Rico Lamoureux's Blog: Cafe Lamoureux - Posts Tagged "novelette"
Day 17 - Why I Write Novellas
Hello my wonderful readers!
Today is the first day of my new goodreads blog, and 17th. day since the daily blog's conception over on YouTube.
Today I thought I'd write a little on why I write novellas and not novels. A lot of it has to do with my time in film school, where I studied the craft of screenwriting. Unlike traditional forms of writing, this medium requires the writer to be very concise, as one page generally translates to one minute of screen time. And since most people aren't into six hour films, (although some might argue that this is changing due to 'binge-watching', where viewers watch an entire season of a television series within a short period of time via netflix or what have you. I actually like this idea, and will probably become a 'binge-watcher' myself when opportunity allows. Like a book, you're in control of how much you take in at any given time!) screenwriting can sometimes feel rigid.
Forward a few years later and I had awoken from the naive believe that I could actually get into Hollywood based on talent and not on who I knew (or didn't know) and with new direction decided to focus my passion for storytelling back to the conventional narrative form.
What I hadn't expected was for my writing style to change, but that's precisely what I discovered when I sat down to write my first book. I found that it felt more natural to me to tell short stories rather than try to stretch them out when there really was no need to do so. I didn't need to write an entire novel to tell a complete dramatic story. I could evoke emotion, take the reader on an awe-inspiring journey and serve story/character all within the general 25-50k words of a novella.
And thus I had found my niche!
Does this mean I will never write a full-length novel? Not at all. Story and character tell me the appropriate length to serve it properly. Sometimes 20k words, sometimes 30k. In the case of my first print book, The Maiden of Monaco, one can actually consider it a novelette, as it is less than 16k words, yet is one of the most powerful stories I've written to date!
Perhaps someday I'll start a story and soon realize that its characters, its plot, is telling me that it's going to need a greater amount of ink than I usually pour forth. But until then, I'm happy writing novellas:)
Speaking of The Maiden of Monaco, the first two chapters are up on my facebook page, as a way to say thank you to those who LIKE my page:)
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fb...
I'd better wrap up before I turn this blog entry into the length of a novella!
See you tomorrow:)
Today is the first day of my new goodreads blog, and 17th. day since the daily blog's conception over on YouTube.
Today I thought I'd write a little on why I write novellas and not novels. A lot of it has to do with my time in film school, where I studied the craft of screenwriting. Unlike traditional forms of writing, this medium requires the writer to be very concise, as one page generally translates to one minute of screen time. And since most people aren't into six hour films, (although some might argue that this is changing due to 'binge-watching', where viewers watch an entire season of a television series within a short period of time via netflix or what have you. I actually like this idea, and will probably become a 'binge-watcher' myself when opportunity allows. Like a book, you're in control of how much you take in at any given time!) screenwriting can sometimes feel rigid.
Forward a few years later and I had awoken from the naive believe that I could actually get into Hollywood based on talent and not on who I knew (or didn't know) and with new direction decided to focus my passion for storytelling back to the conventional narrative form.
What I hadn't expected was for my writing style to change, but that's precisely what I discovered when I sat down to write my first book. I found that it felt more natural to me to tell short stories rather than try to stretch them out when there really was no need to do so. I didn't need to write an entire novel to tell a complete dramatic story. I could evoke emotion, take the reader on an awe-inspiring journey and serve story/character all within the general 25-50k words of a novella.
And thus I had found my niche!
Does this mean I will never write a full-length novel? Not at all. Story and character tell me the appropriate length to serve it properly. Sometimes 20k words, sometimes 30k. In the case of my first print book, The Maiden of Monaco, one can actually consider it a novelette, as it is less than 16k words, yet is one of the most powerful stories I've written to date!
Perhaps someday I'll start a story and soon realize that its characters, its plot, is telling me that it's going to need a greater amount of ink than I usually pour forth. But until then, I'm happy writing novellas:)
Speaking of The Maiden of Monaco, the first two chapters are up on my facebook page, as a way to say thank you to those who LIKE my page:)
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fb...
I'd better wrap up before I turn this blog entry into the length of a novella!
See you tomorrow:)
Cafe Lamoureux
Cafe Lamoureux started off as a daily video blog on youtube and has now taken the form of a daily blog here on goodreads. In addition to discussing his literary works, Rico Lamoureux will be posting d
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