The difference in word count between a novella and a full-length novel usually lay in the complexity and development of the story.
A long novel is usually more complicated than a medium novel, with more characters, plots, and backgrounds that require more space to describe. Writing a novel could take months or even years. It required the author to have higher writing skills and experience in order to tell the story vividly. In terms of word count, novels were generally more than novellas, ranging from thousands to hundreds of thousands of words.
The medium-length novels were usually simpler than the full-length novels, and the story and characters were relatively concentrated. The length of the medium-length novels was about a few thousand to ten thousand words. The middle section usually paid more attention to the development of the plot and characters, as well as the narrative skills of the story, rather than the accumulation of word count.
It was important to note that the word count was not the only standard to measure the quality of a novel. Different readers have different requirements for the complexity of the story, the attractiveness of the plot, and the degree of character description. Therefore, the number of words in the novel is not fixed.
An example of a 5,000-word novella is as follows:
Doomsday Blade
When the world was destroyed and only survivors were left, a young university student began his journey of survival.
His name was Li Feng, and he was an ordinary university student. Before the apocalypse, he lived an ordinary life and got along well with his girlfriend, living a happy life. But when the apocalypse arrived, everything changed.
His girlfriend was attacked by a monster. Li Feng decided to face this world alone. He began his journey of survival and encountered all kinds of challenges along the way, but he never gave up.
He had experienced the hardships of surviving in the wild and fighting monsters, learning how to hunt and survive. Finally, he arrived at an abandoned city where he discovered a mysterious underground world.
In this underground world, he met a mysterious girl called Amelia. Amelia told him that this world was once the ruins of a civilization, but it disappeared before the apocalypse.
Li Feng and Emily explored this world together and discovered many secrets. They had encountered many dangers, but they had always supported each other through every difficulty.
In the end, they found a mysterious treasure that greatly improved their abilities. They had finally found a way out of the apocalypse and regained their lives.
However, they realized that this world was not as beautiful as they had imagined. After the apocalypse, the world became more cruel and cold, and the relationships between people became more complicated and sinister.
Li Feng and Emily learned how to survive in this cruel world and support each other to face the challenges of this world. Their stories tell us that even in the darkest moments, we must not give up hope and face the world bravely to find a way out together.
Typically, headings are excluded from the word count of a short story. The focus is usually on the main text. However, some contests or editors might have their own rules, so it's always best to double-check.
The distinction between a novel, novella and short story is important in literature. A short story is a brief literary work that may focus on a single incident or character. It is typically much shorter than 32000 words. A novel is a long and complex work that can cover a vast amount of time and space, and is usually longer than 32000 words. A novella, however, is an intermediate form. It has more room for development than a short story but is not as expansive as a novel. Given the 32000 - word count, it is more likely to be classified as a novella as it has the space to develop characters and a plot more fully than a short story but is not as long - winded as a novel.
Word count is important in a short novel as it helps in categorization. For instance, some short story contests or anthologies have specific word count limits. If your short novel doesn't meet the criteria, it won't be eligible.
Another way is to use online word count tools. There are many free ones available. You simply copy and paste the text of the short novel into the tool's input area, and it will quickly give you the word count. Some popular ones are WordCounter.net and Online - Utility.org. These tools may also provide additional information like character count, sentence count, etc.
Well, generally, a short novel has around 20,000 words on average. Some might be shorter, like 15,000, and others could be closer to 30,000. It really depends. For example, in the mystery genre, short novels might be on the shorter end to keep the suspense tight. But in literary short novels, they could be a bit longer as the author might focus more on character development and detailed descriptions.