The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories by Ken Liuĭrinking Coffee Elsewhere by ZZ Packer Need more short stories? Check these posts out.Blog How Many Words are in a Novel Chapter? Nickee de Leon Huld 5 mins Hit List: The Best of Latino Mystery edited by Sarah Cortez I won’t link to example novels, as you can find those in just about every other Book Riot post! What are some good collections of short stories? Word counts from Reading Length.Ī novel is anything over about 40,000 words, though some definitions stretch novella up as high as 60,000 words or so.
Note: I have included several short novels that are often considered novellas. The Black Tides of Heaven/ The Red Threads of Fortune by JY Yang ( 73,200 words/ 68,320 words) Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin ( 53,680 words) The Refrigerator Monologues by Catherynne M. River of Teeth/ Taste of Marrow by Sarah Gailey ( 34,945 words/ 36,975 words) The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaValle ( 27,405 words) Novellas are short novels, from 17,500 or 20,000 words usually up to about 40,000 words, or about 100–200 pages. The Night Train: A Novelette by Evelyn Archer (19,000 words) The House of Aunts by Zen Cho (15,000 words) These stories sometimes read more like a short story and sometimes more like a novel. Novelettes are longer short stories, generally between 7,500 words and 17,500 to 20,000 words, or up to about 100 pages. The Joy of Baking by Holly Lyn Walrath (2425 words)Ī Nest of Ghosts, A House of Birds by Kat Howard (4500 words)īear Language by Martin Cahill (5000 words)Ĭrow’s Eye by Sarah Hollowell (5015 words) How long is a novel? Some examples of short stories you can read online: The majority of short stories fall under this general definition, and may or may not include flash and even micro-flash. Short stories range from lower word counts of 1000 or 1500 words up to around 7,500 words or occasionally as high as 10,000. The Little Sea Maid by Annika Barranti Klein (me!) (235 words)ĭoctor Chevalier’s Lie by Kate Chopin (385 words) How long is a short story? Some examples of micro flash you can read online: Micro-fiction or micro-flash is under 500 words. The Witch in the Tower by Mari Ness (990 words) Women’s Work by Amelia Aldred (985 words) If We Live to be Giants by Alison Mulder (980 words) The Hulder’s Husband Says Don’t by Kate Lechler (970 words) If You Were A Dinosaur, My Love by Rachel Swirsky (965 words) Some examples of flash fiction you can read online: How long is flash fiction?įlash fiction is under 1000 words (occasionally the upper word count is as high as 1200 or even 1500, and sometimes it is as low as 750). Within short stories, there is a further breakdown to define super-short stories as flash and micro-flash. Precise word count definitions will vary, but as a general rule of thumb, a short story is anything up to about 7500 words (sometimes 10,000), with higher word counts typically called novelettes, and short novels called novellas. “The Fall of the House of Usher” by Edgar Allen Poe (7225 words) So, how long is a short story? “To Build A Fire” by Jack London (7175 words) “Rip Van Winkle” by Washington Irving (6950 words) “The Garden Party” by Katherine Mansfield (5555 words) “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” by Ambrose Bierce (3800 words) “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson (3775 words) “The Gift of the Magi” by O Henry (2165 words) “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allen Poe (2100 words) “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin (1005 words) “One of These Days” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (1000 words)