Do you write short fiction but long to s-t-r-e-t-c-h those tight little 55ers, flash pieces, and short stories into longer, publishable work? Do you have binders full of short pieces with characters you’d love to flesh out? Are you dying to tell the rest of these stories? If so,The Short and Long of Itis for you! Award-winning short fiction writer Paul Alan Fahey shows you how to expand and adapt your brief creations into longer, more satisfying stories, plays, novellas, and novels pitch perfect for publication in the e-age. This book will help you practice expanding your short fiction. Through detailed examples and hands-on exercises, you’ll learn how to: Adapt 55 fiction into flash fiction;Adapt flash fiction into short stories and plays;Adapt flash memoir into personal essays;Write a tight logline;Develop a story theme;Build three-act structure; andDevelop characters and enhance backstory.So grab a copy today and start writing longer stories tomorrow!

The Short and Long of It

As an example, here’s one of my drafts I revised from 132 to 55 words.


(A parody on Dickens’s A Tale of Two Cities)


It was a lovely day, it was a rotten day, it was a full moon, it was a total eclipse, it was Grenada, it was Asbury Park, it was the fog mixing in with the hue from the street lamp, creeping around corners on teeny, tiny cat feet, whispering my name, “Lucie, Lucie.” We were strangers then, we were the best of friends. In short, I saw a dark figure leaning up against the brick wall in the alley between Bulwer’s Thrift and Lytton’s Creamery, and I knew it was you, Sydney, blowing smoke rings to the heavens, your nostrils flaring, your moustache quivering, and as I approached you in all my loveliness, I couldn’t help think, Dear me, I’ve just washed my hair and can’t do a damn thing with it.(132 words)


Chapter 3