By: Novel Now
Learning how to write a novella is excellent preparation for
writing your first novel. It is great preparation even if you are an
experienced author because it enables you to work
out charactersand themes more extensively than a short story does. Writing
a novella gives you helpful scaffolding for an expanded and more detailed book
or series. Read on for a definition of the novella and 6 essential tips for
writing one:
Defining the novella
The novella is a work of fiction that is longer than a short
story but shorter than a novel. The acclaimed author Ian McEwan describes the
novella as ‘the
perfect form of prose fiction’. McEwan suggests that the average
length for a novella is ‘something… between twenty and forthy thousand words,
long enough for a reader to inhabit a world or a consciousness and be kept
there, short enough to be read in a sitting or two and for the whole structure
to be held in mind at first encounter.’
Writer’s Relief extends the upper word count limit of a novella, saying ‘The exact word
count is not set in stone: 30,000 to 60,000 words may be an appropriate
length.’ Whichever word count range you take as your guide, there are several
important ways in which novellas differ from standard-length novels. These give
rise to several crucial tips:
1. ‘The
architecture of the novella’: Structure your novella expertly
. . .
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