In my travels thru the many websites that provide how to's, tips, guidelines ect... about writing I have noticed a common suggestion that conflicts with many short stories that I have read. So I would like to get other writes POV a particular short story suggestion that is as follows. Start as close as possible to the end of the story. I have read this many times and can see why or at least I think I can see why but many short stories I have read do not follow this suggestion at all and are still great stories. I realize that it is just a suggestion and not a rule but I would like to know what other have to say about it.
Short stories are short. If you don't start as close to the end as possible, there's a good chance you'll end up doing a lot of time jumps. Three weeks later, three months later, three years later, etc. Huge time jumps like that aren't appealing to me at all as a reader. But I don't read many short stories. I did write one last year about a girl who killed her mother. I didn't start with the fight or the murder or even after the murder. I started with her digging a grave, thinking about the events that led up to that moment. It wasn't revealed until the end that she had killed her mother. Again, I'm no expert on short stories. But the length of them only allows for so much information. Starting too soon could drag them out unnecessarily and bore a reader.
Hmmm yeah depends. Obviously in flash fiction you do want to start as close to the end as possible. Shortness is kinda the point. But I don't think that's true of every short story - shortness isn't so much the point as just the result, if that makes sense. But, yknow, you don't have time to waffle on and take your ponderous time setting everything up in a short story, either. If you do that you're going to end up writing a novelette or something, right? Think about what's necessary, really integral to your plot. If you don't need it, cut it, and do a lot of soul-searching on what's really truly needed. One of the shorts I'm currently trying to home does involve a lot of time skips, because it actually takes place over the course of several years as this kid is growing up. But I still started as close tot he end as possible: when a new person enters her life and begins to change things. In another one I had an intro of sorts that I really liked, but after I while I decided to severely abridge it, cut it from about 400w or something like that to a couple paragraphs - and I don't doubt the piece is better for it. You can't waste people's time with shorts like that. I think 'start as close as possible to the end' is, like 'write what you know', not bad advice but sometimes difficult advice to interpret.
This was Vonnegut's advice, which, when you think about it, is actually quite vague. So I'm going to say it depends on the story.
In a short story, everything is close to the end of the story. In the short story contest (Did folks vote yet? See link in sig! ) once in a while a story will have a beginning that seems disjointed to the rest of the story. Everything in a short story needs to move the story forward, it can't be an introduction that is akin to a prologue.
Most short stories I write start towards the end of the story. If there is anything relevant that happened previously, I mention it in a short flashback or dream sequence. However, I still voted for, "depends on the story," as there are likely many cases where it's more practical to start earlier in the story.
