Blogger: Michelle Ule
Filling in for Janet Grant who is traveling.
Novellas are the rage these days and many people are writing them or putting together collections. I’ve got four tips here for how to write a novella, based on the five I’ve written for Barbour Publishing.
With only 20,000 words or less, you have to be careful. You can’t really include much subplot, characterizations need to be simple, and you have to plan the story so it makes sense, has a character arc, and ends in the proper place without cramming in too much at the end.
If you’ve got a lot of story, like I did in The Gold Rush Christmas, it can be a challenge.
Here are the four steps I took to write a novella
1. Chart out your story.
While I had the original synopsis accepted by my editor, I had done more research in the meantime and needed to tweak it a little.
The story began in the summer of 1897 because I wanted my three musketeers, Miles, Peter and Samantha, to get caught up in the heady rush to gold-country Alaska. Since A Pioneer Christmas Collection’s stories needed to end with a satisfying romance at Christmastime, the story needed to take place over a four to five month time span ending at Christmas.
I gave each major scene its own chapter–or two, December got a little complicated.
Since I was writing a romance and that means the story is told through two points of view (POV), I noted whose head I was supposed to be in during each scene. Several times I had to switch the order of scenes when one needed to be told from, say, Miles’ POV and it was Samantha’s turn. Having the skeleton helped me keep track of that.
I drew up a matrix and spent a delightful afternoon filling in the squares.
2. Figure out your ending.
I needed to know how my story was going to end before I got there, because I had to be “salting” the manuscript with items pointing to the resolution early on. I didn’t have room to write things that wouldn’t fit into the ending.
Christmas 1897, easy. But why would the couple fall in love? How would I pull off the different strands of story I had included in my proposal to the publisher?
And as I researched and found a fantastic TRUE story, how would I fit that in?
Magic.
3. Recognize your main plot points.
The story started in Port Orchard, Washington, that location was chapter one. I knew they would spend time on the boat sailing to Alaska and I needed to figure out what else would happen on board–so I gave them three chapters to sail.
They ended at a Tlingit village at the end of the story–they had to get there, find what they were looking for and then have the romantic moment.
That left me about seven chapters to fill with “everyday” life in Skagway, Alaska.
Peter decided to pack things over White Pass for other Klondikers. That was one chapter, or at least half of one because it was a powerful scene about what life was like that winter.
I had that fantastic true story. It turned out to need two chapters of its own–but it was the turning point of the tale. I plotted it in.
Once those significant events were placed on the chart above, I could embroider the rest of the story.
4. Let the creativity carry you away but then edit, edit, edit.
My first draft was 22,000 words long, or 10% over. I was satisfied with the story, but obviously needed to trim.
I went through the whole thing excising extraneous words, tightening descriptions, watching word order, anything to cut.
And cut.
And cut again.
Every word had to count–particularly verbs. It’s an excellent exercise!
I turned it in at exactly 20,000 words, even including the lengthy dedication and the historical note at the end.
But when my editor got a look at it, she saw things in the story line that needed changing. We worked together–shaping, cutting, changing, shifting. It was like putting together a puzzle only we were using words–and counting them zealously.
Final tally: 19,998 words. I felt a little cheated, but too weary to stick in two more descriptive words.
I’ve always enjoyed short stories and I’d be delighted to write one again. Indeed, even as I work on my current project–a full length novel–the techniques I polished in my five novellas (The Dogtrot Christmas, An Inconvenient Gamble, The Gold Rush Christmas, The Yuletide Bride, and The Sunbonnet Bride), have proven excellent training.
Do word counts limit your creativity? How do you manage when you’ve got shorter, rather than longer, project to write? Hard or easy?
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Well done, Michelle. Shorter is harder to write than longer. Every word counts.
It’s an excellent exercise–and it’s helpful in expanding your vocabulary! LOL
This is great – an excellent ‘how-to’
* For me, shorter is easier. (‘ve never felt constrained by word counts, perhaps because I wrote for technical journals in which they were very strictly enforced.
Probably because you weren’t writing in a diary with a purple plumed pen, pouring out your deepest thoughts on . . . what was it? IEDs?
To me, it’s also a sign of discipline, which I know you have in spades.
I loved reading your process for writing a novella. I’ve not braved one of those yet. 🙂 I don’t feel constrained by word counts. I usually write and then edit and chop and look for those best verbs and nouns to cut out words.
I can see how your chart would be very helpful to help you see the big picture of the story. 🙂
It’s easier, now, to go back and cut out because we’re typing fast on word processors, but pity the writer from years ago who had to handwrite everything. Ernest Hemingway had some pithy things to say about word choice and how long it took him to craft a sentence, but then, he was also sitting in a cafe greeting his friends while he wrote.
I wrote my senior thesis on Hemingway, which may be why I lean toward the more straightforward prose. But, alas, my sentences are not as bone-beautiful as Hermingway’s.
Hi, Michelle! Thanks for sharing these great tips on novella writing!
Ooooh, Michelle, my friend Becca Whitham writes novellas for Barbour! You guys are novella sisters. But when she told me her limit was 20,000 words I was amazed. I’ve written 3 or 4 full length mss (does middle grade count?) and never sold any of those. But I’ve also written 3 novella mss and am working on a fourth one right now and my goal is always to have a rough draft that is 20,000 words when finished because I tend to add words when I revise. I have never managed to do it, not once! The one I’m working on isn’t done and it’s already over. Luckily, I’m allowed 25,000 to 35,000 words or I’d be sunk. But to answer your question, no I don’t think the short length necessarily stifles creativity. I’ve found that 30,000 to 35,000 words is just perfect for fitting in a 15 point plot outline, if that plot moves along pretty fast. I love your ideas for cutting words and streamlining your plot. A question for you? Why do you think novellas are so popular all of a sudden???
I think novellas are popular because they fill a niche in a hurried market. People are so busy the size of a full length novel can be daunting. Novellas are cheaper in price and offer more variety and thus may seem to be a better bargain.
Pioneer Christmas, of course, is a collection of Christmas novellas, and many people like to take a little time out during the hectic season to read an enjoyable and satisfying story in one sitting.
We’ve also got google brains these days and a shorter book can be easier to read at the end of a hectic day. 🙂
Over on my own blog, I’ve written “What’s a novella and why do readers like them?” You can see it here: http://michelleule.com/2015/05/22/whats-a-novella-and-why-do-readers-like-them/
Michelle, I loved getting a glimpse into your novella writing and congratulations. How many chapters did you have? Do you work with fewer chapters and greater word counts in each … or more chapters with fewer word counts? Is there a typical guideline for novellas regarding the amount of chapters? I don’t know anything about writing them. Did I use “fewer” correctly? 🙂 Cheated two words … priceless. 🙂
From my own writing, Shelli, I know I generally write 2500 word chapters. That’s just my personal rhythm. I divided 20,000 by 2500 and that gave me eight chapters.
I then split each chapter into two scenes: one for the hero, one for the heroine, giving them each 1250 words, which I think is a good pace for a novella.
Looking at the book, now, I see it has 13 chapters . . . so, I must have played with the numbers a little. 🙂
Generally, though, you want to have your chapters about equal in length. If you stick in a short one, that will emphasize whatever happens in the chapter because it’s so different and disrupts the rhythm of the writing.
So, you might deliberately put in a one or two page chapter at the major turning points of the story, traditionally one-third of the way, at the middle and two-thirds of the way in, with a quick wrapping up at the end.
That’s just one suggestion.
If you plot it out beforehand as I did in the above matrix, you can figure all that out before you even get too far into the writing.
Thank you, Michelle … love learning all this from you.
Very informative post. Easy to follow steps. It makes me want to try my hand at writing a novella. I’ve not tried writing fiction yet, but the consideration is there. Great post.
Michelle, is the query-and-proposal process for novellas similar to that of full-length novels? Or is it different since the novellas are typically part of collections and not stand-alones?
I don’t know how to answer your question, Jenny.
All the collections I’ve been part of have come through my agent letting clients know an opportunity has come up.
My guess, and this is only a guess, is if you and some other writers had an idea you pitched to an agent, it would come as a query with all the parts.
The other alternative would be if you had friends pitching for a collection, you ask to join in, but as to how? I’m really not sure.
So, I guess the answer is, I don’t know. I’m sorry.
Thanks. I think I’ll let my agent know I’d be interested…AFTER I write a “practice” novella to see if I’m any good at it. LOL
Loved this, Michelle. Thank you for this informative and helpful post. How fun to come across a “fantastic” true story during your research! I will definitely refer to this if I ever write a novella, an idea I’ve toyed with more than once. Thanks for making it seem so doable!
Great post, Michelle. I am thinking of writing a novella at some point so this will be very helpful. I don’t let word counts get in my way. I get the story down on paper and then figure out what I can cut.
Very informative. Thanks Michelle.
I love posts like this. Thank you.
What a great post, Michelle. There have been many times I have submitted articles that hit the word count exactly. No one’s ever mentioned it, but I’ve taken a secret pride in my accomplishment. (It’s the little things in life.)
Yep, hitting the numbers, lots of fun!
Great info, Michelle. Thank you. d
THANK YOU for sharing the info on writing a novella, Michelle! Your “words of wisdom” have assisted me in mapping the novella I WILL write.
Btw, … I am a poet, children’s author, greetings card writer and songwriter. My 9th children’s book, SEASONAL ADVENTURES (Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter for the Very Young), was released on by Reycraft Books on 30 June 2021.
All in all, … for the sake of a challenge and change of pace, I have become MORE motivated to write the novella that I have been contemplating to write for about 5 years.
So again, thank you!