A Long Story ... About a Short Story

Something I have learned about my outlines over the years, is that I should be able to predict how long a particular project is going to run (short fiction vs. long form fiction) by whether the outline is character-centric or plot-centric. In either scenario, both character and plot are well developed. The difference is in which one is the driving force of the story. Sometimes the story is really all about the characters, and the plot is the device that carries them forward to wherever it is they need to grow into. These outlines invariably turn out to be long form fiction. Other times, the story is really just about the point I am trying to make or the concept itself, and the characters are the devices that carry the plot or concept forward to the ever-so-important message at the end. These outline invariably turn out to be short form fiction.


So, of course, I have ignored this discovery about my outlines completely, and continued to try to cram long form fiction into short stories, somehow always winding up surprised when a planned short story turns into a novella.


This is what happened to The Legends of Nod #1-5, which are being re-released next year in their true form, as Books I through IV, with future installments dropping the pretense of being short fiction altogether. A wild ride ahead, since what I thought was a series of 130 short stories that would be collected into twelve books is now a planned series of 130 books! Four down, 126 to go!


This is also what happened with The Demons of the Blood: A Metrognomes Adventure, which I for some reason expected to be as brief a tale as "Music of the Metrognomes" or "Metrognomes: Worse than a Gremlin" but is now available in hardback and may be the first of any number of "Metrognomes Adventures" to be published this way, as at least two of the "short stories" I have planned for that universe are almost certain to run just as long.


So, did I learn from these many examples?


No! Of course not!


And so I set to work on two short fiction projects for the end of this year. The first, "The Thing in the Attic: An Anderson Bros. Paranormal Investigation," was supposed to be a brief set-up for the series of novels that are planned to follow it. The second, "Night Light III: Ooga Booga's Holiday Hoedown," was supposed to be this year's creepy Christmas Eve story. The two tales are linked, and it was important to me to have "The Thing in the Attic" out before "Night Light III."


And then "The Thing in the Attic" ran long, trading its quotation marks in for italics, like this: The Thing in the Attic.


"Whatever!" decided I. "I can still have it out in December. It'll just be a book instead of a short story. And 'Night Light III' will of course follow on schedule, even though I'm pretty sure that one is going to run long too."


And, as it turns out, while writing through the outline for The Thing in the Attic numerous brilliant scenes between the scenes popped into my head, that I ignored, of course, because it was a short story. Now that I have accepted this story's truth, however, I can go back and write those scenes, fleshing the characters out even more. (And, just FYI, I never ignore unexpected scenes, so I was clearly going insane as I wrote this story.)


But I already had a novel series planned for these characters, and this book doesn't fit, really, style-wise. That's why it was supposed to be a short story and not one of the books. To add to the problem, one of the surprises I found at the end was that there was a should-have-been-major plot point left unresolved and revealed only as a by-the-way-this-problem-is-still-lurking-in-the-shadows, and I had no plans to address it in future books. A subtle and unsatisfying cliff-hanger that needed t be addressed.


So, I looked into the universe of this story and realized there were another couple of books that needed to come after this one and before the ones I had planned. Maybe the next two would fit the style I had wanted for the main series.


But today, as I sat down to start expanding this already-book into a proper novel, I realized how unsatisfied I was going to be if I rushed this one through. It became clear that the perfect ending for the short story it was supposed to be was not the perfect ending for a novel. In fact, the cliff-hanger I thought must lead to the second book, actually should lead to the rest of this book. As a short story, it's already wonderful, and I absolutely love it! But, as a novel ... it's just not finished yet. There is something still lurking in the shadows that the boys need to deal with before they can let this case go, and now, they will.


Accepting this, I realized this unexpected Book I would fit the style of the planned series after all, should I follow this course. I will be satisfied with it as a novel, and so will the readers who are meant to enjoy it.


But I will not be able to do this extended project justice by rushing it through for a December release. So, I'm shifting the rewrite into next year's writing slot for what was to be the next book in the series. Unexpected Book II is now the second part of Unexpected Book I anyway. And Unexpected Book III is now Unexpected Book II (because it is a totally separate unexpected-but-necessary story set between this one and the next), and Planned Book I is now Planned Book III.


As for "Night Light III," that one has been pushed to next December, so that it can follow The Thing in the Attic, which is really a "Night Light II" spin-off and shares core characters.


And I honestly expect "Night Light III" to run long as well, given the outline. But I already have a plan B ready to go this time.


I had planned to release all three Night Light stories in another year as a collected novel entitled Night Lights and Nightmares. So, if "Night Light III" runs book-length itself, I will simply release Night Lights and Nightmares earlier, and what would have been released as a separate third story will debut as new material in the novel.


So there you have it, my very long story about a short story ... that became a long story. And the reason there will be no further publications from me before the end of the year.


But I did just release my latest book last month. And I am hopefully going to be doing some sort of promotional event to help get it going. I won't bother, just now, to go into how "Metrognomes: The Demons of the Blood" became The Demons of the Blood: A Metrognomes Adventure. But I will say, regardless, it makes a terrific stocking-stuffer for any book-obsessed loved ones you may be shopping for this holiday season! :D


And there will be plenty more to come in 2017!


Peace!