History Main / PatchworkStory

* In the 1980s, Creator/MercedesLackey published several Tarma and Kethry stories in CreatorMarionZimmerBradley's ''Sword and Sorceress'' anthology series. Then, after publishing the first few ''Literature/HeraldsOfValdemar'' books, she did some ArcWelding and compiled some of the short stories into ''The Oathbound'', with a little editing and fresh interstitial tissue between them (including a few references to Valdemar) to make them more of a narrative. The third Tarma and Kethry book, ''Oathblood'' is an anthology that includes some from ''The Oathbound'' and some stories that hadn't been compiled, as well as a few new ones, but each chapter is fully discrete.

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[[folder: Literature]]
* The [[Literature/ArabianNights One Thousand and One Nights]] are a collection of Arabian stories held together by a framing device, in which a well-read young woman recites one story a night to a king who intends to kill her, yet always feels compelled to wait till the following night to hear more; by the last night he has fallen in love with her, and they get married.

* Joe Haldeman's ''All My Sins Remembered''
* Several of Creator/IsaacAsimov's most famous books, including the first three ''Literature/{{Foundation}}'' books as well as ''Literature/IRobot''.

* Clifford D. Simak's ''City''.

* Michael Swanwick's ''The Dragons of Babel''.

* ''LightNovel/TheGardenOfSinners'' is a downplayed example: while it invokes the appearance of a patchwork story, between its multiple sub-novellas appearing in an AnachronicOrder, having wildly fluctuating lengths, and getting written and published over a period of several years, it is not so much a compilation, as a single novel with multiple expansions. The first to be written were the first five chapters/novellas, ''Overlooking View'' to ''Paradox Spiral'', which are also the only ones to fully employ AnachronicOrder for thematic effect. Nasu then wrote and published two more novellas, ''Oblivion Recorder'' and ''Murder Speculation, Part 2'', a year later to round off dangling plot threads. Ten years after the original publication, the story was again expanded with ''Future Gospel'', consisting of a short story set a decade after the main story, and an {{interquel}} novella. Then ''another'' five years down the line, Nasu was cajoled into writing one more novella, ''Final Record'', which borders CanonDiscontinuity and isn't typically included with the main body of the novel.

* Bradbury's ''The Illustrated Man'' is a number of short stories with a FramingDevice about the titular Illustrated Man. All the stories are seen in his tattoos.

* ''Literature/TheShipWhoSang'' by Creator/AnneMcCaffrey is a compilation of previously-published stories with one new story/chapter at the end to round things off.

* The Literature/VorkosiganSaga volume ''Borders of Infinity'' by Creator/LoisMcMasterBujold, which adds a framing narration to tie together three novellas.
* A.E. van Vogt's own ''The Voyage of the Space Beagle''.

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[[folder: Western Animation]]

* About half of James White's ''Literature/SectorGeneral'' books are stitched together out of short stories.
* Several of Creator/IsaacAsimov's most famous books, including the first three ''Literature/{{Foundation}}'' books as well as ''Literature/IRobot''.
* The Literature/VorkosiganSaga volume ''Borders of Infinity'' by Creator/LoisMcMasterBujold, which adds a framing narration to tie together three novellas.

* Pretty much every ''Literature/WildCards'' novel.
* Ray Bradbury's ''Literature/TheMartianChronicles''.
* Bradbury's ''The Illustrated Man'' is a number of short stories with a FramingDevice about the titular Illustrated Man. All the stories are seen in his tattoos.
* Creator/StephenKing's ''Literature/TheGunslinger'' was originally published as a series of short stories/novellas (hence its more episodic nature compared to the rest of ''Franchise/TheDarkTower'' series).
* The book ''Berserker'' is a collection of Creator/FredSaberhagen's "Literature/{{Berserker}}" short stories linked together by narration by the Third Historian of the Carmpan (alien) race.
* Creator/LarryNiven's ''Literature/KnownSpace'' "novels" ''Flatlander'' and ''Literature/{{Crashlander}}'' are actually his Gil "The Arm" Hamilton stories and Beowulf Schaeffer stories (respectively) collected together and given [[FramingDevice an external story]] to fit into.

* ''Literature/TheShipWhoSang'' by Creator/AnneMcCaffrey is a compilation of previously-published stories with one new story/chapter at the end to round things off.

* Michael Swanwick's ''The Dragons of Babel''.
* Clifford D. Simak's ''City''.
* Creator/OrsonScottCard's ''Literature/EnderInExile'' stitches together several pre-existing short stories with some new story and narrative. Important characters from the beginning and end of the book are not present in the end and beginning at all.
* ''Literature/TufVoyaging''
* A.E. van Vogt's own ''The Voyage of the Space Beagle''.
* Creator/RaymondChandler's first ''five'' Literature/PhilipMarlowe novels are cobbled out of earlier stories, as [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raymond_Chandler_bibliography#Novels noted]] at Website/TheOtherWiki.
* The ''Literature/RangersApprentice'' books started out as a series of short stories by the author to get his son interested in reading before he decided to make them into a coherent series.
* Joe Haldeman's ''All My Sins Remembered''
* Large portions of M John Harrison's ''Signs of Life'' were originally published as stand-alone short stories, although probably planned from the start as a novel.
* Creator/RobertSilverberg's ''Literature/TheWorldInside'' was expanded from about five short stories set in the same universe.
* The [[Literature/ArabianNights One Thousand and One Nights]] are a collection of Arabian stories held together by a framing device, in which a well-read young woman recites one story a night to a king who intends to kill her, yet always feels compelled to wait till the following night to hear more; by the last night he has fallen in love with her, and they get married.

* ''Literature/TheLastWish'', the first book in ''Franchise/TheWitcher'' series, is actually a compilation of six short stories previously written by Andrzej Sapkowski about Geralt, with a FramingStory added to hold them together. The stories are presented in AnachronicOrder, with the first one, ''The Witcher'', being the last one chronologically.
* ''Literature/AHeroOfOurTime'' originated as three serialized novellas, ''Bela'' (1838), ''The Fatalist'' (1839), and ''Taman'' (1840), united only by their protagonist Grigory Pechorin and setting, Northern Caucasus. They were then compiled into one big novel, with the author adding the short story ''Maxim Maximich'' and the (almost novel-sized) novella ''Princess Mary'' to the first omnibus edition in 1940[[note]]in the since-canonical, but still {{anachronic order}} of ''Bela'', ''Maxim Maximich'', ''Taman'', ''Princess Mary'', and ''The Fatalist''[[/note]], and a foreword [[AuthorTract explaining his authorial intent]] in the second (1841). Lermontov also wrote what is essentially an OriginsEpisode for the recurring character of Maxim Maximich, titled ''A Caucasian'', in 1840, but it historically isn't included in the canonical novel, but sometimes published under the same cover as a companion piece.
* ''LightNovel/TheGardenOfSinners'' is a downplayed example: while it invokes the appearance of a patchwork story, between its multiple sub-novellas appearing in an AnachronicOrder, having wildly fluctuating lengths, and getting written and published over a period of several years, it is not so much a compilation, as a single novel with multiple expansions. The first to be written were the first five chapters/novellas, ''Overlooking View'' to ''Paradox Spiral'', which are also the only ones to fully employ AnachronicOrder for thematic effect. Nasu then wrote and published two more novellas, ''Oblivion Recorder'' and ''Murder Speculation, Part 2'', a year later to round off dangling plot threads. Ten years after the original publication, the story was again expanded with ''Future Gospel'', consisting of a short story set a decade after the main story, and an {{interquel}} novella. Then ''another'' five years down the line, Nasu was cajoled into writing one more novella, ''Final Record'', which borders CanonDiscontinuity and isn't typically included with the main body of the novel.
* ''Blood's a Rover'' by Creator/HarlanEllison, a fix up of ''Literature/ABoyAndHisDog'' and the other stories about Vic and Blood. The final part of the book is in screenplay format, as Ellison passed on before he could convert it to prose.
* ''Literature/GhostRoads'': The first book, ''Sparrow Hill Road'' (2014), was originally a group of short stories published online in 2010.
* ''Literature/{{Dispatches}}:'' The copyright page states "Portions of this book were originally published in ''New American Review'' no. 7, ''Esquire'' and ''Magazine/RollingStone''." The reader can only guess about which portions were published where.

* The original ''Kingmaker'' tabletop campaign for ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}'' has a MonsterOfTheWeek format, with little connection between the stories of its six modules. The CRPG adaptation ''VideoGame/PathfinderKingmaker'' welds them into a single coherent MythArc, with the final module's ArcVillain Nyrissa being turned into TheManBehindTheMan to the {{Arc Villain}}s of the preceding modules.

* ''Animation/AdventuresOfMowgli'', the Russian version of ''Literature/TheJungleBook'', is a series of shorts which are sometimes released or shown as a single movie.