Expanding a Snippet into a longer story or serial?

I have a story/serial brewing in my mind, and wrote out a bit of the start to it, and realized that it would make a nice (to some tastes, at least) snippet. Would it be interesting to readers to potentially read a snippet, and then to read a full story that fleshes it out, fills holes, and re-casts things in a different light, some time later? (It would probably include the original snippet verbatim, or close.) And would it break site rules to duplicate the content of the snippet in the longer story?

In the longer story, it would be seen that everything is not as it might appear in the snippet, which is part of why reading the snippet separately might be a different/interesting experience, rather than just reading it as the beginning part of the longer story.

Would it be possible to use the snippet as a first person 'journal/diary entry' at the start and then have the full story unfold in third person? That could satisfy both approaches while preserving the differing experiences for the reader.

Hmm, for reasons that would be a major spoiler, it would be weird for the story to be told in any format other than first person (and it must be from the spanker's perspective). I'd have to think about whether or not that would still apply for the snippet. Generally I love stories from multiple points of view, but I don't think that will work here. However.... that does give me other ideas!

I do not see any problem with your idea, as long as the ending is not given away.
It would be most annoying to read the snippet, think 'Oh yes thats sounds good', and then realise I would have to wait till the next bunch of stories or even the ones after that are published to be able to read it properly. A sort of torture!!
It would be interesting to see if the final story actually keeps to the snippet, I find that as I write a story it changes and develops, often becoming something quite different from the story i had in my mind when i started.
I suppose the snippet would be part 1 and the story itself part 2 of a serial, so that the reader knows there is a snippet.
Fascinating idea.

I consider a snippet its own artform, saying everything that needs to be said in no more than 300 words - a story with a a beginning, middle and end, only condensed. I would no more add a 301st word to one of my snippets than I would a fifteenth line to a sonnet or an 18th syllable to a haiku (supposing, of course, that I would ever actually write a sonnet or a haiku).

That's only me, of course. Other authors are free to bastardize their sonnets as much as they please.

Interesting, njrick, I've always considered a snippet (not that I've succeeded in writing one yet -- I thought I had one but I was wrong on the maximum word count) to be rather more of just a middle -- something you come into "in media res" and have to imagine the beginning and ending of, though both may (should) be suggested in the snippet itself.

The dictionary definition of snippet is "a small piece or brief extract" -- so I disagree that it needs to be a complete story on its own, though of course it should be enjoyable to read as a stand-alone piece (or else what would be the point of publishing it, after all). I see the "art" of the snippet as being in extracting just the right piece, while leaving the rest to the reader's imagination.

So the experiment would be, what if later, the author filled in one possible "rest of the story" -- would that ruin it? Perhaps. Perhaps it would be fun to invite others to also publish their imagined "rest of the story" stories. Perhaps it would be a fun Challenge contest -- take a really vague snippet, and ask everyone to build a story around it. I think a lot of the art there would be in creating the snippet with enough potential "range" to permit many very different stories to be built. (Similar to a picture challenge, but with a word picture.) Anyhow, just some of the many ramblings of my warped brain...

I, for one, would enjoy reading a snippet and then reading a story based on that snippet, it is kind of like watching a short film, then watching a full length film based on it. I often read a snippet, or a story, or even a series, and imagine more that comes after it. I think it would be fun.

I'd say go for it unless our site owners have an objection. There are only so many ways to tell a story, so if you've come up with a new angle then share it.

BTW, I like your idea of a "snippet" experiment. I've only written one, called "The Brave Princess," and it took place entirely in the recipient's mind (she envisions herself as a brave princess facing her execution in front of the crowd, when in reality her dad is about to spank her in front of everybody at the family reunion). So I could follow the concept of your challenge by expanding what she did wrong, other people's perceptions, describing the belting, etc. to turn it into a full blown story.

Sounds like that would be quite the challenge if we were given something really vague to work with.

Like Rick I think that the snippet is an art form all of its own, but unlike him I don't think it needs to conform to the same rules of a longer story such as a drabble or a mini-saga which are complete stories in short.

I think that the snippet is a place where a single idea can be tried out, for example a scene described without back story or ongoing narrative, and it is precisely the absence of history or closure which gives the snippet its value. The writer places the picture in the reader's mind and gives full authority over for much more to be imagined - or for the picture just to be absorbed lightly for what it is, and not where it might have come from.

Having said that, there's nothing wrong with the author subsequently wondering what happens and executing their own vision of the longer story. I myself have done that in a story here; the prologue of "Never too Old" just appeared in my mind as a single brief scene, and only after that did I wonder who the characters were and what was their story, and so I set about trying to find out.

I think this is a splendid idea and I think there are a multitude of stories/snippets here that would benefit from an expansion. The thing is that it can work both ways. A snippet is a lovely and often humorous story, but it often leaves you wishing for me, so to first read the short and then the expanded version would be nice if you ask me. It would be sort of reading the Reader's Digest version first and then the real thing... Or it could be like the Game of Thrones, the TV version moving in a slightly different direction than the books, the snippet not being exactly the same, so the story wouldn't just be 'more of the same'. The possibilities are endless. I'd love if you gave it a shot, a great story can be written in many ways and some deserves it as well.