What Are A Short Story's "First Five Pages"?

[Addison]

For novels, you have the first five pages to hook and engage the reader. But what about short stories? Or Novelettes? Novellas?

In a short story I'd say you have the first page, or the first X words. For Novelettes and Novellas, Maybe the first two pages or a word count. What do you guys think?

 

[elemtilas]

As a reader, I'd say that for a short story, you basically have the genre, the title and somewhere between the first sentence and first paragraph to attract and keep my attention. E.g., what got me into Lord Dunsany was the single title The Sword of Welleran --- the name is aesthetic and served as a hook; another title was The Fortress Unvanquishable, Save for Sacnoth --- something just clicked, a feeling that the style and content would be satisfying and worth reading. Contrary, if you wrote a story entitled Legolas and Gimli Do Broadway . . . enh . . . no. Just no.

If it's not a genre of interest to me... well, that goes without saying. If the title screams "this is a story you really want to read!" then chances are good I'll take the bait. That first paragraph will tell me if the setting and characters and story are something I'll actually care about or be moved by and will therefore become compelled to finish.

Of the three, I think the opening paragraph is the most key.

Oh, almost more importantly than actual word count are basics like spelling, grammar & usage. If you can't be bothered to spell your words right or compose well thought out sentences, then why should I be bothered to read them? (This, of course, goes for longer works as well.)

 

[Demesnedenoir]

Legolas and Gimli do Broadway? I'm in. That could be one helluva vaudeville act too.

I don't read many shorts myself, but I don't give 5 pages automatically to a novel anyhow. Whatever it is for me, it'd probably be the same no matter the length of the work. Get my attention with story and showing you know how to write, and I give another page or two, and we'll see.

 

[Penpilot]

Anything I say will be pretty arbitrary. Some short stories aren't even five pages long.

For me, since short stories are... well... short, I'll read until it makes my eyes roll, but otherwise, if it's just a vanilla story, I'll go to the end to see if there's a nice pay off. Sometimes there is and the story gets elevated. Other times, nothing with a having some vanilla from time to time.