Short stories reflect the characteristics of "seeing the big from the small".

Short space, simple characters, simple details, simple tone, short time interval, simple style and simple language. Among them, the short length, about 1000 words, is its external feature; Its essential characteristics are excellent material selection, ingenious structure and profound meaning.

(1) The novel style shorter than short stories began in the early 1950s and rose in the late 1980s. Generally about 2000 words, a story, a scene or a fragment, written in a short space, has the same literary aesthetic value as long stories, novellas and short stories, which is its essential difference from stories and essays. Paying attention to the small and seeing the big, its simplicity, implication and significance have unique artistic charm. The representative writers of contemporary short stories are Lu Fu, Liu Guofang, Wang Haichun, Qin Delong and Yu Debei.

(2) Also known as mini-novels, there is no completely unified view on genre classification of contemporary literature. The entry of "novel" in Modern Chinese Dictionary is not mentioned, and the entry of "novel" in Baidu Encyclopedia is supplemented by "short story".

Miniature novels are also called short stories, ultra-short stories and one-minute novels. In the past, it existed in the form of various short stories, but its later development made it an independent literary style, and its nature was defined as "a marginal modern emerging literary genre between marginal short stories and essays". Tolstoy said: "Short stories are the best schools to train writers." (literature)

Japanese writer Hoshi shinichi pointed out: "Works similar to ultra-short stories existed a long time ago. ..... However, the official appearance of the name ultra-short story originated in the United States. " Most people admire the American writer O 'Henry (1862— 19 10) as the founder. His nearly 300 works have vivid plots and humorous styles. Among them, Maggie's gift is very popular. It can be said that the ultrashort story has three elements: novel conception, rigorous plot and novel ending. In other words, within 1500 words, everything that an ordinary novel should have should be summarized. It can also be said that the mini-novel is a kind of sensitivity, which captures the novel from a point, a picture, a contrast, an exclamation and an instant-a kind of wisdom, a kind of beauty, an intriguing scene and a fresh idea.

The writing goal of mini-novels is four words: micro, new, dense and strange.

First, micro. Said space is small, not more than 1500 words. Therefore, we must pay attention to the conciseness of words when conceiving and writing, and do not allow redundant words and sentences in the works. Such as Mark Twain's "A Page in the Husband's Spending Book". The full text is only seven lines, but it has the whole plot of a novel.

Second, new. Refers to the novel concept and fresh style. Shinichi Hoshino tried his best to pursue "novelty" one minute after writing the novel. He wrote: "Some critics confuse my novels with American short plays, which is inappropriate. I was influenced by American short stories. But I didn't completely rely on it, but played my own unique style and skills. My novel emphasizes a' new' word, giving readers new themes, new knowledge and even surprises them! " To this end, he often uses fairy tales, fables, science fiction, reasoning and other techniques to reflect his unique feelings in real life and express fresh themes through unrealistic themes or realistic brushwork, such as his "Bao Xiu". Of course, the concept of mini-novels, like other forms of novels, is sometimes not clear at a glance, and sometimes the theme is not one, but diversified, which is ok. For example, Frederic Brown, a famous American science fiction writer, wrote an article entitled "The Shortest Science Fiction in the World": "The last man on earth was sitting alone in his room when someone knocked at the door ..." This is very unique and thought-provoking.

Third, secrets. It means tight structure. Structurally, the author of mini-novels should try his best to compress and concentrate the time, place and characters as much as possible, so that the structure of his works is concise and exquisite, just like micro-carving crafts. Therefore, we should work hard on material selection, cutting and typesetting.

Fourth, odd. It means that the ending should be novel, ingenious and unexpected. The characteristics of miniature novels mostly lie in a "strange" word. Many excellent works by Chinese and foreign writers are often breathtaking in the end. For example, Shao Baojian's "Forever Gate" ended unexpectedly.