Embarking On My First Novella
I HAVE DECIDED to try to write a novella, just for fun. I have written a couple of short story anthologies, which I acknowledge are not marketable. Whether you write children’s fiction or adult fiction, major publishers seem to want one thing and one thing only — novels. I don’t feel like I am up for writing a novel, so I am going to shoot for something in the 20,000–30,000 word range instead.
The widespread, modern shunning of short fiction by major publishers continues to puzzle me. The one consistent comment I have received about my anthologies is that everyone appreciates the short story format. The average person does not read many books, and that same average person has probably never held a short story collection in his or her hands. I often get a kick out of people trying to figure out what my book is (You mean there are a bunch of different stories in here? I love that!) Nevertheless, the big publishers have decided that they only want novels, and that’s that.
The longest story I have ever written was about 12,000 words. I have made a few attempts to write novellas, but those stories usually fizzled out after 10,000 words. I simply ran out of ideas to keep going, or became bored with the story, or both. But this time, I am going to try to just keep running with the story until it turns into something more substantial.
I split my time about 50/50 between writing adult fiction and children’s literature, and the new novella I have started will be for middle grade readers. What I have learned with this new venture is that with a novella, there is plenty of space to spread your wings and take your sweet time. I am appreciating this new freedom to go into great detail about every little thing, without having to worry about the story becoming too long. If one of my characters is talking to her friend while waiting to get on a school bus, there is plenty of space for details about the character, her friend, their dialogue, what the bus looks like, things that the weird bus driver says and does, and what their journey is like. Does the character own a dog? If so, feel free to spend 10 or 15 pages describing the dog’s character, what she looks like, and the shenanigans that the character gets into with her dog. This all seemed like a lot of work at first, but the more time I have spent on the novella, the more the process has become somewhat normalized.
It is a bit of a challenge to write a novella when you do not prepare an outline. I never outline my stories — I just sit down and write them. So far things have been working out all right with this first novella, only because I have a mental outline as to where I want the story to end up. But it is somewhat of a daunting feeling when you have only written 6,000 words, and you have many more miles to go. It is kind of a nice feeling, though, to know that you are sitting down and getting comfortable with characters and situations that will be keeping you company for the next several months.
I can already tell that editing will be more difficult with a novella, as every tweak to the plot will often require the necessary corresponding changes to the earlier portions of the story.
I am not writing this novella to make money, although I will at least make an attempt to find an agent and shop it around, once it is completed. My patience with the business end of publishing is quite limited, as I already have a busy life and I don’t need any more headaches. I would therefore be just as satisfied independently releasing my novella as a paperback.
Will I enjoy writing a novella more than I enjoy writing short fiction? Maybe, but I am a short fiction writer at heart. Sometimes it’s good to break out of your comfort zone, though, so I am going to give this novella thing a try. Wish me luck!
© J.S. Lender 2020
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