(got some attention? - sorry, part of me is still in high school) I'm really impressed by some of the novels folks here are working on, that are 80,000 words, 100,000 words etc.. I wish I could construct a story of that length and hold the plot together. My longest work is around 40,000 words and I feel that if it went on any longer it would start to unravel. I was about to ask you all, how you did it. But I can probably answer my own question - it's planning right? And I don't plan well. I just like to start writing an opening scene and see where it goes. Inevitably I later feel that the story better have an end soon or I'm not going to be able to "keep it together". Therefore most of my stuff is short. My comfort zone seems to be about 15,000 words. Which, after looking around, might better be called the "dead zone". There's not much work of that length? Its a bit long for a short story and its not long enough for even a novella. Its...well, I dunno what it is... Sorry, not too much point to this post. Just pondering stuff while my current vomit into the keyboard is stuck at 4,000 words.
That's right in the pocket novelette range though. Small market, but maybe you could make a series of vignette novelties and collect them into a larger work.
The Mingo speaks truthfully. Some of my prized books are collections of longer short stories. There is beauty everywhere and sometimes the shortest tales are told the greatest way. Ways? I'm trying to be profound but it's three in the morning and I should have gone to bed a while ago. Suffice to say, you can be successful even if you're not as long as the other dudes driving big trucks really loudly down the suburb streets. It's what you do with it that matters anyway.
Careful what you wish for. You might find yourself at 120k + and spend months/years trying to cut down. I always use an outline with wordcount estimation per section to give myself some assurance the novel has legs word count wise. That being said, plenty of books just shove filler in there, massive sections that not at all necessary for the story itself. Shouldn't this thread be in general writing or something?
