A novella is a piece of fiction that is shorter than a full-length novel and longer than a short story. It’s somewhere in between the two.
Are you someone who is working on a novella and need some guidance?
If so, in this article we explain how to write a novella. Continue reading to learn more.
1. Create the world
Before starting to write the story, you need to create the world itself. Even if your novella is set in the present day and there are no additional science-fiction or fantasy elements, create the world nevertheless.
Determine which city the story is happening in, or which cities and/or towns are involved if there are more than one. Choose the major locations that will be in play. Walk around Google Earth in street view to get a look and feel for the cities and towns if you have never been there in person.
If you are writing about a fantasy world, then you need to do the same: draw a crude map. Mark out locations and the geography and topography of the regions (mountains, valleys, rivers, seas, islands, deserts). Draw a compass in the corner, note the directions in which the protagonist would move to get from one place to another. Determine the magic system and the history of the world.
In other words, build the world in the same scope as you would’ve built it had you been writing a novel. There is a saying that in novels, the world is an iceberg, and what the readers get to know through the writing is only the tip of the iceberg visible above the water. In novellas, what the reader gets to see through the writing is even smaller than that, but the world is still there nevertheless.
Here is an article on World-Building.
2. Choose the characters
After the world, you need to choose the protagonist, or the protagonists. Often, the most common advice for novellas is to focus on only one character – but that is not exactly true. If you write, for example, three intertwined vignettes, that feature protagonists that are connected (for example, sisters, brothers, cousins), dealing with a single event (for example, the death of a patriarch/matriarch of the family), and that event is a result of a misdeed (for example, a murder that needs to be resolved), you will have written a novella.
But, whether it will be a single protagonist or more than one protagonist, you need to develop them just as well as you would develop a protagonist for a novel (that is, off screen, not in the writing itself). You need to know who the protagonist is, what are the protagonist’s strengths and weaknesses, what are their principles, and which of those principles will be challenged during the course of the story itself.
Additionally, you need to determine the major side characters that will be featured, what role they will serve in the course of the story – and axe the presence of any characters who do not add much to the novella. The presence of major side characters in a novella needs to have a purpose: they will either offer a foil/contrast for the protagonist, help them in some way, or detract the protagonist from their goal.
Finally, the villain and antagonist – these two are often combined, i.e. the villain is the antagonist. But, they do not necessarily have to be combined. A villain is a bad guy (the one who commits the crime, or wants to kill the protagonist, etc.). An antagonist is someone who is preventing the protagonist from achieving their goal.
For example, maybe there was a theft, and the protagonist wants to find the stolen item and bring the thief (villain) to justice. But the protagonist might have a friend, family member (husband, wife, mother, daughter, father, etc.,) who is overprotective, doesn’t wish for the protagonist to pursue this, and uses each opportunity to prevent them from doing so. In this case, the villain is the thief, but the antagonist is the family member.
Choose the characters wisely, ensure they have a role to play, and that they are never just there (this applies to novels as well, but even more so for novellas).
Take a read of the following two articles:
How to Write a Novel With Multiple Protagonists
How to Write a Story With Multiple Antagonists
3. Outline a simple plot
In a novel, you can go for complex plots that demand the protagonist(s) to use all their capabilities to solve the main problem, and they would need to jump through many hoops and solve many issues that crop up as subplots. In a novel, you can have multiple protagonists with multiple plot lines that would converge (directly or indirectly) by the end of the story. In a novella, you do not have room for such complex plots.
As described in the second section, you can have multiple protagonists in a novella, but they need to be focusing on the same problem, i.e. resolving a certain issue, either working together, or not working together (which causes friction and conflict).
As such, you need to determine what is the plot about, what problem the protagonist needs to solve, and you need to outline the way the protagonist will solve it – and keep the steps the protagonist will take to a minimum.
You still need to have the five main parts: the introduction (of the world, protagonist, the problem), then you have the rising action (i.e. the complications arising from the steps the protagonist takes to solve the problem) that leads to the culmination point (or climax), then the twist and the resolution.
Take a look at the following article:
How to Create the Perfect Plot Outline
4. Minimalize the subplots
As in a novel, as the protagonist is trying to solve the main problem, they will have to solve some minor issues on the side. For example, in order to gain access to a book from a library, the protagonist has to convince the librarian to help them, but the librarian demands something in return – and the protagonist goes to get it, facing some issues on the way.
This is a subplot, but this subplot cannot span the course of the novella. The protagonist can only spend a short time to get what the librarian wants and enlist her help. As such, all subplots are resolved within a few scenes of being introduced. In a novel, these would be minor subplots, rather than major ones that span the whole novel and have a certain effect on the protagonist.
In other words, solving these minor subplots helps the protagonist to achieve their momentary goal (i.e. enlisting the librarian’s help), but they do not particularly need to be affected emotionally by what they need to do, nor do they need to learn anything in particular as a result of it.
5. Shorten character’s arcs
This leads us to the character’s arc. In a novel, the protagonist’s ideals and principles will be challenged, and not just a single one, but multiple ones. The biggest change in ideals and principles will be a result of the protagonist solving the main problem (i.e. a result of the main plot), and the smaller changes will be a result of the major subplots.
In a novella, however, you do not have the time for major subplots, and as such, you need to choose one specific ideal/principle/emotional state that the protagonist will be challenged with, and focus on establishing it first in the beginning, challenge it as the story moves forward, and finally, changing it by the end of the story.
Additionally, in a novel, major side characters also get a character’s arc. In a novella, that is not the case, unless you’re featuring multiple protagonists. Side characters do not get enough time for a character’s arc.
Take a read of the following article:
6. Mind the word count
This is where all that pre-planning (the world, characters, plot, character’s arc) come into play. The idea is to tell the story using as few words as possible. The usual word count for a novella can span from 10,000 words to 40,000 words. Above that, you have a short novel, and below that count, you have a short story. The shorter end of the novella, from 10,000 to 20,000 words, can also be considered a novelette.
This means that you do not need to dwell too long on any description. The scenes will be shorter in length, and also, there will be fewer scenes dedicated to each part of the plot (introduction, rising complexity, climax, twist, resolution).
Finally, the pacing itself needs to be lighter in terms of. A novel is a series of jumps in pacing – faster scenes that are followed by slower scenes meant for the protagonist to reflect upon what happened. In a novella, the faster scenes are reserved for specific moments (climax and twist), the slower scenes are reserved for the introduction part and the resolution part, while the rising complexity part falls somewhere in between.
You might find the following article useful:
5 Ways to Cut the Word Count of Your Book
Now that you’ve got an idea of how to write a novella, here are mistakes to avoid: