A New Mystery Story
After
some time off, a little more than planned, I have a new story out.
Always Such a Quiet
Street began as a
short story, but ended up just over 10,000 words, too long to be called short. So maybe we can call this one a long story.
Some
of the charts that assign labels to fiction based on word count say Always Such a Quiet Street is a novelette, a term I don’t much like.
For
me, the word is almost pejorative. In fact, some older definitions of novelette say the subject matter is
trivial. (Trivial? I don’t know of any modern writer who claims to pen trivial fiction.)
In
the days of ebooks that can be about any length, that dismissive meaning should
be obsolete but the negative connotation hangs on like a bad dream.
Still,
the term has some value in suggesting length, staking out a middle ground
between a short story and a novella. The most common word count of a novelette hovers around the 7,500-17,500
range. So my new story does indeed fit under that umbrella.
Regarding
fiction length, writers tend to focus on word counts, at least during the
writing. Software counts the words, and the numbers don’t lie.
The
problem of definitions arises when the writer or publisher tries to tell the
general public about the size of a new work of fiction. I like word counts and
share them openly because that seems like an honest approach. Even so, I’m skeptical
that they mean a lot to many readers.
My guess is that most fiction readers, even
seasoned and highly educated ones, stick to the terms short story and novel but
feel a little uneasy with the murkier categories of novella and novelette.
In
my younger years I took a number of elective literature classes at a major university
and read fiction of varying lengths. But in all those classes I don’t ever
recall hearing the terms novelette
and novella. Looking back, I can see
that I read novellas that were called novels, and novelettes that were called
short stories.
Instead
of dwelling on word count, the classes rightly focused on themes, plots, characters,
language and all the usual highlights of literature. The length of the book or
story mattered only when it came to reading time.
And
that brings me back to my new story.
Always Such a Quiet
Street has all those
features found in literature classes, but it’s probably a lot more fun. Even
though the story could be read in one sitting, its small, logical chapters
offer good places for breaks.
The story is a mystery, a tale of wrongdoing and the efforts of someone
to do right. High tuition is not required, and there’s no mystery about the
price. It’s 99 cents (plus tax) in the U.S. That works out to about 102 words
per penny. Under any definition, I’d call that a bargain.
