Angeli Primlani: You were talking about the five elements…?

Richard Chwedyk: The five elements of the short story? Well, there should be a central character.T here should be a what we would consider a protagonist. There are all sorts of other terms, but they would be who the story is about that. You think, oh, that’s simple enough, but it’s not always simple. 

The second thing is they need a context, which, again, gets included as setting. And I’ve had science fiction writers and teachers say, “That’s what makes science fiction different is setting. The setting is different. It’s a different place.” Okay, that’s important. 

And the the third thing is that, as Kurt Vonnegut would point out, people need to do something. It’s the motivation. It’s where the character is going. What the character needs to do. 

And fourth, it’s the thing that’s keeping the character from doing whatever the character wants to do. Some people object to using the word conflict, because conflict sounds like it’s always got to be on *pom pom pom* punch it out. Conflict, unless you use it in the widest sense, is somewhat limiting. There are all sorts of things that can provide conflict. 

And then fifth… writing teachers will get mad if you say resolution. Why does it have to resolve? It depends on what you mean by resolution. That’s why I have switched over and use the term outcome. What is the outcome? Force A meets force B. Kablooey ensues. There is an outcome, which is either scattered parts over here, scattered parts over there, or there is a fusion of two things that comes together. There are a number of different ways that that this will work out when fast moving train meets brick wall. Any other way you want to see what’s going on in the story. And that is important whether or not you’re writing a science fiction story. But very often in science fiction stories, there is an added element to it because it may be the whole reason of existence for the short story. To show this is how things work out. That outcome very often will prove any sort of implied point to the story. Don’t go there. Don’t do THAT. Don’t don’t get involved with fascists. Bad idea! Or do get involved with this, but not in such a way. That’s very strong in science fiction, and one of the neat things about science fiction is that that’s a brand where that kind of story writing is still recognized and allowable. Whereas in a lot of literary areas, they try to file off the sharp edges of that kind of thing and say, “You don’t have to have this kind of an outcome…” All fine and good. But in science fiction, you can write a story that sort of says, “Joe B , whoever he happens to be, wanted to do this, which has implications, either good or not good or both. And boom, that’s the end of the story.”