Light novel (ライトノベル raito noberu, also ラノベ ranobe or ライノベ rainobe) is a style of Japanese novel primarily targeting young adults. They are typically around 50,000 words long, are often frequently published, are generally published in A6 format (105×148mm) and are often illustrated. They are often serialized in magazines such as Faust, Gekkean Dragon Magazine, etc. In recent years, on the basis of such novels have been created manga, anime, movies and acting.
There are two main aspects that distinguish light novels from other forms of literature. The most obvious one are the illustrations. Almost every light novel will have an anime style illustration as its cover. Apart from that most of them also contain 5-10 extra illustrations placed within the book, but there are also those that don’t have any.
The other aspect is the writing style. Light novels focus mostly on dialogues, which allow the story to progress quickly, keeping the reader interested and reading at a bit faster rate. This however mostly leads to a situation, where it is not stated who is speaking. In that situation it is up to the reader to keep in mind who is speaking at the moment, since apart from the beginning of the conversation, there is no indication. Another aspect of the Light novel writing style is that paragraphs can range from 4 sentences, to one at times. Also there are times when sound effects are given an entire line to enhance effect. This creates an unique experience different from the normal writing practices of published fiction.
I discovered Light novels when I was looking for chapters of particular manga and since then I can’t stop reading them :) . If you want to check what it is all about I strongly recommend Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari.
Do you know any light novels?
Do you know any other style of story writing?
http://www.baka-tsuki.org/project/images/3/3e/Tate_no_Yuusha_no_Nariagari_Volume_1_Cover.png
The other aspect is the writing style. Light novels focus mostly on dialogues, which allow the story to progress quickly, keeping the reader interested and reading at a bit faster rate. This however mostly leads to a situation, where it is not stated who is speaking. In that situation it is up to the reader to keep in mind who is speaking at the moment, since apart from the beginning of the conversation, there is no indication. Another aspect of the Light novel writing style is that paragraphs can range from 4 sentences, to one at times. Also there are times when sound effects are given an entire line to enhance effect. This creates an unique experience different from the normal writing practices of published fiction.
That’s right, coming to a stop while in deep thought isn’t good.
Having been reminded that by Lililuri, I pat her head while we entered the loan barn.
…………Huh? I feel like I’m forgetting something important?
「Hello there! Welcome to Train Loan Barn! What business do you have with us today?」
……I thought that I’d be able to remember something important, but I had even forgotten to think about that.
「Ah…uh…ah………」
Who could blame me for being unable to form words!
Isn’t this the first time I’ve experienced such a shock since I had drifted into this different world!?
「Ah, horse, ……san?」
That’s right. What was beyond where Lililuri had pointed, was a male whose face was a horse standing there.
But Lililuri, you shouldn’t point at people.
I’ll need to scold her afterwards.
A part of Sendai Yuusha wa Inkyou Shitai (http://manga0205.wordpress.com/)
Do you know any light novels?
Do you know any other style of story writing?
http://www.baka-tsuki.org/project/images/3/3e/Tate_no_Yuusha_no_Nariagari_Volume_1_Cover.png
Comments
Does Dragon Ball belong to this style? This is propably one story which I know from Japanese style. Anyway... I have just watched it (loved it btw) :)
Maybe in the future I will try. Library in our school has a lot of books with light novels I saw.
You recommended "Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari", I googled some informations about this one, isn't it prefer for girls?
Do you have any example of such novel maybe in PDF? I would be really interested too see one (and not in Japanese, please :P).
I know another fancy style of writing novels: dactylic hexameter. It's the one, "Pan Tadeusz" is styled on (originally it was used by Homer). Mickiewicz did adjust it to Polish language but still almost every line of text contains 12 syllables.
Well I don't know if "Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari" is directed for girls. Well if we talk about story where main character is transfered to a fantasy world to act as a hero with rpg elements like from the game (gaining exp and such), and then being screwed by almost every single person, which makes his personality pretty bad... then yeah maybe it actually is a light novel for girls ;p
Actually there are two kinds. Light novel and web novel. The main difference is... that web novel is distributed through the net, while light novel is printed. There are also sometimes differences in the story if there is a light novel and web novel of the same story. How it is published? Well I don't really know, but I think it depends on how popular it is. Like with manga and anime adaptations, it isn't always the same one way.
Well at first I just read it cause I wanted to know what happens next in the story of a manga I was reading. Then I remembered that there is also another manga that was on hold and I thought that there might be a light story. Why I like it? I think its the same as with manga, stories are amazing :)
That's... I don't know actually. I remember that they are "evolution of pulp magazines". I will have to look into it more.
I also don't know Japanese (yet, I'm starting to regret that). Right now I at the mercy of people that translate light novels to english. If you'd like to try it, then visit this page http://www.baka-tsuki.org/ .
Usually I prefer to watch Japanese animated movies and short(!) anime series when I feel the need to get familiar with some of the recommended stories :D
You mentioned e-sports in another post, and so I believe that a great medium for telling a good, deep story are.. .games.
I think this is quite interesting focusing on dialogues rather than whole aspects around
I mean, if you decide to base your story mostly on dialogues, at least make a
comic book out of it!
From you have presented in the article, I guess it is sometimes difficult to tell what is going on while you are reading because dialogues are not directly described ( I mean that you don't know who said certain line). In my opinion it might be confusing.
I must admit that I am the kind of person that prefers dialogues over descriptions in a novel and I could give light novels a try. However it's a very personal thing, since many people prefer a few pages of descriptions than to read even one lane of a dialogue.
When I want to read I go for authors like Aghata Christie, Carlos Zafon or Eric Emmanuel Schmitt. Recently I'm into all books about women in history;)
I like to read novels. My beloved novelist is Sandor Marai. However, lately I read mostly to develop my knowledge, so I choose anthropological books and popular science books. And my guilty pleasure stories are criminals.
That's... called manga :D
No, I don't.
Do you know any other style of story writing?
No, I don't.
I would like to write more, but this week there is no subject besides KickStarter that I can affiliate with(is it right to say or "refer to" is just better).
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/affiliate+with
Anyway... Dragon Ball only manga/anime in which I have interested. So I know nothing about light novels in practice...
Well, I don't know yet, never tried one. Probably because I never found manga/anime theme interesting enough - it's just not my thing. But maybe I'm missing something, maybe I will try it one day.
Do you know any other style of story writing?
(After I wrote the answer I realised that you asked whether I know any other style of writing - I thought the question was which other styles of writing I like - I will leave the answer unchanged as I find the question you asked harder to answer :P)
It's hard to tell, because most of the times I focus more on content then form. I always found experimental style of writing interesting (like Cortazar's "Hopscotch"), especially stream of conciousness style (Faulkner is and probably will always be my favourite writer). I think it would be definitely easier to show examples, as most of the best writers developed their own unique style of writing.
I liked it. Ashhh, R Team :P
I’ve never read light novel, but it seems to be interesting as good comic or other similar form.
Is Manga and comic similar to your „light novel”. I think, yes.