The Trendsetter

Since I blog everyday on how to write fiction, I use the advice I blog about in my own writing. I am presently expanding my short story Antara Dua Kota into a novel (it is not in English, though). And I am currently working on outlining the plot to fit it into a novel. I have set the theme as general as possible: it is about how love can conquer everything. This will help me to get a larger space for the characters to maneuver themselves.

The difference between a short story and a novel is the length. Secondly it is the focus. Usually a short story focuses on a single plot with only very few subplots and the characters don’t have much space to show who they are. The writer can only focus on one plot and are either able to solve the problem or the writer uses a cliffhanger type of solution and drops a hint what the protagonist does to achieve what he/she wants. In a novel, you have a lot of time and space to add more to the plot and develop subplots for the characters.

So, in expanding your short story into a novel, you can start by mapping your plot to see it clearly. Your protagonist wants to achieve something and he/she must have it so bad that he/she will do anything to achieve it. On your map, you can add hurdles to your protagonist; be it intra or interpersonal hurdles, list them down. Also, list down how he/she is going to overcome each and every difficulty or challenge that comes his/her way in order to achieve the goal(s).

You can also create a story board for your characters to visualize where you want to bring your reader through the character’s thinking, attitudes and actions. Having a story board will let you expand the plot like a map and get all the scenes on one big board to see and comprehend.

So you may ask - how difficult it is to turn a short story into novel? It depends upon how you come out with your story board. You can create a complicated plot and find out if your characters can solve it. If the characters are unable to achieve what they are looking for, then the plot as constructed is flawed and you need to re-map the story.

In my experience, writing a short story is much more difficult than writing a novel. A short story needs a tight plot and you need to compact the story in several thousand words. I feel I need to hurry the characters to show their problem and solve it - immediately. I also need to use words economically and still allow the reader to experience the character’s conflict and also make enough room to connect to it.

In a novel, I can explore the character’s background in more detail and this help the reader to understand the characters better: who they are, what they want and how they are going to get what they want. I enjoy writing a novel, I just don’t have the patience for the length, but it is one of the writing processes to create one. In the end, it is the journey I have with the characters that I cherish the most.