Communities

Writing
Writing
Codidact Meta
Codidact Meta
The Great Outdoors
The Great Outdoors
Photography & Video
Photography & Video
Scientific Speculation
Scientific Speculation
Cooking
Cooking
Electrical Engineering
Electrical Engineering
Judaism
Judaism
Languages & Linguistics
Languages & Linguistics
Software Development
Software Development
Mathematics
Mathematics
Christianity
Christianity
Code Golf
Code Golf
Music
Music
Physics
Physics
Linux Systems
Linux Systems
Power Users
Power Users
Tabletop RPGs
Tabletop RPGs
Community Proposals
Community Proposals
tag:snake search within a tag
answers:0 unanswered questions
user:xxxx search by author id
score:0.5 posts with 0.5+ score
"snake oil" exact phrase
votes:4 posts with 4+ votes
created:<1w created < 1 week ago
post_type:xxxx type of post
Search help
Notifications
Mark all as read See all your notifications »
Q&A

Post History

60%
+1 −0
Q&A How can I find short-story spinoffs for my fantasy epic?

To expand on the comment by John Smithers, one of the advantages of an epic fantasy is the grand scale upon which your story is built. Usually an epic fantasy either contains a lot of characters or...

posted 13y ago by Steven Drennon‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Answer
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T02:13:07Z (about 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/5079
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar Steven Drennon‭ · 2019-12-08T02:13:07Z (about 5 years ago)
To expand on the comment by John Smithers, one of the advantages of an epic fantasy is the grand scale upon which your story is built. Usually an epic fantasy either contains a lot of characters or covers a considerable time span. Ideas for short stories can come from either of those two sources (or a host of others).

In writing my epic fantasy, I found that I had to eliminate certain supporting characters because they just didn't contribute enough to the overall story. However, their own stories, while much smaller on the grand scale, were nonetheless interesting. As a result, I am contemplating writing short stories that involve those peripheral characters. Each short story would include or involve one of the major characters, therefore giving readers an introduction to a small portion of the bigger story. In a couple of instances, the intention would be to provide more background on a couple of major characters by depicting certain events in their lives that were significant in helping them to become the characaters they are in the original story.

In addition to this, my epic fantasy starts several hundred years after a major event. This major event is referred to by the main characters and explained in some minor detail, but that event alone would provide enough material for a short story that could serve as a prelude. In addition to that, there are at least two or three other important events that are alluded to in the original epic fantasy, and each of those events could be represented well in a short story.

Basically, look for people or events that you think your readers would be interested in learning more about. Also, as you are editing the next epic fantasy, if you find yourself removing large portions of content, remember to set it aside. There might be something there that would present itself as a short story, and you can use it at a future time. Even if you don't have a large amount of content surrounding the item(s) you are removing, it might still serve as a foundation upon which you could build a short story.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2012-02-20T22:07:01Z (almost 13 years ago)
Original score: 8