question about novels and novellas?

[Sateema Lunasi]

I am working on a rather long story, and I wonder what constitutes as a story, versus a novella or novel?

How long must a story be to be a novella? Or a novel?

Just curious.

 

[Weird Harold]

I am working on a rather long story, and I wonder what constitutes as a story, versus a novella or novel?

How long must a story be to be a novella? Or a novel?

Just curious.

I'd start thinking in terms of posting as a novella at about 10,000 words. Novels run about four to vie times that.

 

[vmystere]

Novel/Novella

There are few hard and fast rules concerning this question but there are general guidelines. A short short story is usually less than 2,000 words. A short story usually runs from about 2,000 words to more than 12,000. A novella is usually more than 10,000 words but less than 60-70,000 words. (Again, this is open to interpretation) My novel SUBMISSION (posted on this site) is a very small novel -- about 60,000 words. A normal length for a novel is greater than 75,000 words. So, use your own discretion.

VM

 

[Closet Desire]

Semantics...

...they're right (IMO) about it being mostly semantics. Novella was originally the term for stories which followed the Spanish picaresque and preceeded the novel (The Rise of the Novel, Ian Watt). The length was only a part of it as there were other factors involved as well concerning plot development, character development, and manner of language.

Short stories can vary widely in length but all tend to focus on one main event or tale. These are suitable for use in anthologies. In our anthologies we look for short stories of 2,000-10,000 words. If I can fit twenty of them into a book I call them short stories.

Novellas are more fully developed and we usually consider something up to 30,000 words although we use the term "short novel" aka The Mammoth Book of Short Novels. If I can fit three to six of them in a book then I call them short novels.

The shortest work we call a novel is 60,000 words and that's a bit on the short side unless it's more an episodic collection of short stories. 80,000 is a nice size while 100,000 is a big book that costs more than most people want to pay. If I can fit one into a book I call it a novel.

Short, medium, long...that's pretty succinct for an academic!