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but also short stories, personal thoughts, and school work. I The Rook
enjoy everything I write, but I have come to realize that my ~ by Daniel
favorite thing (next to actual writing stories when I have the O'Malley
ideas) is writing about writing.

Recently, my very talented streamer and video-creator beau

WoWMartiean got access to the current Alpha testing for
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Warlords of Draenor. It has been interesting to sneak peeks
Effy's
over his shoulder, despite how adamant I usually am to keep
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my distance and not learn anything about WoW content
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before it is released. Honestly, I think that has all been thrown
email address
out the window since 1) I live with him and 2) I am too damn
to follow this
nosy and curious. I cannot help it, now I want to know about
blog and
the changes to Mistweaver Monks and see every little bit of
receive
Draenor I can.
notifications of
new posts by
***** ***** Spoiler Start ***** *****
email.

One of the things he and I have discussed so far is a new type

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of rare mob being introduced. I am not sure of all the details,
other followers
but Blizzard is referring to them as “vignettes” and they seem
to be a rare with more complicated mechanics than a normal
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This started me down an interesting train of thought… and I

decided to write a post on the different types of short stories.
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Effy’s
Defining a Short Story Blog!

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To discuss the different types of short stories, first I should
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define a short story.
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A short story is a piece of brief literature, usually written in

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narrative prose. Short stories can be written in a variety of
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formats, but the most typical features a small cast of My Tweets

characters with names and focuses on a single, self-contained
incident. Short stories make use of a plot and other normal
literary components, just to a lesser and shorter degree than a
A-Musing
Categorie
novel. They also vary in length.
s

10 Types of Short Stories #NBI2014

#WoW30

Challenge
Now that we know generally what a short story is, we can
1000 Day
discuss the different types of short stories. This is by no
MFA
means a comprehensive list, since short stories come in a
Achievements/Daili
wide variety of lengths and styles. But this is a list of the most
es Alt
common.
Appreciation

Author Up
Anecdote Challenge Blog
Azeroth Shared

An anecdote is a short account of something interesting and Topic Books

amusing, which usually tells a story about a real person Challenge Mode

and/or incident. Often, anecdotes are used to illustrate or Drabble Events

support a point in an essay, article, or chapter. They are very Fantasy

short, but have no specific limits. Furtive Father

Winter 2012 Game

From grammar.about.com’s entry for the anecdote, an Reviews

example anecdote about Ralph Waldo Emerson: Gaming Fan

Fiction Guild

“In [Ralph Waldo] Emerson’s later years his memory Wars 2

began increasingly to fail. He used to refer to it as his Healing
‘naughty memory’ when it let him down. He would IntPiPoMo 2012
forget the names of things, and have to refer to them in
IRL Leveling
a circumlocutory way, saying, for instance, ‘the
NaNoWriMo
implement that cultivates the soil’ for plow. Worse, he
Novel Writing
could not remember people’s names. At Longfellow’s
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funeral, he remarked
how to controltocookies,
a friend, ‘ThatCookie
gentleman
Policy has
To find out more, including see here:

a sweet, beautiful soul, but I have entirely forgotten his

Person
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name.’ Perhaps most touching was his term for Thoug

umbrella–‘the thing that strangers take away.'”
hts
Pets/Pet
(Reported in Clifton Fadiman, ed., The Little, Brown
Battles Picture
Book of Anecdotes, 1985)
Prompts Poetry
Pre-Writing

Drabble Raiding
School
Papers Science
A drabble is an exceptionally short piece of fiction, usually of
Fiction
exactly 100 words in length – not including the title. The
purpose of a drabble is extreme brevity and to test an author’s Short
skill at expressing himself/herself meaningfully and Storie
interestingly in a very confined space.
s Soloing

Transmog
A drabble example, by the lovely Matty, is available over at
Undying
Sugar and Blood: Light as a Feather. In fact, Matty has many
Resolution
drabble stories!
World of
Dadreon
Fable
Wo
rld
of
A fable is a succinct story featuring anthropomorphic
creatures (usually animals, but also mythical creatures, plants,
inanimate objects, or forces of nature) to tell a story with a
Wa
rcra
moral. Often the moral is explicitly told at the end. A fable is
similar to a parable, but differs most in the fact that fables use
animals to tell a story but parables do not.
ft WoW

The most well-known example of a fable would be any of the Lore

many told in Aesop’s Fables. The one I always remember the Writing
best is The Ant and the Grasshopper. Prompts
Writing Tracking

Feghoot
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A feghoot is an interesting short story type also known as a Detroit

story pun or a poetic story joke. It is a humorous piece ending Sponge &
in an atrocious pun. It can be very short, only long enough to Chamois
sufficiently illustrate the context of the piece enough to lead up
Brilliant
to the pun.
Windows

I found an interesting blog of all Feghoots. This one is a good Writers I Know
example and totally groan-worthy as the format requires: The & Recommend
Buck of the Draw.
Bruh Studios
Coming Up
Flash Fiction Aces

Undying
Flash fiction refers to an extremely short piece of literature. It Resolution
has no widely accepted length, but has a debated cap of
Undying
between 300 and 1000 words.
Resolution's
Home Page
I found a whole webpage of flash fiction, called Flash Fiction
Online. It has a small section of fantasy and I thought this one And Fallen,
a good example to share: One Last Night at the Carnival Fallen Light
Before the Stars Go Out. Renew
Fel

Frame Story Concentration

Malchome's
Mind on
A frame story is also known as a frame tale or a nested Gaming
narrative. It is a literary technique of placing a story within a Restokin
story, for the purpose of introducing or setting the stage for a
main narrative or a series of short stories. World of
Warcraft Blogs

A few good example of a frame story would be a flashback Alt:ernative

within a larger piece or a quest within a larger game
Amateur
environment. Azerothian
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Mini-saga Bubbles of
Mischief
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A mini-saga is a short story told in exactly 50 words. It is a Kamalia et Alia

test in brevity – about saying a lot with a little. Life in Group 5
MMO Melting
I found a fascinating “guide” to writing a mini-saga. It has a Pot
few examples and the bottom is for filling in with your exact 50 Orcish Army
words. There was another page with good advice and a Knife
progressive piece as an example. Postcards from
Azeroth
Pretty Fly for a
Story Sequence Draenei
Red Cow Rise
A story sequence, also called a short story cycle or a Sugar and
composite novel, is a group of short stories that work together Blood
to form a longer piece, while still functioning as complete short The Daily
stories on their own. Frostwolf
The Warchief's
It would be hard to link to an example, but the best I can think Command
of are several of the works of Isaac Asimov – the Foundation Board
books and I, Robot (the original book, NOT the story portrayed Tome of the
in the Will Smith movie) in particular. They are not a novel in Ancient
the traditional sense, but instead a collection of short stories in World of
chronological order that both tell small stories and one larger Matticus
one. World of Saz
WoW Rare
Spawns
Sketch Story Zwingli's
Weblog O'WoW
A sketch story is a shorter than average piece containing little
or no plot. It can be merely a description of a character or a
location. Character sketches are common, and a good way to
build a character that will eventually be part of a longer piece.

I found this good handout about character sketches, including

an example. I wrote a piece a while back about writing
Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To findcharacter sketches.
out more, including I thinkcookies,
how to control Regrets, my original
see here: blog post and
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the start of my Shaman-Effy/DK-Effy stories, and the

Today’s
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character sketch piece I wrote for creative writing last Views

semester are both good examples as well.
Pet Battle
Cheatsheet
Vignette
On Writing:
10 Types of
And finally, we come to the vignette, which started this whole
Short
post in the first place!
Stories

A vignette is a short, impressionistic piece that focuses on a BiS Pet List

single scene, character, idea, setting, or object. There is little
How to
emphasis on adhering to conventional theatrical or literary
Raid with a
structure, or story development. It can be a stand-alone piece
Mistweaver
or part of a larger work.
Monk

From grammar.about.com’s entry for the vignette, an example

vignette by E.B. White:
Copyrigh
“The strong streak of insanity in railroads, which t
accounts for a child’s instinctive feeling for them and
for a man’s unashamed devotion to them, is
congenital; there seems to be no reason to fear that Awaiting the
any disturbing improvement in the railroads’ condition Muse by Effy J.
will set in. Lying at peace but awake in a Pullman berth Roan AKA
all one hot night recently, we followed with dreamy Effraeti AKA
satisfaction the familiar symphony of the cars–the Jamie Roman
diner departing (furioso) at midnight, the long, fever- is licensed
laden silences between runs, the timeless gossip of under a
rail and wheel during the runs, the crescendos and Creative
diminuendos, the piffling poop-pooping of the diesel’s Commons
horn. For the most part, railroading is unchanged from Attribution-
our childhood. The water in which one washes one’s NonCommercia
face at morn is still without any real wetness, the little l-NoDerivs 3.0
ladder leading to the upper is still the symbol of the Unported
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tremendous
To find out more, adventure
including how of the see
to control cookies, night,
here:the green
Cookie clothes
Policy License.
hammock still sways with the curves, and there is still Based on a
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“Our journey really began several days earlier, at the https://awaitingt

ticket window of a small station in the country, when hemuse.wordpr
the agent showed signs of cracking under the ess.com/.
paperwork. ‘It’s hard to believe,’ he said, ‘that after all
World of
these years I still got to write the word “Providence” in
Warcraft™ and
here every time I make out one of these things. Now,
Blizzard
there’s no possible conceivable way you could make
Entertainment®
this journey without going through Providence, yet the
are all
Company wants the word written in here just the same.
trademarks or
O.K., here she goes!’ He gravely wrote ‘Providence’ in
registered
the proper space, and we experienced anew the
trademarks of
reassurance that rail travel is unchanged and
Blizzard
unchanging, and that it suits our temperament
Entertainment
perfectly–a dash of lunacy, a sense of detachment, not
in the United
much speed, and no altitude whatsoever.”
States and/or
other countries.
(E.B. White, “Railroads.” The Second Tree From the
These terms
Corner. Harper & Row, 1954)
and all related
materials,

In Conclusion logos, and

images are
copyrights © of
I find all of these types of short stories interesting. So much
Blizzard
so that I would like to try my hand at each. I am hoping to
Entertainment.
steer my fiction in a more personal direction, and start writing
This site is in
more pieces that take place in the fantasy world I created.
no way
Some of these are very short pieces – which will probably
associated with
take me longer to write than my usually pieces. We shall see.
Blizzard
Entertainment®
~ Effy
.

Are there any major short story types you think I missed?
Or do you have any good examples of some of the types
listed above? Please let me know! I am always on the
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out more, for good fiction!
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