I've had this story idea bouncing around for awhile now, but I've had a ton of trouble writing and pacing it, and I think I've finally put my finger on why: it seems too short for a novel but too complex for a short story. The story follows a group of three seventeen-year-old girls, all with telekinetic power that is released through their hands in the form of electromagnetic energy. The girls are being held captive by a mysterious group who they assume are scientists, and every few days they're taken, hooked up to machines, provoked until they get mad enough that they loose control of their power, and used as a source of electromagnetic power. One day there's a new kid, twelve-year-old Lelah, who displays no telekinetic ability at all but who the scientists claim has potential. As the days wear on and the scientists' frustration with Lelah's inability to give them power grows, Lelah develops crippling anxiety. One day there's an alarm locking down the complex but opening interior doors; the girls sneak out and discover a room full of batteries charged with electromagnetic energy harvested from their hands. The batteries are stuffed in boxes with complex circuitry. The older girls have been in captivity for years, but Lelah just arrived from the outside world, and she recognizes the boxes as devastating bombs that have recently terrorized several cities. The girls' perspective shifts; suddenly the scientists are terrorists, the batteries are bombs, and they are murderers who have enabled hundreds of deaths. The girls decide they must escape or die trying; they cannot allow the terrorists to keep using their power for murder. They free their hands from the restraints and from there use their telekinetic abilities to sneak through and out. On their way, though, they discover a room with the biggest bomb yet and a map of Washington, D.C., where it will be detonated. This is also Lelah's hometown, and she is seething. Finally the girls discover that Lelah has telekinetic ability after all; she is just so overwhelmingly powerful that she had to be so overwhelmingly angry to access it, and seeing her parents marked for death finally does this. Lelah shoves the older girls out of the room, slams the bomb against the wall, and explodes it so it can never be used again, taking the lives of the terrorists in the room and her own life in the process. I think the narrative has potential, but I don't know what the form is. Is it a short story? It seems perhaps just a bit too long; too much buildup is required to get to the climax. It's kind of a story in three acts, each with its own climax (Lelah's out-of-place arrival, the discovery of the bombs, the eventual climax), and while it flows as one cohesive story, it feels like quite a complex journey for a short story. Is it a novel? I don't think there's quite enough material for it to be a novel. It is an arc following one group of characters on one specific journey and their emotional state, not a larger piece involving the world around them. It's too much of a clean shot from beginning to end. And I think it's just flatly too short. How do I figure out what it should be and go about creating it? I know the story, but not yet the medium, and that's intensely frustrating.
That's definitely a novel. It's way out of short story range. I guess it could be a very long novella. What you should do is count the number of long/short scenes and multiply that by what you think the length of each scene is. For me, a short scene is about 1500, a normal scene is 2500, and a long scene tops out at 4000. (Typically.) You're probably a little different. That will tell you where you are going to end. I can't imagine that many plot points taking less than 50,000 words as it is. Yeah, that involves outlining, or at least sketching scenes. If you need the story longer, don't drag out any scenes, just add a subplot or two. Maybe something with a sympathetic guard or a doctor? Or add another character who's going to be destroyed and have no effect on the outcome.
I think the best thing to do is write it, and figure out what to cut and how long it actually is at the end. It sounds like a great idea, would be a pity to get hung up just because of how long or short it MIGHT be.
It's all in the execution. You could do that as a short story, you could do that as a whole series of novels, depending on how you write it. It's up to you to decide what you want to do.
This could be a short story, novella or novel based on what you've got. This is usually all I start with - sometimes less even for a novel -- Just one image. Mainly when I go with a novel, though, it's cause I want to explore the characters in greater depth and show their journey rather than having the plot taking the lead. You have a lot of options to explore the characters in depth - backstory - maybe there's a reason they have these abilities, goals, what do they want to do in life, what do they think of their abilities and finding others like them, how do help each other out and develop their friendship and loyalty under such traumatic circumstances. For me if this were to become a short story it would be more prose based, less dialogue with a few fleshed out scenes. Ditto Novella. But with a novel you have the option of multiple scenes, rich setting, failed attempts at escape, fears, inner or outer goals to be met - the barriers to meeting them, friendships, betrayals, and then the entire villain element. It all depends on how in-depth you want to take the project - usually I just start writing and a few pages in and I know whether it's going to be a novel (then I stop and start planning or a short story - then I keep going.)
It seems it could be written in any format. Perhaps you could start it out as a short story, but then if you want to break out certain scenes, characters or subplots into more detail, you can expand it into a novella. From there, even more expansion into a novel. Maybe another idea is you could write three individual stories from each character's unique perspective of their situation. That may give you the latitude to either have a short story series--or wrap them all together into one novel, told in three sections.
Thank you so much for replying! (And, wow, a response from such a prolific contest-winner, too!) I was shocked by your response at first, but now I'm really beginning to feel its truth. That's gonna be the hard part for me, I think - coming up with interesting subplots that don't sound like forced subplots - but I'll definitely get some mental gears churning. I think that'll probably be what makes this really rich. Again, I suppose it could be crammed into a short story, but the subplots and intricacies and emotional tension and changing relationships are what make it interesting. Yeah, that about sums up why I want it to be a novel, I guess, or at least a much longer and more extended delve into those intracacies. Again, thanks for replying, peachalulu!
