You’ve probably been taught that short stories follow the time-revered rule: Limit your story to a specific time, place, event, interaction, or character’s evolution. But the short story can be a more versatile genre than your high school English teacher sermonized. If we abide by too narrow a view, we may restrict or dilute our subjects or abandon potentially powerful ideas. Think about expansion.
How do you expand your short stories to give them the weight of a novel? Expansion in short stories is rarely, if ever, discussed in texts or fiction seminars and may sound a lot like background, setting, exposition, or backstory. But some stories maintain the character of the short story and introduce a broader outlook than we’ve been taught to expect. These stories carry a greater perspective and elicit more powerful responses than the more typical narrower story. Read More
