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

No matter where you are in your writing career—a beginner, an intermediate, or a pro, I highly recommend reading and analyzing some great models in the genre before you attempt to try it out. Let’s take a look at a few more examples of flash before I provide some of my own pieces, some I’ve expanded to short stories and even longer works.


Now that people lived behind the new walls at the far end, the cow barn was Harry’s favorite place. Sometimes he saw these people, a quick movement as they scurried back into their hiding place. Mom and Dad thought he didn’t know but there was little on the farm that escaped his five-year-old eyes and ears. Harry knew those people were Jews, even though to him they looked just like regular people.


Chapter 6