What is the Difference Between a Short Story and a Novel?

A short story is built around one, and only one, conflict or problem, normally. It has some lines about the setting, some text about background which implies time and space, but most words are about the action.

That means, it is also short considering the look and outside of the characters and their world. It is forced to focus on the flow and climax of the action.

I want to show an example of a very successful short story, and use my fantasy to imagine it as a novel.
It is Hemingway's great story 'The Killers'. Two killers are waiting for their victim in a little restaurant, but he doesn't arrive, and finally they leave without having murdered him. As long as they are staying in the bar, they terrorize the owner, the cook and a boy who is often there.

The story has about 10 pages and covers all the elements of a piece of high quality literature: a special setting, some central and very typical characters, a developing conflict, a climax of action, and a solution.

You might say, it is a short novel, and a novel is a long short story. But this is only true to some degree. There is a special difference between the two forms, and it is not only length.

The typical aspect of a short story is the focus on the action and the conflict. The novel has much more space for other elements like place and time, descriptions, unimportant details, the look of people or things, and perhaps the thoughts and feelings of the characters.

The short story makes everything short, in so far its name is correct. But it cannot really make the conflict and the central core of the action shorter than necessary; it shortens all the other elements, but this most important element of the text must be represented. Even though the short story is also shorter than the novel in this regard - the true reason is not the shortening of the conflict. The true reason is that the short story is limited to one conflict, the novel on the other hand can and must deal with several conflicts and climaxes; sometimes the novel has a special conflict in every chapter.

To understand what I mean, you could read some of  Raymond Chandler's short stories, and then take the long forms of them which became his famous thrillers. As an alternative, imagine 'The Killers' as the central chapter of a novel. What has happened before they come to the restaurant, and what will happen after they have left? You will need several chapters and many pages to write this fantasy novel.

Henry Arnold, author of 'School Stories'

A Focused Look at a Successful School Story

A Focused Look at a Successful School Story

One of the basic elements and motives of a smart school story is a plan. You need a plan to write a story that is understandable and exciting as well.

I can tell you an example. I've published a story about a school director, which is humorous and critical. His name is Mr. Paper, and that is the core of his interest: paper. He needs a form for everything, even the least important trifle, e.g. for the 10-minutes-break supervision a teacher has to fill a form. If someone wants to speak to him on the phone, he has to fill and send a form before that.

He holds conferences and invests most of his time in forms. His desk is full of hundreds of forms, and every day he develops new ones. When a new teacher comes to his school, the first information he gets from the director are some kilos of forms. The biggest mistake that can happen at his school is to forget the matching form, no matter what action to refer to.

When there is a problem with forms, he gets in a rage. He is so keen on forms, collecting forms, writing forms, forcing everyone to use them, that they build the sense of his life. One day the head of the local school department comes to his school, and everyone is sure that his school is the best one at documenting school life and procedures - but something strange happens.

This method can be one of the ways to make readers of short stories think about the real paper flood at school - and make them laugh about this problem. Managing to write a story about school life that points to a true problem by using humour is, I think, a very smart way to improve writing qualities.

Henry Arnold, Author of 'School Stories'

How to learn from the great school story authors?

School stories can find lots of excited readers. To be successful, they should fulfil some specific conditions:

- build a situation that is to some degree typical for school life
- have at least two contrasting characters relating to school
- develop and depict a conflict which reflects the patterns of power at school
- deal with a special action at a special school
- be as short as possible to make it an exciting school story
- have at least three main parts which any good short story needs: an introduction, a central action, and an   ending or a solution.

As an example of an excellent school story, I recommend reading John O'Hara's 'Do you like it here?'. It is a very short story about a narrow-minded high school teacher who focuses all his prejudices and mental limits on a student who seems to be the ideal scapegoat from his point of view.

The politics of scapegoat is still one of the most important problems at school nowadays. It will not be easy to overcome it, as the search for scapegoats goes on to be a driving force in many parts of life and society. Maybe it is sufficient to mention the situation of minorities in many countries.

Henry Arnold, author of 'School Stories'

How can you make social problems the theme of a school story?

When you write a school story, there are many topics you can choose. One of them is the social background of the students. You will always and at every school - that's my view - find that social structure is reflected by patterns within school.

For example, take the wealthy lawyer who has his son in a class with a new teacher who is not conventional.
Such a teacher could try to consider all his students completely neutrally. He will give grades that have only one basis: the performance of the student. He will not consider frequent tendencies to grade the same student again and again with the same result. He or she will not look at the grades from the class or year before. He will not react when the lawyer calls him up after his son got a B or a C for the first time in his school career, because he is sure that it is correct.

Think about the mechanismus that might follow. The wealthy parents will call for a date with the director. He will discuss with them for two hours, and then ask the teacher to think about the grade. He will, possibly, accept, when the teacher says it is sure and he has corrected the test or the paper very carefully. But maybe he is one of the directors who play the role of rulers at school, the frequent type who likes power and tricking.

He is going to tell the teacher he has to change the grade, otherwise there might be a lawsuit, and he claims that would be very bad for the image of the school and such things. How can the teacher react? Who will help him, if this is the normal procedure the director uses when parents complain, especially those parents with some money or power?

And imagine what wiill happen if the one who complains is an employed office worker. How many seconds do you think will the director talk to him on the phone? Will he talk to him?

Henry Arnold, author of "School Stories"

Do you think that such a teacher does exist?

Imagine a teacher has these qualities:

- always helping students, colleagus and everyone at school
- being endlessly kind and generous
- asking parents to call her if there is a problem
- giving better grades than any other teacher
- passing her holidays with the students of her school
- never thinking about her own interests
- organizing the car share for the teachers
- never blaming anyone except herself
- taking over the jobs other teachers don't like
- being highly qualified as a teacher and as an expert in her subjects
- correction tests and papers for the day after they were written
- accepting all kinds of stress and burden the teacher's job brings
- being friendly to all people who are never friendly to her
- ignoring the signs of her body that want to tell her that this is too much.

And if she or he really exists, what do you think will happen to that teacher?

You can read it in one of my stories. It's called "Death".

Henry Arnold, author of 'School Stories'

What kinds of teachers do you find at school?

There is one type still, again and again, at almost every school: the classical teacher. This teacher is always right, no matter what's it about. This teacher will give grades every minute, at school, at home, in the free time, everywhere. She will never be able to take off the teacher's uniform. He will never be able to stop judging people, events, things.

The special way of thinking is a tragedy to the person, as well as to everyone around. No one will rest outside extreme educational viewing. No one will have a chance to act free, according to your own ideas and wishes. No one will find something positive in her or his special and indivudual attitude towards life and society, because you cannot get rid of the fixed impression that you will get a bad grade the next moment, whatever you do, no matter how you mean it.

In one of my stories I try to depict such an extraordinary character, a woman teacher who is teaching and teaching and teaching - Mrs. Teaching is her real name. It is strong satire, but already sarcastic - in the story something happens that people would avoid in real life, as they are too polite, normally. How would you handle such a strange character?

Henry Arnold, author of School Stories

What will happen to a teacher who wants to make school fun and democracy?

One of the stories in my book describes the attitudes and behaviour of a teacher that considers students as full members of human society. He asks them for their opinion before making decisions, he makes them fit to hold lessons themselves and he refuses the process of social exclusion that is produced by the grading system.

He can be sure of the hatred of the director, some wretched teachers and the parents of the local elite. He is fighting for a better school, but there are lots of obstacles in that sweet little net of corruption, tricking and power at the core of the school. So he goes straight ahead on his path to a better future, but will he succeed? Will he find a basis for his ideas? Will he win fighters who help him, other teachers? Will the students have the power to support him? Will he lose his job?

You can find the answer in my smart book of school stories!

Henry Arnold, author of  the book "School Stories"