A short story is prose fiction that is shorter than a novel and that usually deals with only a few characters. Even though it is difficult to define a short story exactly. A short story is a literary form that only developed in the early nineteenth century. It is different from a tale, an anecdote, and a parable.
The following are some important characteristics of a Short Story.
- It is a piece of prose fiction
- A short story is a literary work that has to be written in the form of prose. It is not supposed to write in verse form.
- It is complete in itself.
- An effective short story must arouse and hold the reader’s interest and must convey a sense of completeness, in a style that suits the content. All these elements then contribute to the final effect that the story may have.
- Moderate length.
- It is difficult to fix a moderate length for a short story. There are different opinions formed by different scholars regarding the length of a short story. Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849), an American short story writer, says that it requires ‘from half an hour to one or two hours in its perusal’
Apart from these three, there are some features that can be attributed to the short stories. A short story may be about a particular scene, a series of connected incidents, a moral issue, an aspect of life, a phase of character, or an interesting experience. In sum, a short story can be about anything.