Understanding Narrative Structure: Short Stories
2 min readApr 3, 2024
Questions to Answer before you begin to structure your story:
- What is the overall theme or message?(purpose)
- What is the tone and genre you want to portray?
- How will your main character illustrate this point?
This is the structure that most authors use to plan their fiction books, however, it is modified for short-form fiction.
Introduction
Inciting Incident
- Remember that in a short story, the first scene must introduce the protagonist and exposite the premise of the story.
- Immediately answer the question of why we are following this protagonist and why it matters
- Demonstrate the internal conflict and make sure it is connected to the theme and message of the narrative.
Thesis/ concept statement
- In no longer than a paragraph, make sure to establish the premise of your story through setting and context. This is the setup for the upcoming conflict in the narrative.
Ex: In the short story “ All Summer in a Day”, by Ray Bradbury, the phrase “it had been raining for seven years” immediately establishes the concept that serves as the driving force of…