I've been working on rewrites of a long short story and several people (not just on this site) have told me it might work better as a novel. I think that's the way the story wants to go.
For those of you who have read it - The Wolf's Sister - what do you think?
For everyone, what would be the best way to go about this? At the moment I am working on new scenes which expand on the current story. I also have to work on expanding on the scenes already there. I guess I'm really looking for methodology.
posted
One thing that needs to be looked at is how you feel about it personally. For example, Robert Jordan wrote a short story and then turned it into a full length novel. A great deal of that novel I felt wasn't required. It worked better as a short tale for me, whilst others may say that it was better with being extended. It could also be said that some of the details that were added added a richer layer to the already existing plot. Posts: 27 | Registered: Jan 2005
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posted
Well, since one of the major differences between short stories and novels is the number of primary and secondary characters the story can support, I'd suggest fleshing out in your mind a few more main characters. These will be largely background characters in a shorter work, who you now have the time and space to develop.
Start there, maybe, and see what happens.
My lastest short was screaming to be written as a novel. And it probably will be eventually. But deadlines and word limits kept it a short for now. Still, I can think of at least four tertiary characters that will move up to secondary characters and developed more, and 6-8 background characters that will move up into the position of tertiary characters. So everyone gets a promotion!
posted
I think there is enough within the themes and character backstory that you could expand "The Wolf's Sister" into a novel. There was a novelish feel about it. It would give you a bit more time to develop the relationships you build within the story and flesh out the events a bit more.
So for a methodology?
Look for those places where you have character roles that could be expanded and places where maybe more time and more showing might be beneficial. Fill out places where you feel like you had to rush background revelations, etc. That would be my plan anyway.
posted
I would hesitate before I do any of this. I do feel there are certain points in your story which were rushed through, but I am not sure that there was enough there for you to turn it into a novel. The whole story is the intimate relationship between the two main characters. By expanding on other characters it would be very easy to lose that and therefore lose the whole feel of your story.
You have to follow your heart on this. Remember what is essential to oyur story and whether you can retain that if you expand the story. There is room there for expansion, just weigh up the cost.
posted
Any story can be turned into a novel length narrative.
There are two basic ways to make this happen. One is to simply inflate the amount of description/characterization in the current story. Add deleted scenes, show more of what happens. This works for most stories that take place over a time span corresponding to what we would percieve as about three days or more. And even where it is not sufficient by itself to turn a short story into a novel, it is an important part of the process.
The other is to expand the scale of the story, either the simple timescale or the number of characters and whatnot or all of the above. Ender's Game was expanded in this fashion, by including Ender's entire life in Battleschool rather than just the week he was in command of Dragon Army. A lot of events were added, a lot of detail was fleshed out, other characters are made far more prominent, but the bulk of the book deals with events outside of the time/character-frame of the original story.
Because your story has a lot of background information that could profitably be added, you might want to lean in the second direction but not go all the way. That's just my impression.
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