What exactly is a short story?

Question

I know it sounds obvious but what makes it a short story?

Answer 1

If you ask the folks that do the Nebula award, you come up with these figures:
Novel: a work of 40,000 words or more
Novella: a work of at least 17,500 words but under 40,000 words
Novelette: a work of at least 7,500 words but under 17,500 words
Short story: a work of under 7,500 words

Answer 2

What makes a short story is a plot with a beginning, middle and end. There should be some kind of conflict and a resolution to that conflict with interesting characters and an interesting setting. A short story can be anywhere from a few words and up. Flash fiction stories of 100 or 500 words are often found these days in competetions. Hope that helps. Pax - C.

Answer 3

A short story is a story that you can read in one sitting, usually in an hour or two, that has a minimum word or page count. Check out writers digest short story competition if you want to enter one. There are few markets for short stories out there. They keep getting gobbeled up by the big book market.

Answer 4

it IS obvious. It's a story that is short.
Here is how wikipedia puts it:

"A short story is a form of short fictional narrative prose. Short stories tend to be more concise and to the point than longer works of fiction, such as novellas (in the modern sense of this term) and novels.
Short stories have their origins in oral story-telling traditions and the prose anecdote, a swiftly-sketched situation that comes rapidly to its point"

Answer 5

A short story is a story that isn't long enough to be made into a novel.

Answer 6

Its length. It is short - but is a complete story. Probably about seven to ten printed pages or so.