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Today we’re talking about something that I’ve actually seen stretched out into a novel. I didn’t like it. I actually didn’t finish it. So this time, perhaps more than some of the others, I hope you’ll take me very seriously.

Character gets a ____

Fill in the blank with whatever you wish. Fact of the matter is, it’s not enough to make a novel. It might make the good beginning of a novel, or even of a short story, but it doesn’t make a full novel. How could it?

Here’s the story:

Character goes to the store. Looks at shoes. Finds a pair of red ones. Imagines self wearing them at some particular event. Character buys shoes and goes home.

Tell me, how is that a novel? Really, I'm asking. I don't get it. I know people have tried it, and I know some feel they've succeeded with it, but no—I wouldn't say that's a novel. But it might make a jolly good short story, if I'm being honest.

Like I said, I’ve actually seen people try to lengthen this sort of story out into a novel. It ends up dragging, flailing, and grabbing onto anything it can in order to get the right number of words for it to be a full-length novel. It’s rough to read, because I can see exactly what struggles the writer went through to try to push it into a novel when it didn’t want to be. And I’ve been through it too. I’ve written stories that got a little too long, and I’ve tried to make them novel-worthy. They weren’t. They didn’t even want to be. And I struggle to go back and read them, much less read someone else’s.

Point being, I highly recommend avoiding writing this sort of novel. If you have an idea of this nature, make it a short story. It’s a length that can handle the smallness of your story, and do it proper justice.

A novel, on the other hand, will not.

Trust me.

[love]

{RD}