Saturday, December 1, 2018

December 2018 - Short Story or Vignette (What's the difference and who cares?)


Anthology of Short Stories
Short Story or Vignette?  

Okay, let's start with definitions to make it clear what each is.

A short story is a story with a fully developed theme, a beginning, middle, and ending but which is significantly shorter and less elaborate than a novel. A Short Story has a protagonist facing off with an antagonist (which can be a who or a what and involves a problem with dire consequences). 

Please note that this type of short story is called The Developed Short Story (DSS). If you master the DSS, you can write a novel because the only difference between the short story and novel is length [50,000 words and up] and scope [number of characters who have Point of View (POV) and Viewpoint as well as subplots or underplots].

A vignette, on the other hand, is a brief, evocative description, account, or episode, or even a portrait of someone (think character sketch). Vignettes are "slices of life" which may have a moral or point but which do not have a beginning, middle, and resolution. Often vignettes are literary prose.

Which is harder to sell or market, the Short Story or the Vignette? Answer: It's the Vignette. 

Which is easiest to write? The Vignette

These days the short story is enjoying a comeback thanks to downloadable short stories, short story collections, short story anthologies, and short stories in audio versions. 


*** Call it Karma or whatever, but last year, when I posted the schedule for this year's WCS blog topics, little did I know that come October I would be contacted by Pennwriters and booked to do a workshop on the Developed Short Story.

If you want to write well and tell a marketable short story, give yourself a great Christmas gift — register for the Feb. 1-28 2019  - From Story Spark to Story Done - Let's write a short story.  Details are HERE.

**********JANUARY 2019 TOPIC — SETTING, SETTING, SETTING, Part 1 - A Story's World, an overview

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Merry Christmas!

2 comments:

Janet said...

Your post makes the difference and importance clear. I'm looking forward to reading your thoughts on setting in the new year. Happy Holidays!

Catherine said...

Happy holidays to you, too, Janet!