Is it a novel, or a collection of short stories?

DTKelly · Feb 27, 2006

My current project is a bunch of chapters that are stand alone short stories, and yet all connect to each other somehow (A minor character of one chapter is a major character in another, and some are connected by events, etc).

This project is going to be rather lengthy. I'm just curious as to what others think-- If you saw this on the shelf, would you call it a novel or a collection of short stories?

AdamH · Feb 27, 2006

I'd probably classify this as a bunch of short stories unless there's a throughline in each of them culminating to one singular climax at the end of the book.

Akuma · Feb 27, 2006

Do as suggested above and you'll get a Tarintino-esque style to it, which many people enjoy. But, hey, I don't want to change you book.

KAM · Feb 27, 2006

Melissa Banks did this in "The Girls Guide to Hunting and Fishing" and "The Wonder Spot". I'm not sure if these books are classified as novels or collections - might be worth checking out how they were marketed.

blacbird · Feb 27, 2006

There are gray areas in these classifications. Ray Bradbury's Dandelion Wine is a good example.

caw.

Akuma · Feb 27, 2006

Caw indeed, my friend. Caw indeed.

LightShadow · Feb 27, 2006

I wrote a book like that once, but I never completed it because the shortstories kept going in different directions. Five independent novel manuscripts came out of it.

wildflower · Feb 27, 2006

Several prominent Canadian authors use this episodic structure for different purposes. Some examples include Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town by Stephen Leacock, and Lives of Girls and Women and The Beggar Maid by Alice Munro. I think that Leacock emphasizes the diversity within the town by including narratives from different characters. On the other hand, I think that Munro evokes nostalgia and memory by using this structure: the episodes function like snapshots of past random incidents in the characters' lives.

In both cases, I thought that the episodic structure worked well. It depends on what effect you'd like to achieve, but I definitely wouldn't be turned off if I saw such a book on a bookshelf.

Jamesaritchie · Feb 28, 2006

Book

I think it would depend on whether or not there's a central theme, an overall plot thread that runs from beginning to end. Just having the same characters appear again doesn't make it a novel.

(grasshopper) · Feb 28, 2006

I think also that there is a fundamental quality to a novel that would be very difficult to create in a series of stories.

In a novel, we have time to learn about the hero's character, his strengths, and flaws. And that much more information allows us to better identify with him, to become him, so that, at the end of the story when the hero has learned a life-changing lesson, we have identified so strongly that we, too, are changed.

That's gotta be a tough thing to do in a series of stories.

slowjames · Feb 28, 2006

Irvine Welsh's "Trainspotting" is a prime example of blurring the lines between collection of interrelating short stories and a novel, certainly worked for him!

badducky · Feb 28, 2006

If you don't know, how are we supposed to know?

Just ake a decision and stick to it.

Is it a novel, or a collection of short stories?

DTKelly

The Rememberer

AdamH

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Akuma

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KAM

blacbird

Akuma

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LightShadow

defender of the blahs!

wildflower

Jamesaritchie

(grasshopper)

slowjames

badducky

No Time For Chitchat, Kemosabe.