7 Differences Between A Short Story And A Novel

Both belong to the epic or narrative genre, but the truth is that they are two subgenres with totally different characteristics. Today we want to talk about the 7 differences between a story and a novel.

Perhaps you already have a slight idea that they are not the same stories. However, in the following article we will delve into all the literary aspects that influence its parallel development. Let’s see.

Similarities between a story and a novel

The stories and novels correspond to the act of narrative communication. That is, the one we use when we relate a series of actions carried out by characters in a specific time and place. Therefore, they have characteristics that unite them:

• They are common in society. In fact, both creations are found anywhere in the world.

• On the other hand, the literary narrative is a self-referential or fictional narrative. In other words, the person who tells us the stories is not the author, but the narrator (the voice that the author creates).

Differences between a story and a novel

Of course, despite the fact that both subgenres belong to the narrative, they differ from each other in 7 main characteristics: the brevity, the theme, the plot, the space-time, the characters, the edition and the title itself.

Story

Its origin comes from oral tradition. In fact, according to the specialist María Jesús Zamora Calvo, during the Middle Ages other terms were preferred to refer to short stories: fables, fabiellas, exemplars , apologists, proverbs, punishments, etc.

The term “story” comes from the Latin verb computare , with the sense of ‘calculate, compute’. From this meaning, it comes to mean ‘tell stories’ and at this moment, instead of listing objects, it goes on to list events. Apart from the origin, it also has other differences to consider due to its:

• Brevity : the main difference between a short story and a novel is its brevity. In this sense, the story is usually much shorter than the novel.
• Theme: the stories will present a monothematic character. That is, it focuses on a single aspect.
• Plot : as a rule, simpler than that of a novel.
• Space-time : there is a space -time unit. That is, the events usually occur in a single area or place, and in a short time.
• Characters : the protagonists are usually schematic (they play a role ). As a rule, what we know about them is restricted to the space-time frame of the story.

• Editing : in general, stories are usually edited by anthologies.
• Title : the title of the stories is usually descriptive of the narrative.

Novel

At present, the novel lives a period of absolute splendor, and this has been the case since approximately the 19th century; as reflected in an article published by the National Autonomous University of Mexico in 2018.

Along these lines, it is an extensive narrative (but not so much in a quantitative sense, but rather one of implications). Therefore, a novel is going to be a narrative that differs from the story due to its:

• Brevity: it is a narrative that is usually long. In fact, it is common for the narrator to be encouraged to digress (ramblings in the story).
• Theme: in a single novel you can deal with different themes that come together without counteracting each other (fantastic, terror, adventure, romantic, police, western, existential, etc.).

• Plot: there is no plot schematism.
• Space-time: time and space change. Thus, the time is longer and the action takes place in different places (in fact, there is more than one). In addition, the times are also described in great detail.
• Characters: the protagonists are no longer going to be schematic or respond to a single idea, but rather their construction is much more complex, with a more extensive and in-depth description.
• Editing: the novel, unlike the short stories, can be edited individually.
• Title: in the stories this part anticipated what we were going to read. However, this does not happen in the novel (for example, see the cases of La colmena by Camilo José Cela or The Tree of Science by Pío Baroja). In this way, you do not need to capture the reader’s attention immediately because the novel has perspective, so the title is not decisive.

Short story and novel, different creations

Perhaps before you had already imagined that brevity was one of the main differences between a short story and a novel, but we hope that this information has been useful to deepen your literary knowledge even more. In fact, the science that studies these aspects is known as literature theory, and it is essential to establish a deep and solid classification as far as possible.

Now, faced with a totally technological society, it faces new challenges that are affecting some issues such as authorship, message, sender-receiver communication or the publishing industry (anyone can open a blog and develop a new subgenre). Therefore, we will have to wait and be attentive to the news of future stories and novels.