If you have an idea for a novella and are about to dive in, think about plotting out the story or at least the plot points. A novella offers no room to go on tangents. If you write intricate plots, do world building, or often go over your word count, you will definitely need to plot out your novella ahead of time.
Some other points to consider while you’re planning your novella:
- Tell a story where the main characters already know each other. Establishing a relationship takes a lot of pages.
- Consider having the hero already in love with the heroine (or vice versa), and then the story gives more time to show the other character’s journey of falling in love.
- Keep the time frame very tight. Some novellas take place in the course of one night, but the average is a week or two week period.
- Don’t change the setting too much. It eats up the page count.
- Double-up. If you write sexy romances, have the premise or high concept sexy. Or, have the goal, motivation and conflict directly linked to the sensual journey.
- Keep the secondary characters to an absolute minimum.
- Don’t skimp on the characterization. Develop the hero and heroine the same way you would for a full-length story, but keep their journey linear.
