Hatrack River Writers Workshop: novel chapter -> short story?

This is topic novel chapter -> short story? in forum Open Discussions About Writing at Hatrack River Writers Workshop.

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Posted by AstroStewart (Member # 2597) on :

Stimulated by the other thread going right now about trying to write a short story, after mostly focusing on novel length works, I had a similar, but distinctly different question. I've come to realize that it might be easier to try to sell my novel (with a sequel 70% done with rough draft) if I have at least *something* published (yeah I know. DUH!).

In any case, I've come to think that one of the chapters in my sequel, in which I introduce a new MC to the series, might work well as a stand alone short story. There's no hints of the overarching, unsolved main conflict of the novel. The chapter doesn't require the reader to really know anything about the fantasy world. We don't encounter any of the MCs from the first novel, with whom the reader (of the sequel) should be familiarized by now. Basically, it's just a short snippet of this girl's life, before she meets the other MCs and gets involved in the main conflict.

There is definitely a miniscule (compared to novel length) conflict in the chapter, which is resolved, and would hopefully work for a short story length conflict.

My main questions are:
1) Is this sort of thing ever really done? Will the manner in which I wrote the chapter scream "this is a chapter of a novel" somehow and discredit it as a stand alone short story?

2) It's a relatively short chapter. Is 2500 words too short for a short story?

3) Without reading a million short stories (which, I admit, I should do, if I'm really thinking about trying to write one. I just tend to be more of a novel-reader than a short story reader, as far as enjoyment and recreation goes), how much plot is insufficient for a short story of this length? Obviously not a WHOLE lot can happen in only 2500 words.

She doesn't save the world or battle a dragon or anything major like that (fantasy story btw), she basically just cons someone out of enough money so she can survive another week, using the limited supply of magical power she posesses. It's a fun scene, which I enjoyed writing, usually indicating at least *something* of its quality, from past experience anyway, but I just don't know how much substance most short stories have.

Obviously writing is everything, and it all depends on how I pull it off, but am I just grasping for publishing-credit straws here, or is a trick like this pheasable?

Posted by Kathleen Dalton Woodbury (Member # 59) on :

Writers do such things all the time.

And magazine editors tend to like to publish what they call "novel excerpts" that work as short stories.

If you want to see if it works as a short story, see if anyone will volunteer to read it that way for you here, especially someone who hasn't read any of your novel(s).

Posted by Spaceman (Member # 9240) on :

quote:
Obviously not a WHOLE lot can happen in only 2500 words.

Bah! I did the entire history of universe in 950. Check Another Realm in November.

Posted by RMatthewWare (Member # 4831) on :

Short story rights usually revert to the author after a year (sometimes sooner). As long as we get a whole story told, it should work. Ender's Game was originally a novella published in one of the Scifi mags. I believe the first part of Ender's Shadow was too.

By the way, you just gave me an idea (possibly a few) from my novel that could be adapted into stand alone short stories.

Matt

Posted by pantros (Member # 3237) on :

I have several chapters that would work as short stories and I often use short stories as chapters to build a novel around.

Posted by Marva (Member # 3171) on :

Two chapters from my scifi novella were published as short stories. They were the only two that stood on their own two feet with just a few tweaks. I use that as a credit point in queries.

Posted by Christine (Member # 1646) on :

I think it's great to try to sell short stories. They get your name out there and can give you a boost of confidence while you're waiting for your novel to sell ( a long, exhausting process). But don't think that short story success or failure is going to directly relate to novel success or failure. People sell novels with no short story sales and people with lots of glamorous high-profile short story sales manage not to be able to get a novel printed. It doesn't hurt, but if you want to be a novel writer then focus on novels and only dedicate a small portion of your time to short stories. (you define "small")

Chapter excerpts that really stand alone can work as short stories but I encourage you to get some feedback first to make sure it really does stand alone. Fragments and Feedback ought to work well for you there. I tried doing the same thing once with a chapter that I thought could stand alone -- introduced a new MC and only barely brushed the main story line. It didn't turn out to really work for me. Readers still had too many unanswered questions. It was good to know, anyway.

Posted by SharonID (Member # 5059) on :

It is certainly possible to derive short stories from novels, but be careful of doing it by chapter. If you are wrapping your chapters up that tight, you might want to rethink you novel structure. End a chapter with too much completion, and what will draw your reader on? (At least that's the kind of advice people like Sol Stein and Donald Maass deliver.) But as far as deriving stories from novels goes, it can be done quite successfully.

I was poking around the archives on Forward Motion (probably a members-only section, but joining is free and painless) in an area where there are workshops-gone-by and ran into one that someone—I think it was Lazette Gifford, the current owner/moderator wo took over from Holly Lisle—did a workshop on just that subject, deriving short stories from parts of novels (including one's early novels that might not quite have made the grade but might have very salvageable sections in terms of short stories). She did this graphic thing to explain it, basically a series of hills and valleys, the uphill representing the conflict/complication, the downhill the resolution, down into the valley where the next layer of conflict starts to build. Most novels involve a long series of conflicts and resolutions and then a new or deeper complication and so on. She said a short story is basically just one of those hills. One major conflict and resolution (though there can still be some mini-layers). I think that's a better way to look at it than by chapter, but it has certainly been done.

A true novel excerpt, where people aren't expecting it to necessarily tell a complete story (after all, you're trying to tease them into reading the novel!) is a somewhat different thing, but for a stand-alone to tell a whole story, consider moving outside the box enough to not just think in terms of using a chapter. Most chapters should be more loose or open-ended than that. That's my best collection of knowledge on the subject anyway, fwiw. And I do know from somewhere or other that there are authors who have sold short stories derived from novels that didn't quite fly.

Regards,

SharonID