I don’t remember where/when I heard this. Someone said that adding a character doubles the length of a story.
I assume that by “adding a character,” they meant adding a “significant” character, not just any random character. Also, I think by “doubling,” they didn’t mean exactly 2x, they meant that the length increases significantly.
And I agree. I started Way Station 417 thinking that it would be a very intimate short story between two characters, quite romantic, personal, so on and so forth. But amidst that, there has always been the potential for grand scale, because these two main characters have met across dimensions–literally.
Needless to say, an interdimensional relationship comes with unique challenges. No one else has done it before. And so, when it is found out, what happens? (So on and so forth. This is just an example of what could go wrong.)
So, now I have a third significant character. Hence, 20,000 words in, I am realizing that the best path (the path of least resistance) would be to go back and insert details about this character to make her existence at the 20,000-word-point make sense. By doing so, I will also be inserting details about the two main characters, because the 3rd character and the 1st and 2nd characters are intertwined. (The 4th character is also intertwined, actually. But I am hoping I will keep him less prevalent to the end. Otherwise, this will become a full novel, which I do not want.)
As a result, my guess is that the 20,000-word point will become the 30,000-word point. And that 20,000/30,000-word point is the 75%-ish point, is my estimate. That means that the end result could very well be a 40,000-word story, which I categorize as a “short novel.”
I think about the label (short story, novella, novel) because depending on that, what I can do with the story does change. (Will there be a paper version? What kind of promotions can I run? If I adjust the word count slightly, will that be more convenient for me or the readers?)
A short novel is, in my opinion, easier to find for readers and easier for me to put out there. So maybe this is all great. The main downside is that it does take longer to write a short novel than a short story. But this short story turned novella (turned maybe novel) feels quite hot (malleable) right now, so even that isn’t a big issue.