At the suggestion of a friend, I thought I’d try something new. I am working on a novelette, or a novella. I really don’t know which it will be. According to most of the websites, these are the word count ranges:

Novelette: 7,500-17,500 words
Novella: 17,500-40,000 words

I’m aiming for between 15,000 and 20,000, and we’ll see where it ends up. I have the first draft done, and it stands at about 15,500 words. And since I am an under-over writer, I will probably be adding words.

That probably doesn’t make sense to you, but it’s true. I underwrite because I don’t get enough description in there, especially of settings. And I overwrite by using unnecessary or redundant words. (See my Sloppy Writing posts)

So here is my story.

The Freshman Fifteen, a new adultish novelette/novella
Eighteen year old college freshman Rosemary hatches a plan for revenge against her mean roommate. But before the plan is fully complete, things change (of course), and she must decide what’s more important: carrying out her revenge or giving it up for the guy she fell for.

Everything fell into place after I thought of the original idea, which hasn’t changed much except for cutting out some characters. Originally I had 6 people she was taking revenge on, but that’s been knocked down to three. Otherwise I would’ve gone over my max word count.

And now it’s editing time.

I’m not sure that anything will ever happen with this, but it’s been fun to write.

So have you tried anything other than novels? Short stories? Novella/novelettes?