By Hu Wo (Cuckoo's Song)

WHAT is a short story? Many writers and crit­ics will probably have different answers to this question. Even though I don't know whether to agree with them, I am strongly of the opinion that a short story is a kind of writing that can be read in one sitting, which may take 10-15 minutes to read. In gener­al, a novel is longer than a short story in length, but some novels are considered short stories from the point of view of subject matter inclusion. Short stories tend to tell many truths about life, like novels. Unlike most novels, short stories always spotlight only one theme rather than several themes. Of course, a short story looks like a window on the world, that is to say, a mirror of times. If we want to see ourselves in the mirror, we should have known the elements of a short story at first.

There can be categorized five elements in a short story as theme, plot, character, setting, and style.

Simply and clearly, the theme of a short story is just the subject matter concerned with the story. Even so, it includes the basic is­sue or problem related to a story as well as the moral or lesson which can be extracted from the story. Some stories are famous for their interesting theme only; some are popular with their key message itself, not because of other things. That is why a short story writer is able to choose a theme that he really and truly can write well, and his purpose is short and to the point. No mat­ter whether the theme of a short story is new or old, it will always be in the hands of a skilful writer.

A short story's plot is gen­erally a deliberately arranged sequence of interrelated events that make up the basic narra­tive structure of a story. Never­theless, the creation of a plot in short stories usually depends only on their writers, as far as I can see. A conservative plot likes to move through five different stages, namely exposition, com­plication, crisis, falling action, and resolution. As the beginning part of a story, exposition provides the necessary background informa­tion, sets the scene, establishes the situation, dates the action, introduces the characters or the conflict and even the potential for a conflict as always. Certain­ly, complication, also the rising action, will break the existing equilibrium as well as introduce the characters and the underlying conflict, if not yet mentioned by the exposition. The conflict is then gradually developed and intensi­fied. Thirdly, a crisis means the moment at which the plot reach­es its highest point of emotional intensity. It is also the turning point of the plot, directly causing its resolution. Next, falling action refers to that the tension is re­lieved and the plot moves towards its appointed conclusion after the crisis has been resolved. At last, resolution unknots or unties the conflict. We should be aware that all five of these parts cannot be ex­pected to take place in composing a short story. Even if all five parts are included in the narrative, a short story can never give time or space to them for their detailed description. And by Sayagyi Shwe Ou Daung, resolution is the life of detective stories. Though other parts of a story can be caused quite easily, a detective story will surely fail if its resolution is not handled very skilfully.

In writing a story, charac­ters play a must role as regards the plot. Without any characters, there would be no plot or story. Also, characters are the primary attraction to the reader for the simple reason that the charac­ters must get involved in a plot by following the plot or even going ahead. The major character of a plot is called the `protagonist´, while his opponent `antagonist´. In most common stories, there is a tense situation or an emotional conflict between the protagonist and the antagonist, which is made a distinctive motive by many fine writers. What is more, there can be seen round characters and flat characters in a story, that is, the former characters are given to changing to act suitably to the time and circumstance of a situ­ation, whereas the latter do the same thing from beginning to end in the story. Despite this, every character has its own unique fea­tures in a story. Strange to say, whether a story is good or bad does not only rely upon its plot, but sometimes that is founded on the features of a character. Character-oriented stories as well as plot-based stories are known among readers.

The setting of a story con­tains the place, time and condi­tions of the events of the story. As usual, they provide the back­ground for an action, create an appropriate atmosphere, reveal the character and reinforce the theme in spite of the fact that there may be many different kinds of settings in fiction. In fact, as characters in a story are moving under the setting, the reality of an age about life and the world can be well known by means of the characters' manner – what they say, what they do and how they think – from that setting.

Finally, a writer's style ex­presses his choice of words and the characteristic ways he ap­plies the resources of language to achieve a certain effect in a short story. The theme, plot, character and setting of some stories are not strange to readers at all; these are merely simple things that they have ever experienced from day to day. But when the simple things of a story are composed by a writer in a clever way and also in his own style, they must have become so great and serious that those things seem to be thought so. Rather than in other types of literary works, a writing style is a matter of the utmost importance in a story. Despite having good characteristics like theme, plot, character and setting, some sto­ries have not been as excellent as readers expected due to their writers' poor style.

What is the difference be­tween those who know the ele­ments of a short story and those who do not? Readers who have learnt the short story's elements will enjoy more pleasure from short stories. Actually, a short story is neither an article nor an essay. Some authors write a short story similar to an article or essay by mistake. It is certain that short stories mostly have a reliable theme, a valid plot, living characters, a real setting and a sharp writing style. Whatever is given in a short story will always be stored in readers' long-term memory, not because they have memorized it by rote but because they got to feel it.