Wednesday's Writer's Tip - Novel, Novella or Mixed Series #MFRWauthor

Some series only contain novels, others only novellas and some have both. Is there a reason to stick to one form or another. Part of that depends on the writer and maybe even the editor. There are some series that are editor driven and they may not have the same author for every story. Often these are novel series.

Only novella series are generally at the author's choice. Writing at this length seems comfortable for some people to have stories under 40,000 words in length but to have the characters have some connection with each other.

Why then, are there series that have both novel length stories and novellas? I know what has happened with me since I've attempted both kind of series. One set of novella stories worked very well. I still wonder about the other since I believe I complicated the plots too much. But that's the breaks. I know the fourth story in the grouping will be longer. But back to the point of mixing lengths in a series. There are some characters who visit the writers and their story isn't a long one but they belong in the series because of one of the reasons for writing a series. The location, the relationship to the other characters and the need to fill in some blank space in the development of a family or a group of friends.

The writer must choose the length of the stories in their series and the balance of stories. Writing is always a matter of making decisions.