Thread: Making two novels from one

Hi

I am considering stretching out my one story into two. I have written one novel and am in the process of reviewing and rewriting. In the back of my mind I seem to have this voice suggesting that I could get two novels from this. Although I would much rather have the one story, I wonder if it is too rushed, and there is too much going on it it. Also the story itself seems to have a division half way through.

Any advice? Has anyone ever done this before?

How do you feel about conforming to a recognized story structure? Some writers think it's important, others don't. If your original. longer story follows a certain structure, your two shorter stories might not. I once split a 300K worder into two 150s. I found that the first shorter story was still introducing new characters two-thirds of the way in. This was only one-third of the way in to the original story which was still OK, but it was too late for new characters in the new story. Other story way points, like the first culmination, also had to re-written. C.M.

Originally Posted by C.M. Aaron

How do you feel about conforming to a recognized story structure? Some writers think it's important, others don't. If your original. longer story follows a certain structure, your two shorter stories might not. I once split a 300K worder into two 150s. I found that the first shorter story was still introducing new characters two-thirds of the way in. This was only one-third of the way in to the original story which was still OK, but it was too late for new characters in the new story. Other story way points, like the first culmination, also had to re-written. C.M.

In its current state the story has new characters introduced in the second half, so don't think that would be a problem. It would be a case of stretching out the events of each half. But I have grown very fond of the way it is now. I am getting people to read it as it is and wait for the feedback.

What happened to yours in the end? Did you stick with the two stories?

As long as there is an ending to the first half of the story and not some arbitrary break point with too many unanswered questions and unreaolved issues then making two books from the one would not be unwarranted.

If you feel you have to "stretch" the story to make it work as two novels, I wouldn't do it. If, as the author, you feel you are stretching things out to make two books, imagine how a reader is going to feel reading it.

I can be rather chaotic in my writing, but I look for natural break points for chapters, and to wrap things up.

My first MS finished at 93,000 words. I could have gone on, so I started the sequel to the first. Reintroducing the characters was easy because I already knew them. Getting the reader up to speed and resetting the stage was fun. I can now explore the characters in more depth and complexity that would have been burdensome earlier.

Of course, my first MS ended kinda abruptly. I wanted it that way. It stands well on it's own, but it doesn't follow writing flow (i.e. resolution). Life doesn't wrap-up neatly, I don't like synthetic plot twists to make things tidy.

I don't write YA, romance or those other genres that lend themselves to formula flow. If you do, be careful. Your readers will have different expectations.