Novellas...

[BedtimeStories77]

i have a feeling this is the right board since this question is not a Story Idea or Story Feedback one.



i've been working on a story about/for a co-worker that i begun playing with several weeks ago. (i'm not even "caught up" with real time in the story yet!!!) And this tale is 10,000+ words now!

So, i'm wondering if there is a "set formula" for breaking up the novellas into more than one submission on Lit. i mean, in the past, when i've tried to set up "chapters" for submissions i've left the previous one with a soft ending with slight closure. (And then the tale would pick up in the next submission.)

In a submission such as this one, though, would i be able to "break it up in half" (or whatever) or should i still try to come to a "part one soft ending"?



Thanks!

 

[oggbashan]

10,000 words isn't a lot. That's only a few Lit pages.

If you are going to break the story up you really need to plan the breaks beforehand. The chapter should be complete in itself with a beginning, a development and a conclusion which could be a cliff-hanger for the next chapter or a place to move on to another part of the story.

Breaking a story just because it seems too long is not a good idea.

You could look at my Flawed Red Silk series. In total that is 50,000 words broken up into twelve unequal length chapters. The first chapter is introductory and the last wraps up the series but the other ten are complete in themselves.

Breaks in a story should appear natural and not like "We'll take a break for a message from our sponsor".

Og

 

[BedtimeStories77]

Thank you for that insight. Yeah, i can see how it may not seem "long" by the Novels/Novellas standard, but i rememberd seeing the 7,500 word minimum listed for that category if one is participating in Survivor.

Anyway, i've always broken up "chapters" in past stories with cliff hangers, etc. Guess i'll do that with this submission as well.

 

[Weird Harold]

Thank you for that insight. Yeah, i can see how it may not seem "long" by the Novels/Novellas standard, but i rememberd seeing the 7,500 word minimum listed for that category if one is participating in Survivor.

Anyway, i've always broken up "chapters" in past stories with cliff hangers, etc. Guess i'll do that with this submission as well.

That 7,500 word minimum for the survivor contest is less than many stories on lit that aren't even close to being novellas -- it is almost exactly two Lit pages (figuring 3,767 words/[age on average.)

Forcing chapter breaks/cliffhangers onto a story is likely to do more "harm" to the story than "help" it. If the story doesn't have natural break-points I"d just post it as a single story rather than trying to spread it out over several submissions.

 

[BedtimeStories77]

Thanks Mr. Harold. Right now i don't quite see an end to the story. i figured that once i "caught up" with real life i'd decide if the story would turn fictional at that point or if i'd wrap it up. But i'm still about a "week behind" in writing.

i do know i wouldn't have "forced" an ending/break though. It would have had to come naturally on its own. i'm just a bit antsy about getting it on Lit now. Had an "update" condensed version in the Playground going on.