6 Short Story Elements

Your short story elements answer the who, what, where, when, how and why questions. These elements are the basic buiding blocks or components of a riveting story.

Construct sound story components - get your story elements in place

Let's look at the short story elements in more detail:

Who - Every riveting short story has dramatic characters

Whether you start the story with the characters or not, at some point you have to consider and develop dramatic characters. Start by writing at least a one page biography on every one of your major characters. You should only have a couple of characters so this should not be a problem.

This seems like a lot of work but the impact on the story will be incredible.

Under no circumstancs must you include the biographies in your story. The character must be revealed through the story. But how can you reveal a character if you do not know what to reveal?

Back to writing that biography. There are various methods for putting together a biography. You will quicly develop your favourites. What you want to do is to give as many as possible a try. If you can do all of them with your current characters.

At first you might end up writing 10 000 words on a character for a 3500 word story and you won't even be including any of that writing in the story. That is okay.

Think of your biography as the cutting floor remnants. Just like a movie needs to photograph the clapper board every time wasting hours of film, it does not mean that that footage need to be incuded in the film. Nor does it mean that it is wasted in any way. Without it the film will be almost impossible to put together.

This is the reason why you need to ensure that you develop dramatic characters as one of your foundational story elements.

You can develop your characters before writing the story, using them as a catalyst to develop the story idea. Or you can develop your characters during the writing of your story. You have to try both methods to see what suits you.

What - Every riveting short story has a dramatic situation

Whatever your ideas might be in the end you will have to work it up into a situation. What is a situation? A situation is a set of circumstances in which one finds oneself; a state of affairs. For a short story you need a situation with dramatic potential.

The basic question for a dramatic situation is:

What would happen if...?

Think of a family at breakfast as a situation. It takes place in millions of homes worldwide every day. It is hardly dramatic or remarkable. It is however sufficient for the seeds of a short story if the situation can be given dramatic potential.

For example: What would happen if the family was eating contaminated eggs? Or, what would happen if the daughter needs to tell her parents she's pregnant?

Neither of these are very good examples. But good examples are not the issue. What is the issue is that a dramatic situation, a situation with potential conflict, is one of the core necessities of a riveting short story.

Take any situation and work out ten alternative dramatic options. Choose the best option and work out ten variations. Repeat this process for as long as you can. You will have more than enough situations and ideas for stories.

Over time you might find that you gravitate to certain type of story ideas. This is okay because it will be essential in the development of your own writing style. But if you are not aware of this it might make your writing stale. Every now and then choose to develop a dramatic situation that does not interest you. Even though the story might fail the struggle will give your writing new depth.

Where - Every riveting short story has a dramatic setting

A dramatic situation is dangerous. At least one of the characters must be exposed or vulnerable or pushed to their limits by the circumstances of the setting. A warm sunny day in the park is only dramatic when a lion has escaped from the nearby zoo. It is not necessary for the character to be aware of the danger in the situation. The reader must however be aware if not of specific danger at least of the hint thereof. A setting must be ominous and threatening.

The setting is one of the story elements that determine the mood and genre of the story.

Back to the warm sunny park. It is not always necessary to have physical danger. A happily married couple walking in the park can also make the setting dramatic if one of them hides a secret. The contrast between inner turmoil and outer calm will give the story stronger impact.

When - Every riveting short story has a dramatic plot

I make a distinction between plot and structure. The plot of the short story is what happens and when it happens. It is a chronological account of events and for that a case of cause and effect. For every cause in the story there is and effect and these build onto each other until a climax is reached or a conclusion is found.

The basics of what happens when is the plot of the story. Add in the who it happens to and you have the basic framework of your story. You need these two story elements to work in concert.

A well developed plot has an inevitable series of events that leads to the climax of the story.

Before I forget, the story structure is how the plot events are organised to tell the story. The plot determines what the climax is. The story strucuture determines where in the story you reach the climax.

Read my description of a plot structure for a novel.

How - Every riveting short story has a dramatic conflict

Dramatic conflict bring the basic being or values of the characters into question. Dramatic conflict is faced because the character cannot do otherwise. They will lose themselves, either their identity or their very lives, unless they step up and face the conflict.

No character faces the final conflict with a guarantee of success. Dramatic conflict is dramatic because the character can fail. The less chance there is for success, the more desperate the situation, the stronger the conflict.

Conflict is also heightened when the character is locked in. A character that can resolve the conflict just by walking away are not locked into a dramatic contest. Conflict is one of the most pivotal story elements.

Why - Every riveting short story proves a dramatic premise

The premise or theme is woven into the dramatic components of the story. The premise answers a question or illustrates an argument. The premise is an argument that is proven false or true for the particular events and characters in this particular story.

It is possible to start with a premise as the idea for a story. It can also develop throughout the story. Before a story is finished the premise must be checked and it must be ensured that the story is consistent in illustrating the premise and that the other story elements supports it.

Gerhi Janse van Vuuren

P.S. Just to make sure you get it here is the story elements again in one dramatic sentence:

In a riveting short story dramatic characters in a dramatic situation and a dramatic setting follow a dramatic plot to a dramatic climax to prove a dramatic premise