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How many words?

Emirus

Emirus

Literotica Guru
Joined
Jan 25, 2018
Posts
1,074
This is a very recent thread regarding getting a rejection with a generalised reason given.

http://forum.literotica.com/showthread.php?t=1480725.

A writer gets a rejection but after reading it is still no wiser. They look for an editor or they start a thread on here. On here they ask for help but because their story hasn’t been published they can’t provide a link.

But I’m sure that although you can’t post completed stories on a thread you can post an extract. But I can’t remember how many words are allowed. There is probably an easy way to find out but I’m lazy. So please can someone tell me! Then the next time somebody comes on with the same query perhaps me, or someone else, can make the suggestion.

So how many words, please?
 
KeithD said:
Three paragraphs.
Click to expand...

Is that 3 paragraphs of 20 words each or 3 paragraphs of 40 words? Or 3 paragraphs totalling no more than 50 words or 3 paragraphs totalling no more than 200 words? I’ve read some very long paragraphs in stories.

I’m sure that I’ve read in a previous post that you can post an extract from a story but it must not exceed X number of letters.
 
Three paragraphs is the given guidance/rule. Nothing was given about wordage.


Not sure what the context is in what you've posted about number of "letters" in an extract you can post. In a Literotica story or on the discussion board? Literotica rule or copyright rule? Your reference is too hazy. In terms of copyright, the publishing industry goes with fifty words in quoted material unless your work is a literary criticism of the cited work. No one I know has rules based on "letters" or character spaces.
 
Emirus said:
Is that 3 paragraphs of 20 words each or 3 paragraphs of 40 words? Or 3 paragraphs totalling no more than 50 words or 3 paragraphs totalling no more than 200 words? I’ve read some very long paragraphs in stories.

I’m sure that I’ve read in a previous post that you can post an extract from a story but it must not exceed X number of letters.
Click to expand...
Based on previous postings of three paragraphs, and for there to be sufficient text to get a feel for the style, I suggest maybe 100 - 150 words in total.

I've been around here for four years (a mere moment compared to brother Keith) and I've never seen a stated word count and never ever a character count. Are you thinking of the 750 word minimum limit for stories?
 
It's not a very recent thread, it's a month old. I looked at the story and made some suggestions, mostly about dialogue punctuation and some corrections to the English (the author is not a native English speaker) and it has now been published.
 
hadruprider said:
It's not a very recent thread, it's a month old. I looked at the story and made some suggestions, mostly about dialogue punctuation and some corrections to the English (the author is not a native English speaker) and it has now been published.
Click to expand...
I think the OP is querying for his own general information, not related to a specific story.
 
electricblue66 said:
I think the OP is querying for his own general information, not related to a specific story.
Click to expand...

Absolutely correct. That’s why I put this link to the thread that prompted me to ask the question.

http://forum.literotica.com/showthread.php?t=1480725

So many occasions, in the short time I’ve been using this board, I’ve seen someone ask a question and the thread go on for ever and ever like a whirlpool before ending up disappearing down it’s own plughole. Someone asks a question and then receives advice, often quite lengthy, that doesn’t address the original question.

I want to know the answer to my question, not for my benefit, but so I can circumvent future threads asking the same question. The writer can’t supply a link because the story has been rejected so the only answer, unless someone says “send it me”, is for them to post an extract.

Which brings me back to my original, and simple, question. Not how many paragraphs but how many words? There was a thread recently in which someone was asking for advice on an unpublished story and said that it was 10 pages. The immediate response was that pages mean nothing. How many words?
 
Emirus said:
Which brings me back to my original, and simple, question. Not how many paragraphs but how many words? There was a thread recently in which someone was asking for advice on an unpublished story and said that it was 10 pages. The immediate response was that pages mean nothing. How many words?
Click to expand...
If you are referring to the number of words in the allowed three paras, that has not been precisely spelled out anywhere that I have seen in four years on these forums. So a reasonable allowance might be the 100 - 150 words I suggested earlier - this is also based on "typical" three paras folk have posted here (as you say, there are paragraphs and there are paragraphs).

Where a newbie refers to "pages" one can fairly safely assume they mean a default Word page with default margins and font, so around 300 - 400 words per page. We regularly inform the world that a typical Lit page is 3750 words, thereabouts.
 
Emirus said:
So many occasions, in the short time I’ve been using this board, I’ve seen someone ask a question and the thread go on for ever and ever like a whirlpool before ending up disappearing down it’s own plughole. Someone asks a question and then receives advice, often quite lengthy, that doesn’t address the original question.
Click to expand...
This is part of the joy of these forums, and regular proof of the "lost art of a precise question." You'll find most questions are precise in the mind of the questioner, less so in the words they choose. It's also abundantly obvious that many folk read the last few posts but seldom the whole thread.
 
Here the OP's question was irrelevant to what has been given in Web site policy--they have never answered this question in terms of wordage (if you think they have, cite the post)--and the first answer was precisely all that the Web site has given in answer to how much of a work can be posted to the discussion board. The answering post didn't beat around the bush. It answered the question precisely and succinctly.

So often here a question is asked--and is usually hazy to begin with and only (and only sometimes) clarified in follow-on posts--others take the time and effort to help the OP with her/his questions. And then they get bitten by the OP, who is the one who asked for/needed the help.
 
KeithD said:
Here the OP's question was irrelevant to what has been given in Web site policy--they have never answered this question in terms of wordage (if you think they have, cite the post)--and the first answer was precisely all that the Web site has given in answer to how much of a work can be posted to the discussion board. The answering post didn't beat around the bush. It answered the question precisely and succinctly.

So often here a question is asked--and is usually hazy to begin with and only (and only sometimes) clarified in follow-on posts--others take the time and effort to help the OP with her/his questions. And then they get bitten by the OP, who is the one who asked for/needed the help.
Click to expand...

Putting your ego aside for one moment could you put that in English please? I’ve been on here 4 months. Apparently you’ve been hanging around for 6 years. The logic is that you’ve read a lot more posts and made many more comments than I have and have a much better knowledge of what is and what is not allowed.

I asked a precise question. You gave a precise answer. Unfortunately your answer, two words, didn’t actually answer the question because of its lack of detail. The response from EB66 was much more helpful.
 
Emirus said:
This is a very recent thread regarding getting a rejection with a generalised reason given.

http://forum.literotica.com/showthread.php?t=1480725.

A writer gets a rejection but after reading it is still no wiser. They look for an editor or they start a thread on here. On here they ask for help but because their story hasn’t been published they can’t provide a link.

But I’m sure that although you can’t post completed stories on a thread you can post an extract. But I can’t remember how many words are allowed. There is probably an easy way to find out but I’m lazy. So please can someone tell me! Then the next time somebody comes on with the same query perhaps me, or someone else, can make the suggestion.

So how many words, please?
Click to expand...


If you have an issue with the site rules, PM Laurel.
 
_Lynn_ said:
If you have an issue with the site rules, PM Laurel.
Click to expand...

Where do you get the idea that I’ve an issue with the site rules? I asked a simple question. From Eb66 I got a simple answer that answered my question.

Other comments either didn’t understand a simple question or chose to answer a question that hadn’t been asked.

That’s all there is to it. It’s about having information in my mind that will help another new writer if someone asks the same question in the future. I like to help people not be deliberately argumentative or p*** people off like a certain section on here seem to take delight in.

It’s nothing to do with having an issue with site rules.
 
Emirus said:
Where do you get the idea that I’ve an issue with the site rules? I asked a simple question. From Eb66 I got a simple answer that answered my question.

Other comments either didn’t understand a simple question or chose to answer a question that hadn’t been asked.

That’s all there is to it. It’s about having information in my mind that will help another new writer if someone asks the same question in the future. I like to help people not be deliberately argumentative or p*** people off like a certain section on here seem to take delight in.

It’s nothing to do with having an issue with site rules.
Click to expand...

You wanted to know about posting a portion of a story to the forum. KeithD gave you the correct answer: three paragraphs.

If you find it necessary to know more, PM Laurel. Otherwise, if someone asks you about putting their story on the forum, tell them they can post three paragraphs.
 
Minimum word count

I ran into this once too, following.
 
Last edited:
JaneRamsey said:
I ran into this once too, following.
Click to expand...

Lit has a minimum word count for submitting a story to the site. That is 750.

That's not the same as posting a piece of your story to a forum. The guidelines for that specifies three paragraphs as a maximum.

So I'm not too sure which one you had trouble with.
 
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