Hiya, lovely peeps!

I require advice.

My stories usually span 2-3k words. Theyʼre usually one-shots and comprise a single scene stretched out.

I would like to expand my horizons. I want to worte something longer, more complex. Ideally, I wanted to write something with a full plot, a story with a three-act structure, that crosses over 6-7k words.

Thing is, this is vastly out of my comfort zone. How do I make the switch from short, simple snapshots to a three-act story?

Yaʼll have any advice?

7963803

Get some story structure books, like Save the Cat writes a Novel or the Writer's Journey or Syd Field. Structure is the key to longer works. It doesn't NEED to be the kind of three-act-structure derived stuff in the books I just mentioned but those are easy, and what most English-speakers are used to seeing/reading.

7963803
Start by understanding the structures of stories
A common conceptual story framework that gets used a lot is the Hero's Journey:
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1GbF4rnk8qqN3PkVyA06-v0DFpPPOEKaoaoPiAe0bOos/edit?usp=sharing

7963803
Making longer stories usually starts with making a more detailed synopsis. So basically spend a lot more time on the preparations before you start writing.

I find it fun to work on a detailed synopsis with chapters and sections, but turning it into a story feels like "work". (I find it less fun to follow a plan where I've already decided everything than building a story where we "both evolve together".)

Other authors may use some kind of checklist. Both for basic ingredients (hints/riddles/events, romance, action, betrayal, comedy) and how it fits together.

The early seasons of Rick & Morty used to have pretty good stories, and I liked Dan Harmon's story wheel that he uses.

There are many checklists out there, and having a guide to keep me on track when making a plan is required for me. Some writers (ex. Stephen King) keep everything in their head and the first draft is a rough story to be edited until printable.

But to sum it up: Make a detailed synopsis. When it's fun to read how it evolves, it can probably be turned into a good story.

I mean 6-7k is still a short story/one shot. You could turn a 2-3k story into a 6-7k story by padding it out or lengthening the punchline.

If you are wanting to write a multi chapter long story, you should aim for a length of at least 20k words.

A longer story should have a vague outline of a plot planned out: What is your inciting incident? What are your major plot-points? Is there an antagonist, if so what kind? What is the climax? What is the resolution?

That all said, the best way to get better at writing is to write.

7963803 When I wrote my first novel, I was drowning in chaos. What helped me most was to just put ideas into chapters. So, before you write your novel, write the titles of all 50 chapters. After that, just write each chapter like you write your stories.

7963803

The vast majority of stories, no matter the length, are about getting the state of the world and characters from Point A, to Point B.

The length of the story is determined by how many obstacles are in the way, and how long it takes to get around them.

Do the characters need to gain information, skills, opinions, feelings, etc? How do they get those, and then how do they apply them to solving the problems they're faced with?

Say a character might need to find a magic sword to defeat a bad guy. Simple enough premise, but the length of story you can draw from that premise is boundless depending on how many obstacles are between the character and the sword!

Does the protagonist need to find the information on how to find the sword if it's hidden away somewhere?
Is there some sort of innate worthiness that the character needs to achieve during their quest to be able to take the sword from its resting place?
Or maybe they need to win the trust of a group of people who are guarding the sword?
Or maybe the villain has a monster guarding it, and the protagonist has to develop the skills to fight the monster.
Why is the protagonist the one going after the sword anyway? Is there some sort of emotional turmoil they need to overcome before they're ready to face the villain?

So long as it makes narrative sense, you can just keep throwing obstacles in there until you reach a story length you're happy with.

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Thank you all kindly for your advice.

7963803

Yaʼll have any advice?

My advice is that it's ok to read any advice you are given, but it's also ok to ignore or reject any advice you want to try ignoring or rejecting, or that you find doesn't seem to be working for you.

I also think there are a LOT of explanations and 'explanations' of 'three act structure' out there, and different explanations can and do differ, so you'll have opportunity to pick from different ones.

I don't think of it as one long story but a collection of smaller interconnected stories. Each chapter has its own structure, climax, character development, and what have you, just like any other short story. The difference is everything doesn't get resolved at the end of each chapter, because each of those short stories is part of a bigger whole and eventually builds to an ultimate conclusion.

Some new to long stories come in with a basic idea and wing it, thinking they can make it up as they go, but I honestly wouldn't suggest this. If you don't know where the story is going, it's tricky to figure out how the current chapter gets there. You don't need a seven act structure map or a detailed outline for that, but I would suggest that you at least have an ending in mind.

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Seconded. I've never found use for act structure maps and to be honest I don't think they're very applicable to novels the way they are to film. Especially not when the story isn't plot driven in the first place.

7963803

Personally, I would say not to worry about using a 3-act structure since it may or may not fit the story you want to write or risk having to throw in filler to have it be a 3-act story.

But if you really want to give a 3-act structure a try, I would first see how a story of between 6,000-7,000 words (but I wouldn't recommend aiming for a word or chapter limit; something I learned the hard way) could be broken up into three major parts, or "acts", then go from there. Alternatively, you could always try thinking a little smaller and instead try more stories with more than a single long scene, such as a 2-scene story, even if the 2nd scene would be more of a follow-up to the first scene.

Alternatively alternatively, you could try to expand on something that would be a single long scene into a bigger, more expensive story. For example, that "Relapse" story of yours could have theoretically been expanded in this way if its starting point was to before Starlight started to fall apart, and the first part/act 1 could have been what triggered it to start happening and her immediate response. Then what was the whole story would have been act 2, and a theoretical act 3 could have been a scene post-Starlight's apology, perhaps when Twilight and Starlight were alone again., although having this 3-act story would have probably made it considerably over 7,000 words.

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Yeah, there are so many different ways of writing a story often even two good pieces of advice will conflict.

A three act structure is a way to write a story, but it is far from the only way to write a story.
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Episodic structure works well in fanfiction, especially in longer fics (200k+ words).
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Ultimately, what is the best structure for a story heavily depends on it's genre and premise. The advice for a slice of life story would be vastly different than the advice for an adventure story.

Do you have an idea of what you would like to write?

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Thank you.

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What Iʼm aiming for here is something longer than my average. And itʼs not just about the word limit.

For a while now, Iʼve been wanting to a complete story, where the characters do things, do more than just talk. A story with a full plot, something that feels not movie-like, but more like one of the showʼs episodes.

To answer your question, 7964142, I want to write something light-hearted, fun that carries the spirit of the showʼs episodes.

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For a while now, Iʼve been wanting to a complete story, where the characters do things, do more than just talk. A story with a full plot, something that feels not movie-like, but more like one of the showʼs episodes.

Hmm. Well, if you want a story that has more than characters talking about something that had (or will) happen, if you happen to have a scene in mind, you could have that led to the scene and/or the events that follow. That way, the characters would "do something" that would lead to the scene in question or would happen after said scene, and thus should (likely) make for a longer story. Otherwise, a story where the characters don't just stay in one place and have multiple scenes due to it can help too, despite how a few canon episodes do have the characters stay largely in one place the whole time (i.e. "Look Before You Sleep"). From personal experience, I would suggest not trying a story that is either a "post-canon episode" story or one that could have happened in between canon scenes of an episode. I noticed that those in particular can be tougher to make into a more full-blown story that's more in line with what you want to try out, unless you can greatly build on it to have more happen.

But one thing I forgot to say is probably the single most important and has already been touched on; you gotta have a premise for the story (not just its overall tone) that can (naturally) be as long or can otherwise structured as the type of story you're looking to write. Which would be a big problem if you don't currently have any premises that can fit such a story. This is coming from someone whose bread and butter is lighthearted stories, since only a few of them are structured in a way to also be comparable to the show's episode on their own, even if many still had the overall tone of canon episodes.

But I saw that your last story had an editor. So if you have more premises that would be a single scene and doesn't have enough happening for what you want to try, maybe you and one could bounce ideas on how to expand it into a longer story that you're trying to write? If you haven't tried to do so already, it could be worth a try.

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Then i think a looser story structure might be best.

So something like this might be what you want.

1. Main Character doing daily routine.
2. Something unexpected happens.
3. This causes something else to happen.
4. Repeat step 3. several times.
5. The previous events result in a final event.
6. Main character talks/writes about what they learned from the day's events.

It's simple and vague, and it should be pretty easy to follow. It's also the story structure most episodes follow.