How can I turn my short story into a novel?
I just wrote last week about Sleeping Beauty but a different version of it. (I changed the characters, and the conflict, and mostly everything except the fact that one of the main characters is cursed and must fall asleep, only to be woken by true love's kiss. In this case I made it the guy.)
I want to turn it into a novel, except whenever I try to write novels I get intimidated and I can't seem to do it. But then again, I've never wrote a short story about it beforehand.
What I have to do to turn it into a novel? Obviously, I need to add more detail. But do I add more characters? (There are only 4 in my short story.) Do I make the scenes longer? etc.
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I made a novel called "I Attempt to Write the Worst Novel Ever" once, and my answer to that is:
Make your novel a story, but make them short stories connected by a single
continuity.
By this, I mean write a novel, but write each chapter as a different story, but have a single revolving story around the entire novel.
Hope this helped.
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Another good way to approach your question is to consider what a short story is in terms of substance (not just length). The definition can certainly be nebulous, since it varies from writer to writer. My favorite analogy comes from author Marilyn Singer who likened the short story to a photograph: a captured moment in time.
She also adds that, "But while a photo may or may not suggest consequences, a short story always does." The structure of a short story is more urgent and immediate: oftentimes, an irrevocable change has occurred and a single character (or two) must confront that change in media res. In comparison, a novel can be likened to a movie.
Think about why you want to turn this short story into a novel. Revisiting your reasons can help you build a foundation for a plan. It could be something as simple as: I really like my main character and I want to show more of her courage by doing X, Y, and maybe Z. So in the end, it's not a question of how much detail to add or how many more characters you need. These things come later and organically as you write. It's a really question of: what is this story truly about and why does it need the space of a novel to explore?
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While it's possible to expand a short story into a novel (c.f. Ender's Game), what seems more common in my experience (citation needed) is for the short story to become one part of a larger novel. Your short story is already a self-contained unit; what else is going on around those characters, in that setting, etc? Is there a bigger story that you can develop out of that context?
Another approach you might consider for your first novel-length work is to assemble a collection of short stories with a common element -- setting, characters, or theme. As you get used to making longer-running threads of connection through a few hundred pages (instead of a few dozen), you will be preparing yourself to write a novel from scratch next.
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