novel or short story?

[Allison Everette]

I just started writing my first book. I had in mind that it would become a full novel. But I write my first chapter and it only takes up 2 word document pages in size 12 font is it too short, nothing really happens just getting to know the characters, should I not aim so high, and call it a short story instead? I elaborate on the book in a blog post.

[Danii]

If it took up 2 word documents and nothing's happened yet, then I doubt it'll be short. Also keep in mind that a page in a book don't contain nearly as many words as one page on Word, depending on font and font size. You're using font size 12 so I don't think you need to worry about size. A 300 page book isn't 300 pages on Word.
*Note: I didn't read your blog post, so this is just prediction since I don't know how long or complex your plot is or anything.
Hope this helped :)

[Luke Wilson]

In addition, there are plenty of novels out there with really short chapters. Not saying I like James Patterson at ALL, but in the only book I read by him some of his chapters were only two or three pages, and that includes the white space at the beginning and end of the chapters. But the book was still somewhere around 400 pages. And like Danii said, two pages in Word is more in an actual novel format.

[Vertigo_One [Ops Mod]]

Short chapters arn't a problem. However, might I advise you to make something of significance happen in the first chapter. Otherwise, why will people read on?

[Allison Everette]

very good point I have been thinking on that

[Linnea]

One of the best ways I know to decide either way is to try making a plot map. Mind you, this is mildly hypocritical because on my current project (hopefully a novel if I manage to finish it), I started one, became frustrated (SUPER high puff levels), and decided to write for a while first. Two chapters in, I still have no plot outline. 

 

But if you lay out what your plot is, how you plan to accomplish it, and sometimes set a plan for what happens in which chapter, it will give you a rough guess as to how long it may be. That can help you decide if it's enough to be a book or if you need to cut down a bit and make a short story. As a tip on short stories, though, they need to start fairly fast paced because it is a shorter amount of space for a lot of information. 

 

Best of luck!

[Amy Zukas]

I think you should finish you plot and then you decide what you wanna do with it.