Short Stories

1. Short Stories Protagonist, antagonist, conflict, obstacles, and resolution…

2. Beginnings

3. A very short story —Ernest Hemingway One hot evening in Padua they carried him up onto the roof and he could look out over the top of the town. There were chimney swifts in the sky. After a while it got dark and the searchlights came out. The others went down and took the bottles with them. He and Luz could hear them below on the balcony. Luz sat on the bed. She was cool and fresh in the hot night.

4. The End of Something —Ernest Hemingway In the old days Hortons Bay was a lumbering town. No one who lived in it was out of sound of the big saws in the mill by the lake. Then one year there were no more logs to make lumber. The lumber schooners came into the bay and were loaded with the cut of the mill that stood stacked in the yard. All the piles of lumber were carried away. The big mill building had all its machinery that was removable taken out and hoisted on board one of the schooners by the men who had worked in the mill. The schooner moved out of the bay toward the open lake, carrying the two great saws, the travelling carriage that hurled the logs against the revolving, circular saws and all the rollers, wheels, belts and iron piled on a hull-deep load of lumber. Its open hold covered with canvas and lashed tight, the sails of the schooner filled and it moved out into the open lake, carrying with it everything that had made the mill a mill and Hortons Bay a town. The one-story bunk houses, the eating-house, the company store, the mill offices, and the big mill itself stood deserted in the acres of sawdust that covered the swampy meadow by the shore of the bay. Ten years later there was nothing of the mill left except the broken white limestone of its foundations showing through the swampy second growth as Nick and Marjorie rowed along the shore. They were trolling along the edge of the channel-bank where the bottom dropped off suddenly from sandy shallows to twelve feet of dark water. They were trolling on their way to set night lines for rainbow trout. "There's our old ruin, Nick," Marjorie said. Nick, rowing, looked at the white stone in the green trees. "There it is," he said. "Can you remember when it was a mill?" Marjorie asked. "I can just remember," Nick said. "It seems more like a castle," Marjorie said. Nick said nothing.

5. The Blind Man by Kate Chopin A man carrying a small red box in one hand walked slowly down the street. His old straw hat and faded garments looked as if the rain had often beaten upon them, and the sun had as many times dried them upon his person. He was not old, but he seemed feeble; and he walked in the sun, along the blistering asphalt pavement. On the opposite side of the street there were trees that threw a thick and pleasant shade: people were all walking on that side. But the man did not know, for he was blind, and moreover he was stupid.

6. A TRANSGRESSION- by Anton Chekhov A COLLEGIATE assessor called Miguev stopped at a telegraph-post in the course of his evening walk and heaved a deep sigh. A week before, as he was returning home from his evening walk, he had been overtaken at that very spot by his former housemaid, Agnia, who said to him viciously: "Wait a bit! I'll cook you such a crab that'll teach you to ruin innocent girls! I'll leave the baby at your door, and I'll have the law of you, and I'll tell your wife, too. . . ."

7. Here is a seriously injured man on a frightened horse.

8. Crossing Spider Creek by Dan O'Brien Here is a seriously injured man on a frightened horse.   They are high in the Rocky Mountains at the junction of the Roosevelt Trail and Spider Creek. Tom has tried to coax the horse into the freezing water twice before.   Both times the horse started to cross then lost its nerve, swung around violently, and lunged back up the bank.  The pivot and surge of power had been nearly too much for Tom.  Both times he almost lost his grip on the saddlehorn and fell into the boulders of the creek bank.  Both times, when it seemed his hold would fail, he had thought of his wife, Carol.  He will try the crossing once more.  It will take all the strength he has left.   This is not the Old West.  It is 1987, autumn, a nice day near the beginning of elk season.  Two days ago Tom had led the horse, his camp packed in panniers hung over the saddle, up this same trail.  He had some trouble getting the horse to cross the creek but it hadn't been bad.  This was a colt, Carol's colt and well broke to lead.  It had come across without much fuss. But that was before the nice weather had swelled Spider Creek with runoff, and of course the colt had not had the smell of blood in his nostrils.   Tom's injury is a compound fracture of the right femur.  He has wrapped it tightly with an extra cotton shirt but he cannot stop the bleeding.  The blood covers the right shoulder of the horse, the rifle scabbard, and the saddle from the seat to the stirrup.  Tom knows that it is the loss of blood that is making him so weak.  He wonders if that is why his thoughts keep wandering from what he is trying to do here, with the horse, to Carol.  She has never understood his desire to be alone.  From time to time, over the years, she has complained that he cares less for her than for solitude.  He has always known that is not true.  But still it seems vaguely funny to him that now she is all he wants to think about.  He wishes she could know that, hopes he will have a chance to tell her.

9. Perhaps it is being on this particular horse, he thinks, the one Carol likes better than any of the others.  Maybe Carol has spent enough time with this horse to have become part of it.     The horse moves nervously under him as he reins it around to face the water again.  Tom wishes there were a way to ease the animal through this.   But there is not, and there is clearly little time.  There is just this one last chance.     They begin to move slowly down the bank again.  It will be all or nothing.  If the horse makes it across Spider Creek they will simply ride down the trail, be at a campground in twenty minutes.  There are other hunters there.   They will get him to a hospital.  If the horse refuses and spins in fear, Tom will fall.  The horse will clamber up the bank and stand aloof, quaking with terror and forever out of reach.  Tom sees himself bleeding to death, alone, by the cascading icy water.     As the horse stretches out its nose to sniff at the water, Tom thinks that there might be time, if he falls, to grab at the rifle and drag it from the scabbard as he goes down.  He clucks to the horse and it moves forward.  Though he would hate to, it might be possible to shoot the horse from where he would fall.   With luck he would have the strength to crawl to it and hold its warm head for a few moments before they died.  I would be best for Carol if they were found like that.     Here is a seriously injured man on a frightened horse.  They are standing at the edge of Spider Creek, the horse's trembling front feet in the water and the man's spurs held an inch from the horse's flanks. 

10. What’s it about? – The Idea • Hook the reader • One location/One time/One event • Every word counts • Plan, draft, edit

11. HW: Plan and write the first draft of a short story. Focus on: • setting up the scenario in an interesting way • getting straight to the point • hooking the reader in the first paragraph

12. Protagonist Antagonist Conflict Obstacles Resolution