Combining short stories into a novel

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AdamFiction

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I have several short stories that I was planning to write, but when I noticed they all shared something in common, I decided to combine them into one novel. Each of the stories involves crime.The hub for all of these stories - where they begin and end - will be a roadside motel/bar in rural Tennessee.

So far, my strategy is to write each of the short stories as standalone pieces, and then decide from there which elements to take from each to combine into a single novel.

Does this sound like a good strategy? Has anyone here tried anything like this before?
 

MythMonger

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I have several short stories that I was planning to write, but when I noticed they all shared something in common, I decided to combine them into one novel. Each of the stories involves crime.The hub for all of these stories - where they begin and end - will be a roadside motel/bar in rural Tennessee.

So far, my strategy is to write each of the short stories as standalone pieces, and then decide from there which elements to take from each to combine into a single novel.

Does this sound like a good strategy? Has anyone here tried anything like this before?

It can be done, I suppose. But it's probably not the best strategy for writing a novel in general.

A short story has a beginning and an end within the short story itself. A novel which is a combination of short stories still must start at the beginning of the novel and end at the end of the novel.

There could possibly be little beginnings and little ends for subplots and such.

My WIP started as something like a bunch of twenty plus short stories strung together, with no overall plot arc or even a central character. I couldn't make it work.

My opinion is that it seems like a waste of time to write the short stories first and use what elements you want in the novel. If you want to write a novel, then plan it that way.

Also, having the thing that ties everything together as a place will be tricky.

Since your central theme seems to be about crime, maybe have a detective as the main character? Or a witness to the crimes? This will of course change what you're trying to do.

For example, let's say you have the same witness for each crime: a hiding child. Why is the child there? What's happening in the child's life before witnessing these crimes, and how does witnessing the crimes change the child's life? You can see how the emphasis changes from your short story about crime to the main character.

I hope this helps.
 

Blinkk

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It could be done, but it sounds like a lot of extra work. Why write lots of short stories, scrap them, only to write one long work? It seems backwards to me. If you're writing short stories, then write short stories. If you're writing a novel, then set out with the intent of writing a novel.

Ever read Hearts in Atlantis by Stephen King? It's two novellas and three short stories lumped together in one book. Some characters are reoccurring, but their ages usually change in each story. Some side characters in one story make a feature appearance 20 years later in another story. Some stories seem completely separate, and then a character we've met before walks on as a side character.

Anyways, I'm just saying if you wanted to keep all your short stories as is and throw them together in one work, that may work too. It's especially nice because you have one reoccurring location.

Some stories work better in short story format. Others need to be told in novel format. I think it depends on what your standalone stories are and how easy (or difficult) they transfer to longer works.
 
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cmhbob

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Sounds more like an anthology than a novel. Or something like a collection of Twilight Zone or Tales From the Crypt stories. The cover art and title would be pretty important, I'd think, to tie everything together.
 

Jamesaritchie

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I have several short stories that I was planning to write, but when I noticed they all shared something in common, I decided to combine them into one novel. Each of the stories involves crime.The hub for all of these stories - where they begin and end - will be a roadside motel/bar in rural Tennessee.

So far, my strategy is to write each of the short stories as standalone pieces, and then decide from there which elements to take from each to combine into a single novel.

Does this sound like a good strategy? Has anyone here tried anything like this before?

It sounds like you need to sit down and start writing. Until you actually do this, it's all meaningless.
 

Orianna2000

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My current novel started out as several ideas for short stories: a woman and a team of experts dealing with alien invasions and other paranormal events. There's the time some alien insects try to swarm the planet, eating everything and everyone. Then there's the time an alien fog rises from the river, killing everyone it touches. And there's the blue fungus that invades people's brains. . . . Lots of different ideas, almost like episodes of a TV show, or short stories in an anthology.

But it didn't work as individual stories mashed together into a novel. So, instead, I wrote it as a cohesive novel that happens to have a variety of subplots happening. It's told from one POV, which helps keep it focused, and the main story is about the MC falling in love and coming to grips with her spirituality, all while traveling through time and dealing with alien invasions. The different subplots are almost the backdrop for the main story, which is her romance and self-discovery.

I was worried it would be considered too episodic, but my beta-readers have given it their stamp of approval. Perhaps a similar tactic would work for you?
 

Greene_Hesperide1990

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Yeah, I believe what the others have posted makes the most sense. I thought of something similar but none of my short stories really went together. I did think of having an anthology of horror stories that took place at a university setting so maybe you might try that, or just write a novel.
 

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I started a novel this way, with four rotating POVs, and it can definitely be done. There are a lot of successful novels-in-stories. But it is a TON of work and incredibly difficult to pull it off well. I ended up abandoning that structure because four rotating POVs were hard enough.

There are some literary novels that I can think of that use this form well, one being Olive Kitteridge, which won the Pulitzer. And also early Louise Erdrich novels, like Love Medicine, were stories that became novels.

But I think you should have a compelling reason for doing it. The form should come about because it serves a specific function that couldn't be achieved otherwise. If not, trying to shape stories into one overall arc might be kind of like sticking a hot poker in your eye while you're trying to write a novel, which can be complex enough.
 

Readable Joe

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So far, my strategy is to write each of the short stories as standalone pieces, and then decide from there which elements to take from each to combine into a single novel.

Does this sound like a good strategy? Has anyone here tried anything like this before?

Look at A Hunter's Sketchbook by Ivan Turgenev, one of my favourite all time books (and apparently, Ernest Hemingway loved it too). Short stories held together by one main character and portraits of life in rural Russia.
 

Vito

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Hemingway's novel To Have and Have Not is actually two previously-published short stories, along with text that EH added later to tie it all together. Although it's often condemned as "Hemingway's worst novel", I think it's great -- an exciting and haunting adventure story. Check it out, if you haven't already done so.
 

RightHoJeeves

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It can work, but you need to be aware that you'll have to massively rejig the short stories to make it work as a novel without being episodic. Raymond Chandler wrote his novels by 'cannibalizing' (his words) his pulp short stories. Of course he would rework them to make it fit, but it's also why The Big Sleep has a plot line that doesn't actually tie into anything.

The difference of course is that Raymond Chandler didn't write his short stories with the intention of reworking them into novels (I assume). They were short stories firstly for the sake of being short stories.
 

Chase

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Look at A Hunter's Sketchbook by Ivan Turgenev. . . .

Right. And before Turgenev was Chaucer's tales within a tale told on the way to and from Canterbury. Another linked anthology is Bradbury's The Illustrated Man. I paid homage to those formats in a creative graduate dissertation, Montana Stereoscope: Twelve Tall Tales.

Take heart and make yours stand out. :D
 

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A recent example might by Elizabeth Strout's OLIVE KITTERIDGE, which is essentially a series of short stories.
 

Fruitbat

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So far, my strategy is to write each of the short stories as standalone pieces, and then decide from there which elements to take from each to combine into a single novel.


I think it stands a much better chance of working when you know from the start that that's your plan. Or, as others have mentioned, do a book-in-stories. You'd need a kind of umbrella storyline that ties them all together, but I think it could be fairly loose.

And then quite often the short stories in a collection do share a theme. They usually don't sell as well as novels though, so it depends on what your goals are for it.
 
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LDParker

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As Fruitbat says it likely will not sell as well, but might work if you were later interested in producing a full length novel/novella with those characters.

One thing I would love to do is to write a trilogy (or maybe longer series) and occasionally throw in a short collection of short stories in that same universe as a bone for the readers to chew on in between books. The added benefit is that you could potentially experiment with POV characters, themes, and other alternations that you might not want to do in a main novel in a series.
 

Ken

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I have several short stories that I was planning to write, but when I noticed they all shared something in common, I decided to combine them into one novel. Each of the stories involves crime.The hub for all of these stories - where they begin and end - will be a roadside motel/bar in rural Tennessee.

So far, my strategy is to write each of the short stories as standalone pieces, and then decide from there which elements to take from each to combine into a single novel.

Does this sound like a good strategy? Has anyone here tried anything like this before?

Honestly? Take the best short story and turn that into a novel, if you can. In a nutshell it seems you have several variations of one story. So this would seem the most sensible approach. Of course I am only going by what you've said here. (My 2 cents as it were.) G'luck.
 
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