Novel writing for a short story author

My first novel started as a short. This may sound strange, but does your short story have a satisfying ending? I find that a lot of post-modernist shorts have vague, ambiguous, metaphorical endings, in which case, you'll have a hard time taking the story anywhere.

But if there's a nice juicy story arc, just find new ways to torment your protagonist. Not filler, not fluff--give the story new depth and layers. You can still treat each scene or chapter as a short story per se, if that makes the writing process more accommodating.

Choose several novels that you admire and read them like a writer to see how they were put together. Start with a chapter outline of the book that notes what happens in each chapter. Then study the outline to see how the writer had structured his plot, introduced characters, deepened conflict and danger, threaded in subplots, alternated dialogue and narrative, resolved problems, played with theme -- whatever strikes you. Take favorite sections out of these novels and copy them by hand -- this will bring you new awareness of the writer's word choice, rhythm, punctuation, the flow of his fiction. After you copy, rewrite the section -- play with it. Insert new characters of your own, change the dialogue, change one action and see how that changes the scene as a whole.

To find out how living creatures worked, scientists had to dissect them. Dissect books to learn how they work. Some people say dissection kills books. I disagree -- I say it gives books new life. And keep reading in this forum and other writers' forums. Read books on writing. Seek beta readers and writing partners. Above all, write every day.

There are no shortcuts -- art is long. That's why you have to love it.

As a novelist trying to learn how to write shorts, I noticed one main difference is that in a novel, you allow yourself to follow all the bunny-trails you find. In a short, you develop one plot, one arc, and stick with it. Also a novel can have multiple main characters, each with the own plots. The main plot ties into all the other varied plots.

If you feel your short stories could be expanded, then I would work on them; but otherwise I would start anew. And I wouldn't worry about trying to "make" it a novel the first time around...just keep expanding your word count and see how it goes.

Hope that helps
-Feathers

If the shorter story is already finished and seems complete, it seems to me that starting a new novel from scratch would be far easier. This is coming from somebody who writes both shorter stories/novellas and novels/ongoing serials.

Feathers makes a good point in that novels tend to focus on numerous things whereas short stories are more...well, focused on just one or two things. I find that my longer stories run longer because there are more characters and events involved, whereas my shorter stories are focused more on just a few events and people. A short story is a snapshot; a novel is a photo series in an art gallery where you have to walk through to get it all.

Short stories/novellas and novels are two different things. You have to keep that in mind. They aren't just different-lengthed variants of each other. Some stories need 18,000 words to tell them, some need 180,000. If you can find a way to expand the shorter story into a novel, kudos to you, but be aware it might just not be meant to be.

If I didn't suffocate them in the cradle, all of my short stories would turn into novels. It's bad enough that some survive into novelhood.