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Q&A Writing a short story in the same universe as my novel

Writing your short story as a standalone is highly useful. You want your story to be readable by as wide an audience as possible, so you don't want to depend on readers having already read your nov...

posted 5y ago by Galastel‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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#4: Attribution notice removed by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-12T21:57:34Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/42357
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T10:56:00Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/42357
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by (deleted user) · 2019-12-08T10:56:00Z (almost 5 years ago)
Writing your short story as a standalone is highly useful. You want your story to be readable by as wide an audience as possible, so you don't want to depend on readers having already read your novel. In fact, a short story can serve as a sort of "advertisement" - if the readers like it, they would continue to the novel. If not, they've invested less time and money in it than the would have in a novel. So for a reader, the short story is a "safer buy". (Particularly if it is published in some sort of anthology with other writers, or even free on the internet.)

As an example, both _Fragile Things_ and _Trigger Warning_ (two short stories collections be Neil Gaiman) contain a short story set in the _American Gods_ world. Both, in fact, are sequels. Both are standalones - one does not need to have read _American Gods_ to enjoy them. One does not need any information at all, other than what is contained within each story.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2019-02-19T22:42:56Z (over 5 years ago)
Original score: 1