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?
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
