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            Writing in General and the Short Story in Particular by Rust Hills is an informal textbook and an excellent guide for teachers who want a firm grasp of the elements of short story to teach their students.   Although not designed specifically for teachers, Hills breaks the short story down into several key components and dedicates a succinct chapter to each one.  The author is “not ‘teaching writing’ as such in this book, just showing something about how short stories work” (ix).  Rust Hills has been a fiction editor for the better part of 45 years at respected publications such as Esquire and the Saturday Evening Post, so he shares the qualities he recognized in the short stories that were successful in those places.  By taking all the elements Hills lists into consideration, a teacher will be able to introduce the parts of the story one by one in the classroom, or identify an element that a student is struggling with and address that aspect of a short story on an individual basis.  Using this book as a reference, the student writer will be able to create a well-rounded and fully developed short story. 

            Hills addresses elements contained within every short story – such as characters, point of view, and plot – and touches on options authors regularly take into consideration as they write – like theme, irony, and foreshadowing.  A teacher can use this book to address these elements of the short story through a series of mini-lessons.  Each chapter is of a brief enough length that the information provided covers the topic thoroughly and gives examples when appropriate, but the author refrains from going into deep discussion about the origin or methodology behind the various topics.  Even for a teacher not currently teaching the short story, the areas addressed in Hills’ book can serve as a refresher of important traits found in quality writing.

            Russ Hills uses graceful, readable language and concise chapters to discuss a variety of elements that can be found within the short story.  His simple terms clarify the essential aspects of the short story and help the writer understand the development process of each element.  His perspective is that of a reader as opposed to a writer, so the philosophy behind writing is not addressed; the end result is the only thing that concerns him.  The book is organized in a sensible way that flows easily from one chapter to the next, but it retains the ability to read an isolated chapter about one element of the short story without having to reread the previous chapter for a sense of context.

Hills begins Writing in General and the Short Story in Particular by defining the short story as opposed to a novel or a sketch.  He suggests that there are two things that a short story must do.  It must tell of something that happens to someone, and it must demonstrate a complete union of all its aspects.  By this he means that one of the qualities that defines a short story is how tightly together the story is woven, rarely are there subplots and secondary characters.  Instead, a short story will usually maintain a single point of view, introduce only essential characters, and keep the story in focus for it entirety.  This union will create a piece of literature that is almost as lyrical as a poem, but retains all the elements of fiction prose.

            From there, Hills goes on to discuss elements of the short story.  Character development is attained through fixed and moving action.  Where moving actions are the steps that get the character from the beginning of the story to the end, fixed actions – such as brushing his or her teeth or checking mail – are capable of indicating significant aspects of the character.  The story end must have the main character changed in some way.  The shift can be a slight one, indicated only by the author’s tone, but there must be a difference.  In some stories when a character appears unaltered it is because he or she has lost his or her last chance to change.  When a character is presented with a defining moment in his or her life and chooses to do nothing, the author implies that the character will never again have that opportunity.  The crucial moment is the point for the character after which there is no turning back and the inevitability of retrospect is the realization that the character made choices to get to the crucial moment, when the reader is aware that the point at which the character has arrived was inevitable. 

            Like a sentence that must have subject and verb which agree, Hills suggests that a short story must have both character and plot, and that those must agree, too.  The character must demonstrate that he or she has the capability of agreeing to the action that happens to them.  A short story cannot be constructed around a character to whom a series of fixed actions occur – the actions must have movement, and the character makes choices as a result of those actions.  These actions get the character from the beginning of the story to the end. 

Hills continues to approach the short story in parts, dedicating individual chapters to beginnings, middles, and endings.  He addresses the difference between the story and the plot.  The plot is not the equivalent of the story as a whole; it is one aspect of fiction technique, used to help the story progress.  What happens in a story is more often found in the meaning of the action, the changes that the character goes through, or the theme of the piece. 

Another subject Russ Hills addresses is the selection of the elements that the author chooses to include in the plot.  It is inconceivable for a writer to include everything that happens to a character over the course of a short story.  Many elements of life are mundane and meaningless to the progression of the story.  It is important, then, that the writer carefully select the events that he or she includes in the short story.  In a short story, even relevant events must sometimes be omitted, but as long as the reader has an overall picture of the events shaping the lives of the characters, the story can be complete. 

            These are just a few guidelines Hills offers writers.  Although there is no way to summarize the complete wealth of information packed into fifty-six brief chapters, I feel that is it the most thorough book written on the subject of writing.  This book is a valuable resource for English teachers who will be asked to teach an inherently personal process – writing.  Students are often intimidated when they are asked to write a short story because, even though they have story ideas, they do not understand how to present them in a format that is easily read and understood.  The teacher must be secure enough in their own knowledge of short fiction that he or she is able to offer guidance for this process.  The short story is such a staple of secondary school English classrooms, that teachers must have a definite approach in order to direct their students.  Teachers can use Writing in General and the Short Story in Particular as a guide for lesson plans and make it available to their students as a resource.  I am comforted knowing that this resource will be in my classroom.

 Reviewed by Robin Stone Dufilho