- A Novel is the longest type of fictional prose. Novels are usually divided into chapters because they are very long. Most books out there on the market today are novels, with most shorter stories being printed elsewhere or being published online. Like with any other story, a novel should have a definite rising action, climax, and falling action. A denoument or true conclusion isn't always necessary, nor is a true beginning or prologue (if you're writing In media Res, or "In the Middle of (the action)"). The conflict generally isn't resolved in one sitting, nor can the story be read fully in one sitting - it's best thought upon over dinner, a walk, or before bed. In addition, a novel may have several subconflicts within it, little peaks and jagged edges to the conflict-resolution mountain that are resolved within a chapter, but not as central as the primary conflict. The novel is a literary tradition with a very long history, one I won't go into here because I'm not your English professor. The novel is also often divided into genres and even subgenres. For the sake of brevity, I won't list genres here; there's seriously so many it would take another blog entry to discuss. One example of a story I've written that I classify as a novel is my Batman fanfic The Neighborhood. In that story, the primary conflict is between my protagonist and the Joker - he's wrapped up in a deal with the devil scenario, and the conflict is whether he will be able to escape that deal with his life or not, if he can even escape it at all. Along the way, there's secondary conflicts, such as "Oh God, how do I protect my family from the Joker?", "I don't want to lie to others I love and trust, but I just can't tell them the truth for their own safety", "I'm on my own in dealing with my fear because of that latter issue", and others I won't relate, because it would spoil the story for you. ;3 I personally don't write novels much because they take a lot of planning, and I don't always have that kind of time. That's why my short story work outweighs my longer work.
- A Novella is a story that is shorter than a novel, but longer than a short story. The word comes from the Italian word novello, which means "new". Novellas aren't quite as complex in their conflicts as a novel is, but are more complex than a short story is. Novellas also are usually divided into chapters, although they may have whitespace or dividers between segments of plot to divide one scenario's resolution from another scenario's beginning. There's some conflict as to what describes a novella, although I tend to feel that a novella is just a long, more complex short story. Some famous novella examples you know of include A Clockwork Orange, The Old Man and the Sea, Animal Farm, and A Christmas Carol. All very different works of fiction by very different authors, and all different lengths - but all in the same category of literature length. Generally speaking, if you're reading a long, long story and it's not divided into chapters, but there's definite subconflicts along the way to the primary conflict's resolution, then it's probably a novella. I don't have a real, straight example of a novella, but I do have a story that's borderline novella, an original fantasy tale I wrote in high school called The Miracle Pool about dragons. In that story, I introduce characters, throw them together through some scenario, scene-build, start and resolve minor threads and conflicts, and take it to a larger conclusion. It's by no means my best work (and pretty much where I decided I wholeheartedly was not the next J.R.R Tolkein), but I think it's a good story for where I was at that point in my skills as an author.
- A Short Story is a brief work of fiction, and it has its roots in oral storytelling tradition. One-shot fanfiction, Creepypastas, and campfire stories told aloud are all this. Horror-Thriller author Edgar Allen Poe (and whom I take a good deal of inspiration from as a horror-suspense author myself) once wrote that a good short story should be able to be read in one sitting. Some people describe a short story as being between 1,000 and 20,000 words, but short stories can really be any length and still be considered a short story (that is, if you're using Poe's definition of what a short story is). The one issue with Poe's definition is that "one sitting" is somewhat different now than it was in Poe's day. I interpret "one sitting" to mean that you can read the story without getting so overwhelmed from reading it that you need to take a break. You know how you sometimes get weary when you're reading a novel, even if it's good, and you mark the page to take a break? A short story in my eyes shouldn't do that. Another argument is that short stories shouldn't be as complex as novellas, although I've seen short stories that are actually quite complex. This is why I have some trouble defining my work as either novellas or short stories; because I don't go by word counts, I consider almost all works that aren't chaptered to be "short stories". There are subcategories of short stories depending on word length as well. One example of a short story I've written is my short Slenderman story Anna, in which a man's daughter is taken from him and he goes searching for her. It was written with the intent to be Creepypasta-like, although Creepypastas generally end with a final twist or punch at the end to really freak the reader out and are intended to be taken more seriously (if they're really good, they leave you asking, "wait, was that actually real?"). It was more an attempt to tell a story and evoke the feeling of horror in the reader than to tell something really complex, making it a good example.
- A Vignette is a short story designed to explore one specific scene and the emotions it evokes. It usually doesn't have any sort of real conflict and is just intended to be an impression of an idea, concept, or feeling about something. Vignettes can be very beautiful, poetic, and thought-provoking if written right. An example of a vignette I've written is my Saavedro vignette Clockwork, which I wrote in high school for a project concerning extended metaphors in literature - that is, the use of something symbolic to present an idea about something or someone through a whole piece.
- An Anecdote is a short and amusing or interesting account of something that happens to someone, and it's usually based on a real event. Anecdotes can oftentimes be hilarious, and they tend to be satirical. Think of how a stand-up comedian might start telling a story that is actually a joke. The reason this works is because when an already silly or strange situation in reality is made more ridiculous, it's funny due to being expounded upon and exaggerated. One example of an anecdote I have is entitled Allegro con Agitado, a story about a snooty blonde fellow oboist I knew in middle school who was very angry about me getting first chair and not her. It was middle school band and neither of us were particuarly good, but damn if she wasn't pissed that she was literally second fiddle! Names were changed for the sake of privacy, and the instrument was changed to the clarinet, but the reality of the story is 100% true, and yes, she really was that upset.
- Flash Fiction, sometimes called Microfiction or a Short Short Story, is defined as any short story that is of extreme brevity. Generally, "extreme brevity" is 1,000 words or less, with anything slightly longer being deemed as "Sudden Fiction" and anything shorter (usually 300 words or less) being considered "Microfiction". Some people also call this type of short fiction a "Short Short Story" or "short-short". In general, I consider flash fiction to be anything 1,000 words or less, and microfiction to be anything under 300 words. Anything about 1,000 words or more I consider to be a short story. By this definition, some Creepypastas are also flash fiction. An example of a flashfic I've written is my original tale The Pipe Room, a story about a man noticing strange noises in the titular location and the terror that results from his imagination going wild. I think it's one of my better-written pieces as a descriptive work, and I wasn't even going for a wordcount, I just wrote it based on a song I was listening to and it ended up being just right.
- Branching off from this is the Drabble, an extremely short microfic that is 100 words or less. Some people think that a drabble should be exactly 100 words, but that's not always the case. Usually, drabbles are more like vignettes or sudden thoughts than full stories, but not always. I don't have any examples of a drabble, sadly, since my work tends to be a lot more descriptive and therefore longer. I do however have a famous example of a drabble, in fact, it's probably the shortest story ever told: "For sale: Baby shoes, never worn." Despite being only six words long, that little drabble has a definite beginning, middle, and end, and the story itself? Is all about interpretation. You could take it as "someone was expecting, but the child was a stillbirth or died shortly after being born, thus had no need for the shoes and they were sold", or you could take it as "The child was born and was too large for the shoes, thus had no need for the shoes and they were sold." Either way, it speaks volumes about childhood, life, and the fragility of our existance. Various people have attributed this extreme variant of the drabble to Ernest Hemingway, but there is no evidence that he indeed wrote it out there, and even Snopes.com can't give a definitive origin or author for this story.
Seems to me, folks, there's a little confusion, particularly amongst new authors, between what you call a story of a certain length. When does a short story become a novella, and when does it become a short short story? What is a drabble, anyway? Like I did last time with the symantics of various synonyms for Fear, I figured I'd give a list defining these various terms for literature length, at least for the prose in the world. You know, just in case anyone's curious. The terms are listed from longest to shortest, and defined by the criteria generally used for their length. As examples, I'll give my own examples of stories I've written from each style where applicable. This might be updated in the future, as I don't have certain examples for some styles.
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About The Blog
Welcome to Musings 2.0, my personal blog here on WordFlow! Here, you can find out what I'm doing now and where I'm going next, as well as get my thoughts on the Cthulhu Mythos, assorted sundry writing topics, and various scientific topics. Archives
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