Art by Alison Hunt

(I end the three big sections by touching on short stories.  These tend to work differently than full novels, so I felt they should get their own entries.  This is part of the one for the ‘World’ section.)

Before we move on to the ‘Character’ section of this book, I’m going to touch on the challenge of world-building on a smaller scale. Spoiler: I’m going to get into short stories at the end of each section. The reason is because these types of pieces operate differently than novels and series. You have more restrictions, but also more freedom depending on how you look at the situation. Also, authors of any genre may indulge in a short story when they have an idea they know can’t last for a novel, but feel it is worth telling. Some even use short stories to enhance their established worlds by introducing concepts and locations that will appear down the road. Regardless of the reason, there is an itch to scratch here, which still requires some level of world-building.

The difficulty with a short story really stems from having a limited amount of time and space. If you make it too long then you’re into novella and novel territory, which can result in stretching what you have to make yourself feel comfortable. There are these weird areas of page and word amounts where authors aren’t sure what they made, so they will either butcher or extend what they have to get out of that zone. It can work to make a stronger story, but it’s more likely to come off as either empty or padded. This is why many find it difficult to do a short story, but a novel is easy. With the latter, you don’t have to worry about crashing through a wall and finding yourself in the ‘wrong’ category.

People typically go by word count too, which can add to the confusion and attempt to fudge the numbers. For example, people will say a short story is less than 20,000 words and a novella is between 20,000 and 40,000 words. An author aiming for a short story may focus more on the word count than the actual content. In truth, these are guidelines and there is plenty of wiggle room. Your average reader won’t know the difference between a short story and a novella. They just want to enjoy the story.

We’re going to stay on the disadvantage side in order to end on a high note. The limitation of time and space means you have to work with less. Events may have to move faster because you can’t have much in the way of meandering scenes. The main plot has to be moving at all times. Subplots need to be ignored or intertwined with the central story in a way that they can both advance with the same actions. For example, one of the stories I wrote in The Life & Times of Ichabod Brooks has the titular character and an enemy trapped on an island from the beginning. There is the main story of finding a way to escape and two subplots, which are them getting along and them surviving a strange beast. To escape, they need to advance the subplots, which coils all three together instead of having them handled one at a time like you may see in a novel.

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