A novella is a prose narrative, the length of which is halfway between a short story and a novel. It consists of approximately 20,000-50,000 words, or on average 50-100 printed pages, once published. It's the perfect way to start writing longer stories before approaching a full-blown novel.
Steps
Method 1 of 1: Write a short story
Step 1. Collect ideas
Use mind maps, graphical diagrams, Venn diagrams, journals and / or any other method that allows you to develop and organize your thoughts. Think of all the fictional genres (for example, yellow) that you could turn to when writing. At this stage, don't throw any ideas away. Just write them down somewhere to be able to exploit (or discard) them later. Try to think about the plot, the characters, the setting, or even the title.
If you prefer, write something completely different, so you don't stare at a blank page or screen, but don't forget the main project. On the other hand, you will never know if this "experiment" will find its way into this or another story
Step 2. Organize the writing of your story
If composing a traditional draft does not match your way of working, try developing a tree structure, free notes, images, cards or even a website to collect, organize and restructure what you write. To get ideas and schemes and know how to organize this material, consult this site, or if you are not familiar with English, take advantage of the resources made available by this other site.
Step 3. Review your project with the help of your peers, parents and / or teachers
Once you've worked out some basic ideas, review them and link them to your project, which you can always adjust during the drafting phase. Sort your insights, rearrange them, think better, and remove or set aside scenes and concepts that don't seem relevant.
Step 4. Create a conflict
Practically the whole narrative, in order to have a structure, is based on a conflict: two realities must collide. Below you will find the more traditional narrative structures:
- Fantasy versus reality
- Man / Woman / Creatures against life
- Man / Woman / Creatures against man
- Man / Woman / Creatures against nature
- Man / Woman / Creatures against themselves
- Man / Woman / Creatures against society
- Man / Woman / Creatures against a deity
- One country against another
- One race against another
- A person against a disease
- "Fish out of water" (sometimes a man / woman variant against nature): a story that places the protagonist in a world totally foreign to the one he is used to.
- Transition to adulthood (a variant of man / woman against themselves)
- A guy knows a girl
- A girl knows a boy
- Divinity against divinity
- Nature versus nature
- Magic against person
- Person versus magic
- Religion versus politics
- Child versus adult
- Adult versus child
- One opinion against the other
- Religion versus science
- Science versus religion
- Teacher versus student
- Student versus teacher
Step 5. Start writing with the above scheme in mind (for example, start describing the setting and characters, the emergence of conflicts, the crisis leading to the development of the action and the climax)
Remember that you don't have to start writing from the beginning of the story, nor open the story with the beginning of the story. In fact, by giving the reader a taste of what lies ahead (a technique known as "anticipation", or foreshadowing), you can create suspense and action right away.
Step 6. Try free writing, either by typing on the computer or by writing by hand
Write to stimulate your creativity and start warming up. Play with the theme or narrative genre, putting something in the background, such as music, video, video game, sound effects and photographs, to start understanding how to direct your story.
For the first draft, try to eliminate all filters, both mental and application, and stop being afraid of "ruining" the text. You can do this by writing as much as you can and as fast as possible. If a bad job comes up, you can always review and edit it later, or put it aside altogether and try again. The first step is to be able to grasp and note the flow of ideas
Step 7. Find the right pace for your story
Since a novella is a short narrative work, it is not worth going too far outlining every aspect in detail, nor writing an imposing and boundless epic about the entire life of the characters. It uses the small size of this narrative form as an advantage to bring the main point of the story into focus and make it more powerful and intense. At the same time, don't overlook too many details. Describe the details that are enough to make it a credible, precise and concrete story.
Step 8. Review the story taking into account the suggestions provided by the readers
It is best to start the review process as soon as you have finished writing. On the other hand, you may want to give yourself some time between the two phases, so that you can observe the work with other eyes. Either way, give the proofreading process the time it deserves, even if it won't be as fun as writing. When you are ready, ask someone to read and comment on your story so that you have a new and more detached point of view.
Step 9. Publish the story
You can do this in a variety of ways, by giving your mother a copy to post on the Internet or print on demand (see external links) or by submitting the work to a book or periodical publisher. Even if you don't think big, keep in mind the audience to target your story in order to develop the story well.
Advice
- Establish a daily routine and write regularly every day.
- Pick a tense and stick to it. Usually in narrative works the past is a little easier to read than the present.
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Choose and stick to the narrator. You can write in the first person (me narrating) or in the third person (masculine, feminine or plural). The second person (you) is used to give instructions. Remember the "Choose Your Adventure" book series you read as a child?
- If you write in the third person, decide in advance whether to share the thoughts of each character (third person omniscient) or the perspective of only one (limited third person).
- Write the names of the characters and other details separately, so you don't wonder on page 26 if it was Mark or Michael who entered on page 4.
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Unless you write for a publisher or have a deadline for delivery, there is no problem if the story is longer or shorter than expected. In fact, the short story could even turn into a novel. The important thing is that the story is complete - short or long, readers will not appreciate a gaps in the story. Get carried away by the narrative, not the exact length of the story.
When it comes to length, don't be afraid to deviate from your plans, especially if you want to increase the word count or get stuck somewhere. Increasing the words may not necessarily be a good idea in itself, but if the novel doesn't respect traditional length parameters, don't hesitate to add some humor, to explore the context or secondary plots, to do introspective analysis. of the characters or even to describe the atmospheric conditions. You never know if a fringe plot or another digression could turn into one of the main themes of the story or even give life to a story of its own
- Always carry a notebook with you to jot down any ideas that cross your mind (for example, ideas for the plot or interesting names for the characters). Also keep it near the bed. The mind often works best when traveling for free association or when you are on the verge of falling asleep.
- If you want to turn your story into a play or make a script out of it, you can take advantage of a free and useful program like Celtx. It is also a good tool to start writing your story in a text file, so you don't have to import it into the program later.
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If you've read a book you enjoyed, try writing a sequel. If there is a theme you are passionate about, the story will be more interesting to readers.
- However, as this type of storytelling is considered fanfiction, remember that you are required to respect copyright and make an agreement with the copyright holder of the original work. Nonetheless, it's a good exercise, even if you can't or don't want to publish it.
- Some examples of successful books based on pre-existing works (for example, Gone with the Wind) are Alexandra Ripley's Rossella (a sequel) and Donald McCaig's Rhett Butler's People (a prequel), both published with full collaboration. by Margaret Mitchell, copyright holder.
Warnings
- Too much dialogue and too much narrative can lead the story to run aground. When editing your work, try to find a balance between these two elements.
- Save the drafts in different files (for example, project 1, project 2) and put the date, at least until the story is finished. If you delete older documents, you run the risk of discarding a version you might like better than the latest.
- The novella is not the most popular or sold form of fiction, because most publishers are more likely to accept novels and short stories, but not somewhere in between. Therefore, it can be very difficult to post, but that doesn't mean you have to give up.
