Word count

[sleepy_moose]

I was wondering what the typical word count of a submission is. I don't want to submit anything too long or too short. The story I've written seems long. It's around 25,000+ words total. When I was writing it I split it up into 8 parts to make it easier for me to work with. Each part is about 3200 words each. Should I condense the parts and make my first submission larger? Or is 3200 words a good length?

 

[slyc_willie]

I was wondering what the typical word count of a submission is. I don't want to submit anything too long or too short. The story I've written seems long. It's around 25,000+ words total. When I was writing it I split it up into 8 parts to make it easier for me to work with. Each part is about 3200 words each. Should I condense the parts and make my first submission larger? Or is 3200 words a good length?

3200 words will get you just shy of a full Lit page. A lot of readers will probably consider that too short, based on what I've seen. The ideal length seems to be around three Lit pages, at about 3750 words per page. With 25k words, you'd probably want to break it into four chapters, or even just three.

 

[sr71plt]

Oh, lordy. There are over 50,000 stories here and hundreds of thousands of readers/opinions/different preferences. Not every question has an answer. Just write the story you need to write and posted it. The only restriction is that it has to be over 800 words (750?) to post.

 

[TxRad]

How long is too long has a lot to do with which category also. A lot of mine if not all run well over that figure. Unless I'm posting a series, I post them as a stand alone whole story. Especially if there is not a spot that jumps out at you as a breaking point.

 

[sleepy_moose]

Oh, lordy. There are over 50,000 stories here and hundreds of thousands of readers/opinions/different preferences. Not every question has an answer. Just write the story you need to write and posted it. The only restriction is that it has to be over 800 words (750?) to post.

Well I understand that but since this is my first time writing anything for the site I thought I'd ask. I've never worked with word count. I wasn't sure the number of words per page.

 

[sleepy_moose]

How long is too long has a lot to do with which category also. A lot of mine if not all run well over that figure. Unless I'm posting a series, I post them as a stand alone whole story. Especially if there is not a spot that jumps out at you as a breaking point.

That's kind of my dilemma. I have the parts broken up at logical breaking points. Now that I know how long a page is, it doesn't make sense for me to submit 8 one page parts. I'll just have to figure out different breaking points and maybe condense them into only 3 or 4 parts

 

[StrangeLife]

My last submission was around 30,000 words.

I chose to split it into a 3-parter because the story sorta fits into 3 acts. But there was no technical reason for doing it. You can easily submit 25,000 words in a single story. See this one for instance.

 

[sleepy_moose]

3200 words will get you just shy of a full Lit page. A lot of readers will probably consider that too short, based on what I've seen. The ideal length seems to be around three Lit pages, at about 3750 words per page. With 25k words, you'd probably want to break it into four chapters, or even just three.

Thank you, I appreciate the info. It makes sense to have 2 or 3 pages instead of only 1.

 

[slyc_willie]

My last submission was around 30,000 words.

I chose to split it into a 3-parter because the story sorta fits into 3 acts. But there was no technical reason for doing it. You can easily submit 25,000 words in a single story. See this one for instance.

I have one that's 8 Lit pages long, and it still gets decent reads (and in the Chain Stories cat, no less), and others that run four or five pages. So there's no stone-etched rules about story size. I do, however, hold to my earlier post, mainly because it satisfies what I've noticed a majority of readers to prefer.

 

[Hypoxia]

Typical word count per submission? Somewhere between 750 and 750,000. Think I'm joking? Nope. Lengths are ALL OVER THE PLACE. And whatever you hear about 'optimal' or 'average' size, remember that if you have one foot in icewater and one foot in boiling water, you are comfortable, ON AVERAGE. So forget about that. Just write what feels right, and works.

My first submissions here were series chapters and tended to be around two LIT pages. I now stretch such chapters out to three pages. Standalone stories may be one page or eight pages -- I haven't had reason to submit longer one-piece stories -- yet.

 

[Weird Harold]

I wasn't sure the number of words per page.

3,767 +/- about 400 words.

3,200 words per chapter is fine, IMHO. One page chapters/stories aren't uncommon.

If you feel longer chapters are necessary, simply post two of your existing chapters as one file.

 

[loquere]

I was wondering what the typical word count of a submission is. I don't want to submit anything too long or too short. The story I've written seems long. It's around 25,000+ words total. When I was writing it I split it up into 8 parts to make it easier for me to work with. Each part is about 3200 words each. Should I condense the parts and make my first submission larger? Or is 3200 words a good length?

-Split it up.
-IN THE NAME OF ALL THAT GOOD IN THIS WORLD SPLIT IT UP!
-2 or 3 times.
-My longest chapter ever was around that length.

 

[loquere]

3 parts might work better.

 

[StrangeLife]

I have one that's 8 Lit pages long, and it still gets decent reads (and in the Chain Stories cat, no less), and others that run four or five pages. So there's no stone-etched rules about story size. I do, however, hold to my earlier post, mainly because it satisfies what I've noticed a majority of readers to prefer.

I think it depends on the story too. A tale with a slow build-up will work best as a single submission - otherwise the first part will appear boring and many readers will not continue to the second. But if the action is spread more evenly it will lend itself well to getting chopped up.

 

[slyc_willie]

I think it depends on the story too. A tale with a slow build-up will work best as a single submission - otherwise the first part will appear boring and many readers will not continue to the second. But if the action is spread more evenly it will lend itself well to getting chopped up.

Very true. The eight-pager was an incest tale, a modern version of Hansel and Gretel. While the incest was not even implied throughout the first half of the story, I'm pretty sure most readers latched onto the hope that the twins would eventually get it on. That, and I think they wanted to see how I incorporated the various elements of the original fairy tale into a modern setting. So it had a lot going for it.

Among my published novels and novellas, it remains my best seller.

 

[Cruel2BKind]

It really does just depend on what you think is the proper length, but as a general rule of thumb, try to make chapters of a story roughly the same length. I've never gotten any serious complaints, but readers can be frustrated if the first three chapters were 3 pages and the fourth chapter is 1.

Also it's contextual as fuck. Strokers are generally <3 pages, plot-based stories may have more, and if you release chapters often, readers will be nicer about them being shorter.

 

[Bramblethorn]

I was wondering what the typical word count of a submission is. I don't want to submit anything too long or too short. The story I've written seems long. It's around 25,000+ words total. When I was writing it I split it up into 8 parts to make it easier for me to work with. Each part is about 3200 words each. Should I condense the parts and make my first submission larger? Or is 3200 words a good length?

For me as a reader, 3-4 Lit pages (about 8k-15k words) is the sweet spot, with some qualifications.

If the first page really grabs me, the length doesn't matter too much; I'll try to read the rest. Likewise, if the first page is bad, I'm not going to keep going. But if I get to the bottom of page 1 and I'm still kinda-maybe, length makes a difference: if there are only a couple of pages to go in that chunk, I'll probably see it out, and if it's much longer I'm more likely to skip it and read something else.

Shorter than 3 pages and it's hard to tell a satisfying story; even if you're posting in chapters, each installment needs to engage the reader. It's not impossible to write a great 1-page piece but it takes a LOT of skills.

Also, what StrangeLife said about structure. I have one story that I posted in a single chunk; I had to do that because I was entering it in a contest, but even without that stricture, I would have kept it as a single piece because it had a very particular structure and I didn't want to disrupt that.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Fuck the readers. What they get is free, and theyre spoiled brats. Laurel wont let me insult them but I'm over readers back-seat driving stories.

That said, fuck all the nifty ideas for word count. All of the erotica John O'Hara wrote runs around 1000 words per story, so I go with O'Hara NOT WENDYASSCLOWN4U at AH. So far as I can see, the longer stuff at LIT is writers in love with themselves.

CNN
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0xr31XbSOU&feature=kp

 

[SamScribble]

Fuck the readers. What they get is free, and theyre spoiled brats. Laurel wont let me insult them but I'm over readers back-seat driving stories.

That said, fuck all the nifty ideas for word count. All of the erotica John O'Hara wrote runs around 1000 words per story, so I go with O'Hara NOT WENDYASSCLOWN4U at AH. So far as I can see, the longer stuff at LIT is writers in love with themselves.

CNN
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0xr31XbSOU&feature=kp

Amen!

 

[oggbashan]

The length to post is whatever is right for the story you are telling.

If it is a short piece of just over 750 words, that's OK.

If it is 50,000 words in one continuous story, that's OK too.

If it is an unending saga in multiple chapters but the reader wants to read the next chapter, that's OK.

But if it is too long or too short for the particular story - that needs correcting.

I think that more than 5 Lit pages i.e. about 40,000 words, is a reasonable length in one posting. Beyond that it might be better to split it into sections.

But my story http://www.literotica.com/s/miranda-the-witch is 8 Lit pages and PCs and feedback ask me for the sequel.

 

[sleepy_moose]

I've already sent the first page to an editor to look over but last night I was typing 1, 2 & 3 up together and it seems like they work well as one part. The story has a slow build up and it makes sense to group it together. I think 4, 5 & 6 also seem to have the same theme. Then the conclusion will just have to be 7&8 because there is no more to write to this story. I pretty much wrapped up the murder plot with a black sparkly bow.

I'm just very insecure about this whole writing thing. Even though the story did not come from my real life, it still feels very personal. I've been trying explain it to the husband and he thinks I'm insane. He's never seen me so unsure about anything. He's a numbers guy like I am so he can't help with the story but he's not letting me quit and is pushing me to finish.

 

[sr71plt]

We all had to feel our way around for the edges (which are different for every author and every type of story) when we first arrived at Literotica. Just jump in and learn from doing. This isn't the New Yorker.

 

[Carnevil9]

Roger Ebert once said that no good movie was too long, and no bad movie was short enough. I know we're talking about stories here, not movies, but I think the same reasoning would apply. Let the length be appropriate to tell the story and move the emotions of the reader, not to meet a spec.

That said, I prefer shorter stories. If I click on a story, and see that it is more than two pages long, then the first paragraph had better be damn kick-ass writing, or I'm going to bail out on it toot pronto.

 

[Handley_Page]

I was wondering what the typical word count of a submission is. I don't want to submit anything too long or too short. The story I've written seems long. It's around 25,000+ words total. When I was writing it I split it up into 8 parts to make it easier for me to work with. Each part is about 3200 words each. Should I condense the parts and make my first submission larger? Or is 3200 words a good length?

I suggest its in two parts of about 12,000 words each.
This is about 3 Lit pages, and is a comfortable read.

 

[sr71plt]

If you divide 25,000 into two parts, each will come out as 4 Lit. pages. Three pages tops out at 11,500 words.

But surely 25,000 words has a few convenient cut places for chaptering.