  Short Stories
This week: Slice of Life - a story? Edited by: THANKFUL SONALI Library Class!  
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| Adding my two bits' worth to the discussion on what constitutes a short story! |
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Dear Readers,
I was reading a book by Ruskin Bond recently, called "The India I Love". It's a collection of poems, essays and snippets from Ruskin Bond's diaries.
It was the section containing the clippings from his diaries that got me thinking. These vary from very brief notes, a sentence or two each, to one entry that contains nine short paragraphs. So we have, for example: March, 1981: After a gap of twenty years, during which it was, to all practical purposes, forgotten, The Room on the Roof (my first novel) gets reprinted in an edition for schools.
Or
October, 1981: A good year for the cosmos flower. Banks of them everywhere. They like the day-long sun. Clean and fresh -- my favourite flower en masse.
Or
July, 1982: Monsoon downpour. Bedroom wall crumbing. Landslide cuts off my walk down the Tehri Road.
There are about fifty such entries, dealing with the weather, money problems (and financial gains, too!), family happenings (some happy, some worrying), celebrations, the adventures of being a writer and other topics. In his introduction to the section, Ruskin Bond calls them 'thoughts and observations' - he does not make any reference to a 'story' In some of the entries, he even confesses that he was planning to use that thought or turn of phrase in a short story, but didn't get around to it, for example: "He has a bonfire of a laugh".
But reading the entries, my reaction was, "Hey, these have a setting, conflict, character development and they tell of his life for that period of time." The only element of a 'story' that these entries lack, is that of structure, the formal beginning, middle and end. Yet, when I finished reading them, I felt that I had read a story. Even as I type this newsletter, I have to remind myself to call them 'snippets' or 'clippings' or 'entries' and not just type 'story'.
Why?
Is it because there is a progression in time, and since the entries are dated, there is, in fact, a beginning, middle and end, whether formal or not?
Is it because he writes of issues that all of us can identify with, and thus holds our interest?
Is it because he's the protagonist and comes across as a lovable character, so we get engrossed enough in his ramblings to read on?
I'm not sure. As a writer, I know that one of the top rules of a short story is the one of a defined beginning, middle and end. The author himself makes no claim to this being a story. And yet, here I am, reading a collection of jottings and finding myself wanting to call it a story.
So finally, is a story about structure in writing, or about evoking the feeling in the reader, of having been on a journey with the author?
Again, I'm not sure. I guess it's up to each one of us, as readers or writers, to answer it for ourselves. But I'm thinking that for snippets to come across as a story, the writer has got to be very skilled indeed, all the more for how simple a read he finally gives us!
Thanks for listening.
Sonali |
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So here's my question:
In fifty words or less - what is a short story? |
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Short Stories: April 15, 2015 Issue [#6928]
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