (a frame story). Not all writers used this frame-tale method. By the end of the 16th century, dark and tragic stories called "novellas" by Italian author Matteo Bandello became popular, especially in French translations.

In the mid-17th century, France developed a refined short novel called the "nouvelle," written by authors like Madame de Lafayette. Traditional fairy tales were published in the late 17th century, with one famous collection by Charles Perrault. Antoine Galland’s translation of the 1001 Arabian Nights, published in 1704, introduced Middle Eastern folk and fairy tales to Europe and influenced writers like Voltaire and Diderot.

India has a rich tradition of ancient folktales and short fiction that shaped modern Indian stories. Famous Sanskrit collections include Panchatantra, Hitopadesha, and Kathasaritsagara. The Jataka tales, originally written in Pali, tell stories about the past lives of Lord Gautama Buddha. The frame story, a technique where a story is told within another story, may have originated in ancient Indian works like Panchatantra.

The development of printing and periodicals helped short stories become more important. Writers like Rudyard Kipling, Anton Chekhov, Guy de Maupassant, Rabindranath Tagore, Manuel Gutiérrez Nájera, and Rubén Darío helped define the genre in Western literature.

Early short stories were published separately between 1790 and 1810, but the first true collections appeared between 1810 and 1830. In the United Kingdom, gothic tales like Richard Cumberland’s "The Poisoner of Montremos" (1791) were among the first. Writers like Sir Walter Scott and Charles Dickens also wrote influential short stories. Germany followed with Heinrich von Kleist’s first short story collection in 1810 and 1811. In the United States, Washington Irving created early American stories, such as "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" and "Rip Van Winkle."

Edgar Allan Poe became an important American short story writer. His method, called the "single effect," greatly influenced modern short stories.

Examples of early short stories include:
– France: Prosper Mérimée’s "Mateo Falcone" (1829)
– Germany: E. T. A. Hoffmann’s "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King" (1816), "The Sandman," and the Brothers Grimm’s "Grimms’ Fairy Tales" (1812)
– United States: Edgar Allan Poe’s "The Fall of the House of Usher," "The Tell-Tale Heart," "The Cask of Amontillado," "The Pit and the Pendulum," "The Gold Bug," and "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" (one of the first detective stories), as well as "The Purloined Letter" (another early detective story), and Nathaniel Hawthorne’s "Twice-Told Tales" (1837), John Neal’s "Otter-Bag, the Oneida Chief" (1829), and "David Whicher" (1832)

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, print magazines and journals increased the demand for short stories of 3,000 to 15,000 words. In 1890s Britain, magazines like The Yellow Book, Black & White, and The Strand Magazine popularized the short story. French author Guy de Maupassant wrote important stories like "Boule de Suif" (1880) and "L'Inutile Beauté" (1890), which showed French realism. Russian author Anton Chekhov also played a key role in the movement.

In India during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, writers focused on daily life and social issues. Rabindranath Tagore wrote over 150 stories about the poor and oppressed, such as peasants, women, and villagers under colonial rule. Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay, a contemporary of Tagore, wrote about rural Bengal and common people. Munshi Premchand, a prolific writer, pioneered short stories in the Hindustani language, writing over 200 stories and many novels that explored Indian society with realism.

In 1884, Brander Matthews, the first American professor of dramatic literature, published The Philosophy of the Short-Story and named the genre "short story." Henry James also influenced the development of short narratives.

The short story movement spread to South America, particularly Brazil. Machado de Assis, influenced by writers like Xavier de Maistre and Guy de Maupassant, became an important short story writer. João do Rio gained popularity for stories about bohemian life, and Lima Barreto wrote about former slaves and Brazilian nationalism in Triste Fim de Policarpo Quaresma.

Examples of short stories from various countries include:
– India: Rabindranath Tagore’s "The Kabuliwala," "The Hungry Stone," "The Wife’s Letter," "The Parrot’s Training," "Punishment"; Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay’s "Bindu’s Son," "Abhagi’s Heaven," "Mahesh," "Ram’s Good Lesson," "Lalu" (3 parts), "The Husband"; Premchand’s "The Shroud," "The Cost of Milk," "Lottery"
– Poland: Bolesław Prus’s "A Legend of Old Egypt" (1888); Eliza Orzeszkowa’s "Panna Antonina" (1888), "W zimowy wieczór" (1888); Henryk Sienkiewicz’s "The Lighthouse Keeper" (1881), "Charcoal Sketches" (1877)
– Portugal: Almeida Garrett,

Sales and profits

There are thousands of short story writers in the 21st century. Female writers have received more attention from critics, especially British authors who write about modern feminist ideas in their stories.

Short story sales have been strong. In the UK, sales increased by 45% in 2017. This growth was due to books by well-known international writers like Alice Munro, the rise of many new writers in the genre, including famous people like actor Tom Hanks, and the return of short story events organized by groups like Pin Drop Studio.

In 2017, over 690,000 short stories and collections were sold in the UK, earning 5.88 million pounds. This was the highest sales total for the genre since 2010. During the 2010s, many people discussed whether the short story genre was entering a new period of growth. Sam Baker called the short story a "perfect literary form for the 21st century."

Canadian short story writers include Alice Munro, Mavis Gallant, and Lynn Coady. In 2013, Alice Munro became the first short story writer to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. Her award-winning collections include Dance of the Happy Shades, Lives of Girls and Women, Who Do You Think You Are?, The Progress of Love, The Love of a Good Woman, and Runaway.

Awards

Well-known short story awards, such as the Sunday Times Short Story Award, the BBC National Short Story Award, the Royal Society of Literature's V.S. Pritchett Short Story Prize, The London Magazine Short Story Prize, the Pin Drop Studio Short Story Award, and many others, receive many submissions each year. Writers who have published their work and those who have not participate, sending their stories from around the world.

In 2013, Alice Munro was given the Nobel Prize in Literature. The award stated that she is an expert in writing modern short stories. She said she hopes the award will help more people read short stories and show that short stories are valuable on their own, not just as a way to practice before writing a novel. Short stories were also important in the choices of other Nobel Prize winners, such as Paul Heyse in 1910 and Gabriel García Márquez in 1982.

Adaptations

Short stories are sometimes changed for radio, TV, or movies:

• Radio dramas, like the show NBC Presents: Short Story (1951–52), have featured short stories. One well-known example is The Hitch-Hiker, narrated by Orson Welles.
• Many short stories have been turned into short films or full-length movies. Examples include Children of the Corn, The Shawshank Redemption, The Birds, Brokeback Mountain, Who Goes There?, Duel, A Sound of Thunder, The Body, Total Recall, The Lawnmower Man, Hearts in Atlantis, and The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.
• Television specials have also adapted short stories. Examples include the 1993 TV movie 12:01 P.M., the 1963 Twilight Zone episode Nightmare at 20,000 Feet, and other shows like The Lottery and Button, Button from Twilight Zone.

Characteristics

The short story is a short and focused form of storytelling that includes both narrative and descriptive elements. It has been studied using the traditional parts of dramatic structure: exposition (introducing the setting, situation, and main characters), complication (an event that starts the conflict), rising action, crisis (a key moment where the main character decides on a path), climax (the most exciting part of the conflict with the most action), and resolution (when the conflict is solved). Because short stories are brief, they may or may not follow this pattern. For example, modern short stories often begin in the middle of the action (in medias res) instead of starting with an exposition. Like longer stories, short stories also have a climax or turning point. In general, short stories can end in a clear way or leave some questions unanswered. Ambiguity, or unclear details, is a common feature in short stories, whether in their endings, characters, or length. As with any art form, the exact qualities of a short story depend on the writer who creates it.

According to Clare Hanson, a professor of English, short story writers are often described as people who feel left out or excluded from the main stories or ideas of their society. These writers may include individuals who are not part of the dominant group, such as women, Black people, or others who have been excluded for various reasons.