2025 Why Novella
excerpted from Why Novelette
What might be the latest order of operations?
Let's say we write a novella? I bet we could easily get 30k words just by sorting and sequencing what we already have. The question is, are we going to finish, is this the way to completion... a novella?
If I turn my attention to the outcome I could be excited about - a completed feature film with all sorts of interesting supporting content, proof of concept for open source production, then the novella makes sense as a next step. Why? (1) a novella facilitates my cognitive reintegration of all the content developed over the last 20 years, informing, catalyzing, and enhacing the movie completion process (2) reminding myself of the genius and hilarity, (3) creating a distinct standalone product that could be synergistic and supportive of the movie's distribution, (4) writing is cheaper, easier and faster than full on production and editing, a novella is doable within a month or two, if decisive action scheduled. (5) readings from the chapters could become the next wave of DOG podcasts.
Clarity then on the novella, a worthy next step, inspired even.
Flash Fiction: 53 - 1,000 words
Short Stories: 3,500 - 7,500
Novellettes: 7,500 - 17,000
Novellas: 17,000 - 40,000
Novels: 40,000 + words
This novelette is not a novelization of the movie. The imagery and dialogue of the movie inspire the discovery of interstices, the novelette is the rest of story that shows, yes, the story flows. The novelette process makes sure the scaffolding of the world can support a heavy cognitive load, even if that load is not obvious in the movie. Whether in written or cinematic form, the world and the story are self consistent, bullet proof, offering an intriguing and even compelling invitation to suspend disbelief.
Chapters have short summaries to illustrate narrative flow. Refining the summaries helps to focus on what what is essential in each chapter and how the chapters relate.
Why write a novella? Coming back to the project, I reacquaint myself with what exists. This started as an exercise to establish the flow of the entire story before completing the movie, to clarify any confusing elements, connect everything that feels excellent, and build out the world with internal self consistency, encouraging suspension of disbelief. Are the paradigms presented inspiring, intriguing?
Also, why not a novelization as another intellectual property? Daughter of God, on the cover of the novella or maybe it's a novel? Now a future cult classic feature film! I could shop the manuscript around, ask Milagros who published her buddy's book, and if I can't find a publisher, then self publish and mail a copy with the DVD to all my heros and heroines. Perhaps one supports the other or they simultaneously support each other. Then perhaps a graphic novel as a 3rd property and then an audio book. I get the audio book almost automatically with the novel. So lot's of reasons to do novel and the novel is a different and deeper (in some sense) exploration of the ideas / story.
Thinking of this as an audio book, how does it read?
a novella ranges between 17,500-40,000 words
11/21/24 3685 words or 20%-09%
6/3/25 14.243 words or 80%-35%