Short Story to Novel

I was a short story writer for many, many years, and it was extremely difficult learning how to write a novel. Though they're both fiction, the skillsets are quite different. A short story tends to have a simple story and only a few characters; a novel will be more complex, have subplots running through it, and may have a huge cast. My first book ran only 25K before fizzling out, though I thought I had enough material. It took a lot of work to finish a 90K book, and even then, I ran 60 pages short and had to add to bring it up. I expect the same thing to happen on my WIP, though I hope I've improved.

Anyway, this is what I learned on my travels:

A novel is not a long short story. I approached it that way, and I think it's one of the reasons the first book ran short. It didn't have enough of a story developed to sustain a 350-page book.

Individual chapters are not short stories. After treating it like a long short story didn't work, I tried this. Again, it wasn't getting out of the mindset of writing short.

Novels need subplots. Because I was writing it like a long short story or was thinking of each chapter as short stories, I wasn't thinking of things like subplots. I still have a lot of trouble with this one. If I think of them as subplots, the novel will crash and burn; if I let them come in naturally, it seems to work better for me.

Write longer. This sounds a little silly, but I tended to edit before it got on the paper, so I end up being spare (as described by other writers). It's not something I think I can overcome, so instead, I've been embracing it and trying to expand on using dialogue more.

Generally, what I'd suggest is making sure your story is big enough. Make sure you have a major surprise about third in, then one halfway in, and one about a third from the end. And don't forget a subplot or two.

I agree with Linda-- add a subplot. Depending on your story, you might be able to weave that sucker in starting pretty early. It's a story in it's own right and you can use it to both add words and build complexity to your story and/or character(s).

And look for ways that you're telling or being a bit too coy with the information. Novel readers expect a bit more explantion, a bit less fill-in-the-blank than short story readers. (In my experience.)

That's basically storytelling 101 right there. It's a skill. Or craft, whatever you like to call it. It's just something you hone. The biggest thing you can do along with every suggestion you've heard so far is to just keep freewriting on ideas, brainstorm, practice practice practice practice practice, write character sketches, write down themes and ideas and premises and numerous starts to ANYTHING and EVERYTHING. It's a skill. A craft. Hone it.

The first time I tried writing fiction, I didn't even know it was a short story. I didn't even know what a short story was, honestly. The piece was 20 pages long.

So I kept writing. And writing. And writing. The next piece I tried to write ended up being around 200 some pages long. That was better. But the story wasn't terribly developed and my characters were actually quite linear.

The next project I undertook was a major jump for me. And it was also the first time I tried outlining my plot, step by step.

That book turned out to be a whopping 150k (translation: about 540 pages long).

In many ways, too long. So then I learned to fine-tune the storytelling. Make it sharper. Complex is good, but so is an easy read. Pacing needed to be good.

So naturally, my next project, which currently is being considered by three different agents (fingers crossed, everyone), is a nice, sweet, tight, but still intricately weaved piece of work of 74,000 words. Not a bad length. Just right for me, I think.

I guess what I'm trying to say is keep writing. Set up a plot that has a few layers to it. Don't make it linear. It will, obviously, have more characters, so naturally you will generally have more than one 'story'. That will inevitably give you a higher word count no matter what. You will create each 'story', with one 'story' being the main focus and all other 'stories' woven into the plot as if they were never created separately. It'll all flow from just that. Like water. You'll see. Just practice.

It might also just be something that needs more time to develop (even if you've been working on it for some time).

I wrote a few novels over a decade ago and they range from around 55-70,000 words. My style has since changed so much that I know they would be much longer if I were to write them today. They read like skeletons compared to how I write now. (One is being rewritten.) In short, sometimes it takes the passage of a few years to develop a stronger style.

I too believe in just writing until the story is told, but I'm not looking to get published, so my stories end up in the hundreds of thousands of words and that's fine by me. Whatever length it takes to tell the story. I realize this advice isn't as good if you need to stick to publication guidelines, but perhaps you can find a middle ground.

I second the advice not to think of a novel as a really long/expanded short story or a short story as a really short novel, because the two are much different. (As somebody who's written both, I know.) And also, if you add a subplot, make sure it really belongs there. I tried that to make one of my novels longer and to increase the time spent with some secondary characters and it was just...ugh. I guess I work better if the subplot already exists, than if I try to shoehorn one in there.

Anyway, good luck.

I had the opposite problem -- I'm a natural novelist who has had to learn to write short stories. A lot of it has to do with innate mindset, I think, but yes, you can learn both forms.

To expand a novel, I would think not so much shoehorning in subplots as increasing the complications and conflicts that drive the main plot. Whenever the MC come close to solving his problem, throw another problem at him, one that ups the stakes. This works whether the novel is action-adventure or character study.

Another "lengthener": show more than tell -- add more full-fledged scenes and enrich your detail.

Another, add a second or third narrator whose story braids with the MC's (the main plot) or whose story otherwise complements it, adding depth to the theme. The added narrators, chosen to braid or complement, are the most effective source of subplots.

I like subplots that get so tangled with the main plot that it becomes impossible to remove it. Whenever I add a new element to my story, I try to think of how it will impact each of the main characters, how it will affect the story line, how I can expand on character or on the world-building. I try to make each chapter a multi-tasker. At least when I stop to think about it.

I was terrified of writing a novel for years, because I didn't know how to find enough story to fill one. What I have found useful is to look at the story through the eyes of several characters, as if it were their story. Their reactions become more realistic this way, and some of their story gets written into the main one, wherever it fits and is useful. I also try to think of unintended consequences and how each action will affect the story line.

And at one point, my MC and his wife planned a series of actions to evade a major problem. They had a very good plan. It was working fine. And it was boring. So I threw a curveball at them that left them both scrambling, separately now, instead of together. That made for a lot of extra story, and much more interesting story too.

Characters, consequences, curveballs. They can all help flesh things out without adding flab.