The Novella and Stephanie Meyer

[bcomet]

I just bought and read the novella addition to the Twilight Saga. It's a detour from the main story, supposedly to fill in the missing data from the third book.

Here's what I LOVE about it:

1. It's beautifully bound
2. The paper is exquisite
3. The typography is lovely and the layout design is nice.
4. It is VERY WONDERFUL to have top selling authors promoting the novella. It is a fine art form and I love it. Perhaps she will pave the way for more novellas to appear in our mainstream again.
5. The price point.

What didn't work for me, that I overlook because of the LOVE points listed above, include:

1. There were no spaces between any paragraphs and it made it hard to read. Give me places to break, please.
2. It didn't feel complete in and of itself as a story. It was more like a factoid piece. I suppose that is good for some people who want or crave that info, but I am all about a story that can be complete all by itself and satisfying. It was okay, but not satisfying.

None-the-less, LONG LIVE THE NOVELLA! Go Stephanie Meyer for doing this for both her fans and good causes* (*apparently there was a portion of the price that went to a good cause and it was also free –other than that portion– if you wanted it on her website).

~~

Have any of you written or read a novella or care about this form? Would love to hear!

[Ishta]

I actually recently read this novella, and aside from your points, (which I mostly agree with), I hated that there were no chapter breaks. Is this normal for novellas? I haven't read many, so I wondered if this was typical or just a quirk unique to this particular book.

[jkmcdonnell]

You can overlook an unfulfilling story because the paper was nice?

[lightelement94]

Nice paper is an art form in and of itself...that's why stores like Papyrus are so wonderful. I feel like I read the free portion online...I'm not a Twilight fan, but it's interesting to see mainstream authors step out into the less conventional. Let's see if this prompts a deluge of undead novellas, though...

[Ishta]

I read the entire Twilight series. I knew what I was getting into story-wise. ;-) Although the thing about "dark-red hair" threw me, and I'm still not over it. I HATE inconsistencies like that. And yes, I used all-caps. Yes I did.

But, the quality of the physical book - the paper, the design, etc. - was high.

I have to say that I didn't LOVE it (or even like it very much), but I did appreciate that the novella was published in an unusual way, and as I said above, the book was designed well.

[deepsesh]

I haven't seen the book yet, but i read a review yesterday, and it got real poor ratings! So i was having my doubts whether to buy it or not.

[bcomet]

Ishta,
I looked at my copy of The Old Man and the Sea by Earnest Hemingway to see if it had chapter breaks or paragraph breaks. It didn't have either. I think I never noticed with that book because the story was so compelling and it worked.

I guess I need those paragraph or chapter breaks when the story is exhausting, tedious, or for other reasons. In the Bree novella, I wanted the breaks. Sounds like you did too.

jkmmcdonnell,

I prefer a compelling story. In this case, I bought the book and took my chances. I wanted to support this venture into the novella and the cause it supports is worthy.

lightelement94,

The art form of a book can be stunning. I love it when a book is made so well. It is a pleasure to hold it in your hand. I'm personally not looking for a deluge of undead novellas, (thought that a funny prospect!) but I would love to see a resurgence of the novella.

Ishta,
Yeah, the hair on a bunch of the characters seems to morph in the movies too.

deepsesh,
Like I said, the main reason I bought the book was to support the novella and the cause was good. But I believe, you can read it for free (or for a dollar to the cause) on the website too.

[Ishta]

Huh. I never noticed that THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA didn't have chapter breaks, either. I guess that says a lot about the contrast between the two books, in terms of the quality of the writing. One pulls you along, and the other is more of a slog.

[bcomet]

Ishta,
I looked up novellas and their structure on wikipedia and learned (if this is correct)the following:

Unlike novels, they are not divided into chapters, and are often intended to be read at a single sitting, as the short story, although white space is often used to divide the sections.

Something I hadn't heard before. However, I think a novella could be structured with chapters anyway. Especially if chapters improve or seem appropriate.

Many of our great writers have penned a novella:

(again quoting wikipedia):

The novella is a common literary genre in several European languages. English language novellas include John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men, Herman Melville's Billy Budd, George Orwell's Animal Farm, Truman Capote's Breakfast at Tiffany's, Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea, Robert Louis Stevenson's Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, Philip Roth's Goodbye, Columbus, Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, and Jack Kerouac's The Subterraneans.

[bcomet]

I also found this, from William Shunn: Proper Novella Format (http://www.shunn.net/format/):

In my estimation, the format you use for a novella would depend on where you're submitting it, and for what purpose. If you're sending it to a magazine or anthology, format it the same as you would a short story. If you're sending it to a book publisher for consideration as a standalone volume, you should format it like you would a novel, with a separate title page.

In short story format for your novella, you would indicate new chapters simply by skipping a line, then centering the chapter header on its own line. In novel format, you could either do it that way or by starting each new chapter on its own page, with the chapter heading centered halfway down the page.

[Heather B]

What I love about it?

It looks awesome on my bookshelf.

What I didn't love?

The quality of writing, the lack of character exploration (just because this character already exists prior doesn't mean the reader doesn't want to learn more about it), the inconsistencies (red hair, I know what you mean Ishta), the lack of page breaks and the fact that the two hours I spent reading it, I spent wishing it was over.

It was a great idea to have an accompanying book but this didn't really give us any extra info other than the Volturi knowing what Victoria was up to. (Something she eluded to in the books well enough). I think it's funny the the part I liked the best was the fight and we already got that from Eclipse.