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

I call on the students alphabetically to read the selection. It helps me remember their names. Today I hope to complete A through C. Abdul begins reading, then after a paragraph, I call on Aferworki. The students in 9F sit three to a desk, three to a book in an airless room with a whooshing overhead fan and three dangling window shutters.


By the time I reach Berhane, we’ve hit the Ferris wheel. I stop and draw a circle on the board. I make little dashes for seats and add stick figures with round faces and curly hair. I step back like Picasso and decide my masterpiece looks like a fuzzy alarm clock with whiskers. I tell the class the wheel goes round and round and people ride on it.


“Why do they do that?” Menghistu asks.


“Because it’s fun.” I point to the highest spot on my hairy circle. “On a clear day, you…uh, you can see forever from up there.” Thank you, Barbra Streisand


“Sir?” This from Zerai who sits in the back and likes to heckle me. “Can we read about the camel?”


Chapter 12