Shortshort Story examples

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.11/sixwords.html

Historical context

One aspect of short stories that I think often plays an important role is the social context of when it was written. For example, A Perfect Day for Bananafish was written shortly following the end of the war. Seymour Glass, the main character, is a veteran suffering from PTSD. In doing this, Salinger is able to draw attention to the negative impacts of war. These topics change depending on current events, very often driving writers.

11 Kinds of Loneliness

Richard Yate's Doctor Jack-o'-Lantern

Following the formula of a short story, this sticks to one main plot and is built around one character who is involved in the plot.

Plot:

Rising action-

We are introduced to the concept of the classes' "reports" (stories of the student's weekend)

Vinny's turn, he tells a story of a movie he saw and a shooting he was involved in with his mother and father. Clearly he was lying, causing even more tension between him and his classmates.

Climax-

Vinny wrote all the "dirty words" he could think of on a concrete wall with chalk during recess. The whole class saw, including Miss Price and all were upset

Falling action-

Forced to wash the words off the wall, when asked about his punishment by other classmates, Vinny lies and tells them that Miss Price hit him with a ruler- again, clearly lying

He draws a picture of Miss Price on the concrete wall, again writing all the "dirty words" he knew in a speech bubble

Setting:

surrounding area of New York City

1950s

Tone- sad, gloomy

Characters:

introduction to characters

main character- Vinny

an orphan with new foster parents, new kid at school, outcast

quiet, poor, lonely, becomes rebellious

as the reader, I felt sympathetic to this character

Miss Price- teacher, shows compassion for her new student

Point of View:

Third person- author sees whatever they want to see and interprets how they choose

Theme/Purpose:

struggle for acceptance,

exploration of loneliness

Characteristics

Really awesome article outlining commonly used principles in writing short stories:

HERE.

Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life

I heard Alice Adams give a lecture on the short story once, one aspect of which made the writing students in her audience so excited that I have passed it along to my students ever since… She said that sometimes she uses a formula when writing a short story, which goes ABDCE, for Action, Background, Development, Climax, and Ending. You begin with action that is compelling enough to draw us in, make us want to know more. Background is where you let us see and know who these people are, how they’ve come to be together, what was going on before the opening of the story. Then you develop these people, so that we learn what they care most about. The plot – the drama, the actions, the tension – will grow out of that. You move them along until everything comes together in the climax, after which things are different for the main characters, different in some real way. And then there is the ending” what is our sense of who these people are now, what are they left with, what happened, and what did it mean?

-Anne Lamott

The Swim Team, Miranda July

Written almost as a confession to her ex, the narrator recounts a year spent in Belvedere where she takes on the identity of a swim coach in a city with no place to swim. In her living room, with bowls of water placed beneath the faces of her three enthusiastic students, gives swimming lessons.

I know it's hard for you to imagine me as someone called 'Coach.' I had a very different identity in Belvedere, that's why it was so difficult to talk about it with you. I never had a boyfriend there; I didn't make art, I wasn't artistic at all. I was kind of a jock. I was totally a jock - I was the coach of a swim team. If I had thought this would be at all interesting to you I would have told you earlier, and maybe we would still be going out.

"Miranda July's characters are so unafraid to be human, it hurts. But from the pain, magic emerges, and in that magic is the essence of what it means to be human."

-Mark Flanagan

JD SALINGER

A Perfect Day for Bananafish