Getting Started Stage—Annotated Reading

A short story is more than its plot and even more than its characters; it is more than its setting and more than its conflict. It is all of these things working together to give us a glimpse into a life, a snapshot of a moment, a connection to our purpose.

Authors create their stories so all the components of it work together to give you a meaningful experience while reading. If even one tenet of the story were to change, then the experience would be entirely different.

Imagine that each element of a short story (plot, character, setting, conflict, tone, mood, theme, symbolism, word choice, and so forth) is a cog. Each cog has a solitary function, as well as a group function. If one cog were missing, then the piece would not work the way it should.

To fully understand a story, work through three stages of reading:

 
© Thinkstock