What is a short story?

What is a definition of short story?

A short story is fictional work of prose that is shorter in length than a novel. Edgar Allan Poe, in his essay "The Philosophy of Composition," said that a short story should be read in one sitting, anywhere from a half hour to two hours. In contemporary fiction, a short story can range from 1,000 to 20,000 words. 

The Purpose

The purpose of reading a short story is the same as for a long story: to learn, to be entertained or enlightened, and to simply appreciate a work of literature for its own sake.  Short stories are just that: short stories.  Not every idea lends itself to a full-length novel, and many writers of novels, for example, Frederick Forsyth, enjoy penning the occasional short story or publishing a collection of short stories as an alternative to a single story told over 300 pages.  

The Character

 This element comprises of the personalities and other sentient beings that perform the actions of the story. 
The Character is widely agreed to be the most important factor to a good short story.

The Setting

This serves as the contextual portion of the story, providing the reader of the short story's background. The setting provides the reader the basis for interpreting the other elements of the story.


                                                                         Time
Place      

The Plot

The flow of the entire short story. The plot, in its most basic meaning, is the story itself. The plot orders the actions that the character of the short story will perform.

The Conflict

This element is what makes the story exciting. The conflict is the struggle of the short story between the protagonists and antagonists, as well as other characters in the story.

Theme

The overall message(or the content of the story) that the short story implies. the theme, while it may not directly affect the story´s appreciative quality, typically provides the reader a preconceived idea of what the story is all about.

Benefits of Reading a Short Story

For children stories teach them moral lessons which will be planted in their young minds and that they can ponder upon as they grow older. Other than that, they help in the enhancement of children's imaginative thinking which leads to creativity. According to some experts, children are being trained to think imaginatively while listening or reading stories in accordance to how the writer describes the setting, characters, and events that took place in the story. More than that, children are taught to focus their attention to a specific topic so that if they will be engaged to more complicated brainstorming or emersions they won't have any difficulty. One thing more, their vocabularies will be developed. As a result,, this will help them develop their communication skills both in oral and written communication.






                                                                           


For older person, stories especially with those that contain humor entertain people. Short stories would also provoke questions in the minds of people regarding life and society. Short stories enables them see realities even though the events in the stories did not happen in actual scenes; but there are several situations in life that can be related to those events. The readers are made to see and think of the realities in life. Another thing is that stories teach people to appreciate the beauty of life. This is because through short stories that the adventures of people are told. These characters are used to symbolize things in the real society. It is through them that writers relate the message they wanted their readers to grasp. Despite the fact that these characters shown in these stories don't exist in real life, their struggles can be compared to someone in real life.

The Fox and The Crow

Once a crow stole a vadai from a vendor. 

It wanted to eat it. 

So it flew away to a tree nearby. 

It was about to eat it. 

Then a hungry fox passing by saw it. 

He decided to have the vadai. 

“Oh! My dear crow,” he said to the crow, “How beautiful you are! Your feathers are really shiny. Surely your voice must also very sweet. Please sing a song for me.” 

The foolish crow opened its mouth to sing. 

The vadai fell down. 

AT once the clever fox picked it up and ran away with it. 

If you want to watch more stories just click on the link: http://www.penguin.com/static/packages/us/yreaders/aesop/

The Lion and The Mouse

Once when a Lion was asleep, a little Mouse began running up and down upon him. This

 soon wakened the Lion, who 

placed his huge paw upon him and opened his big jaws to swallow him.

"Pardon, O King!" cried the little Mouse, "Forgive me this time. I shall never repeat it and I

 shall never forget your

 kindness. And who knows, but I may be able to do you a good turn one of these days?"

The Lion was so tickled at the idea of the Mouse being able to help him, that he lifted up his 

paw and let him go.

Sometime later a few hunters captured the King and tied him to a tree while they went in

 search of a wagon to carry him on.

Just then the little Mouse happened to pass by, and seeing the sad plight in which the Lion 

was, ran up to him and soon 



gnawed away the ropes that bound the King of the Beasts. "Was I not right?" said the little

 Mouse, very happy to help the 

Lion.



If you want to whatch click on the next

 link http://www.kidsworldfun.com/shortstories.php

Video About: "I need My Monster"

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkJrw4YuvHs

The Kiss That Missed

 Once upon a Tuesday the king was in a hurry as usual goodnight he said and blew his son a royal kiss,

1.  The young prince watched it rattle around the room and bounced out the window and into the night.
2.  The prince told the queen
3.  the queen told the king and the king had a quick word with his royal knights “follow that kiss” he squawked
4.  eventually and galloped off in hot pursuit until they came to the wild wood.
5.  Wild creatures with wild eyes, too much hair and very bad manners lived there.
6.  There were bears with long claws and growling roars,
7.  swooping owls of all shapes and sizes and a pack of hungry wolves with dribbling mouths
8.  “Eek!” squeaked the knight, and then suddenlywith a sparkle the royal kiss came by and in turn said goodnight to everyone.
9. Bears stopped being growly, owls stopped being swoopy wolves stopped being dribbly and before you could say follow that kiss they all settled down for a good night’s sleep, After a while they sat down on a wrinkly old tree trunk to rest. The wrinkly old tree trunk twitched and slowly rose into the air, above the woods and into the clouds.
10.  At last they found themselves staring into a pair of very hairy nostrils. A dragon with “this lot would be nice for breakfast” eyes leered greedily at them. Suddenly with a sparkle the royal kiss came floating by and flew right up the dragon’s nose.
11.  He sat up, sniffed and blinked; slowly he opened his mouth, took a deep breath and sneezed.
12.  “Hang on” he said as they tumbled through the trees. “Come back” he puffed as he lumbered after them “I want to pick you up and kiss you goodnight.”
13.  Slowly they all made their way back to the castle.
14.  That night the prince was happy,the queen was happy and the king promised always to stop being in a hurry.
15.  He made sure everyone was comfortableand slowly read them a bedtime story from beginning to end, well almost.

If you want to watch the story on video just click the link:http://www.storylineonline.net/kiss-missed/

The Ant and the Grasshopper

The Ant and the Grasshopper
IN a field one summer’s day a Grasshopper was hopping about, chirping and singing to its heart’s content. An Ant passed by, bearing along with great toil an ear of corn he was taking to the nest.
“Why not come and chat with me,” said the Grasshopper, “instead of toiling and moiling in that way?”
“I am helping to lay up food for the winter,” said the Ant, “and recommend you to do the same.”
“Why bother about winter?” said the Grasshopper; “we have got plenty of food at present.” But the Ant went on its way and continued its toil. When the winter came the Grasshopper had no food, and found itself dying of hunger, while it saw the ants distributing every day corn and grain from the stores they had collected in the summer. Then the Grasshopper knew:          “IT IS BEST TO PREPARE FOR THE DAYS OF NECESSITY.”