A short story expanded to a novel

billyf027 · Apr 6, 2008

Has anyone used a published short story as the springboard to a novel? Is it acceptable to use the same title for both?

I would like to expand a soon to be published short story of mine into a possible novel and use the same title. I always wondered if this has been done successfully before or not.

Aggy B. · Apr 6, 2008

I think Ray Bradbury did it with Something Wicked This Way Comes. But that was a different title than the original short.

I would imagine that success (or lack thereof) would depend on the appeal and execution of the story just as it does with any other novel.

Cranky · Apr 6, 2008

I think that our own member, Jamie Ford, did that with his book, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet. IIRC, it grew out of a short story he titled, I Am Chinese.

He'd have to tell you that definitively, I suppose, but that's the way I recall it.

dark_opus · Apr 6, 2008

I'm attempting this myself. As a kicker in my particular case the short story took a detour through the screenplay stage.

Interestingly the two other treatments prior to the novel manuscript stage greatly assisted writing the novel itself, both from the standpoint of content to include as well as what to leave out.

FWIW - I did attempt a small amount of marketing on the script version, but I abandoned the effort pretty quickly to begin work on the novel. No regrets on that approach.

Seif · Apr 6, 2008

Actually, all my ideas for novels have sprung from short stories. I did this when my Angel suggested that I attempt to write short stories before beginning to write a novel.

On a side note, It is a good exercise to see if you can write your whole novel within the space of a short story (usually just a couple of pages), in this way you can eliminate the essentials from the fillers.

KTC · Apr 6, 2008

It's absolutely fine and acceptable.

MadScientistMatt · Apr 6, 2008

There are several famous, even best-selling, novels that started out as short stories. Two that came to mind as soon as I saw the title of this thread were Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card, and Stephen King's The Stand. Go ahead and write it.

ChaosTitan · Apr 6, 2008

MadScientistMatt said:
Two that came to mind as soon as I saw the title of this thread were Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card,

That's it!!!

Sorry. :tongue

I started to reply to this thread with an example on the tip of my tongue, but my brain was not cooperating. So glad you're back.

donut · Apr 6, 2008

Pretty sure Catcher in the Rye started as a short.

bluntforcetrauma · Apr 6, 2008

I believe Pet Sematary is a re-telling of The Monkey's Paw.

James D. Macdonald · Apr 6, 2008

billyf027 said:
Has anyone used a published short story as the springboard to a novel? Is it acceptable to use the same title for both?

I would like to expand a soon to be published short story of mine into a possible novel and use the same title. I always wondered if this has been done successfully before or not.

I've done that a couple of times: With "Bad Blood" and "Uncle Joshua and the Grooglemen."

This is actually harder than it looks. If I had it to do over again, I think I'd have written an all-original novel rather than expanding the short story. The two forms have very different aesthetics.

Phaeal · Apr 6, 2008

Flowers for Algernon won a Hugo for Best Short Fiction and later, expanded, a Nebula for Best Novel. Now that was an idea that paid its own way!

Oh, and Cliff Robertson won the Academy Award for Best Actor for the title role of the film based on the book, Charly.

Dale Emery · Apr 7, 2008

Phaeal said:
Flowers for Algernon won a Hugo for Best Short Fiction and later, expanded, a Nebula for Best Novel. Now that was an idea that paid its own way!

Similar is Vonda N. McIntyre's 1978 novel Dreamsnake, which won both the Hugo and the Nebula in 1979. It was expanded from her Nebula-winning 1973 novelette, "Of Mist, and Grass, and Sand."

I've read Flowers for Algernon (or listened to it) in several lengths. First the original short/novella/novelette, then later an abridged audio version of the novel. I have a copy of the full novel, but haven't read it yet. Makes me cry every time.

Late in his career Isaac Asimov novelized several of his novellas in collaboration with Robert Silverberg: Nightfall and The Ugly Little Boy.

Was The Stand really a short?

Speaking of King, I've forgotten: Is 'Salem's Lot an expansion of his earlier "Jerusalem's Lot," or are they separate plots?

Dale

A short story expanded to a novel

billyf027

Aggy B.

Not as sweet as you think

Cranky

dark_opus

Seif

KTC

Stand in the Place Where You Live

MadScientistMatt

Empirical Storm Trooper

ChaosTitan

Around

donut

fame-seeking floozy

bluntforcetrauma

Esquire

James D. Macdonald

Your Genial Uncle

Phaeal

Whatever I did, I didn't do it.

Dale Emery

is way off topic