#writing a novella

[wylloblr]

Okay, guys, today's the day I start the slow process of writing a Novel/novella. It won't be anything groundbreaking, just a simple fantasy Hero's Journey will do for my first. Step 1: Characters wooooo :)

I'll try not to get too attached to them that I don't wanna "Ruin them" in the story, done this several times lol. "OMG no I can't write a story with them, they are too good lol"

Anyway, yeah. Putting this here to remind me lol ;)

[em-dash-press]

Writing a Novella: What It Is and What You Can Do With It

When you sit down to write a story, sometimes it’s longer than you imagined. Sometimes you get halfway through a WIP and realize it isn’t long enough to be a novel.

That’s okay! That means you have a novella on your hands.

What Is a Novella?

Novellas exist in the world between short stories and novels. Like with the world of novels, there’s no concrete word count for them, but they average between 17,000 and 50,000 words. (Those numbers are based on contests and other places you can submit them.)

What Makes Novellas Different from Short Stories?

You can submit short stories basically everywhere, as long as they meet the submission guidelines of journals, magazines, publishers, etc. 

Novellas are too long for literary journals and magazines. They would take up half—if not all—of the issue, which isn’t great for publications wanting to provide readers with a variety of content. It also consumes any ad space in each issue and would essentially prevent the publication from making any money from that printing.

As far as story structure, novellas are most similar to short stories. The next section clarifies that a bit more.

What Makes Novellas Different from Novels?

Novels have a few features that necessitate their length (60-100,000+ words):

Numerous conflicts

A cast of characters

A longform plot that can speed up or slow down in pace

A traditional structure (chapters, the “mountain” plot outline, potentially additional books in a saga)

Novellas are longer stories, but they have different features that require the shorter length (17,000-50,000 words):

A singular conflict

A handful of characters, but mostly less than three

A quick pace

Untraditional structures (they may have a few chapters or none at all; they could have unique sentence structuring; they could have abstract formatting that changes with each chapter)

Examples of Novellas You Can Read Right Now

You may have already read a few novellas and don’t even know it. Check out a few of these examples at your local library to get a feel for the outline and structure of a novella:

Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

Never Mind by Edward St. Aubyn

Such Small Hands by Andrés Barba

Sula by Toni Morrison

The Passion by Jeanette Winterson

Mapping the Interior by Stephen Graham Jones

The Orange Eats Creeps by Grace Krilanovich

These novellas sometimes align with traditional novel structures and others break all the rules with elegance and expertise. The more modern stories toward the end of the list are especially inspiring for writers who want to defy the rules of writing.

Where Can You Submit a Novella?

Many literary agents only accept novel-length manuscripts outside of children’s books. If you want to write a novella, try looking for publishing opportunities in places that specifically request them, like:

AGNI

A Public Space

Fairlight Books

The Fantasist

GigaNotoSaurus

Narrative

New England Review

Worldweaver Press

You can find other publishers, journals, and contests in updated posts like these:

33 Publishers and Journals Seeking Novellas

Where to Publish Your Novella

Best Novella Book Publishing Companies

-----

Novellas deserve to be published and read just like any novel or short story. Write something you love and use these resources to get it out in the world. Your opportunities are endless—you just have to find publishers seeking the same type of material you’re writing.

[annabelle--cane]

I am aware I have died on this hill before but people who really strenuously argue that fanfic isn't "real writing" drive me insane. what do you meeeaaaaannn. besides the fact that any attempt to define "real art" vs "fake art" is inherently reactionary, it just doesn't make any sense. it's Writing. people Write it. what the fuck are you talking about.

[novella-november]

Novella November 2024 Announcement Post

Hate AI, but love writing challenges?

Want to take part in a global, fun project to write a Novella in one month?

Grab some friends, and take part in Novella November, by writing 1,000 words a day for the month of November, ending with a 30,000 word Novella to test and stretch your novel-writing skills!

Your goal is not perfection, but merely getting into the habit of writing a litte bit every single day :D

No website, no sign-ups -- Just a community initiative to write using only your own word!

What are the rules? Just Three so far!

#1 - No AI

#2 - No Plagiarizing

#3 - Wordcount for the month should only come from what you write during the month.

What does that mean?

Only words written during November should go towards your Wordcount for the month... but! Feel free to use your 30k words as a continuation of previous writing, or just make it the first 30k words in a longer novel!

Don't think you can write a whole entire 30k word story? Write a series of short stories that total up to 30k!

Not ready to write original works yet? Write a 30k word fanfiction that you can post after the month is over!

Share your writing experience, tips, encouragement, and questions in the #Novella November tag!

---

EDIT, from the tags: Want a progress tracker? Track your progress with TrackBear!

https://trackbear.app/

Don't have a word processor? Use LibreOffice , the free and open-source alternative to Microsoft Word!

Want to organize/storyboard your Novel and don't want to pay a subscription? Try 7writer by Simon Haynes!

Want to be able to listen to your story aloud for proofreading using TTS (text to speech)? Try Balabolka!

Or, create some custom progress / Goal Cards in advance you can fill out as you reach word goals! For ideas and templates, search this blog for "goal cards" :D

Want to do a writing challenge in more than just November? Check out my ideas here for year round challenges to keep you writing consistently! Got feedback? Send it in, I'd love to see everyone's ideas!

---

EDIT 2: I almost forgot to mention, if you are unable to write/type your story, you can also narrate/dictate your story to your preferred recording device!

If you're doing a Recording only and it doesn't automatically generate a transcript, it would obviously be hard to judge the word count -- but you're also working with a lot of obstacles, so I'd say if you're able to complete your story via voice recording from start to finish, you've definitely achieved the goal!

Edit #3: added the title "Novella November 2024 announcement post" to the top to make it more standard with my Ominous October and Drabble December posts (will be updating Outline October shortly) , added "Official Announcement Post 2024" to the tags so people can easily find the monthly events for 2024, and added a bit of bold to the third bullet point in the original post from September 2nd 2024 for emphasis.

[emrynbird]

She yearned for freedom and solace from her familial home. He wished for companionship after a life of isolation. After a chance encounter at a masquerade ball, a deal is struck between the two to provide what the other desires. But as the horror behind unspoken truths becomes known, this marriage of convenience takes a dark and emotional turn that thrills her...and frightens him...

In the Jaws of an Oak is an illustrated erotic monster romance that is one part Regency fairytale and one part "Bloodborne-esque" horror, following an aromantic woman who is a survivor of abuse and a noble, cursed beast. For fans of Beauty and the Beast retellings where the beast only becomes more monstrous instead of turning human.  

This novella is 34k words with 18 illustrations, includes aromantic, pan, and sapphic representation, and will available August 14th, 2024 on Amazon and itch.io in epub, PDF, and paperback formats.

For full content warnings, see below...

This story explores themes of abuse and grief through the framing of the FMC’s newly found kinks surrounding fear and the MMC testing the limits of his most monstrous qualities. While not seen on page, it is heavily implied the FMC is a survivor of sexual violence and incest. Birth control via herbal remedies is taken on page and there is a brief mention of pregnancy and childbirth. While a majority of this work is queernormative, there is a brief instance of homophobia (past). 

There is one violent death that is described on page that involves dismemberment and being eaten, while all others are briefly mentioned along with attempted filicide.

The FMC and MMC have a significant size difference, that is made even greater via the MMC transforming, and engage in sexual acts akin to BDSM, which include: teeth play, biting, choking, pinning/restraining, deep penetration, knotting, anal, fellatio, tongue fucking (oral, vaginal), and vore-adjacent death ideation.

[hedwig221b]

The desire to write is crawling towards me with menace and ferity

ABO au, rare omega Stiles starving for freedom, alpha Derek who has to pick him a mate but loses his mind from how much he wants to keep him instead

Oracle!Stiles, Bodyguard!Derek with secret identity, touch-starved prickly Stiles who doesn't trust anyone and Derek who realises he has to fight hard to earn that trust bc that's his mate, not to mention he has to kidnap him

JANE FUCKING EYRE AU WITH WEREWOLVES AND PLOT TWISTS

mail order bride au, historical (i think, perhaps even deeply historical... like tribes and stuff, think Daenerys and Khal Drogo vibes (I haven't watched GoT so it's just vibes)); also a lot of people asked me to write sterek wedding and I think I can fit it here cause, you know, bride and stuff, but it's gonna be written my way so...

I genuinely do not know what is coming next, cause I wanna write everything all at once and I have a vacation in July, and I have to read an English version of Jane Eyre and that bitch is thicc... But be assured, whatever comes next is gonna be so good...

[capriciouslyterminal]

All I want…is for Pete to have a white streak in his hair where Wiggly touched him. Okay? Is that too much to ask? For the drama???

[itsfullofstars]

It's official: I'm publishing my first work of fiction, the unhinged novella SKIN & BONES, on 10/22/24 (just in time for Halloween). Pre-order the ebook now!

A mind-bending psychological thriller told in first person by a broken man who submits to a bizarre medical experiment in an effort to redeem himself, and loses his mind in the process.

It's Fight Club meets The Parallax View meets E.R. meets Shutter Island... and utterly unique in its own right. A quick, propulsive, hallucinatory read, rich with supernatural elements and medical suspense, SKIN & BONES takes you on a journey into the labyrinth of one man's fractured psyche.

Skull art by @paul.hollingworth - and it's NOT AI!

[marsadler]

Hello! I wrote a book and I think y'all will like it. It's for fans of Good Omens, Hannibal, Angels Before Man, and all the queer people who deserve financial compensation from the catholic church.

I present to you:

FIRST CREATION, a high heat queer horror novella with a trans angel MC and a queer demon LI!

FIRST CREATION is a love letter to fallen angels, to finding your place in the world, to connecting to religion in a way that works for you. To touch and peaches, and surviving horrible things, to finding a place to be holy if God won't give it to you. (it's also nasty, and about cannibalism and shame and guilt, too)

It's a 22k word (98 page) novella that you can read in one (or two, or three) sittings.

You can find it on Amazon and itch.io here to read an actual synopsis and look at reviews. You can also find content warnings at the bottom of my website: (I definitely encourage you to read them before you buy!)

Here's also some unhinged ao3 tags for fun

[tmblr-university]

Statement on NaNoWriMo

Hello Students,

Allow your president to get sentimental for a moment. I first started NaNoWriMo - I failed. I failed every time, but I loved it. It kept me writing. I learned more about myself each time I tried. I saw communities grow on forums. I knew one day I would succeed if I just kept trying. Then today I learned of the plethora of NaNoWriMo's controversies. From allowing AI use to (allegedly) having predators groom minors.

I am heartbroken at the loss of a yearly staple. AI users miss the most obvious reason writers write, for the love of it. We do not create purely for the purpose of creating, in order to have some item to show off as proof that we "did a thing". We write to tell stories, to foster communities, to inspire, to make people laugh or cry, to realize the fantasies in our heads.

And though NaNoWriMo has torpoed in favor of AI, the spirit of it should not die.

@novella-november is starting a writing challenge: write 30K in a month

I will also be looking to see if there's a tag for those looking to do the traditional challenge of 50K words.

Tmblr University will be supporting writing challenges in November by reblogging or posting writing tips and prompts. (As best as a 1 person attending actual school can do)

I wish everyone a successful prepping during September.

[juliana-jones]

My co-author @writtenriley and I are thrilled to present our self-published novella “Over the Dragon’s Gate,” a dark paranormal romance/urban fantasy. You’ve heard of manic pixie dream girl, now get ready for sad pond-monster dream boy!

Summary: Treya has everything he needs in his pond: food, shelter, and other fish to swim with. It’s painful to wonder if he had another life once, so he ignores the fragments of disturbing dreams that plague him.

But when a boy falls into his pond, Treya discovers he’s more than a fish. He can also become a boy, and now he has a friend: the irrepressible Eli. During secret meetings in the garden surrounding the pond, Treya and Eli forge a bond that even dark magic can’t break. But when Eli starts asking questions about who and what Treya is, the two of them discover that questions are dangerous, answers have a cost, and their fates depend on unraveling the mystery of Treya’s past.

Comps: It has "That Story Isn't the Story" vibes mixed with "Room."

Word count: 44k

Smashwords

Kindle

Kobo

Goodreads

Soundtrack

Content warnings: Graphic depictions of violence, death, gaslighting, memory loss, amnesia, mind manipulation, mind control, implied noncon (in the background, due to the mind control), crying (a lot of crying), vomit, underage drinking, implied/referenced drug use, car accidents, child neglect, child abuse, murder, kidnapping, imprisonment, magical imprisonment, trauma, suicidal ideation, suicide attempt (planned but not carried out), death threats, fantasy racism

“…[A] delightful read, full of magic and touching moments of humanity in the face of darkness.”

~Arista A. Holmes, author of the Fey Touched Trilogy

“This is a rollercoaster… There are thrilling twists and turns, enough mystery to keep you going, and a satisfying payoff at the end.”

~E, Goodreads review

“It’s got… a lush fairytale manner about it but hides dark secrets.”

~Oliver Ferrie, author of Sugar People

[caffeinewitchcraft]

Cinderella Doesn’t Believe in Fairytales (pt 7)

(part 1) (part 2) (part 3). (Part 4) (part 5) (part 6)

This, Cinderella thinks, is a fairytale.

The nobles are bowing to the Prince, to her, and the air smells like the desserts on the table to her left. The music is still going, a sweet flute that serves a placeholder until the greetings to the prince are done. Over the bowed heads of the dancers nearest them, Cinderella can see her stepfamily curtsying to the arrival of the Prince.

Curtsying to her.

“I am glad that my tardiness did not hold up the festivities,” the Prince says. He inclines his head to the dais where the Queen and King sit. “We should resume.”

The Queen and King.

The Queen is as beautiful as the rumors say. Her long, black hair, streaked with grey, falls around her shoulders like vines, pinned into curled shapes against her violet gown with pins that sparkle like the night sky. She wears a simple gold circlet that glitters in the candlelight. Is it encrusted in jewels?

The King wears a heavier crown in burnished copper. His eyes remind her of the Prince’s, hawkish and knowing when he looks at them. He’s dressed completely in black except for the sash that crosses his chest. That is the same violet as his wife’s cape and his son’s jacket.

Cinderella is prevented from curtsying by the way the Prince presses her hand against his arm. She bows her head as best she’s able, heart thundering in her chest. Somehow looking at the Queen and King reminds her of the rainbows in the meadow. They swim in her vision as if obscured by power.

“Hold your head high,” the Prince whispers to her. His breath is hot against the shell of her ear and when she glances at him out of her peripherals, his eyes are warm. “You’re with me.”

Cinderella has never been with someone. She’s always been trailing behind, packages in hand, or at their knee with a hairbrush and sewing kit in hand. Even as a little girl she was never with her parents. She always felt like she was a step behind them, watching as the distance between them grew into an ocean.

She doesn’t feel like that now. The Prince’s arm is warm under her fingers and the gaze of so many people makes her face hot even if she knows the Prince’s magic protects her from being recognized. Cinderella has never felt so keenly in her own skin as she does in this moment.

Cinderella pulls her shoulders back and looks right over every noble to the blooming mosaic on the other side of the hall.

Well done, the voice in the back of her head purrs. There’s satisfaction curling in Cinderella’s stomach that feels foreign and heavy. She likes standing tall. She likes feeling bold and confident. Very well done.

“I know I promised you champagne,” the Prince says. He waves his hand and the music begins to play again. The nobles don’t resume their dance right away, their eyes fixed on the Prince’s every move. Expectant? Hopeful? Envious? The Prince only has eyes for her. “But I am jealous your first dance wasn’t with me.”

“Perhaps if someone had been on time it would have been,” Cinderella says. The Prince snorts and Cinderella’s smile widens. “Your highness.”

The Prince leads her onto the dance floor. The band is gently coming together again, string instruments rising underneath the lonely flute, the pianist adjusting on their bench in preparation. The nobles part for them like water, sliding back into their places without a word.

The Prince comes to a halt in the center of the dancefloor. If he notices the way the nobles stare, it doesn’t seem to bother him. He slides his arm out from under Cinderella’s hand, but doesn’t relinquish it. He kiss the back of her hand and asks, “May I have this dance?”

Cinderella must be beet red. She breathes in through her nose and smiles on the exhale. “Yes.” Then, because he is her friend, “You’ll be the first to have a dance from me, if that makes you feel better. The rest only shared one with me.”

Does the Prince’s gaze soften? Candlelight catches in his eyes, setting them ablaze. “Having or sharing, it doesn’t matter,” he says. “As long as it’s with you.”

Cinderella is speechless. The Prince takes the opportunity to sweep them into their first dance together, one hand on her hip, the other still holding her hand aloft. She’s not ready or at all prepared for it and has to rely on his grip for support when she stumbles.

“Where on earth did you learn to talk like that?” Cinderella hisses. She kicks at his shin and scoffs when he evades it easily. “Ugh.”

“I’m fairly certain that’s not how this dance goes,” the Prince says, tone mild. He’s smiling when she turns her glare on him. He whispers, “You’ll need to be faster if you want to kick me.”

Laughter bubbles in her chest. Cinderella fights it down. “You’d better show me how this dance works before I give into the temptation.”

“My pleasure.”

Dancing with the Prince is better than any of the other dances, though she doesn’t think she can bear to tell him that when he’s grinning like he knows it. He doesn’t guide her like Cy, her first masked partner, pulling and navigating her through the steps like a teacher might. He doesn’t make it a competition like Iz did, doesn’t change the rhythm whenever she manages to catch up to his pace. He isn’t considerate like Morrigan, waiting for her to catch her breath after a particularly tricky step.

Dancing with the Prince is like…it’s like being in the meadow. It’s like laying underneath the oak tree and watching the sun through the leaves, his gentle voice in her ear and the feeling of his magic chasing the chill away. It’s the feeling of being together where anything she says or does will be welcome or celebrated.

She doesn’t know when the other dancers join them, but she notices when the Prince nearly runs into a pair. She neatly takes the lead, spinning them to avoid a collision. The Prince startles and then scowls.

“I would have noticed,” he says. His gaze is dark on the dancing couple as if he’d like to curse them for the near accident.

“But you didn’t have to,” Cinderella says. Somehow she knows he isn’t that irritated. She thinks about spinning him but decides against it. She’s never tried spinning her partner before and is afraid of throwing him into the swirls of skirts and tailcoats that now surround them. She follows him away from the couple who nearly collided with them, surrendering the lead easily. “I did.”

“You did,” the Prince says, an inscrutable look on his face. It only lasts for a moment before he’s quirking an eyebrow at her. “Another song?”

Cinderella doesn’t feel tired at all. “Yes.”

They dance.

-----.

The night is a dream.

Cinderella holds onto it even after the Prince escorts her back to the Emerald Castle, after Helga pulls the pins from her hair, after she gulps down water and fruit before climbing into bed. They never did manage to have a glass of champagne. Cinderella can’t bring herself to regret the missed opportunity.

I’ll just have to try it tomorrow, Cinderella thinks with a thrill. Tomorrow. She’s going to the ball tomorrow.

She danced with the Prince all night. He delighted in each song with her, always keeping up with her mood and inviting her into faster steps or higher leaps. They talked and they laughed and, looking back, they must have seemed like children to everyone else. Cinderella felt like a child, free and excited in a way that she hasn’t been allowed to be in a long time.

She closes her eyes and can’t wait for the Prince to come pick her up for the ball tomorrow.

-----.

The carriage lurches and jumps as it transitions from the smooth Royal Road to the rougher cobblestones of the royal town. The silent occupants seem to wake up from their stupors all at once, the jostling as good as cold water on a dreamer.

“Mother,” Drizella whines. She doesn’t understand what went wrong. She did everything her mother said to do! She curled her hair and wore her lilac dress and didn’t dance with anyone other than the Prince. Except— “He only danced with her all night!”

“I have never been so embarrassed,” Anastasia says. She bites her thumb. Visions of the woman in green spin across the back of her eyelids every time she blinks. “We wore the same color! How dare she?!”

Baroness Ramsey doesn’t answer her daughters. She promised herself when she married the Baron that she would never allow anyone to guess at her non-noble past through her conduct. So she lets her face remain impassive and thinks carefully before she speaks.

Inside she is seething.

“That woman was in the wrong,” the Baroness says at last. She lays her hands daintily over her lap. “A ball like this – well. It’s for all noble ladies, isn’t it? The Prince was meant to dance with others. I’m sure the King and Queen will talk with him tonight. Tomorrow…”

She trails off. Her girls misunderstand as she meant them to. They perk up at the mention of tomorrow and the idea that the Prince will be different then. Anastasia begins debating what jewelry she will wear to compliment her gown tomorrow, going over the pros and cons of each one (“That woman wore gold tonight and won’t tomorrow, so the gold necklace might be the safest choice. But the prince wore silver tonight and might again and if I wear silver we could match.”) while Drizella pulls at her curls, lost in the daydream of what tomorrow could bring.

Inside the baroness is not so sure.

“A second invitation will be sent to those the Prince has taken an interest in. Expect news by dawn.”

They are not high nobility. It is only through the baroness’ hard work and clever deals that they’re nobility at all. Perhaps it would be different if her husband were better at networking like her, but he’s not (if he’s still alive at all) so they have no advantage through title alone. Their only advantage lies in her daughters’ beauty being recognized and – thanks to that woman – that didn’t happen.

Maybe I was hasty to leave Cinderella at home, the Baroness muses. Cinderella would have caught the Prince’s eye. There’s always been something…unsettlingly compelling about that girl. To be honest, the Baroness has always been a little afraid of Cinderella. Even as a child she always seemed to look through the Baroness rather than at her. With her golden hair and odd, light eyes, Cinderella would have been enough to compete with the woman who had captured the Prince’s attention. Then, when the second invitation arrived, the baroness could have kept Cinderella away to leave the real work to her girls.

She eyes her daughters. No. She could not have chosen any differently. It’s been hard work ensuring her daughters never grew afraid of their strange stepsister. Imagine if they were forced to watch the prince be bewitched by her? The baroness was right to leave Cinderella at home, dressed plainly, rather than allow her daughters to see through the soot and rough clothing to the strange, menacing woman beneath.

“We will stay up all night until the invitation arrives,” the Baroness announces. She won’t be able to sleep anyway. “I want each of you to go over every detail of tonight. Who did you notice? What could you have improved on? We will need to be even better tomorrow.”

Anastasia and Drizella complain, but the Baroness tunes them out. She knows what’s best for her daughters. If she says that they need to go over noble greeting they say, every pin, every broach, every conversation, they will.

It will come, she tells herself. The Prince may not have noticed her daughters, but the Queen was certainly interested in them. She seemed particularly interested in Drizella. Perhaps she will be the one to choose the prince’s bride. Yes, that must be it. She was too attentive to my daughters for that not to be the case.

The second invitation will come. The carriage squeaks to a halt outside of their inn and the baroness waits impatiently for the coachman to open the door. Yes, her earlier concerns were born from anxiety. Obviously the Prince won’t choose his own bride. Clearly! He’s a prince and princes must marry based on their parents’ wills. She, a baroness, wouldn’t allow her daughters to choose their husbands. Certainly the Queen, a fellow noble mother, feels much the same.

Cheered, the Baroness doesn’t yell for the coachman to hurry up helping her daughters down from the carriage. Anastasia does it instead and her Capital accent is even beginning to sound convincing! Drizella nearly falls when the coachman supports her step down too weakly, but her recovery is much quicker than it would have been two years ago.

Yes, the baroness must not lose herself to anxiety. She’s raised her daughters well and that will all pay off when she sees one of them married to the prince. Perhaps she should talk to the Queen herself tomorrow? Mother to mother?

Yes, that’s the best plan. She’ll leave her girls to the business of catching the eye of the prince. If they prove successful, wonderful. If not?

The Baroness hides her smile. There’s a reason she came to the ball despite the invitation not including mothers of the potential brides.

-----------.

Three important invitations are delivered at dawn.

One is snatched by the Baroness who breathes a sigh of relief that she must hide from her daughters.

The second is handed to Helga who rolls her eyes at the redundancy and promises to deliver it to her charge once she wakes.

The third is delivered via raven to a lone man on the road on horseback. He holds his arm above his head as soon as he recognized the purple ribbon tied around the bird’s neck, barely flinching when its talons cut through his thin, traveling shirt.

“A summons?” the man asks. The bird does not answer. It takes off as soon as he unties the message from its leg. He flips the letter over to examine the seal. His stomach lurches. “From the Queen?”

He can’t ignore a letter from the Queen. With a sigh, the man turns his horse gently before even breaking the seal. The Queen only accepts replies in person. A bitterness coats his tongue.

Another letter has brought him back to his ancestral home. A very important letter from someone he’s been forced to leave alone too long. And now, barely four days’ ride from the sender, he’s forced to ignore her once again.

I’m coming, Cinderella. Just a little longer.

Baron David Ramsey has been away from home for too long.

If you’d like to read more parts of Cinderella a week earlier, please consider checking out my Patreon (X)! On top of posting all my stories a week earlier there, I also post Patreon Exclusives.

[origami-butterfly]

Hello Jekyll and Hyde adaptation writer.

In front of you is a copy of the original novella, by RL Stevenson, and the writing utensil of your choice. You have an hour to read the novella, and then 45 minutes to write a summary of the themes in the story. You must at no point suggest that Jekyll is "the good one" and Hyde is "the bad one". If you do, you will be beaten to death with a walking cane. Good luck.

[barrenclan]

If different barrenclan characters had novellas/super editions, what would they be called?

Ooh! What a fun question! :D I'll just do the eight main characters.

Pinepaw's World (:P)

Cormorantpaw's Tragedy

Slugpelt's Shadows

Deepdark's Reign

Rainhaze's Path

Asphodelpaw's Dream

Daffodilpaw's Purpose

Nightberry's Visions

[novella-november]

Want to participate but need smaller goals to work towards, because a monthly goal is a little too intimidating?

Try to write one short story a week, totaling 7.5k words :)

Successfully write four short stories over the month of November, and congrats!

You've now written 30k words in a month!

Despite the name of the event being "Novella November" , the goal here isn't strictly to specifically write an entire Novella -- rather, the goal here is to write 30k words in the month, doing so in consistent little chunks, to train your brain to be able to write as a *task on command* and not just when you've been struck with inspiration!

Your goal over the month of November is not to worry over the quality, reread from the start to edit or make changes -- save all that for later! Open a second document to take notes in, if you want, but your goal is not "perfection ready to publish", your goal is to write consistently, because what you are writing is just your first draft, and its *meant* to not be perfect!

That is what editing later is for,in fact *multiple rounds of editing*, and if I can think of some catchy names, I'll try to make a month themed on editing your first drafts from November, feel free to leave suggestions!

If anyone is interested in further writing challenges, I have another one tentatively titled "Public Domain Day Dash" where on January 1st, you pick a random, brand-new Public Domain short story, read it, brainstorm for one week, and then write 5k words a week for the next three weeks, totalling to a 15k word short story adaption of that brand-new Public Domain work, a kind of Public Domain "Big Bang" event to celebrate all of the new works entering the public consciousness!

[iwritecoolshit]

I am writing a qpr in a new novella I am working on. My target audience is people in the a spec community who would like to see more qpr and a spec characters in fiction. So I was wondering what you all would like to see with in qpr or parts of the aroace (or other a spec) experience