To Become an Avid Reader of Short Stories
By Hu Wo (Cuckoo’s Song)
I T is only human nature to know
about others, and I think it is one of the potential reasons why people
willingly read short stories today. As we all probably know, short stories
often tell many universal truths about life. To say so, the short story usually
comprises a series of life events of interest. Hence, short stories are still
being accepted and read until now besides the fact that their golden age had
existed in the world of literature. Also, writers from all parts of the globe
have been studying and composing short stories much more widely. This article
is all about short stories with my intention of becoming an avid reader of
short stories.
I T is only human nature to know
about others, and I think it is one of the potential reasons why people
willingly read short stories today. As we all probably know, short stories
often tell many universal truths about life. To say so, the short story usually
comprises a series of life events of interest. Hence, short stories are still
being accepted and read until now besides the fact that their golden age had
existed in the world of literature. Also, writers from all parts of the globe
have been studying and composing short stories much more widely. This article
is all about short stories with my intention of becoming an avid reader of
short stories.
Basically, there are two types of
short story that can be classified in terms of writing and subject matter:
descriptive, informative short stories, and imaginative, uninformative short
stories. Nonetheless, it cannot be denied that any type of short story is not
free from imagination and information; descriptive stories contain realistic or
logical imagination, that is, some truth about life as the saying goes that
truth is stranger than fiction, whereas imaginative stories involve
hypothetical imagination. Whatever type of short story it is, story readers
will most likely get any information or pleasure at least from short stories
whether they are descriptive or imaginative. Nevertheless, care should be taken
that most life-describing short stories are ranked a nation’s literature while
those short stories based on imagination only are writing pieces of just
entertainment. Short stories might be closely linked to sci-fi, mysteries,
fantasies, romances, fables, myths, fairy tales, folktales, and tall tales.
According to Longman Advanced
American Dictionary, there can be found eight key characteristics which happen
in a short story: 1) story, 2) plot, 3) action, 4) narrative, 5) conflict, 6)
climax, 7) ending, and 8) resolution. A story is simply the things that happen
in a short story. But a good story can make an excellent short story except
that some short story writers do not try to rely on good stories. It is
noticeable that not everything that happens is a story; the story must include
at least one of the three cases _ 1) reversing a purpose, 2) getting to know
something, or 3) anything unexpected becoming to happen. A plot is the events
that happen in a short story, and the way in which these events are connected.
In almost all short stories, writers tend to compose a single plot very
capably. Action is the events that happen and the things the characters do in a
story. Here, the characters in a short story with too much action may look like
hand puppets. A narrative is the description of a series of events that happen
in a short story. Some story writers like to beckon their target audiences to
read stories from beginning to end with a clever sequence of the narrative. A
conflict is an issue or problem in a story, which the story is about. That
should be either an interpersonal conflict or an intrapersonal one. A climax is
the most exciting or important part of a story, which usually comes near the
end. It turns out to come after the plot thickens. An ending is the things that
happen at the end of a short story. The ending ought to be critical or logical
by down-toearth situations, to be said more exactly, sad, happy or humorous. A
resolution is part of a story after the climax when the conflict is solved.
This is the life of detective stories, as Sayagyi Shwe Ou Daung said, for the
simple reason that the other parts of a detective story can be created with
one’s eyes shut, but it might be completely meaningless if a poor or
unreasonable resolution is carried over there.
A first reader of short stories
should have got to learn how to read a short story. As mentioned above, the
meaning, types, and characteristics of a short story must have been known at
first. Short story readers had better not take up merely short stories for
pleasure; after a certain extent of these short stories, they can read life descriptive
ones. Short stories are sometimes like windows on the world so that they enable
us readers to see many truths about life. When we read short stories, we must
not look forward to unreasoning or illogical endings in connection with the
subject matter written in the stories, particularly happy endings. In other
words, we must find out an ending that vastly corresponds with the characters
and events in the story. We will even have to watch what a character does or
says or thinks, and what is done or said or thought about him or her by others.
We still need to try thinking of what life seems like in a different place
under different backgrounds and circumstances from ours. A person who reads
short stories must have had objective thinking on story matter rather than
subjective thinking.
As always, the writer’s hand is
behind the story by arranging events, causing things to happen, and beckoning
the reader to the end. A skilful reader comes to recognize in a little while
the clever ways in which a story is created. Most importantly, after we have
read short stories, we are likely to ask ourselves two questions unconsciously.
The first question is whether we were surprised at the ending of a short story.
There is no denying the fact that not all stories have a surprise ending. A
good writer gives his readers hints as to the outcome of a story that a nice
reader promptly recognizes. As a result, the reader half expects an ending to
the story before it is reached. So, we do not have to hunt for a surprise ending
of a short story on purpose. The second question is whether the ending
satisfied us. Really, life is not made up of happy endings only by any means
for which fiction is a reflection of life sometimes. Thus, we do not need to
seek out a happy ending that is not mostly a large part of modern literature.
Instead, what we had better do is to explore an ending which is true to the
characters and events in a story. And then, we will enjoy reading short stories
for sure.
As always, the writer’s hand is
behind the story by arranging events, causing things to happen, and beckoning
the reader to the end. A skilful reader comes to recognize in a little while
the clever ways in which a story is created. Most importantly, after we have
read short stories, we are likely to ask ourselves two questions unconsciously.
The first question is whether we were surprised at the ending of a short story.
There is no denying the fact that not all stories have a surprise ending. A
good writer gives his readers hints as to the outcome of a story that a nice
reader promptly recognizes. As a result, the reader half expects an ending to
the story before it is reached. So, we do not have to hunt for a surprise
ending of a short story on purpose. The second question is whether the ending satisfied
us. Really, life is not made up of happy endings only by any means for which
fiction is a reflection of life sometimes. Thus, we do not need to seek out a
happy ending that is not mostly a large part of modern literature. Instead,
what we had better do is to explore an ending which is true to the characters
and events in a story. And then, we will enjoy reading short stories for sure.
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