Oct

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Standard lengths of different forms of fiction

Filed Under Guidelines, On writing, Writing advice, Writing tips 

Maybe the difference between a novella and a novel isn’t that clear to you. How short is a short story before it’s too short and has to be called something else –shorter?

These questions don’t really need hard and fast answers. No one likes being pigeonholed, after all. But that doesn’t mean a little guidance isn’t helpful.

I found this page that gives some good averages for different manuscripts. I wouldn’t buy into the idea that they are as set in stone as the author says, but they do give you a good rule of thumb.

Some take aways that come from it are that a short story is something that you can read in one setting. A novella might take a little more, but will still be too short to cover a lot of characters, and should instead be a really in depth view of a narrow topic.

Then there is writing for the internet. In that case, shorter is probably better, unless you can really hold the reader’s attention.

Since I’m not sure this post is doing that, I think I’ll leave it there.

Comments

One Response to “Standard lengths of different forms of fiction”

  1. Drew face! on October 16th, 2008 1:47 pm

    Last sentence was funny…

    But yes… I never really quite understood the length of a piece and why it is important. As I reader I prefer shorter books (100-300 pages). Longer books(600-1000 pages) tend to lose my interest very quickly… Unless of course the book is a back to back page turner with exciting twist. So I suppose the length of a piece is dependent on your audience.

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