I’m now 7000 words into the short story, which makes it a
long short story since it’s not done. The other day, I was reading an article
by a famous novelist who released a short story about her famous characters
between the publication of one novel and the next. Her fans did not like it.
They complained. But as the author listed the complaints, it occurred to me
that the complaints were because the readers didn’t understand the difference
between a novel and a short story. They had “novel-type” expectations of a
short story. And there’s no way an author can satisfy those types of
expectations. A short story can’t be a novel. So I thought, since I’m working
on a short story, that it might be helpful to reader and writers to discuss
what the difference is between a novel and a short story. Especially since I’ve
had the same confusion.
When I was in junior high, my teacher assigned our class to
write a short story. I started off with a bang. Then, twenty pages or so into
the “short” story, I realized that I had no hope of finishing it. And instead
of the teacher saying, “My dear, here’s what you need to do.” She said, “Twenty
pages? Wonderful. Don’t worry about finishing the story, just turn in what you
have.” (Now maybe she said this because she didn’t want to read another twenty
pages of junior high penmanship—I lived during pre-PC days.) When the teacher
handed back my “short story,” I’d gotten an A. At that point, I realized the
assignment was about putting pen to paper, not writing a short story. I was
bummed. And I never learned how to write a short story until I got to college.
I was anxious when I took my first fiction writing class—was
I going to write another long mess without an end? Then, I discovered
something. (Clearly, I wasn’t the sharpest knife in the drawer or it would’ve
occurred to me sooner.) A short story has one plot point and a limited number
of characters. Ah, that was my problem. Every time I’d written a short before,
I wasn’t writing a story, but a novel. (Or a novella, but that’s a whole other
discussion.) So what’s a short story? According to Poe, who some call the
originator of the short story, a short story is a narrative that can be read
within 1 ½ to 2 hours (depending on whether you have to get more chocolate—okay,
I added that part) and is limited to “a certain unique or single effect.” In
other words, you have to have a limited number of characters and the whole
story has to lead to a single purpose or conclusion. The “effect” may be the
resolution of the plot that’s developed, or it may be an exploration of a
character, which is common in modern literary fiction (and may be really boring
to read). This means that a short story
can’t be as intricate as a novel—not as many twists, not as much character
development, etc.
Think of a short story, especially one where the author is
writing a short about characters that already live in a novel, as a love letter
to the reader. The author is giving you a snippet of the characters’ lives
while you wait for the next novel, something to tide you over while the hard
work of writing the next novel happens. It’s something to remind you that the
characters aren’t sitting around doing nothing while you wait for the next
book.
If any of you have thoughts about the differences between
short stories and novels or expectations of each, I’d love for you to share
them.
N.B. The information about Poe came from Abrams’s A Glossary of Literary Terms.
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