Why Write a Novella?

I’ve heard it said, even by some authors, that novellas are a “waste of time” for a series writer. I strongly disagree, and here are the reasons why.

The list of reasons:

• Writing a novella gives your mind a break from the possible monotony of ploughing through several books’ worth of authoring,
• Writing a novella gives you the option of choosing a different style, point of view character, tense/person, and so on,
• A novella is short enough that you can refine parts of the craft: learn to write in a more condensed fashion, concentrate on one particular character, practise writing a focused plot, avoid extraneous material, etc.,
• Readers who are already investing a lot of time in your books may well appreciate having a story which is self-contained and a bit different from your main series — it’s like a refreshing break,
• New readers, who have not yet picked up any of your series novels, may use a cheaper, shorter novella as a low-risk entry point to the rest of your body of work.

I have yet to see any disadvantage described which outweighs the above points. There is the well-made point that if your readers are waiting for you to complete a series, it may frustrate them if you are spending your writing time on a piece of work which they will value less (or not at all). However I have two counter-points to this:

• Fans tend to enjoy anything written in the world of your main series, and I would bet those who appreciate the novella will out-number those who are adamant that your next release MUST be a main series novel,
• Personally, if I am writing a novella, it’s because my brain can’t currently address the main series story. It’s exhausted and needs to work on something else. After a break, in which I am writing something different, the work invested in the main series will be far more productive and creative.

One thing I have noticed is that novellas do not sell so well as full novels. But if writing a novella expands your fictional head-canon, allows you to try new techniques, and maybe refuels you creatively, perhaps it was worth it for reasons that go beyond mere revenue?

If you have any views on this, please do share them in the comments.

This post is one of those I have imported from my decommissioned Patreon page. I’ve cleaned up the text a bit and added some improvements or clarifications wherever I thought it would benefit.