Every now
and then I hear or read statements by people that there’s no real difference
between writing a short story and writing a novel. It’s all the same skills, they say, and it’s
working toward the same goal, so working on one can only make you better at the
other.
I disagree
with this, for the most part. It’s a
sloppy comparison, the kind that makes people say alligators and crocodiles are
the same thing, or unemployment benefits and socialism. There are some basic similarities, yes, but
short stories and novels are two very different animals and they have to be
dealt with in different ways. Housecats
and Bengal tigers have a lot of things in common, too, but if I find one in my
living room when I wasn’t expecting it, it leads to one of two very different
phone calls. If I call the wrong person
over to deal with it... well, one way or another, they’re going to be very
annoyed.
Here’s a
better way to compare short stories and novels.
It’s not super-informative, but it should get your brain working on a
few issues. It came from a discussion
between my lovely lady and I, and it’s such a solid analogy we then had some
sharp words (well, not very sharp) about who actually came up with it after
we’d been bouncing it back and forth for a while. I shall split credit and say we came up with
it, to be fair.
What did we
come up with?
Carpentry.
A good
number of you reading this had to take some kind of shop class as kids, I
bet. You may have also belonged to Boy
Scouts or Girl Scouts or some other group that did crafts at some point. So I’m betting that a fair amount of you have
held a hammer, driven a nail, and maybe even cut a board with a saw.
A few of
you may have even built a birdhouse.
Birdhouses
are pretty basic things. Four sides,
floor, perhaps a two-sided roof if you get fancy. They generally have one entrance and not many
features past that little peg for the birds use to land on or launch from. I think I built two at different points in my
childhood. Although I think one was made
out of a plastic milk jug, so it doesn’t count for our purposes today.
So, all you
scouts and shop students... is building a birdhouse the same thing as building
a real house?
Once I jump up in scale like that, there’s a huge design difference. A five-inch square wall can hold itself up,
but one that’s 9’ X 14’ needs a real framework.
That framework also needs to account for windows, interior doors, and
possibly even supporting a second floor.
Heck, I’m probably going to depend on the framework even more—a
birdhouse wall can just be a piece of wood, but for a house I’ll probably use
two by fours covered with drywall or plaster.
Plus
there’s all sorts of extra details in a full-sized house. I’ve got wiring, insulation, plumbing, and
possibly cable to deal with. Maybe
tilework in the bathrooms and kitchen. Central
air if I’m feeling especially sinful.
(Bonus
points if you get that reference)
Even my
tools change. A hammer and hand saw
might work for a birdhouse, but for a full-size job I’m probably going to want
a nail gun and some power tools because I need to be working at a different
pace. A table saw would be nice. A level is very important. Plus all the specialty tools for that
drywall, wiring, and plumbing we were just talking about.
The basic
skills are the same, but what I do with them is completely different.
This works
both ways, too. The blueprints for
birdhouses are ridiculously basic things, assuming I even use any. Half the time they’re not even drafted—just
sketched out rough on a scrap of paper.
It’s not worth putting in any more planning than that because the actual
construction takes so little time that the planning phase can completely overwhelm it.
Past all
that, what would you think of a birdhouse with drywall, plumbing, and
cable? It’d be a curiosity, yeah, but
would you actually buy it? I probably
wouldn’t. Hell, how would I hook it up
once you hung it in the back yard? And
do you know how much it would weight if I framed the whole thing? The whole support system for this thing just
went from being a hook and eyebolt to a length of chain with a few bolts
through it.
Hopefully
you all get where I’m going with this.
Y’see,
Timmy, I can’t approach writing a short story the same way I would a novel. Each one has a very different structure. Elements that work on
a small scale don’t work on a larger scale, and vice-versa. While you can get away with less-detailed
characters in one, they seem false in the other.
How do you
make it work? Well... that’s still
something each of us needs to figure out for ourselves. This was just a reminder not to put a jacuzzi
in your birdhouse. And maybe to give
your new home more than one hole in the front for a door.
Next time,
I’ll have something new for you to look at.
Or listen to. Or something.
Until then,
go write.
And Timmy! If I might add, just because it's short doesn't mean the characters shouldn't be fleshed out.
ReplyDeleteHah! I missed the pop culture ref.
They should be, absolutely, but in a short story I probably shouldn't have a ten page flashback explaining why Timmy doesn't like spinach (unless that's my whole story). That's too much fleshing out for a short.
ReplyDeleteThe birdhouse needs walls, yes, but it doesn't need drywall, insulation, an electrical outlet, and a thermostat.
I've had a similar thought. I liken a short story to a sprint and a novel to a marathon.
ReplyDelete(I missed the pop culture reference too)
:-(
It's Eddie Izzard, damn it! From his Dress to Kill show. He was talking about how everyone in England (supposedly) has castles and they all want small homes.
ReplyDelete:)
Ha! And I've seen the Izzard show too!
ReplyDeleteDude, grammar police:
ReplyDelete"It came from a discussion between my lovely lady and I..."
Shouldn't it be 'between my lovely lady and me'?
I don't think all characters necessarily need to be "fleshed out" in a short story. Sometimes the brilliance lies in having this person who essentially is no more than an appearance, a moment of epiphany or a spark in a single page. I'm not talking about secondary characters, but about what can very well be a crucial element in a short text.
ReplyDeleteA novel, on the contrary, is more like a movie, where you need to "see" the characters. So, this kind of thing tends not to work.
Just my two cents...
I think it fair to point out that the difference in scale between novels and short stories doesn't necessarily equate to a difference in the labor required to produce either (unlike birdhouses and homes).
ReplyDeleteLike a poem (another oft under-appreciated undertaking), a good piece of short fiction can be equated to a polished diamond. The end result is nothing like the initial lump of imagination.
Anon--Yeah, I don't know how that happened. I could try to excuse it by bringing up the casual, conversational tone I try to keep here, but let's just be honest... I was probably drunk. I'll leave it as is to serve as a reminder.
ReplyDeleteLane--A fair point, yes, but I don't think it quite relates to what I was talking about. The work and labor to produce a short (vs a novel) is an entirely separate aspect, and I also think it's far too individual to try to offer guidelines on it past, well, the basic Golden Rule.
Ahhh. No pleasure, no rapture, no exquisite sin greater than earning my bonus reference points :P
ReplyDelete