I’ve mused before about whether writing short stories is really something I want to do. I’m not usually especially thrilled by reading them, and the main reason for this is that, well, they’re short. Just as I’m starting to like (or loathe) a character, and get into the story, then it stops. I think I can safely say that at least as my tastes stand at the moment, I’m really a novel reader.
But – there’s always a but – I recently found the information about an interesting novella contest. It’s being run by the online journal Fail Better (love the name!) and it’s their 10th anniversary novella contest. Free to enter, a $500 prize, but most importantly, the incentive to write a novella before the closing date of May 15, 2010. You know how I love a deadline!
I’ve never really contemplated writing a novella before, I must admit. But the idea definitely intrigues me, and with all the different ideas for novels that I have floating around in my head, I’m sure that once I examine them a bit more closely, there’s bound to be one that is better suited to a novella. For the purposes of this contest at least the Fail Better people are defining a novella roughly like this:
Length is obviously the main criterion, i.e. the thing should be longer than a short story, and not so long as a novel … one could argue—as have certain critics, whose names we wish we remembered—that a novella, in order not to be a novel, should focus on one story and one set of characters, not spending appreciable time on others, of either. In order not to be a “mere” short story, it should go into more depth, about both.
Perhaps the definition is what sparked my interest, because going into more depth about characters and story fixes the problem I have with the short story, but the length means that it’s more manageable than a novel. So, my goals are:
- Sit down and brainstorm all the ideas for novels I’ve had – this is useful just of itself, to prevent me losing a few that I’ve probably never written down anywhere.
- Figure out which of these ideas is best suited to a novella. That is, I guess, which one is concentrated solely on a relatively small set of characters. The contest guidelines also say it should be a novella that can be readily serialised, so I’ll need to think about the plot lines for that.
- Make a plan of how much to write and when, so that I have plenty of time to finish it before the deadline and still have a chance to edit it well.
- WRITE IT!
As usual, I’ll keep you informed. In the meantime, I’m curious to know if any fellow writers out there have written novellas, and how was the experience? Was it significantly less painful than writing a novel, or much the same? Please let me know any experiences you’ve had with novellas in the comments.
Tags: Fail Better, novellas
Thanks for the link – I wrote a novella a few years ago – the difficulties I encountered are now evident to me, in that I find my story turned out rather flat.
.-= Greg´s last blog ..This Microwave Is Pissed =-.
No problem, Greg! Sorry to hear your novella turned out a bit flat … did you ever re-use the idea for a more compact short story or did you just abandon it? I spent a half-hour yesterday brainstorming ideas but haven’t found the right one for a novella … yet. I’m determined to give it a go, though.
I just found this post a year and some months later! I still think it applies, though, so I’m going to answer.
I finished my first novella (I wrote a romance, which I’ve never done before) a couple of months ago, and have been getting ready to shop it around. Today is the day I send it out! Yikes!
Anyway, I’ve written a novel (a very rambling, uncontrollable thing), and the novella was significantly easier. I know that I learned a lot from the experience of writing a novel and what not to do (DO NOT wing it, DO follow the scenes you plotted out in Excel), but I also felt that a novella was an enjoyable length for me to write, and a workable, not-so-intimidating goal. I just finished plotting out my second one (a horror this time; I write in almost all genres), and am excited to start.
What about you? Did you ever give it a shot?
Hi Sandy,
Yes, comments are never too late! It sounds like what I suspected is true – that a novella might be a more manageable project and probably very exciting. My two novel manuscripts so far did teach me very similar things to you, but I’m still trying to assimilate those lessons to be able to write a third.
I didn’t end up writing that novella (I was pregnant back then and ended up with pregnancy-induced carpal tunnel and couldn’t type for months!) – I still have the outline, and I still want to write it, although I’m also considering fleshing out the idea a bit and making it a regular novel. I can’t really decide!! But your success is inspiring …
Good luck with it too, how exciting to be sending it off today! YAY!