Lovin' the Novella!

My publisher, Imajin Books, is launching a “Spring Shower Sale” from Apr. 17 – 23rd. Happily, my Evan Dunstan novella, DEAD MAN FLOATING is now on sale for $.99! This also seems like the perfect time to pay homage to novellas in general.

I have to say that some of the best stories I’ve ever read were shorter books, starting with the incredibly moving The Snow Goose by Paul Gallico. I loved this book in my early teens and I still love it today. More recently, I was completely captivated by Hugh Howey’s Wool.

As noted in a Publishers’ Weekly piece by Cynan Jones, many great stories weren’t full-length novels, including Breakfast at Tiffanys, Jekyll and Hyde, and The Great Gatsby. It’s interesting to note how many in Jones’ list wound up being movies.

As he also notes, writing a novel requires that every word counts. When it comes to novellas, reading isn’t a journey but an event with no room for digression. He also discusses the problem of labeling in the industry. Some publishers don’t want to tag a book as a novella, presumably because it won’t sell as well. Even Jones isn’t overly fond of the term novella, preferring to use “short novel”.

But here’s the thing, a good story is memorable, regardless of how it’s tagged and regardless of the length. The story will dictate how long it should be, and let’s forget about labeling. Novellas don’t require a huge time commitment for readers, and for this writer they are a heck of a lot of fun to write. I wouldn’t say they’re necessarily easier, though, as I’m currently working on the fifth draft of my second Evan Dunstan novella.

For those of you with busy lives who just don’t have time to read a 350 page novel, try a novella. In the writing world, shorter can be better and less is often more. Enjoy!

You can find DEAD MAN FLOATING ON SALE AT AMAZON:

Story v Novel In A Flash

What's The Difference?
Novel = Break open the moment.
Story = Collapse the moment.

And there you have it: a book on fiction writing in a nutshell.

"Breaking open the moment" is a phrase I picked up from the Green River Writers, and it means dispersing what's happening from a simple statement into an experience.

In any piece of fiction, there is a pivotal moment: an important thing happens, an important discovery is made, an important epiphany is experienced. That moment might be the climax of the action (the Ring of Power is destroyed) or it might be the result of the action (Boo Radley returns our friendship).

Novels take that moment and expand it with explorations of setting, multiple characters and characterization, emotions, senses, details, internal dialog, background, relevant subplots and dialog.

Short stories have all these things, but collapse them, trimming subplots and multiple characters down or out, suggesting rather than exploring. The pivotal moment is front and center, and the diffusion of that moment is minimal.

Flash fiction has been defined as from 300-1000 words, but I've seen "flash" as short as six words (Hemingway's "For sale. Baby shoes. Never used.") up to 2000. As you can see from the Hemingway example, flash fiction can be so collapsed that even the pivotal moment is only implied.

So there you have it. Love to write novels and want to write a short story? Get an idea for your novel's pivotal moment and collapse the surrounding elements. Distill them to their essences. Love to write short stories and want to write a novel? Write a short story and then break open the pivotal moment. Sound easy? No? Maybe or maybe not, but I assure you it's doable.

Go forth, ye writers! Go forth and have fun with it!

Marian Allen is the author of EEL'S REVERENCE, a fantasy

Guest Post: Author Isabelle Santiago shares her thoughts on music and her YA novel Zerah's Chosen

Today's guest on The Write Type is Isabelle Santiago, author of  Zerah's Chosen, a Young Adult romantic fantasy. Isabelle shares how music influences her work and how she has particular playlists for her novels--a very interesting concept.  ~Cheryl Kaye Tardif

Q: For starters, how about you tell us a little bit about yourself, Isabelle?

A: Well, unlike most authors, I haven’t always known I wanted to write. I don’t have a cute story saved from when I was in grade school or anything like that, though if I remember correctly I was very fond of storytelling (in the form of completely over the top lies). Although I’ve enjoyed the occasional short story or fanfiction romp since middle school, my real passion actually lay in music and theater. I starred in the school musicals throughout high school and then went on to co-direct three more productions after graduating. I feel that theater background often seeps into my writing, particularly in my use of dialogue. I like to speak it out loud to make sure it sounds and feels real.

While in college, I got my freshman English final published in The Everyday Writer: 2nd Edition, a teaching manual for the university. This sparked a serious inexplicable ‘something’ in my head. I’d been doing a lot of recreational writing, but nothing to really try and establish a career. Then I was struck with this intense, tortured, complicated love story which snowballed into this epic series, the first book of which is my newest release, Zerah’s Chosen.

It’s a story surrounding six Elementals personified, prophecies, forbidden love and the end of the world.

Q: Zerah’s Chosen is a YA romantic fantasy, definitely a genre switch from your previous three romance novellas. What made you want to veer from romance into YA fantasy?

Honestly, I didn’t intend to write Zerah’s Chosen as a young adult novel, it just kind of happened that way. My characters’ story began with them as children and follows them until adulthood, which gives the book crossover appeal.

It’s definitely representative of where I was in my life as I was writing it, my early twenties, tumbling into adulthood as best I could, you know? But now that I’ve written YA, I can’t imagine going back to adult romance. I mean an occasional foray, maybe, but I’m just convinced YA, particularly YA fantasy, is where I belong. I find writing characters on the cusp of adulthood refreshing. I can be daring and emotional knowing that my readers are compassionate, intelligent, and open minded individuals. It’s great.

Q: I noticed your website’s EXTRA page has a section specifically for music. Obviously it plays a big part in your writing. What’s in your player right now?

A: Right now I’ve been collecting a lot of trip-hop, dance pop, and electronica/Britpop of the likes of Bloc Party, Lady Gaga, and Imogen Heap for a YA Fantasy I have in progress. I can’t tell you what a rush it is to put together writing playlists. It brings scenes to life in my head. I absolutely love it. And although Zerah’s Chosen doesn’t have its playlist up just yet, it’s coming, so look out for it!

Thanks for coming by, Isabelle.

BIO:
By day, Isabelle Santiago fuels her muse and her love of literature as a devoted bookseller. By night, she is the mom of one hysterical infant and a cat that swears he’s a dog. She lives with her husband and her misfits in a cozy loft apartment on the New England shoreline.

WEB:
http://www.twistedfairytale.net 

Textnovel.com serializes REMOTE CONTROL by Cheryl Kaye Tardif

After news spread across North America about the novel I am writing on my iPhone 3G, I have had the pleasure of being interviewed for TV, radio, newspapers and websites, plus I was contacted by Stan Soper, the founder of Textnovel.com, a website devoted to cell phone novels or serialized fiction by phone.

Stan states: "I started Textnovel™ after I stumbled across an article in the New York Times on Japanese teenagers who were writing and reading fiction on their cellphones and publishing them on websites."

This fad has quickly spread across Japan over the past few years and resulted in a number of bestselling novels written mainly by teenagers with no previous writing or publishing experience. Many of the novels were written using cell phone lingo (LOL) and most are Young Adult (YA) novels.

Textnovel is the first English site to offer cell phone novels, which can be read on your computer or cell phone.

With my novel Finding Bliss I take cell phone novels to a whole new level. Not only am I the first person to attempt to write an entire novel using the Notes application on my iPhone 3G, it'll be written with my normal style (no cell phone lingo) and will feature a character who uses and iPhone 3G. This novel may one day find itself on Textnovel.com.

When Stan read about me in a recent press release, he extended a special invitation for me to check out Textnovel.com. That's when I decided to do a test run with my serialized novelette REMOTE CONTROL. I've been posting it on my website, but that will be on hold while I post it to Textnovel.com instead. Feel free to read it on Textnovel.com or you can subscribe and have new chapters delivered right to your cell phone. And don't worry, my chapters are short.

Read REMOTE CONTROL on Textnovel.com.

~Cheryl Kaye Tardif
bestselling author of Whale Song

Tips for Plotting Your Novel – Part 2: Ferment the Plot

In Part 1 I talked about percolating a novel plot, coming up with the ‘bubbles’, the ideas that form the skeleton of your plot. To write an engaging novel, you have to dig far deeper. That’s what fermenting helps you do.

What do you think of when you see the word FERMENT? Picture a vat filled with young wine; it needs time to soak in all the subtle flavors that will make it distinct and delicious. A novel needs time―and more importantly, deep thought―to gather in all the richness that will make it a novel worth reading.

One thing I’ve learned as a writer is this: thinking is underrated. We’re so programmed to be active and busy, that we forget that pausing every now and then actually allows us to process more information. To the human brain, writing a novel is a huge ‘information dump’; we need that pause to acknowledge our ideas, then sift through all of them to find the precious gems that will become our plot, characters, setting, and ultimately a bestselling novel (we hope).

During the fermentation stage, I’ll think more about the characters, one character and one question at a time until I have a solid answer for each. Who is she? What are her strengths and weaknesses? What is her goal? What suspenseful challenges will she face? What relationships are found or lost? Who is she up against and why? How does she proceed in the investigation or journey or quest? How does she finally reach her goal? What scene most comes to mind when it’s time for the final chapter or epilogue?

Often at the fermentation stage I’ve already started writing the actual novel. At different times throughout, I’ll pause and have what appears to be a break. But really I’m fermenting my novel plot. Someone watching me might think I’ve fallen asleep with my eyes open and head upright. You may even see the occasional wisp of smoke from my ears, or I might talk out loud or nod. I’m sure I must look weird when I do this at my favorite Starbucks, but each time I ferment my plot, the dialogue, action and characters grow stronger and deeper.

The next time you decide to write a novel, think about percolating and fermenting your plot. When I clicked on the word “percolate” and went to the synonym check in MS Word, the following words came up: seep into, infiltrate, permeate, penetrate, get into, infect, drip, filter. I think they perfectly describe what we need to do to create an engaging plot.

So percolate an idea. Let it seep into your mind and infiltrate your thoughts. As these ideas permeate your daily routine, they’ll penetrate further into your mind so you won’t forget them. They’ll get into your blood, infect you, until you can’t wait to sit down at the computer. The key then is to allow the thoughts to drip, one at a time, from your mind to the keyboard, so that in the end you become a filter and the perfect novel plot will finally emerge.

©2008 Cheryl Kaye Tardif

~Cheryl Kaye Tardif is a bestselling author of 3 Canadian suspense novels (Whale Song (published by award-winning Kunati Books), The River and Divine Intervention). She is also a freelance journalist and popular speaker at writers groups, conferences and book clubs. Her specialty topics are: book publishing options; book marketing (online and offline) and writing advice. Cheryl currently resides in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

Visit her website: http://www.cherylktardif.com, or her blog: http://www.cherylktardif.blogspot.com