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

My father, Richard Field, is locked away from us now, and society as well. I have no desire to see him ever again. I hate him. I…he was never a loving person. I went to Mother when I needed something growing up. Though she listened to my problems well into my teens, she often had no real solution to offer. “I don’t know what you’re going to do, Vera,” was her usual answer. I guess it’s just not in her make-up to provide any kind of guidance or moral support. She devoted more time to her friends and her weekly bridge game than she did to me, or to my father from what I could tell.


Chapter 32