Grading Each Story

METHODOLOGY

I understand that greatness of art isn’t something that can be determined by rankings or assigning a numerical grade to it.  However, for my own personal process of going through this project, I’d like some help putting all 366 stories in perspective.  It will also help me hone my critical eye. So I came up with a rudimentary and non-scientific grading system that I may or may not stick to the whole year.

I will critique each story using the following 4 categories giving each a 1-10 rating.  So a perfect short story will get a 40.  

Quality of writing- Judging quality of art is a mostly-completely subjective exercise; in the same way that saying Mozart is a higher quality of music than say Justin Bieber; sure artistic appreciation is subjective however, some things are unequivocally higher quality.

Quality of plot/idea/concept- Short stories often hinge upon the concept.  As the story unfolds you say “wow, what a crazy situation”.  These clever or tragic or cringe-worthy moments more than anything make a short story what it is.  With so little space, character development takes a back seat.  Often the concept is enough to make a 2-page story memorable. As an example the ironic, heart breaking, and ultimately redeeming plot in Gift of the Magi would be a perfect score in this category.

Execution/Polish/Finish- Just as concept can make a story memorable, many short stories leave us wanting more.  Some writers use their short stories as springboards for larger novels.  Their collections of these out takes, tidbits, and first drafts are valuable workshops for writers but a pure reader wants a finished product, we don’t care to see how the sausage is made. Great short stories should stand on their own.  Because the short story genre is so vast, its hard to qualify this one.  The litmus here will be up to the author. Whatever the short story sets out to do, it should do well.  

X-Factor- Because the genre is so expansive and encompasses writers of all milieus (yes, I wanted that to sound snobby) its hard to use a one-size-fits-all criteria to judge them.  This category can cover anything from originality to richness of character.  Basically, whatever the story sets out to accomplish beyond storytelling.