5 Key Elements of a Short Story: Essential Tips for Writers

• Dec 20, 2023
• 5 min read

• Tags: Fiction Writing, Short Story, Writing Tips

Writers like Anton Chekhov, O. Henry, Alice Munro, and Tobias Wolff are all big names in the short story genre.  Ever wonder how these writers craft such remarkable stories? They are the true masters at combining the five elements of a short story: plot, character, setting, conflict, and theme.

These five elements make short stories the best starting point for novice writers. They’re short and fairly simple, so the writer can focus on the plot, character, and theme. Short stories also allow writers to see their writing flourish as a piece of fiction— a great confidence boost!

If you wish to write stories worth publishing, you must understand the characteristics of a short story. To help you get there, we have shared these five short story elements in this blog.

How do the five elements of a short story work? How can you naturally include them in your stories? Also, how can you tie them up to create one coherent narrative?

Here are the five key elements of a short story:

1. Plot
2. Character
3. Setting
4. Conflict
5. Theme

Let’s take a closer look at these elements and figure out how you should use them in a short story.

Five key elements of a short story

1. Plot

A simple way to define a plot is to call it a sequence of events in your narrative. It is a cause-and-effect chain of events with a beginning point, a climax, and a resolution. A strong plot means you have a captivating narrative ready to enthrall your audience.

Writers use the plot to map their stories before beginning their writing process. For fiction writing, this serves as a creative outline. So, understanding the plot is crucial to crafting a compelling narrative and making it impactful.

The sequence of events in a plot is tied to the central conflict in a story. The plot develops as the protagonist struggles with their given problem, finds a solution, and accepts the results eventually.

Six succinct stages of a plot

1. Exposition: An introduction to the characters, setting, and conflict, providing all the necessary background information of a story.

2. Opening incident:  This is the incident that leads the main character to conflict and sets the stage for or opens the plot.

3. Rising action:  The conflict develops and brings newer and more complicated incidents, leading to the climax.

4. Climax: The conflict reaches a peak, which then leads to a change in the course of events, giving the reader a new understanding of the story either through an event or an insight.

5. Falling action: The conflict gets resolved and the action slows down.

6. Resolution: The conflict ends, leaving the reader fulfilled. 

Plot as a short story element

Often, plots in short stories are simple but end up delivering great suspense, followed by a grand moment of revelation. For this reason alone, the plot was once considered the most important of all the five elements of a short story.It means it was seen as the key element of a short story.

Modern short stories, however are often focused on the nuances of character and setting, so the plot becomes secondary. Nevertheless, a plot is the spine of any given narrative, so it still features first in our study of the short story elements!

Every paragraph, every sentence, and every word should lead the reader closer to the climax. Cut anything that doesn’t serve this purpose. Short stories give you a very small space to work with, so brevity becomes important. Hence, planning your short story structure well matters!

Some techniques to add more kick to your story are creating suspense, foreshadowing, narrating flashback, and a short story staple, the surprise ending.

2. Character

Your characters are the people, animals, or other figures who appear in your stories. They perform actions and say dialogue to move the story along. A story cannot be told without characters.

Depending on how you see it, a character can be classified as either round or flat, dynamic or static, a protagonist or an antagonist. For a short story, well-rounded and dynamic characters will be your strength.

The easiest way to write interesting characters is to make sure that they have a flaw. Always keep in mind that in any story, perfect characters fall flat.

Writing characters for short stories

Be careful that you don’t put too much emphasis on character traits and backstory. Unlike novels, characters in a short story are only glimpsed at, rather than seen in the round.

You may say that characteristics of a short story are abbreviated versions of the same in novels. So, short stories will feature only two or three major characters, while novels can boast a dozen!

Short stories can be great character studies, but a good rule of thumb is to focus on dialogue and action.

3. Setting

Ever felt transported to another world while reading a short story? That’s the work of a writer who can imagine and write a whole other world into being.

This element of a short story is crucial in making it real to the reader. The setting establishes a time, place, and environment in which the characters and events of the story are based.

Aspects of setting:

1. Time: A story is usually set in a time period. This includes the historical time of the story, its specific time frame, and even the time of the day when the events take place.

2. Place: Place is the geographical landscape, real or imaginary, where a particular story unfolds.

3. Environment: The environment of a story can include anything from weather conditions to the social, cultural, and political backdrop to a given story.

For example, Guy de Maupassant’s short story The Necklace takes place during the 19th century in the city of Paris and has the environmental backdrop of class differences in French society.

Like the main conflict of class difference in The Necklace, all other characteristics of a short story derive from its setting. When well-designed, this can also help set up the dominant emotional tone. Of course, it takes a significant amount of research to deliver a setting both beautifully and believably.

4. Conflict

Conflict is closely linked to the theme of a narrative, as it motivates the characters and affects the plot. It usually surfaces when the protagonist (main character) faces an obstacle or hardship. Conflict forms “the heartbeat of a story”, so your story needs to have a defining conflict to impact the reader’s mind.

There are two main types of conflict: internal conflict and external conflict.

Types of conflict

1. Internal conflict is a person’s struggle with themselves. It takes place inside the psyche of a character, such as Hamlet’s conflicted state of mind about how to take revenge for his father’s murder.

2. External conflict takes place between different people or groups of people. It is possible to further divide this type of conflict based on who or what the protagonist(s) are struggling against. For example, the conflict in A Game of Thrones is between kingdoms, but also between people and the supernatural elements of the fantasy world.

Regardless of the type of conflict you choose, making it believable will hold the reader’s attention. Various literary devices like mystery, causality, empathy, surprise, insight, universality, or simply high stakes for the character, all add a different dimension of conflict to the plot. Conflict drives your story and makes it interesting.

5. Theme

A theme is what children would call the moral of the story. It can be the subject of the story, an idea that runs through it, or simply the message that is conveyed from the writer to the reader through the short story. The writer can use all the other characteristics of a short story to best articulate their theme into words.

A well-told story, the kind that gets published or made into a film, explains itself. For example, while reading O. Henry’s short story The Gift of the Magi, you can easily understand that the story is about the value of love and sacrifice. In this way, the theme is implied rather than stated explicitly, and it is up to the writer’s skill to best convey it through their writing.

Short story examples

Short stories can be steered in any direction based on a writer’s judgment. It means a writer can explore various narratives, experiment with different ideas, and introduce twists to take readers on a different journey (or, maybe, even a detour).  

Let us quickly see some examples of short stories in this section.

The Forgotten Key

Alicia rummaged through the drawer in a frenzy, her fingers trembling with urgency. She could not believe she had lost the key again—the small, silver one that opened the attic door. It wasn’t just any attic; it held her grandmother’s old chest, rumored to contain secrets of their family’s past. Just when she was about to give up, a tiny glint caught her eye beneath a stack of old postcards. She hesitated, pulled the postcards away, and there it was—the key. With a sigh of relief, she grabbed it and hurried upstairs, her heart pounding with anticipation for what she was about to uncover.

The Last Train Home

The station was eerily quiet as Mark sat on the cold, metal bench, his suitcase beside him. The last train of the night was delayed, and the flickering lights above cast unsettling shadows. He could still feel the weight of his decision, leaving everything behind—his job, his city, and even his old friends. As he watched the mist rolling in along the tracks, he wondered if the new life awaiting him would be any different or if he was simply running in circles. The distant horn of the approaching train broke his thoughts, and with a deep breath, he stood up, ready to face whatever lay ahead.

Point of view: Choosing the right narrative for your short story

Selecting the appropriate narrative perspective is a crucial decision while crafting a short story. The point of view (POV) not only shapes the reader’s experience but also influences how the story’s elements—plot, character, setting, conflict, and theme—are perceived and interwoven. 

Renowned short story writers like Edgar Allan Poe, Ernest Hemingway, and Alice Munro have mastered the art of choosing the right POV to enhance their storytelling. They have been able to make their narratives both engaging and memorable by mastering the POV.

There are several narrative perspectives to consider, each offering unique advantages and challenges:

1. First-person POV: The first-person perspective allows readers to experience the story through the eyes of a character, often the protagonist. It creates intimacy and immediacy, drawing readers into the character’s internal world. However, it can also limit the narrative to the character’s knowledge and biases.
2. Second-person POV: Less common in short stories, the second-person perspective addresses the reader directly as “you”, creating an immersive and sometimes disorienting experience. It can be effective for experimental or interactive storytelling but may be challenging to sustain over a longer narrative.
3. Third-person POV: It offers a more objective view of the story than other perspectives, allowing the narrator to observe and describe events from outside the characters’ minds. There are two main variations within third-person POV:

• • • Third-person omniscient: With this POV, the narrator has unlimited knowledge and can access the thoughts and feelings of multiple characters. This POV provides a broad perspective. It allows the exploration of various viewpoints. However, it can also feel distant or detached, making it challenging to relate to individual characters on a personal level.
    • Third-person limited: This narrator focuses on the thoughts and feelings of a single character. It creates a sense of connection and empathy, but it can also limit the reader’s understanding of other characters and events.

Now that you know how to craft a brilliant short story with the 5 elements of a short story and the 6 stages of a plot, you can experiment and create memorable masterpieces. After you write a short story, the next step is to ensure they are edited well. 

If editing is not your strength, consider our story editing services. Editors at PaperTrue will ensure you have a well-structured short story ready for publication in time. 

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Rashmi

Rashmi is a versatile writer with a passion for developing engaging long-form content. With a keen interest in both academic and business spheres, she enjoys creating comprehensive content pieces that readers find informative and interesting. She endeavors to exercise her intellectual curiosity, explore new perspectives, and consider different possibilities through her writing.