short story vs long story

so..now that the glow (and the grin) from getting through November - win, lose or draw - is fading... many of us are sitting back, and considering our stories with a bit of a critical eye. I always see lots of discussion about filling gaps and holes.. but I'm finding myself being faced with the suggestion that I turn my story into a short story... and the suggestion is being made by someone whose opinion I value.
You might assume that my problem was that I ran out of things to say, and therefore threw in the kitchen sink, but that's not the case here. Instead, the suggestion is that my pacing started out slow, and then improved.. so perhaps I should cut down much of the first third.
Thoughts?? Comments???

and while you're pondering that one, ironically enough, my advice to this friend was that - while the beginning of his story worked well, the pacing at the end was too hectic and intense, and he needed to spread things out.


So I guess my question is -- not for those who plan a 100k novel from the beginning, but for those who do a 50-55k story, and initially feel you're done.. How many of you then cut it down to a true short story (about 35k, I think), or expand it to a true novel (60-65K)?

35K is a novella, as least as far as submissions go, which is hard to market. If you are looking to submit or publish, that's an awkward length.

Stephen King said he cuts about 10% off his first draft, if I remember right. I probably do that too, by the final edit.

I haven't read over my nanonovel from this year, but in the past, I've taken it to full novel length by the time I was done telling the story. This is the only time I hit 50,000 and was done with the tale. There are also 9300 words that weren't in my count, because I used a short story I wrote last summer as a jumping off point. It was too long for a short story so I used it for nano.
My guess is that it will be shorter by the time it's finished.

I let the story decide.

Many authors have short stories from novels. The story is sometimes published first, the novel later, with the SS incorporated as a chapter. Depending on the market, a SS is usually 2K up to around 6K.

Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America use this definition for the Nebula awards:
Novelette: 7.5K - 17,499
Novella: 17,500 - 40K

I don't know how you want to handle yours, Laurie. Have you written short stories before? The structure is very different from a novel.

nope... haven't written a short story.. and I am such a newbie, and an uneducated newbie, at that... that I get my concept, and start writing, with no clue as to how long I'll be at the end. I just hope that it will be at least 50k.

So now, Kat, you're talking structure? LOL... what's that?

How much effort do you want to put in and what do you want to get out of it?

If you have the basics of a short or a novella then perhaps it is easier to cut down, refine and get to that. But a full length will probably need a lot more work - in tidying up the first third and then extending the length.

Isuspect the decision is about balancing satisfaction and effort

I seem to differ from others in that I continually read and edit while I am going along and can always add more - when my understanding is that editing should be cutting back/pruning

I'm with Tim, on this... especially when I do my first read-through of my NaNo work, I find areas where I apparently got tired of typing.. because I recall precisely how the story went, but it's not there. So before I start cutting back, I first have to add.

I'm also thinking what to do with my story. As it now is, it has one "greater adventure" and numerous small incidents on the road, and I feel the story is uneven. And there would be two opposite ways to correct it: just cut the most hectic part of the story for a short story, or to add more to the little incidents on the road to turn it into a longer adventure story.

Kat / Fool - I have taken this quote from novel-writing-help.com
'writing a narrative with poor pacing is one of the biggest things that newcomers to novel writing screw up on.
Sometimes (not very often), the pace is way too quick. Mostly, though, it is too slow, too leisurely'

Kat it sounds like pace might be your problem. The above website gives good tips on adding quality through writing detail. It also discusses how long it will take to write a novel - it's a lot longer than 4 weeks!

I'm afraid my pace is too slow. I'm at 54k now, and I'm not close to finished.

My sister (the only person who has read it) thinks it would make a good trilogy and I'm just a few thousand words from teh end of the first book. I think that's a bit ridiculous, because, writing ONE book is plenty right now thanks, but there's still a lot of story left.

I've been going back and taking things out. I killed a whole scene yesterday. It was almost painful. I just kept reminding myself about what Stephen King in On Writing said about what he does. (of course he also says he sticks it in a drawer for six months first) I'm not sure what else I can take out, though, that won't affect the set up of the story.

The more I think about this, the more 'meh' I get. I need to not let myself get bogged down, and keep going.

I think another difference between a short story and a novel is in the plot. A short story usually has just one plot or story, whereas a novel has sub-plots and side stories.