Novella Examples for Your Inspiration and Creativeness

Example of a Novella: Two Lists

July 10th, 2018

Every day starts the same way: he looks in the mirror and sees the reflection of his wrinkled face. His name is Sam. He is 65 years old. His smile has lost sincerity and always seems forced. His life has become so stable that it even isn’t worth living. After a painful divorce, his company totally consumed his mind and heart. Twenty years have passed unnoticed, filled with endless paperwork and business meetings. However, his efforts were awarded. He has…

Example of Novella: The Lost Dream

February 27th, 2017

Excerpt When I was seventeen, my life changed forever. I know many people who become greatly surprised when I tell them that. They look at me trying to understand what could have happen. My story takes so much time to be told that most people would probably refuse to listen to it till the end. I cannot summarize it in 3 or 4 sentences as it is not so simple. Although it was more than 30 years ago, people who…

Start Writing Process with Our Novella Examples

Did you know that many famous writers began their writer’s path by copying the works of others? For example, Jack London copied the style of Rudyard Kipling, as he admired him as a writer. William Shakespeare, George Orwell, and Alexandre Dumas have borrowed ideas for their books from other works. As you can see, even the greatest writers faced the need for ideas and style.

Reading someone’s work may give you an idea for something bigger for a more interesting masterpiece. And at the same time, samples can help you improve your style of writing and learn how to structure the text better. On our blog, we share well-written novella examples that may help you come up with a great idea for your own writing.

Start Here: Novella Examples

If you have come to the idea of writing something, maybe it is time to write a novella? “Novella” refers to a mid-length story, longer than a short story, but shorter than a novel, and usually doesn’t take as much time to write as a novel. The story is usually focused on one character and the entire story spins around him or her. Unfortunately, only some writers can quickly come up with an idea and write a masterpiece. No matter whether you are a beginner writer or a professional, all writers face difficulties when writing a literary piece. Writer’s block, a lack of ideas, lacking writing experience, lacking a unique style – all of this can be overcome with practice.

Any beginner writer wishes to write a masterpiece that will be published and highly appreciated by readers and critics. But it’s a thorny path, and every writer has to go through it. Copying someone’s style is a great tool for novice writers who strive to improve their writing skills and learn from the best. Copying samples is not about thoughtless copy-pasting. Your work should be unique and interesting. If you want to improve your writing style, you can practice with copywork. What does this mean? You find a good example, then read it attentively, take notes, set it aside, and try to replicate it from memory using your notes. Let’s explore how it works in steps:

  1. Read the sample. Pick a sample that has the style you want to copy. Make sure that you really like the style, as you will need to spend much time working with it. It doesn’t matter if you choose a fiction or non-fiction writer, as all depends on your preferences only. Your aim will be to imitate the writer’s style.
  2. Use handwriting only. It is believed that handwriting helps to remember information more than writing on a computer or typewriter. Also, handwriting helps people to think clearer and be more focused.
  3. Take baby steps. Don’t try to copy a voluminous work, as you can lose motivation for writing entirely. Start with small pieces or passages and only then proceed to longer pieces. Examples of novellas will be a good choice for beginners.
  4. Practice every day or as a warming-up activity. Put practicing copywork in your daily schedule or practice it each time you get to writing.

Many famous writers have practiced this technique, and in fact they have created their own unique styles. So, don’t think about copywork as plagiarism; it’s just an exercise. On our website you can find great novella examples that you can use as a basis for your own creation.

How Example of Novella Writing Can Help You

What is an example of a novella? It is a written work by an experienced writer, the aim of which is to show what a finished novella looks like. Samples are a great tool for improving your own writing. Here you can see how you can benefit from reading samples:

  • Improve your style. Reading well-written samples will help you improve your writing style. New elements will be incorporated without additional actions, so you won’t notice the moment when your style will change.
  • Improve word choice and syntax. Initially, you can take a sentence from the sample and rewrite it. This will be a first step to improving your syntax. With the help of samples you can see how the author arranges words to get the maximum effect.
  • Use the sample as a source of ideas. If your paper is still blank, don’t be upset!
  • Get inspired with the greatest samples and let your creative juices flow.
  • Copy the structure. Samples are a good method for finding the right way to tie the paragraphs between each other. Apply transitions between paragraphs. Also, with the help of a good sample you can see how the author organizes ideas into a whole.

Samples can come at hand when you are experiencing writer’s block or think that your writing style needs improvements. Try our tips from above and we believe that you will write a masterpiece!

What Makes a Good Novella

Intrigue. A good novella is a story with an intriguing plot. After a couple of hours or days brainstorming about the unique idea you may face the truth: there are no original ideas at all. Modern and previous generations of writers have reused existing ideas and motifs in their stories. Intrigue in the story is like pepper in the dish. And the sooner you add it in the story, the more attractive it will be to the reader. A great story captivates attention from the very beginning and keeps the tension throughout the story. The author can make steps aside from the story, like adding a second line of the story or writing flashbacks, but still it should give additional detail to the story.

Style. Poor vocabulary and stylistic mistakes are the signals of a poor text. The reader can forgive your punctuation errors or incorrect format, but the text written at an elementary level will push the reader away. Style is not born but is made. You can learn to have a certain style or copy it from masters. Also, a great form of practice for developing style is thinking about your audience. Who will be interested in your story? Who are these people? What style will compel the reader to keep reading? Look through the advertising booklets and bestsellers. Think about the points that make the text beautiful and engaging. Pay attention to how the writer keeps the reader’s interest and how each chapter begins and ends.

Understatements. What does this mean? Understatements are about having an open ending for the story. This is a quality of skilled writers, so don’t be upset if you don’t succeed. You need to force the reader to think more about the fate of the protagonist or other characters from the book. If the reader after finishing the story will continue thinking what the hero will be doing next, the author has hit the target.

A good novella makes the reader smile, cry, worry, and then smile again. Your aim is to craft a text that your reader will love. Engage readers in the story and force them to read the story in one sitting. For more information we recommend you to read Stephen King’s “On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft” and accompany it with our novella examples here at payforwriting. Also, we recommend you to read our guide on how to write a novella, and look through novella ideas available on our website. Take a pen or open your notebook and start to write, write, write.