Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Writers' Wednesday: Does Length Really Matter?

So I'm spending this week finishing up a major revision to my novella Tequila Sunrise - only to have this nagging feeling that I haven't really "finished" it. Here's the thing: I'm not sure a novella-length is really my strong point. While in theory I like the shorter length (it isn't so intimidating to write lol), and I like reading some romance novellas, for me my story and characters end up under-developed. This is what I've been told by some of my beta readers, anyway, and maybe they're right.

My plan is to finish this one - it'll be "finished" at about 33K words and put it aside for a week or two. Then I'll try going back with fresh eyes and see if and where it needs to be developed.

Anyway, here's my question: if you're a reader, what's your favorite length story to read? Does it matter? And if you're a writer, what your preferred length story to write? Does that matter?

And just for kicks, here's my favorite few lines I wrote yesterday. Enjoy:

“Do you love her?”

Love. Hell of a terrifying four-letter word. He’d asked himself that question more times than he could count over the past few weeks, and the bottom line was, he didn’t know. He didn’t know what it was supposed to feel like. Like a punch in the gut? Like the comforting silence of a summer night? Hope crossed with fear, with a healthy dose of hormones tossed in? Depending on the day, he felt all that and then some, which seemed as though it could be love or maybe just insanity.

Maybe they weren’t that far apart.

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