Five Ways
Subscribe to my newsletter and get a free story!
Share this:

So I Wrote This Novella

Cover for Tales From The Fathomless Abyss, stories by Mike Resnick & Brad R. Torgersen, Jay Lake, Mel Odom, J.M. McDermott, Cat Rambo, and Philip Athans.
Cover for Tales From The Fathomless Abyss, stories by Mike Resnick & Brad R. Torgersen, Jay Lake, Mel Odom, J.M. McDermott, Cat Rambo, and Philip Athans.
I’m turning in something today that I’ve never tried before: a novella.

Back when I was first approached about the Fathomless Abyss, it involved an initial story and a later novella. Sure, I said, and whacked out a story for the first Fathomless Abyss book, TALES FROM THE FATHOMLESS ABYSS. It was “A Querulous Flute of Bone”, which I based on an O.Henry story, and which I think is one of my best stories to date. If you don’t believe me, spring for the 99 cent download and tell me if I’m wrong.

Then I started on the novella. The first thing I did was look up the length requirements. Wikipedia told me the official SFWA definition was 17500 to 40000 words. So just a long short story, right?

The problem with that was that…I write short. I excel at under 4000 words. So I turned again to a model. I’d been thinking about issues of addiction and so I decided I was going to write about that, and use William S. Burroughs’ JUNKY as my starting point. And I was going to throw in a touch of Lovecraft for spookiness and make the drug of my protagonist’s choice something a bit weird. And I wanted to reference some of the cool stuff the other Fathomless Abyss writers had added to the world.

I was telling a life story, from early days in an Abyssal village, through journeys to all sorts of points, culminating in some sort of…well, you know…climax. There was a chase for one thing, then another chase for what it turned into. I wanted to include something about the philosopher-king Nackle, whose teachings figured in “A Flute of Querulous Bone.” I wanted mushrooms and hallucinogenic wasp stings and pack llamas. I sketched out an outline and started writing. And I kept folding in stuff I wanted to include as I ran across it and then I reread Joe Lansdale’s THE COMPLETE DRIVE-IN and decided to not worry about being too weird and things all fell together…

And I became aware it was too long. Too, too, too long to finish on deadline. But I had the first half written and there was a good place midway to split the narrative, and so I said to Phil, “What if I do a pair of novellas, this first half, and then give you the second half for later release?”

So that’s what we have. I’m turning in A SEED ON THE WIND this time and A CAVERN RIPE WITH DREAMS will follow on its heels.

Wikipedia quotes Warren Cariou when discussing novella structure:

The novella is generally not as formally experimental as the long story and the novel can be, and it usually lacks the subplots, the multiple points of view, and the generic adaptability that are common in the novel. It is most often concerned with personal and emotional development rather than with the larger social sphere. The novella generally retains something of the unity of impression that is a hallmark of the short story, but it also contains more highly developed characterization and more luxuriant description.[7]

I know mine is focused on the development of a protagonist who I fear is somewhat unlovable. I’ve tried for interesting characterization and today I’m finishing up adding a layer of luxuriant description.

If you’ve come looking for advice on writing novellas, I’m not sure I have any. Perhaps you, the readers, can tell me what you think of them and what you’ve done when trying that form. I know Rachel Swirsky is a champ at writing them. What do you think – do you like novellas? What do or don’t you enjoy seeing in them? Can you think of anyone you think does them exceedingly well?

5 Responses

  1. Don’t know nothin’ about writin’ no novellas, but I am certainly looking forward to reading yours. A touch of Lovecraft improves any dish. Also, thanks for mentioning Lansdale’s Drive-In stuff a while back. I downloaded The Complete Drive-In and liked it a lot, although damned if I know why. It shouldn’t work but it does.

    1. I think DRIVE IN is an absolutely fabulous book for conveying that the writer can go anywhere they like in a book and they can be as gonzo and bizarre as they like. Try to describe it to someone and it doesn’t sound all that great (except for the Popcorn King), but it is just so wonderful and weird while at the same time you care deeply about the characters.

      I’m trying to think of other books that do that, which would make a great blog post.

      1. Dhalgren maybe. At least I cared about the characters and you can’t deny it’s pretty weird. Of course I haven’t read the book you’re talking about (yet) so I may be off base, but there you go.

        MKK

  2. Let me quote the esteemed Michael Dirda who said in the Washington Post:

    “Short stories contrive to use a single incident to illuminate a whole life: They aim for a short, sharp shock. Novels, those fabulously loose and baggy monsters, frequently transcribe entire biographies, reveal cross sections of society or show us the interaction of several generations. They contain multitudes. In between lies that most beautiful of fiction’s forms, the novella or nouvelle. Here, the writer aims for the compression that produces both intensity and resonance. By focusing on just two or three characters, the short novel can achieve a kind of artistic perfection, elegant in form yet wide in implication. The closest analogue may be Aeschylean tragedy – two actors on an almost bare stage, ripped by the torments of the human heart.”

    Words to live by, my dear.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Get Fiction in Your Mailbox Each Month

Want access to a lively community of writers and readers, free writing classes, co-working sessions, special speakers, weekly writing games, random pictures and MORE for as little as $2? Check out Cat’s Patreon campaign.

Want to get some new fiction? Support my Patreon campaign.
Want to get some new fiction? Support my Patreon campaign.

 

"(On the writing F&SF workshop) Wanted to crow and say thanks: the first story I wrote after taking your class was my very first sale. Coincidence? nah….thanks so much."

~K. Richardson

You may also like...

Video: Flash Fiction Story "Counting"

...

New Book, and Various Exhortations of an Inspirational Nature

This is an elaboration of the first part of my most recent newsletter, because I wanted to spread the message a bit farther, and expand on some of it. If you want to see the rest of the newsletter, which has class news and a giveaway for a copy of the new book, it’s here.

It’s always exciting for me when a project comes out, and particularly when it’s an actual book. Last week marked a special “book birthday” because my collaboration with James Morrow and Harry Turtledove, And the Last Trump Shall Sound, came out. I wrote the novella pre-pandemic, and it was an interesting challenge in multiple ways, partly because of the subject matter and where it is placed in time and partly because of the wildly different natures of the three novellas.

Here’s the description of the book:

And the Last Trump Shall Sound is a prophetic warning about where we, as a nation, may be headed. Mike Pence is President of the United States after years of divisive, dogmatic control by Donald Trump. The country is in turmoil as the Republicans have strengthened their stronghold on Congress, increasing their dominance. And with the support of the Supreme Court, more conservative than ever, State governments become more marginalized by the authoritarian rule of the Federal government.

There are those who cannot abide by what they view as a betrayal of the nation’s founding principles. Once united communities break down and the unthinkable suddenly becomes the only possible solution: the end of the Union.

The authors’ depiction of a country that is both unfamiliar and yet unnervingly all too realistic, make you realize the frightening possible consequences of our increased polarization””a dire warning to all of us of where we may be headed unless we can learn to come together again.

As you can imagine, reviews have been mixed in a way that seems to correspond to the politics of each reviewer. My favorite declared the book unfit for Christians to read, which is a first for any of my books. I will say this — they are wildly different novels in terms of style. Harry’s is thoughtful alternative history, which James then takes in a highly satirical direction. I follow-up with something that is more SFnal, and a bit Black Mirror-ish.

And in mine, I tried to talk about the fact that everyone on the continental United States, whether they’re part of Pacifica, the nation that Harry creates when he has the states of California, Oregon, and Washington break off from the rest of the country, or the collective formed by the East Coast states, or what’s left of the US — is part of a corporate-driven system that treats American citizens as commodities to be used to make the rich richer.

That seems important to me, because the forces we’re fighting are certainly using weapons like racism, sexism, homophobia, and the like, but in the end, they are the people who have taken the wealth of the world — which could be used to house the homeless, to feed the hungry, to teach and heal the world — and use it to create things like gold-plated toilets for them to shit in.

As part of the publicity beforehand, we’ve been doing a lot of podcasts in the past month. Over and over I have found myself saying something important: We’re in the last weeks before the election and it is so important to stay the course, because this really is the last chance to break some of the hold that malignant forces have exerted over American politics.

Some but not all, not by a long shot. We’ll still have hatred, fear, and divisiveness used against us by the people struggling to maintain that hold. But getting as many as we can out of office in this election is vital, particularly at the local level. If you are an American citizen, please vote and encourage those around you to exercise their right to do so as well.

As we come into these final days before the election, you will see unprecedented efforts to spread mistruths, to distract and confuse, and to divide us. Stay strong and focused. Maintain your own health and take a breather when you need to. Factcheck before you spread information. Encourage and enable those on the front lines of this fight.

And be kind. Be loving. Be generous and honest and open in your vulnerabilities, because in these days, that is a rebellious act. Be gentle when you can and fierce when you need to be. Know that you are loved. Know that we are all in this together.

Peace,
Cat

...

Skip to content