This is probably a silly question...

[sweet_sex_kitten]

But can someone tell me how long a story can get before it is considered a novella?? And if you have a really long story, what is the best way to post it? In chapters or whole? *laughs* Just sharing a glimpse at my curious but ignorant mind.

SSK

 

[Starblayde]

I'm writing a hugely long story, its in about 8 chapters with about 6-8,000 words in each.... it it no where near finished....

THAT'S a novella...

 

[KillerMuffin]

At Lit, that really depends a lot on the story and how you break it up.

Mark Singer is a fabulous writer in these parts and he puts out novellas. You open up his Roberta and you're looking at one that's 9 web pages long. It really should have been broken up into parts. People can be put off by having to read so many pages in one sitting, after all they're coming here to get off not get literary.

Essentially, though, short stories tend to run up to about 8,000 to 15,000 words. I'm not really sure about my numbers, but that's what I am remembering right now. Anything longer than that is a longer story, categorized as a novella. If you think your story is long enough to split into chapters or parts, then you may want to consider doing so. If you have more than two or three parts, clumping them in the novella category isn't a bad idea. It's a good idea to stick it in the novella category if you're covering several categories. If you write about, oh, Mary's adventures in sexuality and she gets it from ten guys, up the butt, with her best friend, and from her brother, then you've got four categories. Keeping them together is easier in the novellas category. Some people prefer to keep all 12 chapters in the incest category, or in the group sex category. All told, it's what you prefer to do.

 

[sweet_sex_kitten]

Thank you!

StarBladye,
Wow, that is a really long story. What's it about?

 

[sweet_sex_kitten]

Thank you!

KillerMuffin,
I can't believe you took the time to answer my question! Thank you so much for the wonderful amount of information you gave me. I really appreciate it!






SSK

 

[Starblayde]

Re: Thank you!

StarBladye,
Wow, that is a really long story. What's it about?

Its a grand sci-fi space opera...One man and at least 10 women in an elite unit...big on war, big on politics, big on sex...

Its almost out of control!

 

[Guest]

SSK,

I'm not nearly the contributor the KillerMuffin is, but my personal guideline is try to keep short stories to one or two pages, so about 5000 words for the web. More than that, break into chapters if you can find a nice breaking point.

In saying this I realize I have one entry that is 3 pages long, but that was more trying to find the pacing and rhtyhm of the story than trying to make it conform to a rule. The prime rule fo writing should always be "what is best for the story?" and then go from there.

As far as the difference between short story and novella....well, novellas are longer, but I've yet to see anyone say "novellas are at least X pages." so just use your own best discretion. I've yet to see anyone get kicked out of this community for misusing the term "novella". However misusing the word "clitoris" will require you to do remedial reading ;-)

Salvor

 

[sammas]

length of a novella

i'm fairly certain a novella is 20,000 words or less

 

[chrisfromlondon]

Novellas

Hi there,

This is a tricky one, I find. I like to develop a story with several episodes. (eg my Kate saga and Bet between Brothers).

I find that, once you get beyond Kate 3 or 4, the number of hits reduces as people don't want to start in the middle of the story and certainly won't take the trouble to go back to Kate 1. Unless they are so captivated by Kate 4 that they want to read it all.

I am not too worried about votes but like to think people are reading my stuff and feeding back comments.

Also I am too impatient to wait until I am finished and then posting as a Novella. Maybe I will try this instead.

I will have a look at your work and let you know what I think.

Sorry to ramble!

Chris