I think this is a revision question. I have two short stories that I recently finished, but I don't have them on submission anywhere yet. Still revising and polishing. Here's the thing -- I'm thinking about blending these two stories into one. They are really not that similar to each other (one is a bank robbing story and the other one is about a camping trip), but I'm thinking of carefully combining them into one story. I sort of have a vision here. And this is what I'm planning to work on today. For all you other short story writers, have you ever taken two of your stories and thought that together they might just make one killer story? I think this will entail combining some characters and will completely change the plot and structure of the story as well as what it's really about. Does this sound crazy? I would love to get your thoughts on this and hear from anyone who has done something like this. Did it work for you? Was it a lot of work? And if you've done something like this, what were the end results? Was it worth it? Was it what needed to be done?
No but I've written quite a few short stories at this point and I kind of dig the idea of taking the best elements out of two stories and making a really good one. It would be kind of like doing alchemy, but for stories. Interesting...
I haven't exactly blended two existing stories, but I had a 2K short from a few years ago that I realized needed flashbacks. I more or less wrote them as their own story and spliced two parts in between the existing three scenes. The resulting 3K story is infinitely better.
Update: I'm in the thick of it, currently combining two of my short stories into one story. This is not easy, but it's creating a much more relevant story overall. I'm finally starting to see exactly how to make this work. It's a little messy right now, but in the end I think it will be perfect!
