One of the trendy, ‘buzzworthy’ words going around writing
circles is the word NOVELLA. I’m not saying that it’s a new word; in fact, it may be more
hipster-ish than new. In fact, Salma
Hayek would champion the word in association with her ‘Ugly Betty’ series; and,
Latin American soap opera stars on Univision would embrace the word as originally
belonging to their profesión. What I am saying is that I’ve noticed a trend
away from the full novel-length stories towards the shorter more niche
novellas. So, what’s the difference?
Actually, the Italians get the nod for the creation of these
fictional prose narrative writings. It
usually takes up the cause of a single character, replete with multiple
sub-plots, twists and ancillary characters.
A novella will usually have a word count of between 17,000 and 40,000
words.
For those of us trudging towards our world-changing novel, or
maybe we’re riding the NaNoWriMo pony this month, this option is really
appealing. The story I’m currently authoring
is probably going to come in at around 30,000 words or so. Even if I flesh out the imagery a little more
or do some deeper character development, it’s still not going to reach
40K.
So, if you’re not quite ready to make a run at a
Sanderson-length story, you might consider a nice, petite novella. Here’s a little research on the market for
novellas:
·
Some regular literary journals accept them. John Fox (BookFox) has assembled a pretty
good list of
literary journals that accept novellas.
·
Try a boutique
press.
·
Send your work to a novella contest like the Faulkner Wisdom Competition.
John Brandon had an essay on novellas picked up by the New
York Times a couple of years back in which he suggested that novellas are in their
Golden Age form right now, that novellas are more handily adaptable to film
manuscripts, and that three short novellas are much more interesting (and
probably more marketable) than a big, clunky novel.
Perhaps I’ll finish this post and start working on my ‘next
great American novella.’
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