Short stories

Why don’t they allow short stories. Any time I submit one it gets rejected because I could of added more to the storie.

ericandshannon said:

Why don’t they allow short stories. Any time I submit one it gets rejected because I could of added more to the storie.

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Laurel owns this site. She gets to set and enforce her rules, including a minimum story submission length of 750 words. Poetry can be shorter (no lower limit AFAIK) but won't be much read. 750-word stories don't grab eyeballs, either. LIT readers mostly want to be entertained a bit longer.

How to get around this: Oggbashan writes 50-word stories and packages 15 of them into a submission. I've written sets of short standalone tales of a common theme, framed together to fill one or more 3750-word LIT pages. My framing device is a gathering where various folk tell their secrets.

You can write your short-short stories -- but submit them as an anthology or patchwork rather than posting individually. I really really recommend trying for at least 3500 words so readers won't feel shortchanged.

I guess everyone’s different. If a story is too long I loose interest. If it’s more than two pages I won’t read it. I’m not a big fan of 2 pages. I understand what your sayin but I can’t believe I’m all that different from a lot of prople.

I’m just not in to the “hi honey how was your day”

ericandshannon said:

I guess everyone’s different. If a story is too long I loose interest. If it’s more than two pages I won’t read it. I’m not a big fan of 2 pages. I understand what your sayin but I can’t believe I’m all that different from a lot of prople.

I’m just not in to the “hi honey how was your day”

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Yeah I'd say very different. In my experience people usually complain about 1 page shorts. Two or three seem to be the charm. Longer and it gets put away for a quieter time.

Edit: I should add if it's a known good writer I'll jump into the 4,5,6 pages stories ASAP.

Almost everyone believes they're at least approaching the median, even most people who are provable weirdos. Many who believe in their uniqueness, are instead very average in every way measurable.

According to this little research by 8letters the most loved stories are quite long. It's quite interesting.
Statistical Analysis of Stand-Alone LitE Stories

LupusDei said:

Almost everyone believes they're at least approaching the median, even most people who are provable weirdos. Many who believe in their uniqueness, are instead very average in every way measurable.

According to this little research by 8letters the most loved stories are quite long. It's quite interesting.
Statistical Analysis of Stand-Alone LitE Stories

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I like the stories with a little twist about a page or two in length.

I'm quite sure that longer stories get higher ratings because the only people that stick around until the end are the people who are loving them.

As to the OP, by definition, a short story is one that you can "read in one sitting." Pretty fuzzy definition, I'll grant you, but that's what we learned in English class. Most sources will classify anything from 1500 words to 30,000 words as a short story. That translates to about half a lit page to eight lit pages.

It sounds like what you want to write is a "short short story" or a "flash fiction" story.

ericandshannon said:

Why don’t they allow short stories. Any time I submit one it gets rejected because I could of added more to the storie.

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define "could have added more to the story"


Is this Laurel telling you to make changes to a story, like say bring the dead person back as a ghost to stretch it out another page.....


or are ya being told "your story is at 300 words. Minimum is 750 words so make it longer"

ericandshannon said:

I guess everyone’s different. If a story is too long I loose interest. If it’s more than two pages I won’t read it. I’m not a big fan of 2 pages. I understand what your sayin but I can’t believe I’m all that different from a lot of prople.

I’m just not in to the “hi honey how was your day”

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I'm with you in that I prefer to read shorter length stories that don't exceed 1 or 2 LIT pages. I'm not sure what the minimum length should be, but I can get bored with a lot of overdone details about appearances and descriptions. However, I think that I'm in the minority about that preference.

dawei said:

I'm with you in that I prefer to read shorter length stories that don't exceed 1 or 2 LIT pages. I'm not sure what the minimum length should be, but I can get bored with a lot of overdone details about appearances and descriptions. However, I think that I'm in the minority about that preference.

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I get bored with drawn out descriptions of sex. Flat on appearance dumps are usually sign of bad writing.

I do try and dream to write some, and in the project I'm currently in, it's less than 20% in and I already have 5000 words of dialogue...

My first time with Jamie

Prologue: Jamie and I were best friends in school, my birthday was a few days before hers. Back then the legal drinking age in Texas was 18. So when my big brother offered to take me out for my first legal beer, I asked if we could wait for Jamie. Of course he said yes. (IYDKA, I sorta worship my big brother.) He bought our first, we bought our own second, each other a third. Even with the steaks George bought us, there was a lot of alcohol in the systems of two gals who were not used to its effects. Good thing George was driving.

I woke the next morning, sheets on the floor, in my bed, naked, sprawled across Jamie, also naked. My face was a glazed donut, as was hers. Years of platonic friendship had apparently morphed into, well, try as I might I could not remember it. My first time and no memory of it at all. But with a pounding head, and that look in her eyes as she joined me in the land of the waking. We did it again so we could remember it.

Epilogue: This is a true story. I have known Jamie for over fifty years. She has been my best friend, my roomie, my sister by choice, my lover, my life partner, my business partner, my wife. I am the insufferable optimist, she is the annoying voice of what can go wrong in any situation. Without me, she would have jumped off a bridge years ago. Without her, I would have jumped off that same bridge attached to a defective bungee cord, and to the same result.

Too short? I hope to publish a MUCH longer version soon (in Incest/Taboo).


Lisa Ann

CuteSlaveLisa said:

Prologue: Jamie and I were best friends in school, my birthday was a few days before hers. Back then the legal drinking age in Texas was 18. So when my big brother offered to take me out for my first legal beer, I asked if we could wait for Jamie. Of course he said yes. (IYDKA, I sorta worship my big brother.) He bought our first, we bought our own second, each other a third, even with the steaks George bought us there was a lot of alcohol in the systems of two gals who were not used to its effects. Good thing George was driving.

I woke the next morning, sheets on the floor, in my bed, naked, sprawled across Jamie, also naked. My face was a glazed donut, as was hers. Years of platonic friendship had apparently morphed into, well, try as I might I could not remember it. My first time and no memory at all. But with a pounding head and that look in her eyes, as she joined me in the land of the waking. We did it again so we could remember it.

Epilogue: This is a true story. I have known Jamie for over fifty years. She has been my best friend, my roomie, my sister by choice, my lover, my life partner, my business partner, my wife. I am the insufferable optimist, she is the annoying voice of what can go wrong in any situation. Without me, she would have jumped off a bridge years ago. Without her, I would have jumped off that same bridge attached to a defective bungee cord, and to the same result.

Too short? I hope to publish a MUCH longer version soon (in Incest/Taboo).


Lisa Ann

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Well it's something just under 300 words and the min is 750. Maybe expand on the 'did it again' with some filler and you got a story.

It's not hard writing 750 word stories I have three and they've all been well received. They do need to be tight and flow well and you CAN go over 750. You know, 751, 752, 753...

gordo12 said:

Well it's something just under 300 words and the min is 750. Maybe expand on the 'did it again' with some filler and you got a story.

It's not hard writing 750 word stories I have three and they've all been well received. They do need to be tight and flow well and you CAN go over 750. You know, 751, 752, 753...

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Tack a few 750 word stories together to approach 3500-3750 words for a full LIT page. Readers like that.

Thank you. I probably have 4000 words on the hard drive. I just need to go back and proofread and edit it. Typing it out is an enjoyable romp down memory lane. Actually cleaning it up and making it look professional is the work.

Lisa Ann

Thank you. I probably have 4000 words on the hard drive. I just need to go back and proofread and edit it. Typing it out is an enjoyable romp down memory lane. Actually cleaning it up and making it look professional is the work.

Lisa Ann

ericandshannon said:

Why don’t they allow short stories. Any time I submit one it gets rejected because I could of added more to the storie.

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There is (was?) a forum called Erotic Fantascenes in The Playground focused on short scenes. Many of us wrote in this area but it just lost readers.

Try a story out there; you might get a real response from those of us who like a shorter story. And by the way, they aren't all 'stroke stories'...many are just what the title implies--short scenes full of possibilities.

My stuff is usually one page. But 750 is not such a small limit, try two 375s together.

Lisa Ann

Just recording my preference for the record.
Anything over 2 pages is too long, IMHO.
Unless... It is describing a true life experience.

According to one source:
Flash fiction: 50 to 1,000 words
Short Stories: 3500 to 7,500 words
Novellettes: 7,500 to 17,000
Novellas: 17,000 to 40,000
Novels: 40,000 plus words

...what is 1000 to 3500 words? A short flash! heh