Is it novels from here on out? Or do you plan to get back to short stories again at some point? I am working on stories at the moment. Novel Two is at a needy stage. I know from past experience that this separation may improve the novel.
But it feels, as you might imagine, excruciating. Thank goodness for stories. What is it you enjoy about each form, both short and long fiction? What are some of the challenges you find in each? I love the density of stories, the illusion of perfectibility they generate early in the writing process, and the puzzle-like challenges they present in revision.
Stories are brief, intense relationships and novels are the family you were born to. One is as passion-filled and mystifying as the other, but the experience of living inside them is quite different. This may simply be a matter of duration. I enjoy making sentences in both forms, and I find plot and structure vexing in both. Is it a form that you as a writer might embrace in the future?
Perhaps you already have? The story, the novella, and the novel are on a continuum. But fat novels can be piercing and explosive and short stories can be slow-paced.
And how to describe the subtle difference between a novella and a short novel? Between a novella and a long story? Maybe a novella is more intimate than the novel, more focused on creating a single effect. But to pose even these restrictions feels wrong. In a satisfying story novella, novel shape and meaning seem inextricably bound to each other.
