Novella vs Novel - do you target one or let it "happen"?

I generally just let the story take as many words as it needs. I don't set out to write a novel or novella, but I can usually tell by the time I'm done with the outline what it will be. My only two novellas so far were 20,000 and 35,000 words, which was right about what I anticipated once the story was outlined.

http://www.mantex.co.uk/2009/09/20/the-novella-guidance-notes/ seems to do a pretty good job of explaining the differences...I was wondering the same myself.

Novels are much more publishable than novellas.

For me personally, I always plan for novel-length unless the project is a graphic novel or screenplay.

I've never written a novella - I've tried a couple times, but subplots and secondary characters have always jumped in as I wrote, bumping the word count up dramatically.

I think that's the difference, for me - in a novella, I would think the writer would need to focus quite tightly on the main story - otherwise, there wouldn't be room to give it enough depth for it to be satisfying. In a novel, I'd say, the writer can expand her vision a little, making the world richer and and deeper. (Sorry if this is what Collectonian's link says - I couldn't get it to come up).

So, to answer your question - I guess I plan length, but then it doesn't end up making any difference, and I always seem to write novels. Maybe I could write a novella about two people trapped alone in a windowless room...

I sometimes plan for a novella. My characters laugh in my face. I write a novel.

I can't write novella's (at least not romance). I have a hard time making it come together so quickly, and being believable. If anything, I write way too much, and have to cut back.

Yeah, that's my problem too. The shortest thing I've ever written was 47k, and that was an adaptation of a shitty trunk novel from years back which was 150k first time round. I cut out words, yes, but also plot threads and characters. I could put those characters back in, I guess, but I wanted to see if I could write a novella, and have it complete in itself with a short word count.

47k being short compared to my other books. Another 15-20k and it'd be a novel. Go figure.

Hope it sells.

I know, but then I outline before I start. If I didn't, I'd end up with 200,000 words of jibberish. After about 15 years.

Flicka said:

I know, but then I outline before I start. If I didn't, I'd end up with 200,000 words of jibberish. After about 15 years.

Click to expand...

This.

Generally speaking: yes, you do have to cut back on secondary characters and subplots because there's just not enough room to develop them properly. I find that I employ a different style of writing --tighter, more sparse prose.

It's all about the money. If not for you, then certainly the publisher!


Novella--less writing because of shorter word count, simpler storyline

SMALLER market. Few are ever in books in the stores and usually wind up on specialty online sites that pay royalty-only and do not count as a pro credit.

Collections of bookstore-shelved short works are usually by invitation only and include the top-selling authors of the genre.

Exception--Harlequin "shorts". (Sorry, but putting romance and shorts in the same sentence just makes me giggle. ) They offer a line of ebooks of shorter length, but established writers are favored. HQ's branding does make for bigger sales.

Novel--can be as short as 53K words, again with HQ category, depending on the line.

The money is better, there are more novels published than novellas, and the club doors are wide open to anyone who can write well.


I don't just let my words happen. I absolutely write for money, though I'd write anyway.

Toward the end of getting paid for my work I go for full novels.

Single titles make better money than category titles, according to my agent.

This list is a bit out of date, but should give you an idea of payments.

Always look at the lowest numbers. New writers don't get paid much!

http://www.brendahiatt.com/id2.html

I write 105K to 115K. I know how much complication and how many subplots I can fit into that space -- how much story I can tell. I pick and choose what goes on stage to match my target length.

How do I know how story action relates to word count? It's not like there's a standard number of words for The Cute Meeting or The First Love Scene or The Chase Through Interesting Scenery or The Mano a Mano at the end.

I'm going to get all vague and hand-wavy here and say . . . "I feel it."
When you look at the story you have to get through, you know the number of words you're going to generate. I think this comes from writing lots of words. A million maybe.

Now, in this particular story I'm working on right now, the structure is a frame story with two 30K substories. It's like writing three 'interior novellas'.

(If you want to see this in action, look at any of RA Heinlein's later, longer works. They are essentially 'novella' collections around a central theme. The novella was RAH's natural milleu. You can parse out his books as a series of 30K-40K subsections.
If the novella is your own natural writing form you could not pick a better mentor in how to turn novellas into novel-length work.)

Anyhow, this is the first time I've written a short form. I find it spare and in some ways unsatisfactory, but I'm learning a lot, which is why we write, after all.

I (loosely) plan it out.

For the novellas I've been working on, I've had contractual limits to stay within, so I had to be careful. For the novels, I just made sure they were at least 80K, not more than 120K. Other than that, I had at 'em.

Writing shorter isn't a problem for me. I have to fill out a novel, anyway. But I've done several between 4-10K, so I don't think the 20-25K novella I'm working on now will be a problem.

As for novels, I'm glad to see a couple mentions of going a little over 100K, cuz I have one I just finished the draft of that I've ended too quickly trying to stay under that. I really don't know how long a book will be until I type "the end", though....at least for the first time. Comes with being a pantser.

I write novella length easily, but have never written a novel. My longest work is 40k, which comes out later this year w/Aspen Mountain Press. I'm working on a category length contemporary. E pubs publish scads of novellas and often have submission calls for them.

I write just one plot line, no subplot.

I've done and sold both - well, I've written short stories too. The book I just signed the contract for LEGACY, started out as a novella and just kept growing until it became a full novel. I agree - no sub-plots in novellas, there just isn't room.

As for the market - lots and lots of e-pubs now take novellas, mostly in erotica but not all. My novella, MYSTERIOUS GIFT, is erotic paranormal romantic suspense (how's THAT for a mouthful!) and has been doing very well.

Carlene

Roman Circus
Legacy – pub date 9/27/2010
www.nobleromance.com

Mind Echoes
Stormy Love
The Worst Evil
www.whiskeycreekpress.com

Call Sign: Love
The Colors of Death
An Extra Pair of Eyes
www.writewordsinc.com

Finder
www.wildchildpublishing.com

Mysterious Gift
www.cobblestone-press.com

I find myself writing novellas now, and even my novels were typically shorter than the average. (The editor of my very first novel asked me to add 20,000 words-- that was difficult!)

I'm fairly new to writing so I've just been writing novella length stories...None are satisfactorily finished though my next story (once im done with my current one) will hopefully be novel length.

Is it easy to get published? Or really hard? And how do you even pick which publishers to submit to?

I write for specific target markets and thus for a certain length. I did one novella over the summer specifically to submit to Harlequin Nocture Bites and keeping it within the word count requirements was difficult.

I specifically write to the market. Although, admittedly, I do write long. My "short stories" often nudge the novella market, but I can trim when required. Thousands of words if necessary. But I always let the editor decide what they want cut. So, in a way, I write until I'm done, but I always have a target length in mind.