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I like the idea of separating stories by length. When competing
against each other, shorter stories have the advantage of voters being
able to read more of them more quickly. But longer stories have the
advantage of being able to have much more complicated and fully
developed plot and characterization. In general, I think it would be
more fair to compare works of similar lenght to each other, whether as
main categories or subcategories.

I suggest we use the definitions used by the Hugo and Nebula Awards.
Both sets of awards have been running for many years very
successfully. The word lengths of the established categories reflect
the commonly used definitions in the publishing world. Here it is
quoted from the Nebula site:

Awards will be made in the following categories:

1. Short Story: less than 7,500 words.
2. Novelette: at least 7,500 words but less than 17,500 words.
3. Novella: at least 17,500 words but less than 40,000 words.
4. Novel: 40,000 words or more. At the author's request, a
novella-length work published individually, rather than as part of a
collection or an anthology, shall appear in the novel category.


These numbers have the advantage of a long history in the science
fiction/fantasy genre, so being accused of arbitrariness will not be a
problem.

Elana

I smiled when I read this. This same suggestion came up at ASC. I think in
the end, ASC decided not to categorize by length. But what made me smile is
that most of my stories (the Trek ones and some of the other non-LOTR ones)
are epics by those definitions. Oswiecim had 170,000 words by my count
(over 300,000 by ff.net's). I call it a novel. Pain of Memory had about
half that. It call it a novella. But this says it's still a very large
novel.

I think most of my short stories are longer than 7,500, too.

What about others out there? Yes, the Hugos and Nebulas use them, but how
do they strike you? Think about your stories. Long or short, and what kind
of word count do they have?

Time for me to get ready for bed. (The sleep doctor suggested that I should
try getting into bed by 10:30. I laughed at him. I compromised and said I'd
try for midnight.)

--Ainaechoiriel
MEFA Admin and Founder

"This evil cannot be concealed by the power of the Elves," Elrond said, "for
it is Windows-compatible, and freeware at that." --H.F.

http://gabrielle.sytes.net/mefa The Middle-Earth Fanfiction Awards
Blog: http://www.ainaechoiriel.blogspot.com



-----Original Message-----
From: angelabrooks@yahoo.com [mailto:angelabrooks@yahoo.com]
Sent: Tuesday, December 07, 2004 9:37 PM
To: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [MEFAwards] Catagorizing stories by length



I like the idea of separating stories by length. When competing against
each other, shorter stories have the advantage of voters being able to read
more of them more quickly. But longer stories have the advantage of being
able to have much more complicated and fully developed plot and
characterization. In general, I think it would be more fair to compare
works of similar lenght to each other, whether as main categories or
subcategories.

I suggest we use the definitions used by the Hugo and Nebula Awards.
Both sets of awards have been running for many years very successfully. The
word lengths of the established categories reflect the commonly used
definitions in the publishing world. Here it is quoted from the Nebula
site:

Awards will be made in the following categories:

1. Short Story: less than 7,500 words.
2. Novelette: at least 7,500 words but less than 17,500 words.
3. Novella: at least 17,500 words but less than 40,000 words.
4. Novel: 40,000 words or more. At the author's request, a novella-length
work published individually, rather than as part of a collection or an
anthology, shall appear in the novel category.


These numbers have the advantage of a long history in the science
fiction/fantasy genre, so being accused of arbitrariness will not be a
problem.

Elana







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