I never understood how this stupid idea a novel had to be 70K words minimum started. In the first half of the 20th century, there were untold classics of 30-50k words. The idea word count equals value is an idiot's belief. I see more value in 30-50K words of exquisite genius, than 70- 130K words of mediocre padding and standard work.
I'll add to this, that the idea a book needs to be at least a certain word count for value only exists in Britain. In Europe and South America, a book's a book. Its value is how good it is. In fact, novella simply means novel in Latin languages like Italian. We took the word for novel and, for some strange reason, decided it meant short novel. Weird.
Anyway, my next book is about just shy of 55K words, so if you like shorter novels, it's a hallucinatory, picaresque folk tale of a woman's survival in a world of thugs and criminals and her decent into madness (psychotic hallucinations or Mystic visions?), so get it if you like the sound of that. Apologies to Toby for plugging in the comments, but it's relevant to the discussion, and I believe it's merit is in the art of the language, not the word count.
Eliot added his notes to the Waste Land as the publisher felt it was too slight to stand alone.
I never understood how this stupid idea a novel had to be 70K words minimum started. In the first half of the 20th century, there were untold classics of 30-50k words. The idea word count equals value is an idiot's belief. I see more value in 30-50K words of exquisite genius, than 70- 130K words of mediocre padding and standard work.
I'll add to this, that the idea a book needs to be at least a certain word count for value only exists in Britain. In Europe and South America, a book's a book. Its value is how good it is. In fact, novella simply means novel in Latin languages like Italian. We took the word for novel and, for some strange reason, decided it meant short novel. Weird.
Anyway, my next book is about just shy of 55K words, so if you like shorter novels, it's a hallucinatory, picaresque folk tale of a woman's survival in a world of thugs and criminals and her decent into madness (psychotic hallucinations or Mystic visions?), so get it if you like the sound of that. Apologies to Toby for plugging in the comments, but it's relevant to the discussion, and I believe it's merit is in the art of the language, not the word count.
I'm a huge fan of shorter works, both in reading and writing. Novellas for me are the perfect length.
Loved Grief Is the Thing With Feathers
Yeah. Great book.
Love the short novels of Cynan Jones. Prose cut to the bone. And of course this year's Booker winner, the fabulous Orbital, is circa 120 pages.