I've a Novella?

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No, She Went Because Cole Porked Her.

Ha ha, always start with a joke.

But seriously...

How long does a short story have to be before it is a novella? How short does a novel have to be before it is a novella? Do you like novellas? What is your favourite novella? Do publishers hate and detest novellas?

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller), Tuesday, 28 September 2004 09:40 (twenty-one years ago)

What is your favourite novella?
Shawshank Redemption

― Fred (Fred), Tuesday, 28 September 2004 12:21 (twenty-one years ago)

A novella is a short story. The reason we don't use "novella" is because we use the term "short story". (What, are we supposed to learn Italian, now?)

What the difference between a novel and a novella is is a matter of judgement. It all depends on which criteria you are using to define novel. Is it simple case of magnitude, or are you interested in formal differences, too? If the latter, you'd be edging towards an academic study of genre.

I would simply look at the length and use my common sense.

― SRH (Skrik), Tuesday, 28 September 2004 12:27 (twenty-one years ago)

I've got to tell you: 25,000 to 35,000 words are numbers apt to make even the most stout-hearted writer of fiction shake and shiver in his boots. There is no hard-and-fast definition of what either a novel or a short story is - at least not in terms of word-count - nor should there be. But when a writer approaches the 20,000-word mark, he knows he is edging out of the country of the short story. Likewise, when he passes the 40,000-word mark, he is edging into the country of the novel. The borders of the country between these two more orderly regions are ill-defined, but at some point the writer wakes up with alarm and realizes that he's come or is coming to a really terrible place, an anarchy-ridden literary banana republic called the 'novella' (or, rather too cutesy for my taste, the 'novelette').
-Stephen King (afterword to Different Seasons)

― Fred (Fred), Tuesday, 28 September 2004 12:40 (twenty-one years ago)

The Hugo and Nebula Awards (for science fiction) have the following categories
Novel: a work of 40,000 words or more
Novella: a work of at least 17,500 words but under 40,000 words
Novelette: a work of at least 7,500 words but under 17,500 words
Short story: a work of under 7,500 words

Publishers tend not to like novellas and novelettes so much because they're too long for magazine publication (I think the SF magazines split them up into different issues) but too short for independent publication.

― Ray, Tuesday, 28 September 2004 13:06 (twenty-one years ago)

I like novellas, particularly "Seize the Day" by Saul Bellow. Perhaps I enjoy seeing a writer forced to write tightly, or perhaps I just have a short attention span.

― Hurting (Hurting), Tuesday, 28 September 2004 13:25 (twenty-one years ago)

Some favorite novellas:

Capote's Breakfast at Tiffany's
Pelevin's The Yellow Arrow
Kafka's The Metamorphosis

― zan, Tuesday, 28 September 2004 13:45 (twenty-one years ago)

Jim Harrison has done several good ones including Remains of the day.

― Ike Stephenson (Ike Stephenson), Tuesday, 28 September 2004 14:15 (twenty-one years ago)

Isn't Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro? I didn't look it up but I'll check. Or is there another Remains of the Day?

― Hurting (Hurting), Tuesday, 28 September 2004 22:35 (twenty-one years ago)

There is a novel called that by Ishiguro, yes - obviously there may be another of the same title.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Wednesday, 29 September 2004 08:39 (twenty-one years ago)

Ah -- apparently Jim Harrison wrote or worked on the screenplay for the movie.

― Hurting (Hurting), Wednesday, 29 September 2004 21:21 (twenty-one years ago)

Thank you all, especially Stephen King.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller), Thursday, 30 September 2004 08:38 (twenty-one years ago)

Novella

― jed_ (jed), Saturday, 2 October 2004 03:12 (twenty-one years ago)

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