Do you ever think of turning that short into a novel?

Kate Thornton · Jul 3, 2006

I have a flash piece (700 words) that could be fleshed out easily into a much much longer story - maybe not novel length, but maybe into a 5,000 word story. It is a mystery which could be successfully ( I think ) lengthened.

Has anyone had experience lengthening short stories?

Would there be any reason to do this?

AprilBoo · Jul 3, 2006

Absolutely! If you think you've got more to write on this particular subject or character you should do it. I think this is probably a very common thing for a lot of reasons. In your particular situation, with a flash mystery piece, I would think you would increase your available markets by bumping up the word count.

MidnightMuse · Jul 3, 2006

I'd say, if you can, go for it ! I'm working a piece right now that's looking to be too short, but I've just given what I have a good look and realized there's a lot of room for filling, so I'm not going to stop at short, I'm going to take it all the way to 70k at least.

I think if you have a short and you're realizing there's so much more you can add, then do it

TemlynWriting · Jul 3, 2006

Definitely! If it's something you think is possible then by all means give it a try! I wrote a short story several years ago, and have considered fleshing it out into a novel, because there is so much back-story that could be considered. Go for it!

Best of luck!

veinglory · Jul 3, 2006

Indeed. In my experience a plot that makes a good short story will also make the backbone of a good novel. Sometimes they just beg to be propoerly unpacked.

Kate Thornton · Jul 3, 2006

I like the idea of "unpacking" the rest of this one! Thanks for your words!

Kate

Siddow · Jul 3, 2006

I wrote a short into a novel. I fell in love with the character, he had so much more going on. Sell the short as flash, sell the extended version later, right?

Josie · Jul 3, 2006

Hey I seem to be following Siddow.

Yes, I agree with everyone. I've also turned short stories into novels, because I didn't want to give up on the characters and they had a lot more "stuff" to do.

Jamesaritchie · Jul 3, 2006

novel

I've turned short stories into novels, and novels into short stories.

One word of caution. You can't turn a short story into a novel by making it longer. All this does is make an extremely long and boring short story that isn't going to sell.

To turn a short story into a novel successfully, you have to write a novel that has the same basic plot as the short story. In other words, forget all about the short story when writing the novel, or you might be tempted to try stretching it, and short stories don't stretch very far before they snap.

Flapdoodle · Jul 4, 2006

Kate Thornton said:
I have a flash piece (700 words) that could be fleshed out easily into a much much longer story - maybe not novel length, but maybe into a 5,000 word story. It is a mystery which could be successfully ( I think ) lengthened.

Has anyone had experience lengthening short stories?

Would there be any reason to do this?

I started a short story last year that ended up being 85,000 words long!

bsolah · Jul 4, 2006

It hasn't totally happened to me, but I was working on a good short story, when I realized that it would make an excellent scene for my novel.

Has that happened to anyone?

Bmwhtly · Jul 4, 2006

it is absolutely possible.

Apart from anything else, if a short can become an oscar-winning film (Shawshank Redemption), they can certainly become a Novel.

Although it would really depend on the short. A Mystery certainly sounds like it should be fleshed out.

Good Luck

Jamesaritchie · Jul 4, 2006

Bmwhtly said:
it is absolutely possible.

Apart from anything else, if a short can become an oscar-winning film (Shawshank Redemption), they can certainly become a Novel.

Although it would really depend on the short. A Mystery certainly sounds like it should be fleshed out.

Good Luck

Well, short stories are always easier to convert to movies than are novels. A short story and a movie are really the same length. It's turning a novel into a movie that's tough because you have to cut about 70% of everything in the novel.

MidnightMuse · Jul 4, 2006

Jamesaritchie said:
I've turned short stories into novels, and novels into short stories.

One word of caution. You can't turn a short story into a novel by making it longer. All this does is make an extremely long and boring short story that isn't going to sell.

To turn a short story into a novel successfully, you have to write a novel that has the same basic plot as the short story. In other words, forget all about the short story when writing the novel, or you might be tempted to try stretching it, and short stories don't stretch very far before they snap.

This is very important - you can't turn a short into a novel if ALL you're doing is filling in, stretching out, or adding fluff and filler. Then it's nothing more than a short with long, boring bits.

BUT - if you can find good reason for that short to become a novel, giving up the short completely and seeing it in full size, then by all means do it.

Kate Thornton · Jul 5, 2006

Jamesaritchie said:
Well, short stories are always easier to convert to movies than are novels. A short story and a movie are really the same length. It's turning a novel into a movie that's tough because you have to cut about 70% of everything in the novel.

Yes, that's true - one of my favorite short-story-to-movie successes is Kipling's "The Man Who Would be King".

I think my flash has the germ of a plot which could be developed - not just lengthened - into a longer work. But I think I'm going to have to back-burner it for a while until I finish current projects, then see if I am still interested in it. Sometimes what looks hot to me today can cool off in a couple of weeks.

Jaycinth · Jul 5, 2006

YES!!! The two unpublished novels I'm subbing now started life as a few short stories 20 years ago.

AND: I'm writing a series of short stories - all set in the same universe with overlapping characters- that I plan to pull into a cohesive novel after I've published them as shorts.

AND: Of the two unpublished subs...I'm thinking of chopping the short stories out of them, publishing them as shorts, and then putting them back together in an effort to get an audience for the characters that will then follow the characters into a novel.

Yes, I'm crazy. I like it that way.

Sailor Kenshin · Jul 5, 2006

Raymond Chandler turned a couple of his short stories into novels. I've tried, but I don't think it works for me.

Josie · Jul 5, 2006

Kate said:
"I think my flash has the germ of a plot which could be developed - not just lengthened - into a longer work"

James ,that's the key word "develop"...I like that. It isn't as easy as "lengthening" the short story, of course.

Thanks Kate

Jamesaritchie · Jul 5, 2006

novel

Josie said:
Kate said:
"I think my flash has the germ of a plot which could be developed - not just lengthened - into a longer work"

James ,that's the key word "develop"...I like that. It isn't as easy as "lengthening" the short story, of course.

Thanks Kate

"Developed" is probably the perfect word choice for this process. I like that a bunch.

JonMoeller · Jul 5, 2006

Kate Thornton said:
Has anyone had experience lengthening short stories?

Heh.

In May 2002, I wrote a 5,000 word short story about a Congressman telling a reporter about the start of his career, which involved a shootout at Wal-Mart, illegal parking in downtown Chicago, and the Congressman (then an impoverished graduate student) finding a warlock in his closet.

"You know", thought I, "I could get an entire book out of this."

Well. I had no idea. A year and a half and 334,000 words later, I had a book. Now the first part of it is coming out as "Worlds to Conquer" from Mundania Press in a few months.

So, yes, it is entirely possible. You may have no idea just what you're getting into, though.

-JM

Addenum - the short story, now the prologue of "Worlds to Conquer", can be read here.

historian · Jul 5, 2006

I turned a magazine article into a 100,000 word novel. Now if I could get somebody to publish it.

historian

Jenan Mac · Jul 6, 2006

Jamesaritchie said:
One word of caution. You can't turn a short story into a novel by making it longer. All this does is make an extremely long and boring short story that isn't going to sell.
.

The other option, if you have a character you love, is to put her in a different, novel-length situation and let her work her way out.
I have a couple of shorts that are canonical with the novel I'm shopping. There are secondary and tertiary characters who had interesting things to say or do, but just not within the body of my novel. Sort of the opposite approach from expanding a short, but I think it could go either way.

Doctor Shifty · Jul 18, 2006

Many years ago I read a novel that was so familiar I was sure that I had read it before. Trouble was, it wasn't all familiar. When reading through the credits etc page I found it had been a short story that many people had asked the author to expand to a novel.

I got into my bookshelf and there was a book of shorts with the original that I had read several years before.

The author hadn't just expanded it, he had populated the story with more characters, new plot threads, hightened tension for the MC, but the same idea of how the MC escaped his strictured existence.

I recently had occasion to google up this book, looking for second hand copies. They were selling at up to $75! The novel version is now considered an Australian classic.

Kim

Cathy C · Jul 18, 2006

Yup! Our first two novels, Road to Riches and Hunter's Moon, started their lives as short stories. With Road to Riches, it was because the research I did during the story process revealed a much larger REAL story that deserved more space. Most of the original story got scrapped, though, because the actual events were more interesting.

With Hunter's Moon, we'd submitted it to a small start-up publisher in the early days of electronic publishing and the editor liked the short so much that she wanted to know what happened next. But by the time we finished, the publisher had closed its virtual doors...typical! :ROFL:

It's actually harder than it looks, though. Since you've created a full story arc in the short (hopefully), it's not just a matter of adding on new subplots to expand the length. The goal of a short is a "moment in time" but a novel is a larger scope. It can be done, but I'm not going to try it again. It took a lot longer than just starting from scratch on a new story.

Mark Lazer · Jul 18, 2006

As a matter of fact, I'm going the other way around. This novel I'm working on just doesn't seem good. The chapters don't connect fluently. So, I tried to take one chapter I like, and turned it into a short story. Chapter two is now a stand-on-itself-story.

Do you ever think of turning that short into a novel?

Still Happy to be Here. Or Anywhere

Good to be back

Midnight Reading

The Tony Award-winning

volitare nequeo

Still Happy to be Here. Or Anywhere

I'm super! Thanks for asking

AW's Resident Commie

Yes, I'm back.

Midnight Reading

Still Happy to be Here. Or Anywhere

Your Cuddly Sociopathic

I am too on MSN IM! :(

The Deadliest Bunny

Press Any Key

Ooo! Shiny new cover!