The 8 differences between a story and a novel

"Once upon a time…". This well-known construction resonates in our minds as the one that begins a large part of the stories that we have heard in our childhood.

The story, like other types of literary genre, a form of narration that tells us a story in prose form. Another genre that narrates from prose is the novel. Both types of narration have characteristics in common that cause that they can sometimes reach confused, but nevertheless they also have multiple differences that make them recognizable and different.

In this article we are going to expose the main differences between short story and novel.

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Defining concepts: short story and novel

The novel and the short story are, as we have said, literary genres written in prose that tell and transmit a story in the form of a narrative. Although similar in some ways, they have multiple differences that make them easily recognizable.

A novel is a relatively long narrative that tells a fictional story

(either totally fictitious or based in part on real events), made for recreational purposes. A series of events are presented in which a series of characters will be involved, which will also develop throughout the story. The action is contextualized in a specific point in space-time, even if it refers to non-existent environments or worlds. The themes of this can be varied and have different structures and ways of being carried out.

As for the story, it is a short and concise form of narration that relates a specific fictional situation in which a few characters are involved and whose main function is both to entertain and to transmit certain values ​​or teachings. Its structure is simple, and although there are exceptions, they are generally not located in a specific time or special moment.

Main differences

Although in the previous section some differences between a story and a novel can already be deduced, then we proceed to highlight and explain them.

1. Extension

One of the easiest differences to detect between a short story and a novel is the difference in their length. While the story is generally short and does not usually cover more than a few pages, the novel is generally quite long. Despite this, it must be taken into account that the extension is a confusing parameter when establishing a limit between both types of narration, since there are very long stories and short novels that can be similar in this factor.

2. Level of specificity and complexity

As a general rule, the novel presents a high level of complexity, presenting various situations that may be difficult to understand at first and that will develop and vary throughout the narrative. However, the story tends to be simple and concise, proposing a very limited and easy-to-understand situation and without usually seeming complications beyond those initially proposed.

3. Thematic variation

While stories generally relate to a single theme to work on throughout the story, different themes, subplots and script twists may arise in novels that enrich the reading but make it more complex and difficult to follow.

4. Structure

In both narrative genres we find a structure in the form of an approach, a middle and an outcome. However, while the story firmly adheres to this structure and it is easy to define where we are in the story, script twists may appear in the novel**, new beginnings or even a series of parallel stories ** that make its structure more complex.

5. Characters

The emphasis given to the characters also differs in novel and short story. While the story tends to focus on what happens to a few characters, most of whom are delimited from the beginning, in the novel may appear a wide variety of characters whose role may vary and that will be developed with different levels of deepening.

6. Stage

Another point in which the story and the novel differ is the use that is given to space and time. The events recounted in the story tend to occur in a single setting or place or relate to a single travel, while in the novel the plot can take the characters to different environments very differentiated between Yes. Regarding time, although in both types of narration the events can happen in a short or long interval of time, it is more often than in the short story, things happen in a short time while in the novels the facts are prolong.

Similarly, often neither the moment nor the place are themselves the object of analysis in the story and are only inferred, whereas in the novels it is usually These aspects should be delimited with greater precision, with history being much more contextualized (even if it is about places and times that have not existed never).

7. Purpose

The purpose of both genders also presents differences. Although it is true that both are a playful element, the only purpose of the novel is to entertain and in some cases make people think, while the story focuses on transmitting a teaching (usually in the form of a moral).

8. Transmission way

One last difference can be found in that the novel is a literary elaboration that is transmitted in writing.. By contrast, although the story may appear in writing, it has traditionally been transmitted orally.