1. The novel is a "book-length story in prose" (213) in which the author tells every relevant part of the story at length, while the short story generally focuses on "vivid or dramatic moments" or "scenes" (8) in which the message of the story is contained. The short story "shows" rather than "tells" these dramatic moments due to the brevity of the form, while the novel includes extended explanatory or narrative passages along with its own dramatic moments. Every part of a fine short story is significant to the story, while the novel can contain much that is perhaps only peripheral to the story. Usually the short story focuses on a single important moment of discovery on the part of a character or characters, while the novel covers much more time and narrative territory, including many such moments of discovery.
2. Setting can help the reader to understand a character by grounding the character in a real time and place and by leading to conditions which cause the character to have to act, revealing his or her character (80). A story set in a prison or during a revolution will likely force a character to take action (or fail to take action) which he would not have to consider with urgency in a more tranquil setting. The setting "can make things happen. It can prompt characters to act, bring them to realizations, or cause them to reveal their inmost natures" (80). The reader who relates to a specific setting---such as the moon landing or the JFK assassination---will relate more to a character who is going through the same time period he or she went through. A character can rarely be understood fully outside his or her historical setting.
3. The plot of a story is not "whatever happens" but rather "the unique arrangement of events that the author has made" (967). These events can be arranged one after the other as they occurred chronologically, or the order can be altered. For example, a plot can begin in the middle, with events wh...