A common type of Prose Fiction and a good way for new authors to start out. Short stories are any stories that run up to 7,500 words in length, though some definitions place them as long as 20,000. Due to the discrepancy, short stories can overlap with the Novella and the Novelette but are usually categorized separately. Some people feel a story is only "short" if it can be read in one sitting, but "one sitting" is a very subjective definition due to differences in attention span — even among heavy readers.
Short stories are usually published in magazines and, more rarely, collections. There is a large Pulp Magazine industry that is much easier to break into than the book industry, which makes it a good place for a new writer to build up a resume. And a good place to stage Old Shame.
A lot of Fan Fic takes the form of Short Story.
Compare: Novel, Novella, and Novelette. An Anthology is a collection of short stories by different authors.
Pseudopod.org makes a job of publishing audio version of short stories.
Examples:
By Author:
- Christopher Anvil
- Isaac Asimov
- Dr. Asimov edited the 1978 collection of 100 Great Science Fiction Short Short Stories. Yes, that's two "shorts" (not a single story is over five pages; most are two and a half). Sadly, it's been out of print for a long time, but can still be found in used book distributors and stores.
- "All the Troubles of the World": A Science Fiction story which was also republished as a 32-page children's book.
- "Author! Author!" (1964)
- "Does a Bee Care?"
- "Homo Sol"
- "I'm in Marsport Without Hilda"
- I, Robot is a Novel Anthology consisting of short stories and Novelettes set within a Framing Device.
- "Liar!" (1941)
- "Light Verse""
- "The Message"
- "Reason"
- "Robbie"
- "Time Pussy", as by George E. Dale
- "Trends"
- Clive Barker
- Jorge Luis Borges
- Leigh Brackett
- Ray Bradbury
- Joseph Payne Brennan
- Jim Butcher
- Side Jobs, a collection containing eleven short stories.
- Brief Cases, a collection containing twelve short stories.
- E. G. Castle
- "All Hands"
- "An Army of the Dead"
- "The Crystal"
- "Death of a Pop-Idol"
- "Decision of Fate"
- "Devin and the Teacher"
- "Dragon-in-Distress"
- "An Encounter and an Offer"
- "A Fantasy Attraction"
- "Mark Delewen and the Space Pirates"
- "The Priest, the Scientist, and the Meteor"
- "The Man Who Carried Trouble"
- "The Man Who Controlled Metal"
- "The One Who Started Fires"
- "The Woman Who Made Machines Go Haywire"
- "Sewing Circle"
- "The Story of the Fire Swan"
- "Ultimate Hero"
- "The Worst Shots in the West"
- P. Djèlí Clark
- Roald Dahl
- Harlan Ellison
- Neil Gaiman
- "Bitter Grounds"
- "The Case of Death and Honey"
- "Chivalry"
- "Down to a Sunless Sea"
- "Feminine Endings"
- "The Goldfish Pool and Other Stories"
- "How to Talk to Girls at Parties"
- "The Man Who Forgot Ray Bradbury"
- "Murder Mysteries"
- "Nothing O'Clock"
- "October In The Chair"
- "The Problem of Susan"
- "The Sleeper and the Spindle"
- "A Study in Emerald"
- "The Thing About Cassandra"
- "The Truth Is A Cave In The Black Mountains"
- "We Can Get Them For You Wholesale"
- "The Wedding Present"
- Nathaniel Hawthorne
- Robert E. Howard made his career on short fiction.
- Every Conan the Barbarian story save The Hour of the Dragon is a short story.
- He also wrote "The Shadow of the Vulture".
- L. Ron Hubbard
- "The Slaver"
- "Strain"
- Tanya Huff has penned a huge number of short stories, with "A Woman's Work" having a page here.
- Washington Irving
- Malcolm Jameson
- "If You're Smart—", as by Colin Keith
- "Pig Trap"
- "Slackers Paradise"
- Stephen King has several collections of short stories in his bibliography, and many films have been based on these stories. The early stories were usually published in men's magazines, and King has pointed out that the income often took care of necessities the family couldn't afford otherwise. Many fans express a preference for King's shorter work over his novels.
- "1408"
- "The Fifth Step"
- "Jerusalem's Lot"
- "The Langoliers"
- "The Mangler"
- "The Mist"
- "The Monkey"
- "Sometimes They Come Back"
- "Trucks"
- And his short story collections:
- Rudyard Kipling wrote a large number of short stories, including:
- ".007"
- The Just So Stories
- Norman L Knight
- Myer Krulfeld
- Ursula K. Le Guin
- Most of what H. P. Lovecraft wrote was in the form of a short story. These include:
- "The Call of Cthulhu"
- "The Cats of Ulthar"
- "The Colour Out of Space"
- "Cool Air"
- "Dagon"
- "The Dreams in the Witch House"
- "The Dunwich Horror"
- "The Festival"
- "From Beyond"
- "The Horror At Red Hook"
- "In the Vault"
- "In the Walls of Eryx"
- "The Lurking Fear"
- "The Music of Erich Zann"
- "Old Bugs"
- "The Outsider" (1926)
- "Pickman's Model"
- "The Rats in the Walls"
- "Sweet Ermengarde"
- "The Temple"
- "The Terrible Old Man"
- "The Thing on the Doorstep"
- A. Lee Martinez
- P Schuyler Miller
- Nobel prize winner Alice Munro works exclusively in the short story format.
- Haruki Murakami
- after the quake (collection)
- "Barn Burning"
- Kim Newman
- "Angel Down, Sussex"
- Back in the USSA, a collection co-authored with Eugene Byrne
- "Clubland Heroes"
- "The End of the Pier Show"
- Seven Stars, a novella consisting of eight linked short stories
- Silver Nails, a collection set in the Warhammer universe
- "Swellhead"
- "Tomorrow Town"
- Personalias
- Edgar Allan Poe
- Ross Rocklynne
- Eric Frank Russell
- Robert Silverberg
- "Catch 'em All Alive!"
- "Galactic Thrill Kids"
- "The Happy Sleepers", under the name Calvin M. Knox
- "The Insidious Invaders" under the name Eric Rodman
- "Misfit"
- "The Monsters Came By Night" under the name Charles D. Hammer
- "The Seed Of Earth"
- "World Of A Thousand Colors"
- "Our Lady of the Sauropods"
- Henry Slesar's works:
- "Desire Woman"
- "The Dope", under the name O. H. Leslie
- "Mr Loneliness"
- Evelyn E Smith
- Richard R Smith
- Harry Walton
- Robert Westall wrote a great deal of short fiction; notably "Break of Dark" and the best of anthologies Demons and Shadows and Shades of Darkness.
- Oscar Wilde
By Title:
- "Adam And No Eve" by Alfred Bester
- "Amina" is a 1906 horror story written by Edward Lucas White.
- "Angel" by Derin Edala
- "Arcana Magi Zero" is a Web Original short story trilogy written by H-M Brown.
- "Big Blonde" by Dorothy Parker
- Books Of Blood, a short story collection by Clive Barker.
- "Brokeback Mountain" by Annie Proulx, which forms the basis of Brokeback Mountain.
- "The Car Park Attendant" by Jeffrey Archer
- "A Chapter From The Beginning" by AM Phillips
- "The Clone" by Theodore L Thomas, which he later expanded into a full-length novel with co-author Kate Wilhelm.
- The Codeless Code is a series of short stories.
- "c/o Mr. Makepeace" by Peter Phillips
- "Coulrophobia"
- "Cruel Sisters" by Patricia C. Wrede
- "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" was originally a short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald.
- "Daedalus", by Thomas Bulfinch.
- "The Dandelion Girl" by Robert F. Young
- The Demigod Diaries, possess several short stories much like its predecessor.
- The Demigod Files, possess several short stories.
- "Despoilers of the Golden Empire" by Randall Garrett
- "The Devil and Daniel Webster" by Stephen Vincent Benét.
- "Doors" by aCJohnson
- "Down in the Dark"
- "The Dungeonmaster" by Sam Lipsyte
- "The Dwindling Sphere" by Willard Hawkins
- "The Eagles Gather" by Joseph E Kelleam
- "The Egg" by Andy Weir
- "The Embassy" by Donald A Wollheim (under the Pen Name Martin Pearson)
- "Emergency" by Vic Phillips
- "The Extinction Parade" by Max Brooks, which was later adapted into a comic book.
- "The Fable of the Dragon-Tyrant" by Nick Bostrom
- "Far Centaurus" by A.E. van Vogt
- "Fish Story" by Vic Phillips and Scott Roberts
- "Flowers for Algernon" by Daniel Keyes, later expanded into a novel of the same name.
- "The Fly" by George Langelaan
- "Flying With Santa"
- "Forever Is Not So Long" by F Anton Reeds
- "Games", by Katherine Mac Lean.
- GJ-bu is a strange case; it is marketed as a Light Novel but is more accurately a collection of short stories, all exactly 4 pages long.
- "Grandpa Gray" by Cass Hollander.
- "The Grownup" by Gillian Flynn
- "The Hare and the Pineapple" by Daniel Pinkwater
- "Harrison Bergeron" by Kurt Vonnegut
- "He" by Alan Dean Foster
- Her Body and Other Parties, a collection of short stories by Carmen Maria Machado.
- "High Frequency War" by Harl Vincent
- "Holey Matrimony" by Kevin Strange
- "I Like Monkeys", a comedic '90s story originating from e-mails and blogs, eventually becoming a copypasta.
- "Instead of Three Wishes", a collection of short stories by Megan Whalen Turner.
- "An Invitation from Thanatos"
- "Joey: A 'Mechanical Boy'"
- The King in Yellow by Robert W. Chambers is a short story collection.
- The La Fuerza Series.
- League of Legends: The writers for the series publish a lot of short stories that focus on the game's various Champions. You can track some of them in the recap page.
- "Life in the Iron Mills" by Rebecca Harding Davis
- "Locked Out" by HB Fyfe
- "The Lottery"
- "Lust Caution" was originally a short story by Eileen Chang
- "Magic For Beginners" by Kelly Link
- "Manic Perverse" by Winston K Marks
- "The Man Who Evolved" by Edmond Hamilton
- "Mereana Mordegard Glesgorv"
- "A Model Life" by Kim Antieu
- "The Monkey's Paw" by W. W. Jacobs
- "The Monster of Lake LaMetrie" by Wardon Allan Curtis
- "The Monster of Partridge Creek" by Georges Dupuy
- "the moon asks a question" by E Jade Lomax
- "The Most Dangerous Game" by Richard Connell
- "Mr. Widemouth" by PerfectCircle35
- "Der Münchner im Himmel" by Ludwig Thoma
- "The Name of the Game" by P.N. Elrod
- Naughty: Nine Tales of Christmas Crime is a collection of short stories by Steve Hockensmith
- "The Night Wire", a classic horror story by HF Arnold, who only wrote short stories. His other two stories are impossible to find.
- "A Nose For News" by Roby Wentz
- "Not The First" by A.E. van Vogt
- "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" by Ambrose Bierce.
- "The Paper Menagerie" by Ken Liu
- Pareidolia and the Gilded Scar is a collection of short stories connected by a common theme of expressing different mental health states though surrealism (8 so far with the goal being to have one for each letter of the alphabet).
- "Paying The Ferryman" by Joanna Berry
- "Prey" (1969) by Richard Matheson
- "Project" by Lewis Padgett
- "Proof" by Hal Clement
- "Psychosis" by Matt Dymerski
- "The Queen of Spades" by Alexander Pushkin
- "The Red Tower", by Thomas Ligotti
- "Romance with a Double Bass" by Anton Chekhov
- "A Rose for Emily" by William Faulkner
- "Sandkings" by George R. R. Martin.
- "Secret Santa" (2004) by Steve Hockensmith.
- Secret Weapon, the twelfth book in the Alex Rider series, is a collection of short stories featuring the character. Several of them had previously been published in newspapers (but were revised to make them a bit more substantial), and a couple of them were totally new.
- "Shabti"
- Selina Sedilia
- Most of the Sherlock Holmes oeuvre consists of short stories.
- "Sleep No More" by James H. Schmitz
- "The Smiling Man" by L.S. Riley
- "Some Curious Effects Of Time Travel" by L. Sprague de Camp
- "The Son's Veto" by Thomas Hardy
- ""Souls in a Vacuum""
- The State of the Art is a collection of short stories by Iain Banks.
- The Stories of John Cheever is a collection of short stories by (who else?) John Cheever.
- "Talma Gordon"
- "The Tamarisk Hunter"
- "Test Of The Gods" by Raymond F Jones
- "There Shall Be No Darkness" by James Blish was adapted into a movie, Amucis's The Beast Must Die.
- The Thirteen Problems, a short story collection by Agatha Christie featuring Miss Marple
- "The Thought-Monster" by Amelia Reynolds Long, which was adapted into the classic sci-fi/horror film Fiend Without a Face.
- "To Build a Fire" by Jack London
- Most of the Transformers: Timelines fiction consists of short stories, and issues of The Transformers (Marvel) and The Transformers: Last Stand of the Wreckers had short stories published in them occasionally.
- "A Tropical Horror" by William Hope Hodgson
- "Two Percent Inspiration" by Theodore Sturgeon
- Verge: Stories by Lidia Yuknavitch is a collection of short fiction.
- "We Can Remember It For You Wholesale"
- "Werewolves Of War" by DW Hall
- "When the Storm Came"
- "When This World Is All On Fire" by William Sanders.
- "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" by Joyce Carol Oates.
- "The White People" by Athur Machen.
- "Window" by Bob Leman.
- "The Wings Of Night" by Lester del Rey
- "Worrywart" by Clifford Simak.
- You Know You Want This is the debut short story collection by Kristen Roupenian
- "Young Zaphod Plays It Safe" by Douglas Adams
Other:
- Quite a few short stories vie for "shortest story ever":
- Margaret Atwood:
"Longed for him. Got him. Shit".
- Hemingway's bet-winning short story, though it's undetermined if Hemingway actually wrote this story.
"For sale: baby shoes, never worn."
- "Science Fiction for Telepaths" by E. Michael Blake:
"Aw, you know what I mean."
- "Sign at the End of the Universe" by Duane Ackerson:
"˙dn puǝ sıɥʇ"
- Spanish Literature has Augusto Monterroso with his short story "El dinosaurio:" note
"Cuando despertó, el dinosaurio todavía estaba allí".note .
- "Cosmic Report Card: Earth" by Forrest J. Ackerman:
"F"
- Margaret Atwood: