Writing Tips: Short Story, Novella or Novel
This can be a difficult thing to determine. Is your story idea going to make a better Short Story, Novella or Novel?
In something you have already written, the easiest way to determine what size story you have is to look at what you have and pull out any and all fluff. Did you write a lot of unnecessary words while you pondered the plot of the story? If you did, you need to go back and pull all of that extra information that does not help the story along out of the piece.
Now don’t get me wrong… some of that fluff may come in handy at a later date when you expand on the story or you write something else in the same world. Don’t get rid of it. Just place it in a separate word document.
What about an idea? Well… If you have a scene in mind that can be complete in one sitting, it obviously should be a short story. The difference between a Novella and a Novel is basically word count. Now I would not fluff your story so it can be the size of a Novel. Why? You will end up boring your readers with the fluff. If you are done writing the story, leave it as a novella. Look into selling it as a series to a magazine. You will just have to break it up.
- Short Stories range between 100-10,000 words.
- Novellas range between 10,000-60,000 words
- Novels start at 60,000 (some say 80,000) words and I have seen them go all the way up to 200,000+ words.
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If you have other ideas on how to find story ideas, write a comment. I would love to hear how you are inspired.
