{"id":910,"date":"2013-09-22T07:53:59","date_gmt":"2013-09-22T11:53:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=910"},"modified":"2013-09-22T07:53:59","modified_gmt":"2013-09-22T11:53:59","slug":"the-long-and-the-short-of-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=910","title":{"rendered":"The Long and the Short of It"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Iconic scene from “The Third Man,” based on Graham Greene’s novella.<\/p><\/div>\n

When I used to hand out writing assignments to people, a question they always asked was \u201chow long should it be?\u201d I\u2019m afraid my initial response wouldn’t be terribly helpful,\u00a0 and I\u2019d say something like, \u201cIf it\u2019s War and Peace<\/i>, keep going; if it\u2019s boring, a page is too much.\u201d\u00a0 But then I\u2019d end end with \u201cOh, about 15 pages, double-spaced. That\u2019s all we have room for.\u201d<\/p>\n

In fiction, really, there are no similar space constraints; instead, \u201cthe dictates of the marketplace\u201d set the limits. Literary magazines tell you what short story length they will accept. For novels, traditional publishers generally have a 90,000-100,000-word limit on what they will consider from an untried writer. Stephen King and Neal Stephenson and Thomas Pynchon can do as they please.<\/p>\n

What I thought of as the final draft of my first novel came in at 135,000 words. I hadn\u2019t given the total number a single thought. It was what it was. Fortunately, my good friend Sandra Beckwith<\/a> (book publicist extraordinaire) caught me up short and directed me to several good websites (See The Swivet<\/a>, or All Write \u2013 Fiction Advice<\/a>) addressing the question of length. Before querying the first agent, I took electronic scalpel (also known as the delete key) in hand and cut characters, scenes, and dialog so that it now is a more svelte 99,000. Painful, but necessary, and I\u2019m ever-grateful to Sandy for stopping me from embarrassing myself. In writing my second novel, I avoided some of the traps that led me into overwriting and finished the first draft at a slim-and-trim 70,000 words, which gives plenty of breathing room to enrich the story as needed during the revision stage.<\/p>\n

For a while now, observers of the publishing scene have commented on the rising popularity of the novella<\/a>\u2014more than a short story in complexity and character development, less than a novel in plot twists and digressions. While novels today typically run 90-110,000 words, or about 300+ printed pages, acceptable lengths for novellas vary widely, anywhere from a long short story (10,000 words) to a short novel (70,000 words).<\/p>\n

The popularity of these shorter forms is attributed to readers\u2019 shrinking attention span; publishers\u2019 reluctance to invest in producing an expensive book that isn\u2019t a guaranteed best-seller; and reading habits, with Kindle, Nook, and even smartphones lending themselves to presenting shorter works.\u00a0 \u201cReaders aren\u2019t as aware of page count in the electronic realm as they are in a paper book,\u201d says author Jeff Noon in a recent Forbes story<\/a> by Suw Charman-Anderson. Kindle Singles<\/a> are an example, and their inventory includes short fiction by best-selling writers.<\/p>\n

Novellas also are less demanding on the authors who write them.\u00a0 A novel \u201cis a huge emotional investment, and it can be risky to put all your creative eggs in one basket if things go wrong,\u201d Charman-Anderson says, yet novellas let authors practice plotting and character development and develop their voice. And they provide the joy of actually finishing something. For self-publishers, they are a boon.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s face it: some plots and some ideas just don\u2019t lend themselves to longer formats. Cut the flab and you have a more compelling read. Some of the most focused and powerful English-language storytelling has been via the novella, and an illustration of their strength is how easily they have lent themselves to dramatization and our continued attention, starting with the grandmum of them all:<\/p>\n