# Short stories turned into novels? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** books-writing-myths\ **Created:** [November 20, 2023, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/short-stories-turned-into-novels/993447 "2023-11-20T23:21:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2023, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/short-stories-turned-into-novels/993447/21 "2023-11-21T05:24:56Z")
Lawrence Block (mostly not sci-fi) did it with _Getting Off._ I think it was a mistake: the original couple of short stories worked much better as they were. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2023, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/short-stories-turned-into-novels/993447/22 "2023-11-21T05:51:00Z")
A short story _Leiningen vs. the Ants_ was made into a radio play, and finally became the movie _The Naked Jungle._ This was back before Charlton Heston was a star, and his name was below Eleanor Powell in the credits. One small role was played by William Conrad, who had voiced Leiningen in the radio play. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2023, 6:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/short-stories-turned-into-novels/993447/23 "2023-11-21T06:45:14Z")
Another SF example: the first Pern book, _Dragonflight_, was a fixup of two novelas, “Weyr Search” and “Dragon Rider”, plus some bridging material. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2023, 6:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/short-stories-turned-into-novels/993447/24 "2023-11-21T06:52:14Z")
I thought he threw the full-length manuscript in the trash, and his wife rescued it and persuaded him to give it another chance. The various iterations of “The Stand” were inspired by a short story called “Night Surf” which is about the aftermath of a plague called Captain Trips that is not quite as dramatic in its ability to demolish the human race as was the one in “The Stand”. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2023, 8:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/short-stories-turned-into-novels/993447/25 "2023-11-21T08:37:19Z")
Ben Lerner expanded his short story “The Golden Vanity” into the novel _10:04_. ---
**Author:** ![pjd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pjd/32/3009_2.png) [@pjd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pjd)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2023, 10:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/short-stories-turned-into-novels/993447/26 "2023-11-21T10:10:31Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Asimov’s Nightfall and The Bicentennial Man were also later expanded into novels, though I think in both cases most of the work was done by another writer. also The Ugly Little Boy. ---
**Author:** ![Moonrise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moonrise/32/14764_2.png) [@Moonrise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moonrise)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2023, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/short-stories-turned-into-novels/993447/27 "2023-11-21T12:59:34Z")
I’m not sure it’s an official reworking but **Nabokov** ’s early novella _The Enchanter_ has a lot in common with his much more famous _Lolita_. ---
**Author:** ![Paintcharge](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/paintcharge/32/7946_2.png) [@Paintcharge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paintcharge)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2023, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/short-stories-turned-into-novels/993447/28 "2023-11-21T14:32:55Z")
I’m pretty sure Hugh Howey’s **Silo** books started as short stories. Not a short story, but **The Expanse** series started as a roll playing game. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2023, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/short-stories-turned-into-novels/993447/29 "2023-11-21T15:03:53Z")
I came into this thread late, and most of the examples I would have given have already been used. I’ll add that Fredric Brown (who also writes fantasy and science fiction, so he was familiar with the practice) also did this with his mysteries. His short story _The Pickled Punks_ became the novel **Madball** , and his novel **The Night of the Jabberwock** started out as short stories. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2023, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/short-stories-turned-into-novels/993447/30 "2023-11-21T15:17:01Z")
The Wikipedia page for [Fix-up](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fix-up) lists a lot. Most of them are science fiction, but if you scroll to the bottom, there are a number of others. Among those mentioned are _The Red Pony_ by John Steinbeck _The Big Four_ by Agatha Christie _The Big Sleep_, _Fairwell, My Lovely_, and _The Lady in the Lake_, by Raymond Chandler. ---
**Author:** ![velomont](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/8491ac/32.png) [@velomont](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/velomont)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2023, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/short-stories-turned-into-novels/993447/31 "2023-11-21T15:37:25Z")
I believe that one or some chapter(s) of Poul Anderson’s _The Boat of a Million Years_ started as short stories. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2023, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/short-stories-turned-into-novels/993447/32 "2023-11-21T16:22:30Z")
I have no problem with “novelette,” unlike some authors I could name who find it too “cutesy.” “Novelet,” is brand new to me, so no comment (my spell checker doesn’t care for it, either). Maybe we should use “novella,” for stories over 100 pages/xx0,000 words, “novelette,” for stories half-ish that length, and “short story,” (Now _there’s_ a phrase that sounds too cutesy) for tales smaller than a novelette. Or say, “screw it.” 😄 ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2023, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/short-stories-turned-into-novels/993447/33 "2023-11-21T16:37:39Z")
The rule in nominations for the awards for Hugos and Nebulas (the two major science fiction awards) is that a short story is 7,499 words or less, a novelette is 7,500 to 17,499 words, a novella is 17,500 to 39,999 words, and a novel is 40,000 words or more. Is this arbitrary? Of course, it is. The problem is that they decided that the awards should be split into categories by length. Any such division has to be arbitrary. They presumably looked at the lengths of fictions that were being published and decided that this divided them closely enough into equal amounts in each category. ---
**Author:** ![themapleleaf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/themapleleaf/32/14349_2.png) [@themapleleaf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/themapleleaf)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2023, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/short-stories-turned-into-novels/993447/34 "2023-11-21T16:41:56Z")
Canadian author W. O. Mitchell published the short story “The Owl and the Bens” in the Atlantic Magazine in April 1945. Subsequently, in 1947, he published the novel “Who has Seen the Wind”, in which the basic story of “The Owl” was incorporated as a sort of B-plot. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2023, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/short-stories-turned-into-novels/993447/35 "2023-11-21T16:41:58Z")
Nice! Ignorance fought, thanks. [“The end” – my short story just became a novelette. 😄] ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2023, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/short-stories-turned-into-novels/993447/36 "2023-11-21T16:58:08Z")
Another Stephen King entry is “The Gunslinger”, which was first published as a short story, then a collection of short stories which became the first chapter in the full book. The book then kicked off the Dark Tower series, which now ties in a huge portion of his entire oeuvre. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2023, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/short-stories-turned-into-novels/993447/37 "2023-11-21T17:17:21Z")
“Musical fruit.” ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2023, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/short-stories-turned-into-novels/993447/38 "2023-11-21T17:52:18Z")
The movie “Predestination” was based on the Heinlein short story, “-All,YouZombies-” Wasn’t the Shawshank Redemption originally a short story? ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2023, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/short-stories-turned-into-novels/993447/39 "2023-11-21T17:56:11Z")
> [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > Wasn’t the Shawshank Redemption originally a short story? Yes, but it wasn’t ever turned into a novel, which is what this thread is about. ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2023, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/short-stories-turned-into-novels/993447/40 "2023-11-21T18:12:23Z")
For that matter, _Foundation_ was published as a series of shorter stories. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/short-stories-turned-into-novels/993447.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/short-stories-turned-into-novels/993447.md?page=3)