In a recent discussion, @AislingWeaver recently brought up the issue of length when it comes to publishing. Not too long ago, Taylor Antrim wrote a very good article on the novella. And just last month, Joe Fassler wrote an article on the novella’s recent resurgence for the Atlantic.
There’s a notable literary gulf between the 10,000 max word short story (very few anthologies will accept anything more than about 5,000 words) and a 60,000 word novel (the minimum word count for a novel, for most publishers). Are there not stories that require more than 10K and less that 60K?
The obsession with the word-count and, therefore, the page count, has been a significant reason why the novella has, until recently, been seen as an anachronistic and literarily unimportant form. You still see very few literary reviews on novella length works. And yet some of the most magnificent works of the late 19th and 20th Century have been novellas. Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. George Orwell’s Animal Farm. Jacob’s Room by Virginia Woolf. The Dead, by James Joyce. Almost all of the most celebrated writers of the 20th century have written novellas. But…commerce has gotten in the way. How do you price one? In print, a novella costs almost as much to print as a novel, and yet you can’t charge the same amount of money. Readers will balk when they’re asked to pay the same for a 30 page novella as a 120 page novel.
Happily, the advent of the ebook has put an end to that particular issue. The novella is a wonderful length for an ereader. And many of the small ePresses, especially in the erotica genre, are producing them.
But what makes a novella a different beast is more than just its length. Novellas seldom have more than a single narrative voice. They seldom switch POVs. They tend to follow one set of characters down one, very deep, rabbit hole. A novella offers the writer the opportunity to truly delve into a character. It affords them time to be lushly descriptive of setting and atmosphere. It allows for depth and complexity in plot with no dilution.
For me, the novella is the perfect experiential journey length for a single main character. I don’t need to tack on side-plots to bulk out a story. I don’t need to reveal multiple points of view and dilute the reader’s experience of immersing in a very close, interior relationship with the main character. It allows me to luxuriate in the subjective experience.
I think the novella is an exceptional form for erotic fiction. I’ve often read erotic fiction short stories that simply don’t offer enough depth of character to make the sex in the story really contextual. And similarly, I’ve read many erotic fiction novels where, frankly, I felt that scenes just went on too long, or spurious conflicts were dropped in to bulk out the story into novel length. Sometimes, they just needed a bloody stern editor.
What do you think of the novella? Have you written one? What’s your favourite one?
I love novellas, but then Joyce’s The Dead is one of my fave all time stories.
I’ve written one story that hit 18kwords and two others that his 30kwords. I find 30kwords to be a very nice length. As you said, it lets me have a deep rabbit hole. My favorite that I wrote is Dealing with the Devil, where I needed that length to hide the clues to what the antagonist was plotting. If it was shorter, they’d have been obvious. If it was longer, well, it would’ve required secondary plots.
I suspect I’ll write more, as my ‘natural’ lengths appear to be 5kwords, 12kwords, and 30kwords. That’s just what seems to spill out.
I agree. Well, purely on a personal basis, the stories I have in me are all in the 30,000 word range. I used to feel really inept for not being able to produce novel length works. But I’ve recently begun to realise… no… this is the story. And this is how long I think it needs to be to be told well with no excess.
As a reader, when I get to the point where I’m sitting there, shouting at the pages “oh, fucking GET ON WITH IT!” Once I reach that point, I don’t trust the writer not to waste my time anymore and my relationship with them becomes one of lost trust. It’s odd, but when I encounter writers who don’t piss around and waste my time, I’m theirs for life.
Interesting question, and one where art and commerce don’t necessarily intersect. A story is best when it is as long as it should be. The novella examples you provided more than prove that point. What about Melville’s “Bartleby The Scrivener”? Honestly I enjoy it much more than _Moby_Dick_.
If the e-format allows writers to focus on craft rather than marketing (in this example, at least) then I’m all for it.
Oh, Bartleby the Scrivener is a great example of a perfect novella. And yes, I agree with you. It’s far more powerful than Moby Dick was for me.
The novella, it has been said, is the ideal length for Science Fiction–long enough to explore an idea or a concept, without being too long and becoming flabby
I think if there’s any worldbuilding to be done, a novella can sometimes be a little short. But if it’s a plot that doesn’t require an alternate universe, then for sure, it’s a great length.
Funny you should say that, I’m partway through the 2nd draft of a comedy/thriller (sort of) novella (about 30 000 to 40 000) words.
I think the ebook revolution will change far more than we yet realise about the writing trade. The distinctions between lengths: short stories, novellas, novelletes, novels, series and so forth being one of them, and the artificial distinctions of genre another of them.
I like “The Dead” too; several of the longer “chapters” of Ulysses could be considered as novellas.
Curiously, National Novel Writing Month has 50,000 words as the target for a novel. I thought modern novels were usually 80,000 — 120,000 words.
I completely agree. I think novellas are a fine length to tell a short, tight story with more plotting or character work that you’d get from a short story, but not as much sprawl as you’d need to fill out a novel. Some genres just work better as novellas IMO – erotica in particular, but I also think horror can function better without dragging stories out too long. Of course, some genres need the breathing space of a novel – Crime, Fantasy, Sci-Fi come to mind.
Similarly, I think some writers are just better with novellas than novels. Stephen King stands out to me – most of his novels tend to be bloated and feel endless, but I think his novellas (e.g. Four Seasons) are absolutely perfect. Clive Barker is another than springs to mind (e.g. Books of Blood, Hellbound Heart).
Novellas are SO under-appreciated. I had to read The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde for my course this year and I felt there was such art to a story that tells only what it needs to tell, and does it well. Also… A Clockwork Orange, and The Turn of the Screw.
Actually, thinking about it, novella form also lends itself well to horror. I’m sure The Fall of the House of Usher is almost a novella.
I haven’t written one yet, but I definitely feel that’s where my writing needs to land, eventually. By the way, RG, your novellas are truly wonderful and precisely constructed.
My endings are pretty weak, actually.