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Is 50,000 Words a Novel? The Counts, and How a Short One Holds Together

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Short answer: by the count Wikipedia reproduces from the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, yes. Its novel category starts at 40,000 words.

Other counts put 50,000 words on the border itself, where the novella ends and the short novel begins. A month of novel writing aims at exactly that number.

Where the counts put 50,000 words

The categories Wikipedia reproduces, set for an award, by word count:

CategoryWord count
Novel"40,000 words or over"
Novella"17,500 to 39,999 words"
Novelette"7,500 to 17,499 words"
Short story"up to 7,500 words"

Wikipedia's novella entry turns that range into pages: "at 250 words per page, this equates to 70 to 160 pages." At the same rate, 50,000 words come to 200 pages.

Other counts stop the novella at 50,000. An article in The Writer from 2018, cited in the notes of Wikipedia's novella entry, sets the novella at about 20,000 to 50,000 words. It makes 50,000 the minimum for a short novel.

The BookBaby blog gives the same range for novellas, with full-length novels generally over 50,000 words. A guide on selfpublishing.com also says 20,000 to 50,000 words, or roughly 80 to 200 formatted pages.

So 50,000 words is a novel by the first count and the threshold by the others. Wikipedia sums up the disagreement: "There are no firm rules: for example, the boundary between a novella and a novel is arbitrary and a literary work may be difficult to categorise."

The border is argued over in practice too. In 2007, the Man Booker Prize panel qualified a book its author called a novella "as a "short novel"". It was "shortlisted for an award for best original novel."

Genre moves the usual length. In Wikipedia's words, "a typical mystery novel might be in the 60,000 to 80,000 word range while a thriller could be well over 100,000 words."

What the names mean

Merriam-Webster defines a novella as "a work of fiction intermediate in length and complexity between a short story and a novel". Its first sense is "a story with a compact and pointed plot".

In English-speaking countries, Wikipedia notes, "the modern novella is rarely defined as a distinct literary genre, but is often used as a term for a short novel."

What a month holds

Who runs the month of novel writing has a page on this site, which sums up its number: "Fifty thousand words is the tradition."

The arithmetic of that number is on this site too: "50,000 divided by 30 is 1,667, rounded up." With one rest day a week, "Fifty thousand words over 26 days comes to about 1,925 words on each day you actually sit down to write".

What the month produces is a draft: "a written version of a text that is not yet in its final form, however rough it is and however much of the text it covers".

A month that stops short still holds a book in progress. The November Notebook on this site: "Forty-one thousand words on the last day of the month is not fifty thousand, and it is also a novel with a beginning, most of a middle".

How a story of that length holds together

Wikipedia describes the form by what it carries: "A novella generally features fewer conflicts than a novel, yet more complex conflicts than a short story. The conflicts also have more time to develop than in short stories."

The older German tradition, in the same entry, narrows it further. A novella is "restricted to a single, suspenseful event, situation, or conflict leading to an unexpected turning point (Wendepunkt), provoking a logical but surprising end."

On its divisions: "Novellas may or may not be divided into chapters", and "white space is often used to divide the sections". On its reading: "Novellas may be intended to be read at a single sitting, like short stories, thus producing a unitary effect on the reader."

The guides of three writing-services companies add the working details:

  • One central conflict. In a novella, the main conflict rarely comes with the many side plots of a novel (Reedsy). The selfpublishing.com guide pairs one central conflict with a simpler premise.
  • One centre of attention. A novella is often focused on a single protagonist, and rarely has an ensemble cast or more than one viewpoint character (Reedsy). The selfpublishing.com guide advises one clear point of view.
  • A small cast. A smaller cast, where each character is essential (selfpublishing.com).
  • A quick pace. Less time for detours, every scene contributing to the central story (selfpublishing.com); a firm narrative structure and a small number of themes (BookBaby).

Five questions to ask a 50,000-word draft

Put side by side, those descriptions become five questions. On this site they serve as a diagnostic, not a mould: they show what a draft already does.

  1. How many conflicts does it carry? Fewer than a novel, more complex than a short story, in Wikipedia's description.
  2. Through whose eyes is it told? Reedsy's guide says a novella rarely has more than one viewpoint character.
  3. How many side plots run beside the main one? Few, in Reedsy's description.
  4. Does every scene feed the central story? The selfpublishing.com guide asks it of every scene.
  5. Where is the turn? The German tradition places an unexpected turning point before a logical but surprising end.

When the answers run to several conflicts, viewpoints and side plots, the story may want the room of a novel. The selfpublishing.com guide notes that many writers start with what they take for a novella and find the story wants more room.

In Scrin, a word goal can be a minimum or a maximum; a minimum with a finish date also shows the pace in words a day.

Questions

Is 50,000 words a novel? Yes, by the categories Wikipedia reproduces from the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, where a novel is "40,000 words or over". Three other sources put 50,000 words exactly on the line between the novella and the short novel.

Is 50,000 words a novella? Not by the same categories, which stop the novella at "17,500 to 39,999 words". Ranges of 20,000 to 50,000 words, in The Writer, on the BookBaby blog and on selfpublishing.com, place it at the novella's upper limit.

How many pages is 50,000 words? About 200, at the 250 words per page Wikipedia uses to turn the novella range into "70 to 160 pages". The selfpublishing.com guide gives roughly 80 to 200 formatted pages for 20,000 to 50,000 words.

Can you write a novel in a month? A month of novel writing aims at a draft of 50,000 words: "50,000 divided by 30 is 1,667, rounded up." What comes out at the end of the month is a draft, still open to revision.

How is a novella structured? Around fewer conflicts than a novel, in Wikipedia's description. The older German tradition centres it on "a single, suspenseful event, situation, or conflict leading to an unexpected turning point". Writing guides add one protagonist, one viewpoint and a small cast.

How long is a short novel? From 40,000 words by the categories Wikipedia reproduces, or from 50,000 by the article in The Writer. Genre moves the usual length: "a typical mystery novel might be in the 60,000 to 80,000 word range".

Sources