How do you tell if you’ve written a Short Story, a Novella, or a Novel? I’ve seen this question asked by other Writers a lot. So I felt like it would be a great next topic to cover.
Normally you will hear me say or rather read, that I am all for creativity and letting your story tell you the length of a paragraph or chapter. In this case however, we do have a spectrum of guidelines to follow.
Short Story
-A short story generally should be 3,000 – 4,000 words.
– There are some that are on the smaller side at even 1,000 words or less (which could also be called Flash or Micro Fiction at 53 – 1,000 Words).
-Basically from what I’ve researched, as long as it’s under about 30,000 words it can be considered a Short Story.
-If you’re looking to publish in this market you are typically looking to publish with Lit Magazines, or publish as a collection.
-In this case you are describing a single event or tale in a characters life.
-Publishers in this market lean more towards the general range for a Short Story word count.
Novella
-A Novella is typically 30,000 – 60,000 words.
-Which has also been considered even if it’s longer or shorter In some cases.
– Being even as short as 17,000 words at times.
-There are also Novelettes out there which in my mind could also be in the range of a short story between 7,500 – 17,000.
-These will generally be considered to be published as a collection with another Authors works, or a few Novellas of your own at a time.
– I have seen many cases though where it is published on its own and although the profit margin can be low, there are many great ones out there.
-Basically in a Novella you will see a little more character and plot development than in a short story but not as complex as a full length novel.
Novel
-A Novel is generally considered to average between 40,000 – 100,000 words.
-I consider a novel to be between 40,000 – and the sky is the limit words lol.
-I have seen Novels anywhere from 200 – 1500 Pages so the amount of words is extremely flexible in this case.
-Most novels are published with a traditional publisher or even self published nowadays.
-In a novel you have a lot more room to develop characters, Develop the plot, and advance the story in several ways. You can tell a characters whole life in one novel (you’d have to be very creative but you could). Numerous moments in a characters life can be told.
-You also have the ability in a Novels case, to tell the story of several characters if you wanted to.
My spectrum of guidelines obviously focus on the three main types of works. I know it can be difficult to figure out what type you are writing because there is so much mixed information out there. Hopefully this post helps you.
When I first started writing short stories I had to do the research to figure out roughly the amount of words I should stick to. The first thing I did was make sure I stayed in that range and then over the years I’ve noticed the number change several times over for the general rule of thumb. So it does vary but if you stick to the range than you should be fine as far as publishing would be concerned.
Originally I based my novel lengths off of page numbers rather than word count lol. I surpassed 400 pages in my current novel and I decided it had to be two parts because it was going to take probably close to 400 more to tell the rest. Based off of reading numerous books over that amount of pages, I realized that 800 pages for my first published novel may be a little daunting for a reader to pick up for a new Author. My very first novel that I wrote, that is sitting and waiting to be published in the future, is over 300 but I knew that was going to be a three part series when I started.
Considering the information that I’ve provided in this article, what type of literary work is yours considered? Does it stand in the category or Short Story, Novella or are you going straight for the full length novel? Whatever the case may be, follow the guidelines but remember all stories come in different lengths, shapes and sizes. No two are alike and that’s wonderful. Avoid restricting yourself to the point where it damages the story you are trying to tell. Above all have fun with it, you have one chance to publish the story you want to tell but only one life to live so enjoy the little things.
The links to my YouTube channel where I will be expanding on some of my blog post topics (I am trying to post a new video every Thursday) and Facebook pages are below the following image. So is the place to type your email in, so you can follow my blog and get an update every time I post something which I try to to every Wednesday and Friday.
Thank you for reading my blog. Until Next Time…JUST KEEP WRITING.
Tiffany’s Writing Journey 