by Jinianne Lutz

Created on: September 19, 2009

You've decided to write a fiction book. Suddenly you're hearing words like Novella, Drabble, Flash Fiction, and other terms you're never heard before. You feel like abandoning your fiction book, but decide to pursue anyway.

In writing a fiction piece, it's wise to remember it's just that - fiction, not real. Although you might use actual events and people for ideas and personalities, the fun of fiction is to be able to embellish those characters into whatever you want them to be.

So now you've written 50,000 words and you novel is done. But you're not sure if it's a novel or something else.

A short story covers a wide range, from 1,000 to 7,500 words. A novelette takes the next step by containing a word count of 7,500 to 15,000. A Novella is longer and has between 15,000 and 40,000 words.

A regular fiction or genre novel is about 80,000 words, with the range between 50,000 and 110,000 words. (Genre is the type of work, such as science fiction or mystery.) Literary fiction typically carries a deeper message than regular fiction. It has a range between 60,000 and 150,000 words. Fantasy fiction is usually closer to the 150,000 to 200,000 word count. Fantasy fiction uses a lot of mythology and magic-type settings and characters. Young adult books fall into the same category as regular fiction at about 80,000 word count average.

Epics and sequels usually contain around 110,000 words or more. If your writing finds your word count at 200,000 or more and you're not even close to finishing your manuscript, seriously consider breaking it into a sequel a trilogy, or a series.

A Drabble is a story that contains exactly 100 words. A drabble is often used in a contest and limits the writer to a particular theme with a deadline for submission. The title may contain no more than 15 words. Many websites offer contests for works of drabble.
Other terms you will hear when working with fiction include such things as onomatopoeia (using words to describe sounds, such as "the bee buzzed near my ear"). The MC is the main character. Personification is making an inanimate object come alive, such as "the closed door stared at me as if daring me to knock."

The point of view is important in fiction; it's the narrative voice of the piece. Usually, if the narrative voice is from the MC's point of view, that is followed throughout the book.

A site such as McGraw Hill's Learning Center gives a description of various terminology used within a fiction work.

The setting is the place the main

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