”If I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter.’
Whether it was Cicero, Pascal or Churchill, it doesn’t matter, although Quote Investigator highlights the problem of the origin of this saying.
Writing length provides a purpose. If there is a need, it is acceptable to extend the length of the story so the reader has the necessary information. Agatha Christie loved to introduce facts and people as a last-resort surprise, but then it wouldn’t be such a mystery if all the details were given too soon.
In academic circles, where journals have limited publishing space and work to order, most require a preset number—2000 is the most popular length for standard articles. The text and figures need to fit pages neatly, and editors dislike spilling them over to another page.
Both fiction and factual material have an order: a start, a middle, and an end—the story arc. Even academic work needs a story arc of some sort so we see an introduction, background facts, the primary purpose of the study subject, and then a conclusion, possibly with results. The summary at the end could stand in for an epilogue.
Of course, blogs (posts) are best between 750 and 1800 words. I aim for a maximum of 1200 whenever possible, but shorter is best—this is under 1300 words—so one of my longer ones. Our reliance on sound bites, images, and text speak has altered the way we write today, but snuggling up in an armchair on a wet and windy day with a good book remains attractive.
Measuring the length of a book?
We tend to use the letter K as thousands when referring to the number of words. A single page may contain 300 words unless the gap between lines is close and the font is small on a page.
A short story can be essay length, say 2000-3000 words (2-3K) or longer, maybe up to 10k at a pinch. Beyond this, we call it a novella (small story).
A novella can range from a longer short story, around 10K up to 40 K. Full novels probably kick in around 40K upwards. Short novels of 65K may run to just over 200 pages, and longer novels of over 150+ K.
If you prefer to read on a tablet or Kindle, it is often difficult to appreciate the size of a book unless you look at the ‘time to read book’, ‘page number’, or ‘location reference’—given at the bottom of the page. It is not immediately as apparent as seeing how thick the spine of a book sits on a shelf.
Tucker Maz writes, ‘To get straight to the point — As recently as 2011, the average book length of the #1 non-fiction bestseller was 467 pages. By 2017, however, that number has dropped to 273 pages.’
Attention span has been blamed on a reduction of pages, but while there are books with a page count of over 1000, and that’s a huge number of words for a book, the average book page count has come down in years to under 300 pages. Social media and diminishing sentence length with text speak also impacts how we learn to communicate.
What features do authors concentrate on when writing?
Thinking of the reader rather than the author now, the short story is concise in its design. Some short stories can run into the danger of being too complicated and having too many characters, but generally, there are only one or two main people. The protagonist is the main character (the goody), and it is their story, although there may well be other characters, including an antagonist (the baddy). This person often plays a role that opposes the main character. An agonist is someone who facilitates a character, making them appear better, extolling their virtues, making them look good, or possibly worse, making them look bad. The reader is attracted to strong character development within the story.
KEY INGREDIENTS
Fictional stories require a plot, convincing characters, location and some conflict. Stories have arcs – rags to riches or vice-versa, although this can appear a cliche. The story builds through an arc. Whatever we read, we all like a good ending, but the end to finish with all hugs and kisses? The characters in our stories might find lost love at last; the bad person receives just punishment; a life of effort is rewarded with the prize. Or, we might have an unexpected twist, deceiving the reader that the murderer was the least likely person to have dunnit. And then the person may escape to come back another day… a sequel in the wind.
The Short
A short tale may be required because characters have limited time to take a focused journey. The short story introduces the character; the action may be fast, subplots are excluded, and excessive detail afforded by a longer story is not so evident. The conclusion is swift and convincing. Of course, within the short space, detail can still exist in a concentrated form, which slows the pace, typified by old-style writers such as Thomas Hardy and WB Yeats.
The goal needs to be focused and simple but retain all the same ingredients as any story. The short story cannot afford the same latitude to small details but concentrates on the main components of the plot. In my Fatal Contracts, nine short stories — the shortest at 3000 words, against the longest, at 7000 words. The book itself is 52K, so it comes under novella size when using word count.
The Novella
Ernest Hemingway’s Old Man of the Sea comes to mind. It all takes place at sea, focused on retrieving his first large catch and then fighting predator sharks: two characters, an old man past his best and a young boy who believes in him.
This format falls between the short story and the long one, and yet the main difference is length. The plot may be more complex and have subplots in the same way as a novel, but it is very much a story with the key ingredients common to any story. To date, my novella is around 34K and still being developed as I write this blog.
The Long
With time on your hands and a need to be entertained, a long story with plenty of development may be required for the reader. The idea of getting lost in a book appeals, and for this reason, the short is often not engaging, finishing too soon for the holiday read. Characters may have deeper developmental structures, and there will often be a smaller story or stories within the main storyline. Chapters may move from one character, location, and subplot, and the reader is kept guessing what comes next. My first long story came in at 85K, and although I am comfortable writing twice this, Tuck Maz’s words resonate. Do we need too many War and Peace tomes, and do we write for precious book awards?
At the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter. We read what we read and select the length because it suits us. If someone tells you to read a book because they think it’s good, well, it might be brilliant, or it might bomb! Long is certainly not better, neither is short; it is what you want it to be.
Long Story Short? by RC Blyth
January 8th, 2024
(C) Published by Busypencilcase Communications (Est. 2015)
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