A Story By Any Other Name

[xakara]

As I learned when reminded of a site I had bookmarked (the scriptorium), there are a few different concepts on the length of a story and what it gets to become because of it.

At Scriptorium's toolbox, it's broken down as follows:

 Flash Fiction=1k or less.

Short Short= 2k and under

Short Story= 2k to 7500

Novelette/Novella= 7k to 40k with "novelettes" being the shorter

Novel= 45k to 150k

Nothing wrong with this breakdown as far as I can find. No great disagreement with it. I can see where it makes sense. It just happens to not be the breakdown for the publisher who bought my story.

For Samhain, the breakdown is a little different. It's an important distinction because word count/story catergory directly effects list price.

Short Story= 12k to 18k

Novella= 18k to 35k

Catergory= 35k to 60k

Novel= 60 to 100k

Plus Novel=  over 100k

My method was much simpler and intuitively correct for the story I had in question at 15k. Fifteen thousand words isn't a novel, therefore it's a short story. Something twice as long is no longer short so at 30k it's a novella. Twice as long as that leaves behind novella making 60k a novel. 

I picked the open call at 15k because it was exactly 1/8th as long as the novel I'd just finished. I didn't think I could viably write something shorter than that. And to be honest, wasn't all that sure about the 15k but it took nothing from me to try and was a great exercise in shifting my mindset after such a long piece.

At twice as long this current piece gives a little more stretch, with a lot less time than I'd like. (I should in fact not even be here considering the clock is ticking louder and louder on the deadline). The one immediately after it is twice as long at 60 so even more stretch before having to reign myself back to 50k for the deadling after that. From there I dial back further to about 25k for two and down to 15k for one, all due June 1st. So just as I might run too far, I'm drifting back down with the projects that close out the first half of my year.

After that I can run again with work on book 2 aiming for 100k. Woo-Hoo for freedom. Then next year I'll start the madness all over again. 

So far, all but two of the stories take place in the same world. I write Urban Fiction so without even trying I ended up doing Paranormal Romance when I answered the first open call. The themes that have been asked for all fit in a shifter world concept so I found it a great way to explore my world without being chained to the sequence of events in the novel and its sequel.

Although greatly fleshed out, there's no world that can't benefit from side excursions. Getting to see how my pretenaturals  behave in different setting and circumstances allows for greater depth when writing the main "series" in my head. It also allows for things that the novels have no room for but that happen simultaneously in the world.

The two stories (perhaps three, I'm still deciding) no in my shifter world are in the same world as one another. Again, a preternatural setting, simply a different focus. Initially I was going for a "straight" contemporary. Swore off all creatures fo the night and was going for straight humans doing human things. I looked away for one minute and psychics snuck in on me.

*Shrug* What are you going to do?

Alrighty, my mind has most definitely wandered away from its original course and I'll take that as a sign to go back to writing while I'm still semi-coherent.

Ramble Done.

Til,

~X