children's novella...how to set up?

infinitus_kaze · Apr 19, 2007

I'm currently working on preparations for a children's novella as a present for my nieces and nephew. I'm using their names as the character names and making their characters fit their personalities. My question is thus: since I'm writing a novella, should I divide it into chapters or should I divide it into sections like a part 1 and part 2? I've never written a novella before, so I don't know what to do. The story isn't long enough for a full novel and I don't want to shorten it into a short story. I've never seen a child's novella before, so I don't know how they would look. All I've seen are full length novels, short stories, and picture books.

Cindyh2k · Apr 19, 2007

That would depend on how long each section would be - if you broke it into Part One and Part Two and then found each part to be a little long, you could then break each part into chapters.

Cindy

Soccer Mom · Apr 20, 2007

How many words are you considering and what age level?

infinitus_kaze · Apr 20, 2007

I haven't given consideration to the length in words, but I'm writing for around age 8-10.

Soccer Mom · Apr 20, 2007

I'm just wondering why you feel that it's too long for a short and too short for a novel. Age level makes a difference in length for a novel. MG can be a wide range. I would write the story with chapter breaks and see how long you end up with before deciding it isn't novel length. You might find subplots and such that surprise you.

infinitus_kaze · Apr 20, 2007

I know approximately how long it will be in double spaced pages in Word, 100-150, which is too long for a short and too short for a novel.

ghost · Apr 20, 2007

Actually a middle reader novel is supposed to be between 25 to 30,000 words so at 100-150 pages would be considered a novel.

Soccer Mom · Apr 20, 2007

Yup. I see sites (publishers and agents) who go as low as 20K for an MG novel. You should be fine.

moondance · Apr 21, 2007

I get the impression though, guys, that kaze is preparing the book for relatives and thus will be self-publishing or printing - so the market length for a MG novel is kind of irrelevant.

infinitus_kaze · Apr 21, 2007

I will actually be trying to get the book published under a traditional house. Writing it as a present to my nieces and nephews (using their names) is just something special I wanted to do for them instead of the usual dedication page.

moondance · Apr 22, 2007

Oh, I see. Then the market length is kind of relevant then

Best of luck.

writerterri · Apr 23, 2007

My daughter's reading a chapter book that has 123 pages. Some of the chapters are two pages long. I think you should use chapters because you get to name each chapter.

writerterri · Apr 23, 2007

But it's not MG. Nevermind.

laurenem6 · Apr 23, 2007

100 pages is a bit long without many breaks. I'm going with chapters. But you can make them as long (or short!) as you want! Good luck!

moondance · Apr 25, 2007

For the age range 8-10, I'd make sure there are lots of chapter breaks. Can you borrow some books they already read and see how they are set out re: chapters?

children's novella...how to set up?

infinitus_kaze

Brutally honest...to a fault

Cindyh2k

Soccer Mom

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infinitus_kaze

Brutally honest...to a fault

Soccer Mom

Crypto-fascist

infinitus_kaze

Brutally honest...to a fault

ghost

Hey, that's my bike!

Soccer Mom

Crypto-fascist

moondance

infinitus_kaze

Brutally honest...to a fault

moondance

writerterri

It's a dorky day!

writerterri

It's a dorky day!

laurenem6

moondance