Short
Story
3,500 - 7,500 Words
A short story is one of
the most common forms of writing. Basically a short-story is often used to
describe a single event, a single episode, or a tale of one particular
character. A short story is free of major twists and conflicts. Involvement of
multiple sub-plots and various characters are not usually included in a short
story.
A short story is
basically a fictional prose. It is written in a narrative style. However, the
narrative style may either be the ‘First Person Narrative’ or the ‘Third Person
Narrative’, as the writer feels best.
The most important
difference between a short-story, novelette, novella and a novel is the word
count. An average short story revolves around the limit of 3,500 words.
Technically, a short story should at least be of 3,000 words, and should not
exceed the limit of 7,000 words.
Novelette
7,500 - 17,000 words
Moving on from the short
story, we have ‘Novelette’. A novelette is also a narrative fictional prose. To
be very honest, in modern times, a novelette is not used very often.
A novelette is greater
than a short-story, but it must be shorter than a novella. The word count is
usually between 7,500 words to 17,500 words.
Example:
"The Dead" by James Joyce (15,633
Words)
"The Dead" is
the final short story in the 1914 collection Dubliners by James Joyce. At
15,672 words, it is the longest story in the collection.
Novella
17,000 - 40,000 Words
If we move forward from
the novelette, we have the Italian-styled fictional prose narrative writing,
which is known as novella. A novella is greater than length than a novelette.
It can involve multiple sub-plots, twists and characters. However, by keeping
in mind about technical aspects of a novelette, it is basically written with a
satirical, moral or educational nature and purpose. Therefore, it usually
depicts the tale or story of a single character, but as I mentioned, it can
involve multiple characters.
A novella is usually
maintained within the words limit of 17,000 words to 40,000
Examples:
“First Love” (Russian: Первая любовь, Pervaya ljubov) is a novella
by Ivan Turgenev, first published in 1860. It is one of his most popular pieces
of short fiction. It tells the love story between a 21-year-old girl and a
16-year-old boy.
Novels:
40,000+ Words
Novel is one of the more
common types that we often encounter. A novel involves multiple major
characters, sub-plots, conflicts and twists. A novel is of a considerable
duration and length, in which the plot moves forward by different actions,
thoughts, results, situations that are evoked by different characters involved
in it.
It has several twists in
the main story, and the reader often feels that the main story has been
deviated and affected by the involvement of different sub-stories and
sub-plots, or by the involvement of new important characters – this is
considered the real beauty of a novel.
The word count limit for
a novel is really debatable. This is because the different genres have
different words count, when depicted in a novel. However, a novel must not be
shorter than 40,000 words.
Editors often consider a
novel, which is spread over 80,000 – 120,000 words. Romantic novels, however,
can be shorter than that.
On the other hand, a
fantasy, horror or a science fiction novel must of the greatest lengths. Some
famous books, like The Lord of the Rings series and the Harry Potter series
have set the trademark of having the most words. Fantasy novels are often
written, touching the 240,000+ mark, which is preceded by the Harry Potter
novel series.
A novel is a long
narrative, normally in prose, which describes fictional characters and events,
usually in the form of a sequential story.
Examples:
The
Land of Stories: The Enchantress Returns By Chris Colfer.
(40,000+ Words)
Folklore
Folklore is the
traditional art, literature, knowledge, and practice that is disseminated
largely through oral communication and behavioral example. Every group with a
sense of its own identity shares, as a central part of that identity, folk
traditions–the things that people traditionally believe (planting practices,
family traditions, and other elements of worldview), do (dance, make music, sew
clothing), know (how to build an irrigation dam, how to nurse an ailment, how
to prepare barbecue), make (architecture, art, craft), and say (personal
experience stories, riddles, song lyrics). As these examples indicate, in most
instances there is no hard-and-fast separation of these categories, whether in
everyday life or in folklorists’ work. folklore is that part of culture that
lives happily ever after.
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