What is a story?

Simply stated, a story is a group of related incidents with a clear beginning, middle, and end.

One of the things a story does not have is a pre-determined length. A short-short story could be as few as six words: Three two-word sentences, each containing a simple subject and verb:

I came.
I saw.
I conquered.

One of the excercises I used in the classroom was having students write a 50-word short story. The only rules were that it could be no longer than 50 words, and it had to meet all the requirements of a narrative plot.

This site on analyzing short stories has a very effective plot diagram:

http://preciouslyana.wordpress.com/2010/04/01/how-to-analyze-short-story-plot/



Longer stories, or novels, can be more complex and have several subplots, and consist of many chapters, but a chapter of a novel is not the same thing as a short story, because it is not required to have those basic elements: exposition, or beginning; rising action, or conflict development;climax, or turning point, falling action (or denouement) which leads to the ending; and resolution, or an ending that is recognizable and psychologically satisfying.

A short story anthology, then, is different from a novel. First, each separate story has all of the story elements, whereas a chapter in a novel usually does not. Second, an anthology is usually organized around a common focal point, which could have to do with genres, themes, places, or people. The biggest difference between a novel and an anthology is that you don't have to read every story in an anthology to get a sense of completion. Each story can stand alone, and does not have to be read in context with the others. In a novel, each chapter is understood only in its relation to the other chapters, and it takes all of the chapters to make up a whole work.

This probably sounds a bit elementary for a writer's forum, but this new concept of digital books, or ebooks, has brought up a few questions, and my explanation of a story has to do with some of those questions.

Along with the question "What is a story?," comes, quickly following, the question, "What is a story worth?" The first is easier to answer, as it is pretty objective. The answer can be made by stating a few facts. The worth or value of a story is of a different, more subjective in nature, and involves two basic elements: quantity and quality, or how long is it(objective), and "How good is it?", with both questions being involved in the probably more real question, "How much am I willing to pay for it?" And that last question is completely subjective and will vary from one reader and potential customer to another.

Every reader will have a different answer for that last question, but the matter of the earlier questions are all involved in the final choice.

Anyone who is in the process of deciding whether or not a work they are thinking of downloading is worth their time and/or money needs to check out the length as well as the description given in the preliminary details. A story of a few thousand words, or even a few hundred words or less, may not be a novel, but it is a complete work, even if it is only a single story from an anthology,whereas a chapter taken from a novel is not.

You will probably be more satisfied with your experience if you have checked out the details first.

Ann

Your post follows on from mine on David's thread about $0.99 ebooks on Kindle. Readers do complain about short stories that are parts of books without endings -- especially if it is not made clear that the "short" is an excerpt and not a complete story.

I am glad to read these posts because I have been in a quandary about making each Wooffer Story stand on it's own legs, not supported by the story that went before and not connected to the one that follows. I wrote the Wooffer stories in the order of the seasons and the weather, which I felt anchored the stories in time and place.

I have spent some time thinking about how to proceed with the separation of the stories and yet to keep a kind of continuity that progressed as Wooffer grew and understood his place in the whole of the farm.

I have a lot to consider here, for me, who just loves to blurt stuff out and call it a story.

Love,

Betty

Betty. the Wooffer Stories are all stories. When we read them here on this forum (thank you for letting us do that) it is clear that they all make sense as separate entities. You aren't trying to compel anyone to have to buy the whole thing in order to see how it turns out in the end. having a theme and/or chronology might make the book more interesting than if the stories were in random order, and be a good reason for buying the whole thing, but it wouldn't be necessary, to my way of thinking.

It is clearly a new area, and we are all in a learning process.

Ann

Today, I have worked on the Wooffer stories trying to get them into smashword format, adding to and combining parts of stories that should have been together all along and changing a few things to make them flow. I have come up with, so far, 18 stories that I feel stand on their own if they could all be under the unbrella of Wooffer's Woods stories.

I joined Smashwords.

I dug my Publish America contract out of the closet and read it. My contract was up with them July 2011. There was a clause that stated that after the 7 years was about to be up, that the contract could be renewed only if both parties signed a new contract three months prior to the ending of the first contract. I think I am safe to do what I want with Wooffer.

I do wonder why Amazon and B&N still show my book as available for 25.00 or so.

I am not sure what to do about that. Should I contact Amazon or PA? Should I do anything at all?

I am not good at little blurbs that tell what each story is about. Well, there is a lot of stuff I am not good at. I am not good at anything that has to be done on this computer. It takes me hours and hours.

I hope I can come up with a cover that goes for all the stories and just change the story title. Like, The Stories of Wooffer's Woods : Wooffer and the Field Mice and so on.

That title is not etched in stone either. I need advice.

Love,

Betty

Don't worry about PA, Betty; just go ahead. It will be fine, and you can blame me if it isn't!

Titles are difficult. How about Wooffer's World.

e.g. Wooffer's World: Wooffer and the Field Mice
Stories You Can Read to Your Dog and Other Children

Dear Shelagh,

Thank you. I drive myself crazy with doubts and emotions. For all of these years that you have been my friend and helped me over and over again, I say thank you.

Love,

Betty

I like "Woofer's Woods." It sounds folksy. Or "Woofer's Farm," "Woofer and his Farm Friends," something like that. Not "world," that's overdone and not as descriptive. I agree that you shouldn't have anything to worry about with PA. PA-ers are too concerned with that. Had you changed the title of your attempted Lulu book a long time ago, I bet that would have worked, too. PA doesn't own everything you'll ever write about Woofer.

A series of short stories. That way they can stand alone or be packaged in one volume. Like a trilogy. Or like mystery series. Like hero comic books. Nancy Drew Series. etc.

I don't dispute that there are some elements that a text needs to have in order to be a story. However, I think having anything more than a very basic preconceived model of what constitutes a story, limits creativity.

I agree

Ann

My brain is on fire!

I thought today that latching on to the old title and presentation of Wooffer's series of stories might be the wrong thing to do. I tried to think a little outside those limits for a title. I came up with Across The River And Into The Woods.

I really like the title. Is there any infringement on Hemingway's Across the River and Into The Trees.?

I thought of, Over The Road and Into The Woods, but it does not sound so wonderful as the river and into the woods.

Across The River And Into The Woods:

The Encounter with Old Agnes, Mother of Thousands

Honest opinions. It means a lot to me.



Love,

Betty

If I didn't already know it was about animal stories, "Across the River and Into the Trees" wouldn't tell me. I think the title should be tied to the content more. I'm assuming you're still aiming it at children.

Betty Fasig wrote:

I came up with Across The River And Into The Woods.

Too close to the song, Over the River and Through the Woods. Not an infringement because you can't copyright a title, but a little too close for comfort.

I really like Wooffer's Woods as a primary title with a subtitle for each story.

I agree with LC. Let the story title give some audience indication.
Being too closely tied to another title, as Al mentioned, is not good. Your creativity can be captured in the title.
Perhaps a title "Brainstorm" would help if you come up with a blank.

How about "Wooffer's in the Woods ..."

e.g.

Wooffer's in the Woods with the Field Mice

Wooffer's in the Woods for the 45th Armoured Brigade Reunion

Wooffer's in the Woods at the End of Winter

Wooffer's in the Woods across the River

Wooffer's in the Woods beyond the Farm

Wooffer's in the Woods Again

Good suggestions, Shelagh. I'm lost in the woods on this one.

WOOFFER'S WOODS: Wooffer and the Field Mice

It feels right.

Love,

Betty

Yep. Sounds good.

You know I like it. It's the middle of the forest.

Ann

Onward to the map of Wooffer's Woods!

I always look at the map in books. Agatha Christi had maps, Tolkein had maps, The Wind In the Willows has a map. The map has to be simple, I think.

I will google maps in childrens literature and see what comes up. Any ideas and/or drawings will be appreciated.

Love,

Betty