Graphic by Peg Ihinger
Curious about people’s thoughts on natural length. Mine seems to be the novella (first work was 26k and second is just under 50k) which is awkward for doing anything with in traditional publishing (and I am not cut out for self publishing). –Rose
What do you do with novellas?
Novellas have been a somewhat awkward length for a long time. They were too long for most short story markets (and even those magazines that did include occasional novellas generally only published one per issue, tops, so the market for them was even smaller than that for short stories). They’re too short for a novel, even back in the days of the old Ace doubles.
Electronic publishing has eased this situation somewhat, but a lot of people don’t want to invest the time and energy in self-publishing. I have a vague notion that there are some actual paying electronic markets out there now that would take them, but I am unfamiliar with that market because I don’t write novellas. Maybe someone in the comments has suggestions? There are also online nonpaying web sites, similar to the ones for fanfiction but intended for original fiction, if all you want is some readers. I don’t know a lot about those, either, because…well, they don’t pay.
That leaves me with things I do know about. Most of which is on the writing end of things.
The first thing to look at is, are these actually novellas, or are they underwritten novels? I know a couple of writers (not many, but some) who routinely underwrite—their first drafts run around 40-50,000 words. The remaining 50,000 or so words get written during revisions, when they put in all the stuff that got summarized or not included at all in the first draft.
Sometimes, the writer leaves out things that they take for granted—they’re so very obvious (to the writer) that they forget they never actually wrote the bit where the villain kidnapped the protagonist’s sister. Other times, the writer summarizes things they don’t want to write (because they hate doing action, or conversations are hard, or they’re not confident about their ability to write X thing). Or things can get bypassed simply because the writer is in a hurry to get to the “good part.”
Revising at this level can be a struggle for a pantser who loses interest once they know what happens. However, even for some of them, doubling the word count of an existing story can be easier than getting a coherent plot written in the first place.
Assuming you are faced with an actual novella, there are four possible approaches to turning it into something novel-like:
1) Write a series of connected stories about the same character(s),
2) Create a “B” plot for the same protagonist/viewpoint character,
3) Create a second protagonist/viewpoint character with their own plotline that braids across the plot you have,
4) Learn to write novels…
Writing a series of connected novellas around the same character, resulting in either a collection or a “fix-up” novel, is probably the simplest approach. It works best with a protagonist who is appealing and interesting, and who has a job or lifestyle that means they’re going to keep having interesting adventures all their lives. The writer can then write a novella about how the protagonist solved their first murder and got hired by the detective agency, followed by a novella about proving their worth to the skeptical partner by solving their second case, followed by the two working together on their third, and the three stories can become a fix-up novel.
Alternatively, one can write a novella that solves the immediate situation (say, the protagonist has escaped from the dungeon and gotten safely out of town) but not the actual problem (he’s still stranded with no money in a country where he doesn’t know the language). This leaves room for a connected novella where the protagonist takes on a dubious job to get the money to get home, which of course drags him into a new set of problems.
Adding a “B” plot for your protagonist/viewpoint character is just what it sounds like: coming up with something else that is going on at the same time as the main plot, but is less important. The “B” plot can be directly related to the main plot (the sidekick has decided to make a documentary of the protagonist’s heroic adventure); related to the main character (the protagonist’s romance in an action-adventure, or their external adventure in a romance); or just something else the character has to cope with while solving the “A” plot-problem (their kid wants them to chaperon a school field trip).
A braided novel usually means a second protagonist/viewpoint character with their own “A” plot-problem that happens across the same time as the first and that (ideally) comes together at the same climax, so you can “braid” the two stories together to make a longer one. You alternate scenes, chapters, or sections until both protagonists end up solving their problems at the same time.
Learning to write novels…is like how you get to Madison Square Garden: Practice, man, practice. It’s figuring out how to expand your focus a bit so you can juggle several plotlines or sequences on your first pass (or accepting that your process is just going to involve layering plots and subplots together after you have a novella-length zeroth-draft, if that turns out how to be the way you work.)
I think I’m going to expand on each of the first three methods—the fix-up, the “B” plot, and the braid—in the next couple of posts, because I have a lot more to say about them.
LATE EDIT: It also occurs to me that 50,000 words is generally an excellent length for middle-grade to young adult fiction, so that might be something to look at, especially if you’re doing coming-of-age adventures.
Tor.com seems to do a lot of novellas, and online magazines (with which I am unfamiliar) also don’t suffer the limited page-space of the old pulps. But as Pat says, someone else will have to chime in on those.
One still faces the problem of one’s work not fitting the focus or “editorial needs” of any given web-mag in that market.
Self-publishing routes around the latter barrier. I’ve done one actual self e-pub, a family history chapbook, through Kindle Direct Publishing, and the learning-burden is not small. I was, however, pleased to discover a few excellent help videos on YouTube that walked me through the whole process. I still needed help from more savvy friends for some of the harder bits. KDP itself tries to help as well, though it more tries than succeeds.
There are also people to whom one can hire out all the formatting and uploading, for a suitable fee. If I ever do this again I’d certainly look into those for the formatting, though I’d prefer to upload myself to keep ownership clear.
Looking forward to the next posts…
Ta, Lois.
Tor.com hasn’t been open to unsolicited subs in ages, unfortunately, and submission windows at any other places I know of that take novellas are few and very far between. It’s not impossible, but it makes the general short-story market (which is awful) look positively welcoming.
Even when you are indie, it helps to have two novellas, or some other short works, and stuff ’em together as a collection. Like Treachery And Spells — two novellas together.
Come to think of it — I did publish A Diabolical Bargain indie, but first I tried trad, and toward that end considered its length.
Its natural length was, at first, 50,000 words. I looked at further developments in the times when nothing much was happening, and additional relationships. I got it up to 100,000 words.
I think I mentioned in the comments last time that I did find novellas were sometimes the natural length for a story — with romances, in particular, which might not involve enough complication to spread out over a novel, but would be too abrupt in a short story.
When I went looking for a market for such stories, I found the Wild Rose Press, which does publish novellas as e-books. They tend to specialize in romance, but they like to expand into other areas, and they welcome hybrids like SF romance, fantasy romance, paranormal romance . . . They put out a couple of mine, so I can recommend them. https://wildrosepress.com/
I seem to have a novella-sized hole in my own span of natural lengths. I have a bunch of short stories, some novelettes, a couple of stories at the very short end of novella length (on checking, just over and just under 19,000 words), and a fistful of novels. My 20,000 to 50,000 word range is conspicuously empty.
My novelettes and two novellas seem more like short stories where the plot grew longer and more twisted, requiring more words to reach the end, rather than truncated novels or pieces of novels.
Lucky you. I had to work through that hole.