A novel is a long prose story that usually tells fictional characters and events in chronological order. It is agreed that the novel is the longest genre of fictional prose today, followed by the novel, the novella and the short story.
However, there is no consensus on the minimum required length. Due in part to this wide variation, the boundary between the novel and the novel can be arbitrary and difficult to determine.
American science fiction and fiction writers estimate the length of a novel to be more than 40,000 words, while national novel writing months must be at least 50,000 words.
