Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Novel v. novella

Where is the line between a novel and a novella? According to Wikipedia:
novella (also called a short novel) is a writtenfictionalprose narrative longer than a novelette but shorter than a novel. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Nebula Awards for science fiction define the novella as having a word count between 17,500 and 40,000.[1] Other definitions start as low as 10,000 words and run as high as 70,000 words.
I'm at about 27,000 words in my draft. I may finish under 40,000, a novella. I doubt if it'll go more than 50,000. The story is reaching the crisis which structurally is the low point, the end of act two. I'd like to finish under 40,000, I think. I don't want any fat, especially is such a layered structure and strategy, where it takes time for the order of the narrative to make its impact.

I keep plugging away.

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