Note: you might notice I didn't try to say what the word count of a short story should be in this video because there are a LOT of differing opinions on this haha! *What do you think?* I've read that short stories are supposed to be between 5,000 - 10,000 words, and that anything less is considered "flash fiction" and anything more is considered a "novella" BUT when you look up novellas, you'll find a super wide range (10k - 40k) and also something called a "novellette" (roughly 7k - 17k for whatever reason)? And of course, I've heard a story isn't officially a novel unless it crosses 50k. *SO, to ME, anything under 50k is a short story (keeping it simple over here haha). But I'd love to know what you think?*
Well, I believe that under 50k is a short story, under 91k is a novella and over 91 k is a novel.... sorry I'm between 50 to 90 k I am usually considered writing a novella.....
That's pretty much what I think too. Under 50k? Short story. I've seen flash fiction, micro story, novelette. Too many categories, I'm getting confused, let's keep it simple lol
I just finished a Biblical fiction short story for my email list! It was fun to write something with less pressure than a full length novel. I like that there's more freedom to play with story structure in a short. Also, I watched your video on making covers in Canva to make my cover. I'm loving this video! Thanks for your tips!! 😍
I have 5 collections of short stories and 4 stand-alone short stories published on Amazon. Now, I'm working on editing, revising and polishing 5 completed novels in preparation for publication.
I love short stories! That's how I started my writing journey. I think they're so fun and an easy way to start. As I improved and learned, I wrote actual books. (Though they're still pretty short, like 40,000 words). :) It's also super fun to write out movie scenes and fanfiction. Helps keep the creative juices flowing when I get burned out on a project.
I have been Writing for 7 years and I have wrote 160 short stories and I really really want to publish your videos are so helpful and I have also wrote 3 chapter books it is my dream to become a author ✍️
I am in the process of a short stories “series”, but caught myself expanding it into more of a middle grade book. It also began as a picture book idea, so I’m all over the place. Thanks for the video.
@@BethanyAtazadeh i want my short story about a bully so the title is called the bully it basically about a girl in a wheel chair who get bullied but i’m not sure how to get a beginning and a end
I'd love love love Jezebel's story in print form!! I'm such a sucker for physical books. These are great tips, especially your tip about writing out the story first to see how long the final product should be. I know I used to feel pressure to know exactly what I was writing before I wrote it and that made me SIGNIFICANTLY less productive. Ever since I adopted the Draft 0 technique, I've enjoyed the process of writing much more. Drafts upon drafts upon drafts, getting better each time. Thank you for the tips!
Great pros and cons and tips, Bethany! Short stories can definitely be tricky to write, and the "you won't know until you know" tip is SO TRUE! Penny is adorable as always!!
Thank you for sharing! I had watched it earlier but pregnancy brain sabotages me! Now that i’m looking to write a prequel for a magnet this was just what i needed.
It’s crazy timing for you to post this video because I’m writing a book of short stories related to my fantasy series right now. Normally, short stories aren’t my genre, but I’ve been having fun trying a new form. It’s great to see more of the characters I love from different angles. :)
So glad you're back. I would love to see more videos on your after publishing routine, or, even your pre-marketing plans. If you don't mind :). I hope you are well. Stay safe!
I can’t tell if my earlier post went through… I just want to share how much I love your videos! They’ve helped me so much in my writing journey. I love your positive energy. I write romance under a pen name, Aria Emend and find that your videos are relevant for any genre… Today, I’m watching for ideas on short stories for my reader magnet. I’ve been intimidated by the process of setting up an email list😬😬 Thanks you for sharing your knowledge 🙏🏼
So far I have published 5 ebook short stories in a series, that range from 6k to 20k words. I did have peer edits and beta readers for all 5 of them, and paid for edits on 2. I also used prowritingaid which really helped. There are also a few other short ebooks I released. I think it's important to take it just as seriously in short stories, as some new readers will only buy the smaller or "cheaper" ebook first to get a feel for your style. If I could change anything, I world have paid for edits on the first 3.
I considered making caracter short stryes for my triolagy. Though I am unsure if i should do it, amd if i do it that i should make a background book on all the caracters, or if i should include them in the books in fx. hard cover edition or some special edition.
Hey Bethany, my first short story was a character reading a book within one of my novels. It gave a little insight into what they would face on the upcoming quest. Love the sleeping dog in the background
I love the title! As always, your energy and tips are so fun to watch. 🥰🥰 Your word count suggestions were great. I’m **almost** done with my first novel (yay!!) and I glance at that word count with every addition or deletion. 😆😆 It is what it is!
Thank you! I’m hoping to do the HeartBreathings Publish and Thrive in August. It’ll be perfect timing to walk through that with my finished manuscript. 🤗🤗
I love short stories, and I must say, I used to not see the point of them until I had the urge to write one. Now I love them and I live for those little lead magnet stories from my favorites authors
I love short stories but i also buy novels much more. I think it might be because i love more of a character arc and i like it all being one story versus several seperate stories such as a short story collection. Although i do love it when an author will make separate short stories that add to their novel like you did.
Yes! Writing short stories around your own books (for me) has been mostly a fun indulgence, like fan fiction lol. I recently wrote one and have it up on my site as a magnet, a free download. It's a slice-of-life that introduces people to my writing, as well as the magic, threats, and other world-building that people can expect from my upcoming debut. Then, between books 1 & 2, there's a time gap and we skip over a big event, so as a preorder bonus for book 2, they'll get a bonus scene. Between books 2&3, the preorder bonus will be a collection of scenes from side characters that betas have loved, getting to see behind the scene goodies that occured in book 2 that wouldn't have fit because we didn't get that POV and they would have contained spoilers. Also being an underwriter, it helps, lol. I always have to go back in and add things like scenery and sensory descriptions. I usually start with just getting to the meat of it.
I write short stories exclusively haha. Idky but I love short stories, to me it's such a difficult writing form to master and a challenge. Also, I feel like my writing skills aren't quite capable of a novel, yet. I'll be publishing a collection of my short stories in 2 - 3 months ( currently in editing process ), I'm excited it will be my first published book!
My first short story, Heifer, was also the first thing I published to get a feel for what self publishing is like. Its about 7000 words so super short and I did pay to get it edited and I am really glad I did. I am super happy with the piece of writing. I want to write more short stories now but based in my fantasy world. It would also be good to use one as a reader magnet but right now I am working on book 2 so i guess it will have to wait.
Ahhh I love the title!! So excited for this! XD I personally don't like short stories that much because I feel like it's a waste of time and money for something so short, but I am interested in Jezebel's story! I also feel like short stories tend to not have fleshed out characters and writing. In the ones I've read it was all so fast paced and you didn't get a feel for the characters at all.
Answering to your question Bethany personally I wrote two short stories, both of them are sci-fi (one story about a cosmic monster - 8 pages - and one story about ghosts becoming computer software). The first one was shorter and dumber, but the second one (which I recently rewritten to be currently 13 pages long) is much longer and it makes a bit more sense, being similar to an action short film :)
@@BethanyAtazadeh Thank you :D I wrote it in hungarian, which is my mother tongue. I do not know if you may be interested in reading fans' short stories. Personally I like to share them of course with others than my parents and classmates. Both of the two stories were signed into a competition, unfortunately the cosmic monster story did not make it but writing it was fun :D The second one is currently competing.
Not that I had planned to write a novella or short story, but I found this video very interesting. Thank you for making it, and making the idea of writing anything but a novel not so scary as it has been for me in the past. Maybe I'll give it a try sometime ^ _^ And as much as I love your personality and what you say, you are right. I am constantly on the lookout for Penny and would watch her and be distracted had she been in frame :D
My first short story was also the first book that I self published. I partly wrote it so that I could self publish for the first time without it being a huge 50,000 word novel. Really glad I made that decision.
Hi! I just wanted to share how much I love watching your videos! Your videos have helped me tremendously in writing my books even though I wrote romance and not fantasy. It’s all very relevant to anyone who writes. I’m a new author (published 1st book 2022) and write under the pen name Aria Emend. I love your positive energy and just wanted to share. I have lots of questions being so new, but I know I can look up your videos for the answers. Today, I’m looking into writing a short story for a reader magnet. I still haven’t set up an email list and am looking up the process. It’s all been very intimidating but I hope to get more clarity from watching videos like yours🙏🏼 Thanks!
Haha I think you might be right! I see so many differing opinions on the word counts, but I like the sound of novella. Technically a novella is a short story still, at least to me, everything that's smaller than a novel is a short story haha
A short story is to be readable, in one sitting and reading time, not the consideration of word count or page length. Throughout history 'shorts' have be as long as 1000 words and up to 6000. Great middle ground, for thought is 4,000. Novelette ~ 10,000 to 30,000. Novellas ~ 30,000 to 50,000. Novel 55,000 to 300,000. Flash fiction ~ A beginning, middle and end. Hemingway claimed to be able to write one in 6 words. Although, personally: I am contrary, to sometimes the beginning is the end. Hope helps.. -OPUS
You write until you realize that you can close the back door somewhere between 5-20k words, maybe 30k... after that it is a novella....I just put a book out of short stories, includes 14 shorts and one novella. I also wrote a short story based on a novel I wrote earlier. it was a prelude..The thing about short stories is that it is hard to get back into the longer novels because you start thinking of everything in terms of short stories.
That's so cool! I might cross 30k with mine, so that is making it fall into a sort of short story "no man's land" haha... I guess it might be a novella, and I didn't realize, but I think anything that's not a full length novel can still be considered a short story in some ways! :)
Note: you might notice I didn't try to say what the word count of a short story should be in this video because there are a LOT of differing opinions on this haha! *What do you think?*
I've read that short stories are supposed to be between 5,000 - 10,000 words, and that anything less is considered "flash fiction" and anything more is considered a "novella" BUT when you look up novellas, you'll find a super wide range (10k - 40k) and also something called a "novellette" (roughly 7k - 17k for whatever reason)? And of course, I've heard a story isn't officially a novel unless it crosses 50k.
*SO, to ME, anything under 50k is a short story (keeping it simple over here haha). But I'd love to know what you think?*
Well, I believe that under 50k is a short story, under 91k is a novella and over 91 k is a novel.... sorry I'm between 50 to 90 k I am usually considered writing a novella.....
That's pretty much what I think too. Under 50k? Short story. I've seen flash fiction, micro story, novelette. Too many categories, I'm getting confused, let's keep it simple lol
This is what's generally accepted:
Short story: under 7,500
Novelette: between 7,500 and 17,500
Novella: between 17,500 and 40,000
Novel: over 40,000
I just finished a Biblical fiction short story for my email list! It was fun to write something with less pressure than a full length novel. I like that there's more freedom to play with story structure in a short. Also, I watched your video on making covers in Canva to make my cover. I'm loving this video! Thanks for your tips!! 😍
That's awesome! I think it's definitely less effort in general, since everything is so much shorter, that's a huge win haha! And thank you so much!
I have 5 collections of short stories and 4 stand-alone short stories published on Amazon. Now, I'm working on editing, revising and polishing 5 completed novels in preparation for publication.
I love short stories! That's how I started my writing journey. I think they're so fun and an easy way to start. As I improved and learned, I wrote actual books. (Though they're still pretty short, like 40,000 words). :) It's also super fun to write out movie scenes and fanfiction. Helps keep the creative juices flowing when I get burned out on a project.
That's awesome! Love that!
Your tips are the best....you actually help people out....thanks for actually knowing what your doing!
Happy to help!
I have been Writing for 7 years and I have wrote 160 short stories and I really really want to publish your videos are so helpful and I have also wrote 3 chapter books it is my dream to become a author ✍️
I am in the process of a short stories “series”, but caught myself expanding it into more of a middle grade book. It also began as a picture book idea, so I’m all over the place.
Thanks for the video.
That's awesome! Sometimes the changes can be exactly what they need!
@@BethanyAtazadeh i want my short story about a bully so the title is called the bully it basically about a girl in a wheel chair who get bullied but i’m not sure how to get a beginning and a end
I'd love love love Jezebel's story in print form!! I'm such a sucker for physical books.
These are great tips, especially your tip about writing out the story first to see how long the final product should be. I know I used to feel pressure to know exactly what I was writing before I wrote it and that made me SIGNIFICANTLY less productive. Ever since I adopted the Draft 0 technique, I've enjoyed the process of writing much more. Drafts upon drafts upon drafts, getting better each time. Thank you for the tips!
Yayyy! I prefer physical books too - I haven't decided for sure if it will be in print or just ebook yet, but I'll note that's one vote for print! :D
Great pros and cons and tips, Bethany! Short stories can definitely be tricky to write, and the "you won't know until you know" tip is SO TRUE!
Penny is adorable as always!!
Glad it was helpful! Thank you so much! :)
love your stuff , thank you for sharing 👍😎❤️
Thank you so much! :)
Thank you for sharing! I had watched it earlier but pregnancy brain sabotages me! Now that i’m looking to write a prequel for a magnet this was just what i needed.
haha no worries, enjoy!
It’s crazy timing for you to post this video because I’m writing a book of short stories related to my fantasy series right now. Normally, short stories aren’t my genre, but I’ve been having fun trying a new form. It’s great to see more of the characters I love from different angles. :)
no way that's awesome! I think short stories are definitely growing in popularity!
So glad you're back. I would love to see more videos on your after publishing routine, or, even your pre-marketing plans. If you don't mind :). I hope you are well. Stay safe!
thank you! I like those ideas, I'll write them down! :)
I can’t tell if my earlier post went through…
I just want to share how much I love your videos! They’ve helped me so much in my writing journey. I love your positive energy. I write romance under a pen name, Aria Emend and find that your videos are relevant for any genre…
Today, I’m watching for ideas on short stories for my reader magnet. I’ve been intimidated by the process of setting up an email list😬😬
Thanks you for sharing your knowledge 🙏🏼
You are so welcome, thank you!
So far I have published 5 ebook short stories in a series, that range from 6k to 20k words. I did have peer edits and beta readers for all 5 of them, and paid for edits on 2. I also used prowritingaid which really helped. There are also a few other short ebooks I released. I think it's important to take it just as seriously in short stories, as some new readers will only buy the smaller or "cheaper" ebook first to get a feel for your style. If I could change anything, I world have paid for edits on the first 3.
that's awesome! nice work! And that's a good point that it could actually be a fun way to reach new readers!
Absolutely love the angle of your short story drawing from one of your novels.
Yay! Thank you so much!
I considered making caracter short stryes for my triolagy. Though I am unsure if i should do it, amd if i do it that i should make a background book on all the caracters, or if i should include them in the books in fx. hard cover edition or some special edition.
Hey Bethany, my first short story was a character reading a book within one of my novels.
It gave a little insight into what they would face on the upcoming quest.
Love the sleeping dog in the background
That's awesome!
I love the title! As always, your energy and tips are so fun to watch. 🥰🥰 Your word count suggestions were great. I’m **almost** done with my first novel (yay!!) and I glance at that word count with every addition or deletion. 😆😆 It is what it is!
Thank you so much Jean! Yay congratulations in advance, so exciting!
Thank you! I’m hoping to do the HeartBreathings Publish and Thrive in August. It’ll be perfect timing to walk through that with my finished manuscript. 🤗🤗
I love short stories, and I must say, I used to not see the point of them until I had the urge to write one. Now I love them and I live for those little lead magnet stories from my favorites authors
That's awesome! And thank you so much Alison, I really appreciate that!
I love short stories but i also buy novels much more. I think it might be because i love more of a character arc and i like it all being one story versus several seperate stories such as a short story collection. Although i do love it when an author will make separate short stories that add to their novel like you did.
Your dog in the chair is listening to you watching you. So cute ❤
I write and read short stories. My debut collection is on Amazon.
Yes! Writing short stories around your own books (for me) has been mostly a fun indulgence, like fan fiction lol. I recently wrote one and have it up on my site as a magnet, a free download. It's a slice-of-life that introduces people to my writing, as well as the magic, threats, and other world-building that people can expect from my upcoming debut. Then, between books 1 & 2, there's a time gap and we skip over a big event, so as a preorder bonus for book 2, they'll get a bonus scene. Between books 2&3, the preorder bonus will be a collection of scenes from side characters that betas have loved, getting to see behind the scene goodies that occured in book 2 that wouldn't have fit because we didn't get that POV and they would have contained spoilers.
Also being an underwriter, it helps, lol. I always have to go back in and add things like scenery and sensory descriptions. I usually start with just getting to the meat of it.
Oooh I like that comparison to fan fiction, that's really fun!
I write short stories exclusively haha. Idky but I love short stories, to me it's such a difficult writing form to master and a challenge. Also, I feel like my writing skills aren't quite capable of a novel, yet. I'll be publishing a collection of my short stories in 2 - 3 months ( currently in editing process ), I'm excited it will be my first published book!
My first short story, Heifer, was also the first thing I published to get a feel for what self publishing is like. Its about 7000 words so super short and I did pay to get it edited and I am really glad I did. I am super happy with the piece of writing. I want to write more short stories now but based in my fantasy world. It would also be good to use one as a reader magnet but right now I am working on book 2 so i guess it will have to wait.
Ahhh I love the title!! So excited for this! XD I personally don't like short stories that much because I feel like it's a waste of time and money for something so short, but I am interested in Jezebel's story! I also feel like short stories tend to not have fleshed out characters and writing. In the ones I've read it was all so fast paced and you didn't get a feel for the characters at all.
Exactly
Yayyy! Thank you so much! I'm so glad you're excited to read it, and I promise I'm working very hard on giving Jezebel a full and complete story! :)
This is a wonderful lesson on short stories.
Thanks!
How did you come up with character art 🎨. .
Answering to your question Bethany personally I wrote two short stories, both of them are sci-fi (one story about a cosmic monster - 8 pages - and one story about ghosts becoming computer software). The first one was shorter and dumber, but the second one (which I recently rewritten to be currently 13 pages long) is much longer and it makes a bit more sense, being similar to an action short film :)
that's awesome! So fun!
@@BethanyAtazadeh Thank you :D I wrote it in hungarian, which is my mother tongue. I do not know if you may be interested in reading fans' short stories. Personally I like to share them of course with others than my parents and classmates. Both of the two stories were signed into a competition, unfortunately the cosmic monster story did not make it but writing it was fun :D The second one is currently competing.
Not that I had planned to write a novella or short story, but I found this video very interesting. Thank you for making it, and making the idea of writing anything but a novel not so scary as it has been for me in the past. Maybe I'll give it a try sometime ^ _^
And as much as I love your personality and what you say, you are right. I am constantly on the lookout for Penny and would watch her and be distracted had she been in frame :D
Haha love that! And yay I hope you give it a try! :D
My first short story was also the first book that I self published. I partly wrote it so that I could self publish for the first time without it being a huge 50,000 word novel. Really glad I made that decision.
That's awesome!
There are short story collections, which are novel length.
What size book is that ? What color paper is story written on. Is that a hard cover ,? And you say 4,000 words. Who designed front cover ?
Will I be able to read the Jezebel story without reading the Stolen Kingdom series?
Great question, yep! :D It will be a standalone in the series world!
Hi! I just wanted to share how much I love watching your videos! Your videos have helped me tremendously in writing my books even though I wrote romance and not fantasy. It’s all very relevant to anyone who writes. I’m a new author (published 1st book 2022) and write under the pen name Aria Emend. I love your positive energy and just wanted to share. I have lots of questions being so new, but I know I can look up your videos for the answers. Today, I’m looking into writing a short story for a reader magnet. I still haven’t set up an email list and am looking up the process. It’s all been very intimidating but I hope to get more clarity from watching videos like yours🙏🏼
Thanks!
I love short stories! I think you’ve crossed into novella though. Short story caps at 17k ish. From there to 40k is novella.
Haha I think you might be right! I see so many differing opinions on the word counts, but I like the sound of novella. Technically a novella is a short story still, at least to me, everything that's smaller than a novel is a short story haha
I thought a nouvella begins at 10,000 words.
A short story is to be readable, in one sitting and reading time, not the consideration of word count or page length. Throughout history 'shorts' have be as long as 1000 words and up to 6000. Great middle ground, for thought is 4,000. Novelette ~ 10,000 to 30,000. Novellas ~ 30,000 to 50,000. Novel 55,000 to 300,000. Flash fiction ~ A beginning, middle and end. Hemingway claimed to be able to write one in 6 words. Although, personally: I am contrary, to sometimes the beginning is the end. Hope helps.. -OPUS
that's a fun definition!
You write until you realize that you can close the back door somewhere between 5-20k words, maybe 30k... after that it is a novella....I just put a book out of short stories, includes 14 shorts and one novella. I also wrote a short story based on a novel I wrote earlier. it was a prelude..The thing about short stories is that it is hard to get back into the longer novels because you start thinking of everything in terms of short stories.
That's so cool! I might cross 30k with mine, so that is making it fall into a sort of short story "no man's land" haha... I guess it might be a novella, and I didn't realize, but I think anything that's not a full length novel can still be considered a short story in some ways! :)
@@BethanyAtazadeh I agree...
14 pages
It was like 28k+ and it got deleted *sighs in disappointment*
Bummer!
@@BethanyAtazadeh ikr I legit am a piece of shxt 😭😭😭 I should have kept a back up *sobs*