Hugo question

[james_davis_nicoll]

Are novellas and novelettes distinct enough that there has to be two categories?

[added later]

If you are here because of "James Nicoll questions whether there should be four written-fiction Hugos. Comments over there, please." note that is inaccurate. In theory we could another written category to make up for the loss of one. Best YA novel, for example.

Comments

[michaelgr.livejournal.com]

It would be interesting to see some sort of chart or line graph showing the distribution of word counts in all the SF works in a given year. Is the distribution even? most probably not; there must be many, many more novels than novellas and novelettes - but what interests me is, can you see discrete groupings around certain lengths? In other words, does the division to short story, novelette and novella represent categories that writers are aiming for - or just arbitrary divisions?