I heard someone mention the concept of a “short story form,” like a poetic form (sonnet, limerick, haiku, etc.), but I searched for this and haven’t found anything. Has anyone else heard of this? Thanks!
You can discuss the form in generalities. I think everyone here knows that there are ways to shape a short story in such a way that it defies the average and still functions as a story. You have to ignore the exceptions or you'll need to qualify everything. The length of the short story varies. The longer works can mimic a novel. Sticking to the shorter forms of short stories, let's say 2000-7500 words, the following should hold: The story must be in motion. It does not describe a static event, i.e., a vignette. On some level, even a metaphorical one, the story must be about change. A short story adopts a POV. It wishes to put the reader in the shoes of an MC. Different from a vignette, once again. An effective story will be emotionally dynamic. The MC comes to a realization at the end. (Of course that can be done in inverse, but the possibility is always implied.) When you're discussing a change and its resolution (and either hinting at the beginning state or briefly touching on it), you're going to fall into something like 3-act structure. Because you don't have many words, you'll probably have less emphasis on the beginning and the ending. You will very, very rarely see any introductory exposition (preamble) or fall-away denouement. What's important is that the MC comes to a decision that implies an ending. So a short story starts on the upward arc, even midway up it, and can end right at the climax / turning-point. If there are enough words, it might keep going, but it doesn't need to. You just want to get to the moral crisis at the turning point. The structure is like an arrow pointing up to the right, the upward rise. It jags downward at the end, maybe just starting the falling action. And that's really all you need. Your basic structure is a slice of the rising action and the turnaround at the top. It's still going to feel like 3-act structure because it's still beginning, middle, end. Only the beginning might get skipped and the end of the story can be when a decision is made. Say, for example, Die Hard, the short story, written by young Dostoevsky. We'll call it "The Unyielding Spirit." Instead of the story ending with Hans Gruber falling to his death, which is necessary for a novel/movie completion, "The Unyielding Spirit" would be truncacted. It might be told from the wife's perspective. She is dismissing her husband because he doesn't support her career. He doesn't love her. The story starts with her being taken hostage. Her friends are killed (tension increases as her turn nears). As her coworkers die, she mulls over her pointless life, flashbacking to the recent argument with her husband and even older conflicts (sneaking in the basis she's moving from). Just when it seems as if everyone is doomed, the elevator door opens and two henchmen fall out dead. Hans Gruber reads the note: Now I have a machine gun. Ho-ho-ho. The wife realizes (one of the necessary elements) that her husband is loose on the premises, and he's going to murder everyone because he still loves her. And then she quietly admits she still loves him. "The Unyielding Spirit" ends. Fin.
I'm not quite sure if this is what you're looking for, it's more like story strucure than poetic form. Let me see if I can find that thread again. I once decided to collect together all the info I could find about short story structure on a single thread. Here it is: Need help to write my first short story It's largely the same things Seven Crowns said, but he put it in more detail.
My understanding of it was a fixed structure of some kind for a short story, more than just the usual story structure. I couldn’t get any more detail than that; I was hoping someone here would be able to elaborate. However, what 7 Crowns seems to be saying is that there isn’t really such a thing, only different combinations of the usual options such as length, perspective, etc.
You are free to play around with short story structure all you want. Experiment and have fun with it.
The only thing I can think of is Lester Dent's pulp thriller structure, which he used to write the classic Doc Savage stories back in the '30s. I've been tempted to try it myself just to see what I come up with. https://www.paper-dragon.com/1939/dent.html
And if you want to see the results, you can find many of the stories online in PDF form for free. I won't link to any, but just search a bit. They're out there. Just the other day we were discussing different forms for different genres, including a parallel structure: Writing to tell a story not create perfect plot Here's my comment about what I assumed that meant: If this means what I think it does, that's how King Kong is scripted (the original 1933 movie). Each half begins with an ocean voyage to an island, and there are parallel threats and geographic features on each island. The giant serpent Kong fights on Skull Island is paralleled by the elevated train he wrestles on Manhattan, and the pterodactyls attacking him atop the peak of the mountain parallel the fighter planes strafing him at the top of the Empire State. It's also widely considered to be perfectly paced, and I must say I agree. A brilliant piece of early sound filmmaking, especially considering the main attraction is a special effect! Of course these days, it's only old-timers like me that have seen the original King Kong. But parallel or mirrored structure means the story is made in two symmetrical halves, with each somehow very similar to the other. Here's a video essay about the movie Castaway, which uses the parallel or mirrored structure (and I never even suspected it):
