The Short Story vs. The Novel

[dr_mabeuse]

A short story is an fictional episode about a character's change. Speaking stylistically, it doesn't matter how many words it is (formally it does), it's the story of one incident or episode with supporting occurrences that leads to a change in a character. That's what a short story is.

A novel is a longer prose narrative made up of many episodes, usually divided into chapters. A novella is a novel of shorter length.

I've written all three, and had short stories turned into novels and novels turned into short stories. Most of my novels were not written as novels but as strings of short stories that were published separately here on Lit, then strung together and published as novels. They read like it. Each chapter is a stand-alone episode with beginning, middle, climax and resolution.

Formally, a short story is whatever the publisher decrees it to be in word count.

Short stories and novels are both art forms and they require different skills. I find that porn (okay, erotica) is better suited to the short story form since the erotic story usually involves a single sexual episode, but when it does involve someone's sexual oddysey or evolution, it can work as a novel. The novel tends to be episodic though. That's just the nature of the beast, because sex is short and life is long and there's a lot of resting in between, as well as talking and eating and watching TV.

 

[Rob_mDear]

Because of the size limitation, that's a lot to do within those few words. To do more means you would have to steal space from those other primary elements. Which do you choose? Plot? Character Development? Story?

I think the key to the short story is subtle implication. You don't skimp on anything. Plot, character, and story are all there. You just have to find a clever way to imply things in a word or sentence or two, rather than coming out and giving a long winded exposition. So you give the feel of a novel, while only writing about the action (or dialogue) that is the key element of the story.

Basically, I think a well written short story should make the reader feel, by the end, that he/she had read a novel, that they'd read several chapters before they got this far, and maybe that there were more chapters to read, chapters they can only imagine because they aren't really there.

 

[Rob_mDear]

I've written all three, and had short stories turned into novels and novels turned into short stories. Most of my novels were not written as novels but as strings of short stories that were published separately here on Lit, then strung together and published as novels. They read like it. Each chapter is a stand-alone episode with beginning, middle, climax and resolution.

I agree with everything the good doctor said, but I think the important part is the bit about short stories strung together to make a novel. A lot of "novels" on Lit are just a bunch of short stories with the same characters, sharing the same canon. They aren't novels.

That doesn't mean they're bad, and an author does need to label them as chapters to let readers know that they're related, but most of them aren't novels.

With that said, even if it is written like a novel, often each chapter has to read like a short story, because readers at Lit aren't reading them like novels. There may be a long lag between the release of chapters. Some new readers may even pick it up in the middle, starting with the most recently released chapter only because it was on the New page or Top Lists page. As a result, each chapter has to stand alone, as well as work as part of the whole. So an author here at Lit has good reason to write a novel like a chain of short stories.

 

[bwallard]

Woh now - a few kinds of short stories.

Off the bat there's Alice Munro vs Raymond Carver. Munro's stories are more dense than most novels; Carver's stories are exquisitely agonized moments. There are other kinds of stories, I know, but that's not what I'm talking about.

Which is best for erotica?

Carver.

I don't get the idea of 'erotic novel'. This has been very well discussed so I want bother you with my reason. I've learned to not click on anything like "Babysitter Ch 04".

A sex story is a wank, not a marriage. Though I think there's something to be said for a dirty weekend, something intriguing better happen on that weekend or I'm checking out Saturday night.

 

[SimonBrooke]

Don't generalise!

Woh now ...
A sex story is a wank, not a marriage.

Oh, for heaven's sake!

Our society lumps as 'sex stories' almost every story which contains explicit sex. These stories are written for all sorts of reasons and have all sorts of effects on us. The best story I've read on Literotica for quite some while is Working the Frathouse, which is intensely explicit but (for me at least) hardly erotic at all - because the protagonist doesn't experience the events as erotic, and we're riding with her.

Just because it isn't erotic doesn't make it a bad story. On the contrary it is an exceptional story, one of quite extraordinary power.

If you come here for a wank, heaven knows there's plenty to wank over. But all the best stories on this site have, in my opinion, some serious intent other than just tittilation. They're telling us things about human experience and human relationships. Writing on Literotica - in all categories - is extremely variable in character, and some of it is very bad. But some of it - in most categories, anyway - is extremely good.

For example, Abduction first appeared on this site as 'Changed Girl'. It is erotica as I would understand it - that is to say, it is about sexual behaviour and at least part of the author's intent is communicate sexuality. But it's also a damn fine piece of fiction, and if you avoid all 'Chapter 2' stories on this site, you'll miss gems like that (as well as, granted, lots of dross).

 

[bwallard]

Oh no. I misspoke, or you misunderstood.

I didn't mean that eroticism is the hallmark of a good short story. I meant that it is essential to an erotic short story.

If this forum is about general literary quality, then I retract my statement. It was made in the context of what I thought to be a forum on erotic literature.

There are many stories and novels in mainstream literature that have erotic moments, but that doesn't make them erotic works. I have read some good writing on here, not all of it erotic, but every one that was erotic was also good writing - well developed character, well-executed narrative written in a clear and intriguing voice.

The reason I've come here is I wonder if it may be a community of writers who are interested in developing a vibrant tradition of excellent erotic writing. That's an exciting idea.

I apologize for not being more clear. I'm new here so should probably give more frame for my comments, but I was royally hoisted on my very first post for writing too long.

 

[bwallard]

SimonBrooke, I find too many "Abduction" stories. It's going to be a while until I find my way with this site.

Thanks for the recommendation, though.

Also the links to your stories don't link to your stories, but to general categories - and the search on this site!

It would be fun to redesign this site, but perhaps the arcane user interface is a deliberately high cost of entry.

 

[SimonBrooke]

SimonBrooke, I find too many "Abduction" stories. It's going to be a while until I find my way with this site.

The particular story I was referring to has been removed from the site because it's been published. If you want to read it now, you'll have to pay for it.

Thanks for the recommendation, though.

Also the links to your stories don't link to your stories, but to general categories - and the search on this site!.

Yes, I know. I'm sorry. They have redesigned the site, and the link (which used to link to my stories) no longer works. I must fix it.

 

[bwallard]

A good short story has all the affect and insight of a novel packed into just a few pages. Short stories script to film more easily than novels do because the two forms share time constraints which do not apply to the novel.

I thought for a moment that perhaps the television series is the film sibling of the novel, but this is clearly wrong. The best translation of the novel is to the miniseries. Both forms are constrained by the requirement of a coherent conclusion.

The television series is another thing. It's like dropping in on friends you visit every week , until you die or the series is cancelled. ( The DVD presentation of a series is an interesting development, but that takes us off topic.).

And I'm thinking that the "novels" I read on here are more "series'" than "novels". They're not really going anywhere, they're just places to hang out with friends. Excuse me - some are actually declared as "series" and are made of "episodes" .

 

[neonlyte]

The mechanics of reading a novel length work on Lit, or anywhere else on the Internet, don't help the reading process. Publishing by Chapter mitigates simple back-paging to check facts, it almost imposes the notion of a collection of short stories rather than a novel. It's an entirely different reading discipline from print and I wonder if that influence extends to the Internet writer... even subconsciously... that each chapter has to be beginning, middle, resolution, rather than a meshed process of events across several chapters.