Short Stories: Home

In this interview with Rich Fahle of Bibliostar.TV, bestselling author Stephen King discusses the art of writing short stories and short fiction, and the fact that many writers today forgo the short story to write the novel, sometimes before they are ready to navigate "the quagmire of the novel."

In this brief video, Vonnegut offers eight essential tips on how to write a short story:

1. Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted.

2. Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for.

3. Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.

4. Every sentence must do one of two things--reveal character or advance the action.

5. Start as close to the end as possible.

6. Be a sadist. No matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them--in order that the reader may see what they are made of.

7. Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia.

8. Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible. To heck with suspense. Readers should have such complete understanding of what is going on, where and why, that they could finish the story themselves, should cockroaches eat the last few pages.

Short stories by Edgar Allan Poe

Poe (1809–1849) was a prolific critic, poet and writer of stories and a key member of the Romantic movement in America. His work was predominantly Gothic in style, exploring concepts related to the macabre and the unknown. He exploited the psychological flaws in his characters and led them inexorably towards often grisly fates. His narrative style combined the suspenseful plotting of detective fiction with the gritty aesthetic of horror writing. Some of Poe’s best known stories are: ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’, in which a nameless murderer tries to convince readers of his sanity, ‘Murders in the Rue Morgue’, a story which introduced the now standardised trope of the brilliant outsider as a detective, and ‘The Cask of Amontillado’, the tale of a horrific revenge. Typical of Poe’s work, these stories are well-honed examples of classic, Annotations Literature prescribed texts — from 2023 to the end of 2025 Queensland Curriculum & Assessment Authority February 2023 Page 11 of 37 Aristotelian structure. They also have the tonal directness and economy of detail that characterises the craft of short-form narrative writing

Short stories by Ursula K Le Guin

Ursula K Le Guin (1929–2018) was an internationally acclaimed American writer whose realist, fantasy and science fiction offers an often deeply ironic commentary on contemporary attitudes, values and beliefs. Her short stories are notable for their versatility of style and for the sharpness of their analysis of human behaviour. As a writer, Le Guin frequently used classical myths and legends, and biblical stories as sites for reinterpretation, especially around issues of gender roles and feminism. At the heart of Le Guin’s narratives lies the desire to initiate debate about the morality that underscores social and cultural decision-making. One of her best-known short stories, ‘The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas’, creates a hypothetical but entirely believable society which exists on the premise that a single person’s suffering is justifiable if the consequence of that suffering is the happiness of the majority. Le Guin does not seek to judge the ethics of such a situation: her stories pose questions and thus offer a multitude of ideas for analysis and reimagination. Teachers should be aware that some short stories by this writer contain content that may be of a sensitive nature for certain students and school contexts, and are advised to consider this prior to introducing these stories to students. No single text on the list is compulsory for schools to use.

Short stories by Annie Proulx

Proulx is an American writer who specialises in stories set in rural locations with unique characters, many of whom struggle to fit into mainstream society. She is especially interested in depicting the trials of families with underlying dysfunctions. Proulx’s aesthetic is distinctive. Her stories are paced to be measured and reflective. She includes well-disguised plot twists and frequently uses vernacular language patterns that are common to the area in which the story is set. Annie Proulx’s stories of lonely people trapped in awkward situations are tender, whimsical, darkly comic and invariably created with great humanity. Teachers should be aware that some stories by this writer contain content that may be of a sensitive nature for certain students and school contexts, and are advised to consider this prior to introducing these stories to students. No single text on the list is compulsory for schools to use.