Recently I started working on a short story which will soon be a giveaway to my newsletter subscribers. Except I ended up writing a novelette!
What is a novelette, you ask? And are you suddenly wondering about the definition of a novella or even a short story?
I’m here to demystify some of the forms of fiction for those of you who are readers and not writers.
A Short Story is typically defined as a work between 1,000 and 7,500 words. (A few sources even go up to 10,000 words.) To give you some context for this, a 7,500-word story in 12-point font, double-spaced, on an 8 x 11.5 page would run somewhere in the neighborhood of 35-40 pages, depending on things like lengths of paragraphs. This means a 1,000-word short story would be more in the neighborhood of 5 pages.
Many authors will include some kind of short story as a giveaway for signing up for their newsletter. It’s a quick read. But beyond that, it feels like the short story form is rare these days.
A Novelette falls between 7,500 and 17,000 (or 19,000, depending on your source!) words. This kind of work goes beyond a short story but remains shorter than a novella. Because it contains a greater word count range, the story can have a bit more scope or depth than a short story, but the plot and characters will still be relatively straightforward. This is the length in which I’ve found myself in my current story.
A Novella generally runs between 17,000 and 40,000 words. This length allows for more secondary characters and even a subplot. Often you find novellas as an “extra” story to a series, either as a prequel or an epilogue, or the story of a minor character within a series. You might, like me, read a lot of novellas around Christmas, since many authors will put out a Christmas-themed novella. Below you’ll see examples of novellas from some of the authors on this blog!
Of course, a Novel is considered a full-length work of fiction, but the word count definition of a novel is more nebulous. It’s basically anything over 40,000 words. My novels for Guideposts came in between 60-65,000 words. My Bethany House novels were all around 90,000 words. There are authors on this blog who have topped well over 100,000 words in their books! Fantasy books often exceed even that.
These are just the “accepted” guidelines. Obviously there are books which get labeled differently, but you get the gist.
As an author, I most enjoy writing novels, but I got my start in short stories. I have indie-published two historical romance novellas and now I can add novelette to my repertoire of literary forms. Some stories don’t need an entire novel to tell. And some can’t be told in anything less. The job of an author is to figure out what form serves the story best.
I hope this breakdown has helped you understand these forms of fiction in a bit more tangible way.
Do you have a preference—short story, novelette, novella, novel—in your reading?
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Hey, D’Ann. I’ve written 13 novellas, both historical and contemporary (usually in the 20k length range). And I just finished writing my second short story; it will be part of a collection that releases in the fall. Although most of my reading and writing are novels (ranging from 50k to 90k), I do love to read novellas. Some times I am just in the mood for a quick read.
I agree that sometimes a shorter read is just what you need. I am always amazed at the number of works you’ve written!
Fun facts, D’Ann. 🙂 I had never really thought about novelettes until, like you, I wrote one. Ha! I was aiming for a short story and ended up going over that 7,500 word limit. Not by much. The story is still pretty short, but for some reason it sounds more professional to call it a novelette, so I leaned into that label. 🙂 Looking forward to learning more about your novelette!
I think it’s hard to do an actual short story when you are used to writing full-length novels or even novellas! It’s so easy to suddenly run over the word count from one form into another. 🙂
What a fun surprise to see one of my novellas pictured in this post! I’ve written one short story and five novellas in addition to my novels. Each time, writing something of shorter length was a fun creative challenge! (Also easier than writing a novel because my novels are so long and complex.)
I agree! It’s a good exercise to write in different length projects!
My favorites are novellas and novels. The reader in me feels sad if the story is any shorter. I always want to know more. I am planning on writing a novella in the next year; it’s a challenge to me because I tend to be a long-winded writer. 🙂
Good for you to give it a try! Shorter forms are always a good exercise as a writer but yes, as a reader I always want more! 😂
Thanks for the info graphic and explanations. I’d wondered how many pages was considered a novella since there are authors that don’t always follow that. Looking at you, George RR Martin! (I’ve not read his work but know fans of his “Game of Thrones” books)
It’s hard to calculate pages because the size of font, the size and the page and the amount of white space on the page (like lots of dialogue) make it hard to compare. But if you think of it as how many pages in a Word document, that helps a bit.
Great info, D’Ann. I’m going to file this away to refer to when I teach at writers conferences because it’s a question I often get. Thank you!
Yay! Happy to help!