Do You Have Enough Story for a Novel?

One of the questions I’ve been pondering as I’ve worked on my next short story/novella/whatever it turns out to be is, well, what it’s going to turn out to be. Is there actually enough story here for it to unexpectedly sneak its way to novel status, or will it just settle in as a longer short story?

You might say, just write and see how it turns out. And that seems to make some sense. Does it really matter how long it’s going to be when you start writing it? On the surface, maybe not. But the way I approach these stories means it matters, and it’s something I try to figure out from the beginning.

That’s because I’m not the type of writer who likes to jump back and forth between stories. There’s probably a brain capacity joke in there somewhere. Whether I’m writing or reading, I want to focus on one story at a time. Start it, finish it, then move on to the next one. I’m very project oriented with my writing and reading. When I was writing my novels, that was my pure focus. Right now, I’m putting all my energy into “No Outlet.”

So, the plan is for me to finish “No Outlet” around the time I get my novel back from the beta readers, so I can then pour my energy into editing that. But if I’m not done with “No Outlet,” I have to then put it aside for however long it takes me to do the post-beta edit. Which screws up my whole stupid little plan.

Even if you’re not as anal about this stuff as I am, I could see wanting to know what you have for the sake of knowing what you’re getting into, because novels sell far better than short stories, so you don’t try to stretch it out longer than you can justify, or simply for planning purposes.

How do you know, though? It’s certainly not an exact science. To some extent, you probably can’t know for sure until you get 20K or so words in, and you see the pace you’re setting. But the only way to possibly know is with pretty in-depth planning and structuring before you write a word of the story itself.

My method has been to write out everything I think I know about the story itself. Not the characters or their dialogue. Just the key plot points I expect to actually happen, from beginning to end. It’s not important that the story ends up going exactly this way; this just needs to be a roadmap for what you expect.

If it’s a short story, I expect there to be a basic narrative structure of Setup-Conflict-Resolution. Or, ya know, something in the neighborhood of a resolution, anyway. If you want to have everyone end up miserable, believe me, I’ll be the last person to criticize you for that. But setup and conflict are essential.

If it’s a novel, though, I expect there to be a basic narrative structure of Setup-Conflict-False Resolution-Conflict (maybe a whole new one)-Resolution. And that cycle can repeat itself nearly infinite times, continuing to push the reader deeper. Basically, what you want to see is the conflict build, and the readers need to see your characters struggle and fail. They need to hit walls. They need to meet challenges. They don’t have to conquer over them, but they definitely must face them. It’s OK to have these sorts of failures in a short story too, but it’s challenging to have that, along with any sort of real character or plot development. In a short story, I feel like you’re better off setting the conflict up, and your characters either succeed or fail. They’ve only got one shot, though.

That’s what I’m looking for, though. Oddly, I’ve found that I have an easier time coming up with ideas for novels than short stories. I enjoy writing the shorter ones, though. And they’re pretty versatile, as far as what I can do with them. I’ve published two of them (along with my novel, “Killing the Immortals”); to check them out, go to my author page on Amazon or click on the links to my books at the top of the page.