Forgetting Your Characters' names - Differences between the Short Story and the Novel

Here’s the thing. Howl loves the short story form even though he describes it as the ‘little thing’ (see The Little Thing that Rubs Up Against the Big Thing). Indeed Howl thinks it is quite the perfect form. And in itself can reveal a lot about human nature.

However, let us look at character for a moment. In fiction character is where we are located. It is through observing the characters actions and, most importantly, reactions that we discover things about ourselves.

But there’s the question: If you meet someone for an hour or for a complete day, which would allow you to know the person better? How about a day or a month:? A month or a year? Twenty years?

We are rich complex people. It takes a lot of time to get to know us well.
First appearances can be false.
The novel has more space to spend time with people, to get to know them better and as a result to get to know ourselves better.

This does not imply that the novel is better than the short story - just different. A collection of short stories can be as rich and complex as a novel.

The constraints of the short story means that ‘usually’ the action takes place over a day or two. Sure there are exceptions but generally speaking it is over a short period of time - not enough pages to describe much more. So we focus on one main incident in a short period of time and watch how the character is affected and what is revealed or not to him or her.

The novel brings us through a longer period of time, a wider range of incidents, a larger canvas to observe the reactions to these events.

The point is that there are differences between the forms, and we need to be aware of this. Introducing too many characters in a short story is like being introduced to a whole bunch of people all at once. We forget their names, we don’t get a chance to meet any of them for any length of time.