Sometimes I look at my short stories and wonder which one could become a novel.
I know there are such cases in literature, but I can’t think of any right now.
Today, however, I wondered if I had read a novel that would have seemed better as a short story, and whether that raises questions about the novel itself, or whether they could actually be equally good in both forms?
My general opinion on this subject is that novels and short stories are different mediums.
In a critique setting, I dislike hearing people say things like “This short story felt more like a first chapter, so maybe you should write a novel out of it.” If you’re trying to write a short story, the story should be complete as a short story. Novels aren’t typically just short stories that got out of hand.
An interesting thought to play along: movie adaptations of novels are typically condensed versions. Not quite as short as a short story, but still simpler and briefer than the full-length novel in most cases. I think it’s funny when people want to argue if the book or the movie was better. The fact is they were different. They’re different because they’re different mediums. We expect different things out of books and movies.
I’m not aware of any novels that have been turned into short stories, probably because there would be so little incentive. There’s incentive to turn a short story into a novel so that you can actually make some money off of it. But the inverse isn’t true. But I would be interested to see how someone might approach that.
Hi Plamen,
This is such a great question. Many now-famous writers started with short stories, and later turned them into full-length books. That happened so often because it was part of how the publishing industry worked at the time of Charles Dickens, for example.
The publishing industry has changed a lot since then, and I don’t see as large of a market for short stories. However, short stories are a wonderful resource for training your writing skills!
It’s easier to isolate and focus on improving your ability to write descriptions in a short story than in a novel-length work.
The novel you read that would’ve been better as short stories is likely lacking a solid premise or enough conflict. I’d recommend starting there if you want to adapt one of your short stories into a novel.
- Do you think the premise (basic idea of the story) could hold your interest for a full 50,000+ words?
- Make sure to develop five distinct conflicts for a novel-length work.! Short stories have less, because there isn’t enough room to develop that many, but a novel with less will feel like it’s missing something. The Novel Matrix is an amazing resource for writing conflicts!
Again, this is such a great question and there’s a lot more to be said. Let me know if any of my thoughts help shape your understanding of it.
-Vella
Yes, you’re right. And the last one is interesting! I imagine that a group of writers have such a task. And I assume that some kind of reworking of the messages in the novel will result, since we won’t have space to include them in the story. And while comparing with the novel /good novel/, we will always seem to be losing. But if someone unfamiliar with the novel reads our development, maybe they will be more satisfied. 🙂 Between a good novel and a good story, however, I would like to read the novel.