The Case for Very Short Novels - PW (Publishers' Weekly)

Panzer just returned from today's trip into the Catosphere. Our big bad kitty boy made a trip to the Publishers' Weekly site. It didn't take any digging at all to find an interesting post about what qualifies as a novel. While this post is about paper books, everything in it applies to short digital novels as well. (Everything that is except the part about using novels as door stops or to fix wobbly tables.)

According to the post by Welsh novelist Cynan Jones, there should be no argument that there is a place for short novels for today's readers. He defines a short novel as one which can be read in two hours. Because of this time/length restriction, short novels must deliver their story line punch in the most economical word use possible. So, tight writing is a must. Mr. Jones also takes issue with the novella category of books as demeaning to the story form.

Nobody knows tight writing like me.

Panzer says, "All anybody who wants to know about telling a story using the smallest number of words needs to do is read my Monday Panzerisms."

Note: This is a l-o-n-g post. You'll need a thermos of tea and two muffins for today's reading.

To read the post, tootle over to short novels