What can you use a short story for that you can't do with a Novel?

Nothing. Longer fiction can do exact what shorter fiction can do, and visa-versa. For example, your example can be contained in a novel--either as a small experience or a separate experience collected in the whole of the narrative. Longer fiction can do it.

The great difference in short fiction versus long fiction, I see, is the audience. Where as open endings, experimentation, ambiguity can sometimes ruin a novel because the audience does not accept them, they can be more than welcome in fields of short fiction because the audience does not have to make such a strong commitment and sometimes doesn't wish for that commitment to fully pay off. I've read short stories where if it was a novel I wouldn't have read past the first page, but "because it was only 15 pages long" I read it to the end.

Rechan said:

For instance, a short story can be a simple experience. What it would be like to say, live underwater. Or being transformed into something.

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I would call these things stories at all. To actually be a story, short stories and novels need all the same things. The two things you list should be articles, not short stories.

If it really is a story, there's nothing you can do in short story form that you can't do at novel length. Nothing. Or the other way around.

Some writers use the form for "idea" stories that really aren't stories at all, or the use the short form for twist stories, such as Gift of the Magi, but there is no actual story that can't be told equally well at either length.

Are you looking at just writing differences, or marketing differences?

With short stories, you can use several books as "reader magnets" to build your mailing list - with much less investment than you would have in longer novels.

What can you do with a short story that you can't do with a novel? Be brief.

George Saunders is a good example of why some stories are best suited to the short form and might not work as well in a novel. He discusses his writing style in this interview:

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/jan/12/george-saunders-interview-tenth-of-december

You can experiment with voice and tone.

There are some stories I've read or listened to with a quirky voice that I would have found too annoying to stick with for an entire book.

Roll it up and use it as a fly swatter.

caw

blacbird said:

Roll it up and use it as a fly swatter.

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If you're going roll it up, the least you could do is smoke it...

I've heard some writers say shorts are better than novels for stories that focus on a brief time span and/or a restricted setting.

I've read (very short) mystery/crime stories that span the few minutes of a robbery (for example) and occur entirely in a barroom, bank lobby, liquor store, and even in an elevator. I've got a published story that unfolds (beginning, middle, end) at an abandoned house over a period of eight minutes.

Of course, a novel could include one or more scenes depicting these same things, but the scope of a novel typically would not focus on one setting and a few minutes of time for 300 pages. Different scale of storytelling.

Good luck!

Best wishes,
Peter DiChellis

If nothing else I feel that short stories are a great way to practice your story telling skills. Figuring out how to make a complex point quickly, and still have it sound brilliant.

short stories have a greater ability to have a solid punch line. To have a sudden and dramatic effect on your mood. Novels can't do this because the mood is established over many pages, so how you feel when you put down novel is much easier to predict. In this way novels are much more comforting because even if they have many twists you always have a general sense of where it will end up due to foreshadowing and mood. Short stories on the other hand know you haven't earned a tidy resolution, and that information is so densely packed that foreshadowing is easily missed. Therefore they can take whatever direction they wish to give you the wildest ride possible.

For example a novel where everyone suddenly dies at the end is probably going to be disappointing, for a short story this is not so. In addition since novelists Know that going off the rails like this will disappoint people and make them unpopular they don't do it, and audiences note this and can rule such scenarios out when contemplating the resolution.

In short the short story writer has much more room to manouver. The audience hasn't invested a great deal of time in the material and thus they don't demand a satisfying resolution; just an impactful one.

perhaps the better question is: what can you do with a novel that cannot be done with a short story?

I know what I can do with a short story that I cannot do with a novel: Finish it.

Introversion said:

I know what I can do with a short story that I cannot do with a novel: Finish it.

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Hmmm...maybe that's why I keep writing short stories.

Entertaining people with a short attention span? Work interesting anecdotes and ideas into a story without committing to the long-term consistency of a novel? You can also sell/buy a couple of stories for the price of one. All your little ideas can be realized without further headache because they would have no place in a novel.

A short story can be read in one sitting and is probably meant to be read in one sitting. A novel, though it can also be read by some people in one sitting, typically takes longer than that to get through. I think this is something for short story writers to keep in mind.

I agree with what has previously been mentioned. It allows people to experiment with form; for instance I've read entire short stories made up of tweets - a novel could be tiresome (according to my calculations if you used all 140 characters in your tweets you would need 500 tweets to reach 70,000 words).

I also semi agree that the twist ending/cliff hanger ending are more suited to the short form - but this could be a preference and I have read novels that end on what could be deemed a cliffhanger.

I think Stephen King described short stories as a 'kiss from a stranger in the dark' - I may have misquoted him - but I do like that notion.

In terms of reading short fiction I often do it after a novel. Helps to recharge the reading batteries after a particularly good novel.

Also, some stories are meant to be short, it's as simple as that, those stories can be told in only a few thousand words.

“The novel imitates life, where the short story is bony, and cannot wander. It is essential art.” —William Trevor http://t.co/MBwcrj5d4o

gettingby said:

A short story can be read in one sitting and is probably meant to be read in one sitting. A novel, though it can also be read by some people in one sitting, typically takes longer than that to get through. I think this is something for short story writers to keep in mind.

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I'll add that a novel for that reason contains more redundancy than a short story, as it's designed to be put down and picked up again.

I like short stories because they give me the opportunity to play around with characters and plots, to see if they 'gel' for me. If they do, they often become longer works. Not that I discount short stories in any way, as I find them harder than novels to write. It's just my way of tinkering with characters and plots before investing hours of time.

Experiment with something that's outside of your comfort zone without having to spend months on it?
Be able to get much more rapid and complete feedback on it, whether it's a first draft or a polished story ready for submission?
Tell a story with just a couple of characters without a ton of subplots?
Tell a story that's really more about a strange idea you want to explore than a complete character arc?
Practice dropping your reader into a setting without writing a long prologue or appendix to introduce all your world building elements?
Write something that can be submitted for publication without all that tedious query and synopsis writing?
Tell a story that's resolved in just one scene?
Play around with a character or setting or premise and see if you love it enough to want to do more with it?