The novelette (between 7,500 and 17,500 words long) can be a challenging but rewarding form for SFF writers. As a novel in miniature, it requires authors to think about narrative structure in ways that differ from the specific requirements of the short story, with a more complex plot that frequently falls into distinct acts. Because a novelette can be written in a shorter timeframe than a full novel, it allows writers to develop and refine skills that will be useful for longer projects, while also providing a form that is deeply rewarding in itself. This workshop will focus on idea generation, structure, and editing with an emphasis on the novelette, as well as elements of craft that can be applied to fiction of any length.

Alec Nevala-Lee has published numerous stories, including ten novelettes and two novellas, in the magazine Analog Science Fiction and Fact. Three of his novelettes—”The Boneless One,” “The Spires,” and “At the Fall”—have been reprinted in Best of the Year anthologies, including The Year’s Best Science Fiction by Gardner Dozois. He is the author of three suspense novels from Penguin, and his nonfiction book Astounding: John W. Campbell, Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, L. Ron Hubbard, and the Golden Age of Science Fiction (Dey Street / HarperCollins) was a Hugo and Locus Awards finalist and an Economist best book of 2018. His latest book is Inventor of the Future: The Visionary Life of Buckminster Fuller, which was named a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice and one of Esquire‘s fifty best biographies of all time. He is currently writing a biography of the Nobel Prize-winning physicist Luis W. Alvarez for W.W. Norton.