The Great Novella Challenge
Challenge Yourself... Write a Novella Every Month
The Great Novella Challenge
For the last few years I have done quarterly challenges that many people have enjoyed. And a lot of novels or short stories have come out of those challenges that I enjoyed reading.
So a new challenge, with a brand new form. One a little saner and a little crazier in the same breath. And again, the fee goes toward two workshop fees.
This is patterned after the Great Challenge and the Great Novel Challenge
Here are the basics…
The Great Novella Challenge is to write a new novella every month and turn it in to me. I am your deadline.
Only rule for the novella is that it has to be original, not something from your inventory. But yes, it can be a new novella in one of your series or worlds. And you can't have started it before the first day of the challenge.
No genre limitations.
Length from 15,000 words minimum to 30,000 words.
It has to be turned in to me by attached file in manuscript format by midnight West Coast Time on the last day of the month after you started to count in the challenge. (If you end up starting in the middle of the month, your due date for each novella would always be a month from that date. That way it is possible to jump into the challenge at any time.)
The cost is $600.
If you miss, at that point you get two regular online workshops or $600 credit toward any online teaching, such as Pop-Up series or lectures or classics or lifetime workshops.
So in essence, you are buying two workshops.
The Great Novella Challenge Reward…
First, you have a new novella every month to get out to markets or up to readers for as long as you can keep the streak alive
Second, if you hit 6 novellas in a half year before you miss, you get $900 in workshop credit.
And third, if in the following month or so after you turn in the novella to me, you send me a paperback of the new book for all 12 books during the year, you will get a lifetime subscription of your choice to all workshops, all lectures, all Pop-Up series, or Las Vegas workshops.
The paper publishing part can lag behind. But the writing and turn in to me is your deadline.
So, in summary...
The Great Novella Challenge consists of the following…
--- Novella must be between 15,000 words and 30,000 words. Any genre.
--- If you miss, you instantly have credit for two workshops.
--- If you get all 12 novellas done in the year's time but only send me electronic, you will have $900 credit toward workshops.
--- If you send me a finished and published paperback a month or so after you turn it in each time for the entire year (12 books), you get a lifetime subscription. No deadlines on the paper.
--- Cost is $600. (And yes, if you miss, you can buy back in and start over, but you can't use the credit to buy back in. Credit is good for everything else but challenges.)
--- Challenge starts any time you tell me you want to start. (That date will be your deadline every month.)
--- Sign up on Teachable under The Great Novella Novel Challenge header.
Questions, write me at [email protected]
This is going to be great fun.
Your Instructor
With over twenty-three million copies of his books in print, USA Today bestselling writer Dean Wesley Smith now brings you original fiction every month for the past three years in his own magazine, Smith’s Monthly.
Dean wrote over twenty-five original Star Trek novels, the only two original Men in Black novels, plus Spider-Man, X-Men, Iron Man novels, and others. He wrote many gaming novels including Final Fantasy.
He wrote novels and stories under almost fifty pen names and did scripts for Hollywood as well as being an editor for various magazines. He lives in Las Vegas with his wife, writer Kristine Kathryn Rusch. You can follow his writing life at www.deanwesleysmith.com