The Different Types of Short Stories

“The best guide on how to write short stories is to read those already published by any good author, and the best way to discover your own talent, if you have any, is not to talk about the stories you find swimming about in your head, but to write them down, and keep on writing them…the only way to find out if you are a writer or not is to write.”

Types of Short Stories:

• The Traditional Story

o The goal of the traditional story is to tell a simple story.
o Usually unsophisticated or simple, the author usually draws experience from his/her own life or similar experience.
o Traditional stories may use any genre (sci-fi, fantasy, western, romance, realism, action-adventure, horror, suspense, etc.) but, again, the focus of the story is on telling a simple story, usually to entertain.
o Usually the story is written in a realistic style.

• The subjective story

o The author has found his/her voice.
o The author discovers that his own personality can play a large part in a story.
o Usually these stories use first person POV and gets into the mind of its protagonist.
o The focus then of the subjective story is development of character.
o The story can be written in a realistic style, but may also begin to move toward a more complex subjective narration.

• The objective story

o The author is able to suppress his/her own feeling and view of things for the sake of a more objective presentation of his/her story and characters.
o The author’s personality or life is not found consciously in the story.

• Experimental and symbolic story

o These stories fool around with the structure of fiction.
o They are often experimental or symbolic, pushing the boundaries of what “fiction” is.
o These stories are often less obvious, more subtle in their meaning, characters, plot, etc.
o These forms play around with fiction convention, they often break the “4th wall”, may use multiple subjective narration, tell a story backwards, break fiction convention rules, etc.

• Complex story

o The author utilizes techniques from the first four groups here: (traditional, subjective, objective, experimental), combining the best techniques from all these forms.

• Universal story

o The skilled author hits upon certain human truths.
o The universal story form is similar to the complex story, except that it transcends the form to become “classic” short fiction.
o The universal story is often found in novel; many authors at this stage find novels more to their liking.