Quote:
Originally Posted by Alexander Turcic
Some people like a long read. Some don't. On which side are you?
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The side that tells the story best. This may be a
really short story, such as Frederic Brown's 17 word classic, or it might take a multi-volume set.
SF writer Tom Purdom once opined that the novella was the natural length for SF -- long enough to develop the idea and the characters, but short enough to be read in a sitting. I think he was on to something, and there's a reason why the World SF Convention bestows a Hugo Award for Best Novella, but I don't think the novella is the only length that can or should be used, and I doubt Tom does either. (He wrote short stories and novels, among other things.)
But the story should dictate the length, rather than vice versa. I think we all have candidates for stories that began as novelettes or novellas, but were expanded to book length. Sometimes it worked. Sometimes the padding was all too obvious, and diluted what had been a fine tale.
"Long vs short" is a spurious competition that shouldn't be proposed. "Start at the beginning. Go on until the end. Then stop." However long it takes you to get to the end is the proper length.
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Dennis