Writers are often advised to practice writing tight with short stories and even flash fiction. This is advice I fully agree with and have found shorts not only good for honing writing skills, but a place where ideas for bigger projects can find a beginning.
Many years ago, when MySpace had user forums, we used to have a weekly competition for flash fiction. These were generally 500 word stories, posted anonymously, and everyone voted on which was the best. Usually there was some sort of theme.
The winner hosted the next week’s competition, receiving the stories from participants and keeping their identities secret until the great reveal.
I didn’t win every one I entered, but I did win a few. One of mine that received a good amount of votes was a Steampunk story about airship pirates. Afterwards, I liked the concept and characters so much that I decided to expand the story into a full size novel. I started adding new characters and taking my characters into adventures far beyond the scope of the original 500 word story.
Those 500 words basically gave me the opening scene for the story and a one line ending. By the time I finished the novel, I had created a multi-faceted Steampunk world and had ideas for two sequels.
A few years later, I began submitting short stories to various anthologies, often for charity, though some were commercial endeavours. Again, it was great practice and usually came with a theme.
One of these was an anthology for Fantasy stories with strong women protagonists. My character in a story titled, The Wizard’s Quandary, was an Alchemist who had apprenticed to a Wizard who lived in a tower outside of the village, at the foot of the Crystal Mountains where dragons roamed free. She had an animal companion, a miniature dragon.
The story was well received and it just begged for continuation. This project is my current WIP, though another anthology opportunity led to me writing a prequel story that explains how the character, Lesana, came to be the king’s Alchemist and how she found her pet dragon. Her world was expanding and soon overlapped with the world I created in my Goblin Trilogy.
These are examples of how a short project can expand into a longer work. Flash fiction is particularly good for writing the bare bones of a story without getting caught up in sub-plots and extensive details that can often slow the progression of the core story. They also leave plenty of room for expansion when these diversions are added later.
Short stories can sometimes turn into chapters, perhaps with a minor adjustment for continuity. Like the flash fiction, the intended length of the story, whether it’s 1500 words or 10,000, demands keeping focus on the main story line.
While not every short story needs to expand into a novel, some can capture the writer’s imagination in a way that begs for more detail, more behind the scenes action and development into a fully fleshed out story.
I highly recommend trying flash fiction for writers who look for prompts. This is a goldmine for finding story ideas.
Have you ever written a short story that led to an expanded, novel length version? Tell us about it in the comments.
Jaq D Hawkins
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Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog 
What an early start and a great discipline. I am sure i would never have done. xx Michael
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I have a WIP that started as a short story and just grew and is still growing a good post that highlights the benefits of flash fiction and short stories 🙂
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A writer’s mind is expansive. It’s amazing how a short story grows to a full novel, then expands into a series. Such is creativity!
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I like how you said that flash fiction contains the “bare bones of a story.” Writing these little stories is a good exercise in getting to the essentials of a story. Get in, try to tell a story in a compelling way, get out. And later, the idea behind the little story can stay with you and whisper that it wants to know more about what happens next — and a longer story can be written.
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Exactly. I’ve never written a short with that pre-planned intent, but it would be an interesting writing exercise.
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I like the ideas here. laud the Hemingway’s and Greene’s of this world. They are laudable. But sometimes the verse, the essence, the spirit of a story takes a few extra words. Rain splatters like Chablis on the pebble strewn lane, umbrellas arranged in sad bouquet at the bus stop. Illegal aliens regret an exodus and I skip between the puddles on the way home.
Use the journalistic method and your story has said. “raining”
I do not mean to disrespect that method. I am a fan of Greene and an appreciator (is that a word) of Hemingway but it leaves a writer little leeway. Little room for adaption. I enjoy the romance of words. Sorry Jaq for disagreeing.
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You are free to disagree!
For the record, the short about airship pirates started out the same as the novel with a fair bit of imagery:
The airship hovered low over the city. The dark silhouette might have been seen against the darker storm-filled morning sky despite the thick smog, had there been anyone foolish enough to be on the streets at that hour to look up and see it. But the rat-infested lower end streets defied even a watchman to brave the hours just before dawn, when only the pirates and night-crawling thugs dared walk them. The law would not travel where enforcement equates to suicide.
Like their seafaring ancestors, the airship pirates wouldn’t hesitate to travel the roads of Hell itself if there was a profit to be made. The rope ladders hung like tentacles from some great creature floating just within the dense cloud of black fog that characterised morning in London. Slime began to gather on the rungs from the dirty mist that filled the air, making them slippery and treacherous.
Thunder rolled, threatening to spill the inevitable rain that must come any minute. However, even the weather seemed unwilling to interfere with the morning’s graft. The rain held as the shadows in the fog reflected the hauling of ropes and crates. Men climbed the ladders despite the oily residue, like spiders racing to the top of their web to capture the most succulent of prey. Only the occasional cough within the cloak of choking haze gave evidence that anyone moved behind the darkened miasma.
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Thank you Sally. Good to know others have made use of this resource!
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Terrific post and I agree about the opportunity flash fiction offers and have expanded on 99 word stories in the past.. thanks Jaq and Chris..
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