Today we welcome Milla Holt to our blog. Milla is part of the seven author boxset: Love, Faith and Tender Kisses.
Do you enjoy short fiction? What about massive door stopper novels? Perhaps you’re like me and appreciate stories of any length.
Depending on my mood, I sometimes want a bite-sized story I can read in one sitting. At other times, I’m after a long saga into which I can immerse myself over several days or even weeks.
For writing, though, I’m a lot less flexible. My chosen genre is romance, and that gives me a much narrower range of length in which to write. While there are a few sprawling epic love stories many pages long, romance doesn’t easily lend itself to short fiction.
Perhaps that’s because when we read romance, we want to see love develop gradually, while the couple overcome significant obstacles to be together. I want to be convinced that the couple has what it takes for the long haul. And I also want a sense of the wider community in which they live, and the other relationships that influence their lives.
It’s a daunting task to pack all that onto just a few pages. But that didn’t stop me from trying. Last Flight Home, a novella, is the result of my efforts to write a short love story. While planning it, I knew the couple’s journey to love would need to be curtailed, but still convey some depth. So, I made it a second chance romance. This meant I didn’t need to include their first meeting and growing attraction. By the time the story begins, they have already loved and lost each other, and are not planning on ever meeting again.
It’s hard to tell a fulfilling love story on a small canvas, which is probably why most authors only write a handful of these. In many ways, I found it more challenging to write than my full-length novels.
My novella is part of an anthology with six other short Christian romances. Love, Faith, & Tender Kisses is like one of those boxes of assorted chocolates I love to get at Christmas: each story being a dainty but complete morsel of faith-filled romance. I enjoyed seeing how each of the authors managed to achieve a satisfying story with a short word-count. After reading their work, I feel inspired to try once more to write a short love story!
Hi Milla thanks for visiting today. I like both novels and novellas, I prefer the 200 – 250ish page count I find when they are over 300 pages I often struggle (besides mysteries). I like the novella as a break from the more intense books. They are easy to read and when I am having times of higher pain or tiredness due to pain I can read them much easier.
I like how you explain the difference when writing. I know some authors seem to write more novellas while others are more the longer books. There are times you can tell an author isn’t use to writing novellas due to too many characters and too much happening and then they wrap up quickly leaving you wondering about the other characters. Where as a good novella may have extras but they are more support characters and the focus is the hero and heroine. (Like in yours there were extras in the plane that added to the story but they were just that extras).
Aw, thanks so much, Jenny! Writing stories of different lengths definitely stretches an author’s creative powers! As a reader I love all good stories, whether short or long, but as an author I need to push myself to learn how to write longer or shorter than what I’m used to.
Fun to work with you in the project, Milla. Many blessings
Thanks so much, Meredith! I’m enjoying getting acquainted with your amazing work. Isn’t it amazing how the seven of us span three continents?
Hi Milla, My apologies for chiming in so late. I often prefer to read shorter (60k or less) rather than longer books. If I have a few hours of reading time, I can happily read a novella in one sitting. The trade length novels require the planning of regular reading time, otherwise I spend too much time rereading because I’ve forgotten where I’m up to in the story. Thanks for sharing with us. 😊