# Novels vs. Short Stories



## Dwarven Gold (Mar 16, 2011)

What attracts authors to writing short stories as opposed to novels?  Is a different skill set required?

I tend to think that short is better, but I'm biased.


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## Ophiucha (Mar 16, 2011)

I tend to write novellas, myself. I don't think I've ever written a story over 150 pages, and that might be a bit much. I think it just depends on the story being told, and the style of the author. I tend towards minimalism and subtlety. I'd rather hint at the bigger picture than elaborate on it. My stories are often the sort that, while not quite simple, are straightforward. There aren't many deviations, and any subplots are very well woven into the central story. I don't need 200+ pages to tell the stories, or elaborate on anything going on outside of it.


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## Mdnight Falling (Mar 17, 2011)

I write both short stories and novels. I also write poetry. For me it really depends on the mood I'm in on what I decide to play with that day


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## Kelise (Mar 17, 2011)

I've been told by many authors that it's not good to try both, that you learn to write in a totally different way when sticking to short stories, then trying to beat out a novel too...

But I haven't had any problem. Sometimes if I have an idea I want to use, but can't stretch it out to a novel - or can't be bothered to try because I just want to get it down, then I'll shape it into a short story. 

If I have something, or a few ideas, that fit together into a novel, then I write a novel. I understand that there's differences, but I think they go along with the idea. Some ideas belong in a short and confined space to give it the determination and attention it deserves... and some belong in a novel when you need to space to play it out right.

I'd say there are many differences. You attack a short story differently, you get right to the point and the characters are presented in a different light. A novel you pace it differently, and you expect more from the characters, setting, plot... everything, because it has to hold the audience for longer.

So I like both. Novels are preferred though.


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## Abomination (Mar 17, 2011)

starconstant said:


> I've been told by many authors that it's not good to try both, that you learn to write in a totally different way when sticking to short stories, then trying to beat out a novel too...


 Really?  I've mostly heard the opposite.  But you know, ask 10 writers and you'll get 11 answers...

Why build a house when you could build a skyscraper?  Why build a skyscraper when you could build a house?

Short stories are the zoomed in inset detail.  Novels are the whole image.  
Short stories can do the following, often at the same time:
1. take a detail that would have gotten swallowed in a larger story, and making it the most important thing.
     --a split second decision, a moment of confusion, a revelation
2. take something tiny into something significant
     --the smell of a flower in summer, the discomfort of breaking in new shoes, the shame of a first rejection 
3. Make something interesting, beautiful, or thoughtful out of something dull.  
       --an old person stuck in an armchair staring out a window, a housewife staving off boredom, a drive down a new road.

A novel tells you what happens after, before, and during these things.  It tells you what caused them and what they caused.  A novel gives you the whole web, while a short story shows only one thread, or a juncture.  I believe the skill to depict both is a valuable one because they can lean on each other and underscore each other.  Isn't there that one piece of a novel you love where the author dwelt so carefully on one setting or scene or thought?  And isn't there one short story you read that seemed to encapsulate so much more than what was on the page?


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## Donny Bruso (Mar 17, 2011)

Personally I lean towards novels because when the good ones end, I always want to know more about the characters. What did they do afterward? Short stories, by nature, don't usually get you that invested in the characters. Usually it's more about the story because there simply isn't room to enlarge the characters to the dimensions you find in a novel. My favorite works are all character driven, rather than story, so I tend to write in big, sweeping arcs that give my characters lots of room to maneuver and develop. I honestly have a hard time with short stories because they deny me that room to work.


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## Ophiucha (Mar 17, 2011)

Really? That's odd. I guess I haven't read much in the way of fantasy short stories, but from just general short stories I've read, they are near exclusively about a character. My personal favorite is "A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. That one is a bit of an oddity. It doesn't have much of a plot. Most of his works lack one. But, while it is probably focused mostly on a character (the titular one), I would say is is probably more driven by theme than anything. A lot of short stories, I find, are more likely to be sort of... slice of life. They don't tell a story. Not many stories to tell in ten pages. They just show you a character, or characters. The best of them make you love the character far more than any epic can.


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## misaki (Mar 17, 2011)

I prefer reading novels but if a short story comes my way, I wouldn't pass it.

What I do (or try to do, I haven't had time for it yet) is when I'm writing a novel, I write a short story first, maybe to provide a backdrop on the character so I can get the feel for him/her as well as maybe the setting etc.


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## Abomination (Mar 18, 2011)

Donny Bruso said:


> Personally I lean towards novels because when the good ones end, I always want to know more about the characters. What did they do afterward? Short stories, by nature, don't usually get you that invested in the characters.


 

Two points here:
1.  I think a very good writer will use words so judiciously that they can paint a full picture even in a short story.   To be honest, most of the short fiction I read is sci-fi or borderline, which is odd, because most of the novels I read are fantasy...wonder if there's something to that?  Anyway... Neil Gaiman's short stories, for example, always leave me craving more on the characters because I've fallen in love with them in the space of only three or four pages--but that's part of the beauty of it.  In the hands of a good author , the short story is a poignant flash of inspiration, or a punch to the gut.  And, well, sometimes I'd rather get punched in the gut once than get the crap kicked out of me.

2. Also, I think sometimes short stories can be more satisfying than novels for exactly the reason you mentioned.  They start and then they're over, they don't leave you wandering around in a world for years because you wonder what was going to happen to that one guy's wife's magic uncle who was kinda cool...    

And if an author can leave you wandering around in a world for years after only a few thousand words...well, I would like to have the skill of that author!


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## Ravana (Mar 18, 2011)

They are certainly different skill sets. As has been mentioned, for shorter works you dispense with most of the world-building and a fair amount of the character development, and generally jump right into the action with little (or no) setup (though I've seen plenty of novels that do the last of these as well). Which actually makes shorter pieces harder for most people to do, as you still have to create the sense of a believable world and present interesting, complex characters, but without the luxury of describing everything you feel needs to be described… and then you need to find space for at least a sentence or two in which to shoehorn minor items such as a plot in addition to that. As I said elsewhere: _anybody_ can write a story in 10,000 words. Try writing one in 500. (Most small fiction markets don't accept anything over 3k words, often no more than 1.5-2k, if you feel you need a "real" target to shoot for. Even 3k is hard enough.)

Other than for practice, though, I wouldn't "try" writing either novels or short stories: something that's appropriate for a short story will be obviously so, and there will be no realistic way to drag it out to novel-length; something appropriate for a novel simply won't work as a short story. Write what you've got to work with. It'll decide its own length.


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## Telcontar (Mar 18, 2011)

There are certainly different skills in each. I liken it to the difference between being a good speed-chess player and being a good chess player. I am a good speed-chess player. I have friends who I can beat at speed-chess who will trounce me when we play normal matches. As in, "leave me crying in the corner" trounced.

Writing a short story is about brevity. You don't paint, you sketch. 

A novel is much easier in the short term - no worrying about space, after all - but _finishing_ one is the famous difficulty. Finishing short stories is easier, though I certainly have a few moldering on my hard drive without endings. 

I consider short stories to be excellent practice for novel-length work. This is no doubt due to the fact that I've tried without any success (YET!) to market my short stories. Very difficult field. Writing them, however, is invaluable. First and foremost, it keeps you writing. You can always start another short story, and who cares if you finish? Just gotta write. Secondly, that same brevity can come in handy even in a novel. Action scenes, for instance, work very well when 'sketched.' Any chapter with rapid movement (of the plot) is like a short story of its own.


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## Toby Johnson (Feb 10, 2021)

i prefere writing novels as with short stories i feel presured to make it as short as possible, but with novels, it doesnt matter, if I need to go into detail on something I can and make it as long as it needs to be.


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