Size of stories

[Ooopsiedooherecomesthegoo69]

Hello, a quick question for all you wise folks here about the size of each submission, in particular multi part stories.

Working on 2000 words / chapter comes from a long ago published friend. Main concern is that i have seen larger and have been asked to write longer. Suggestions welcome!

 

[Privates1stClass]

Hello, a quick question for all you wise folks here about the size of each submission, in particular multi part stories.

Working on 2000 words / chapter comes from a long ago published friend. Main concern is that i have seen larger and have been asked to write longer. Suggestions welcome!

Really, it's your choice. There's no hard and fast rule. Some readers prefer a two to three-page LIT chapter, so they can read them in a short period of time. Then there are others who like the seven to ten-page chapter, so they can spend more time getting into it.

My suggestion is not to worry about the length of a chapter, but instead, keep the chapters coming in a reasonable amount of time--say a chapter every few days to a week. Otherwise, your readers will tend to drift away if your chapters are delayed by months between them.

 

[SimonDoom]

A Literotica page is about 3750 words, so a 2000-word chapter is a little more than half a Lit page.

That's fairly short by Literotica standards. Readers tend to like stories longer than that.

Ultimately it's up to you, but here are some things to think about:

1. How many chapters are you going to have? If I had 5 chapters, that's 10,000 words. You're better off submitting it as a single story than in multiple chapters, probably.

2. Do the chapters stand on their own, in terms of plot?

3. Does each chapter offer what readers of a particular category are looking for? If not some readers will be dissatisfied with some chapters and will drop out of reading your story.

4. Have you finished all the chapters, or will you finish them soon? The closer together you publish them the better they'll do. You will lose readers if you take to long to publish the subsequent chapter.

 

[Handley_Page]

Hello, a quick question for all you wise folks here about the size of each submission, in particular multi part stories.

Working on 2000 words / chapter comes from a long ago published friend. Main concern is that i have seen larger and have been asked to write longer. Suggestions welcome!

A Literotica page is about 3750 words, so a 2000-word chapter is a little more than half a Lit page.

That's fairly short by Literotica standards. Readers tend to like stories longer than that.

Ultimately it's up to you, but here are some things to think about:

1. How many chapters are you going to have? If I had 5 chapters, that's 10,000 words. You're better off submitting it as a single story than in multiple chapters, probably.

2. Do the chapters stand on their own, in terms of plot?

3. Does each chapter offer what readers of a particular category are looking for? If not some readers will be dissatisfied with some chapters and will drop out of reading your story.

4. Have you finished all the chapters, or will you finish them soon? The closer together you publish them the better they'll do. You will lose readers if you take to long to publish the subsequent chapter.

Well said.
2000 words [on it's own] is hardly worth the paper.

 

[Javahead]

I’m still working on that one. My older archive stories ran one or two Lit pages, so no real need for separate chapters. The current story is being posted in self contained arcs - the first ran 28k words - so at logical breaks I put internal chapter headings, though sizes varied from 1k to 4k. The next piece is 22k and growing - 8 internal chapters so far.

I think part of my issue is I like each story post to be readable on its own, and doing it this way eliminates the need for annoying recaps. Though I notice some of my favorite writers seem to avoid this trap and still post in smaller sizes.

 

[CoffeeWithMonkeys]

I've been posting at Wattpad lately and most people there say chapters should be 1500-4000 words with 4000 being really long.

I'm long winded. My chapters are usually about 8000+

I ramble. I told a friend of mine that I can type 10,000 words and not say a damn thing :/

 

[8letters]

Hello, a quick question for all you wise folks here about the size of each submission, in particular multi part stories.

Working on 2000 words / chapter comes from a long ago published friend. Main concern is that i have seen larger and have been asked to write longer. Suggestions welcome!

People read stuff on LitE to get off. They want to read a good build up to the sex scene and then they want to read a sex scene that's long enough for them to get off. My impression from AH posts is that most readers find 2K words not long enough for them to get off in a satisfactory manner, and that it takes more like 8K words for them to get off the way they want to.

 

[SimonDoom]

I really don't know where you get this idea from. To me, this seems a ridiculous generalization. No doubt, there are people that only read here to aid their wank, but in addition to that, there is also a significant group of people reading here because they like good stories with spicy themes.

This is true, but I think what 8Letters says is true, too. Many readers DO read stories to arouse them and assist them in achieving sexual release. And I think 8Letters is right about the length of the story and success at achieving that release. There's enough truth to this that IF you care about how happy your readers will be you might want to be mindful of these thoughts in the way you write the lead up to the sex scene and the sex scene itself. You'll lose more happy readers by skimping on sex than you will be augmenting it, up to a certain point.

No one is obliged to care about pleasing readers in this way, but if you do it's something to keep in mind.

 

[SimonDoom]

I disagree that 8Letters is correct. He generalizes, suggesting the only good story is a story structured to get people off. That's catering for only one group of readers, discouraging others to write other types of stories.

Write what you want to write, but don't tell others what to do.

He didn't say that the only good story is structured to get people off, nor did he say that this is what you should do. He made an observation about readers, on the assumption that the OP would want to know this. That's all he did.

I think, based on my experience, that his observation is a correct one. It's your choice, or any one else's, what to do with that information.

I think that's all he was saying. That's all I'm saying.

 

[Hypoxia]

Time again for the weekly "How long?" question. In general: a story, chapter, or episode is just as long as needed to say what you want to say.

LIT's minimum is 750 words; poems can be shorter. One-LIT-page (~3700 words) submissions usually are less appreciated than 2-3 pagers, while 10-20 pagers can score very well. Some categories' readers like'em long. But no reader stereotypes apply; LIT's audience is a chaotic mob. Write for yourself.

 

[yukonnights]

Here below are two comments from Part 01 of a story of mine that just went live:

#1) I enjoyed reading this first part and I wanted to keep on reading. But I guess I have to wait for the rest later.

#2) I really like the first part of this and am glad you split it to 4 parts, now I don't have to read it all at once, can't wait for the next part.

If done as a stand alone story it would run up to more than ten Lit Screen Pages. I broke that into 4 separate parts. I also submitted all four parts on the same day (actually, in the same hour.) I noted that it is a complete story and all submitted in the first part intro. For the initial posting, this should mean a new story every couple/few days. This keeps the story visible on the New Story List longer than if it were a one off. It also serves reader #2 above, without any major impact on reader's like #1 above. After all four parts a posted, it becomes a mute point since they will all be available to read as much or as little as one wants in a few days from now.

As to length, it really does matter whether or not you have anything more to say. I doubt you'd wish to just fluff it with filler. But if you have more story to tell, I can say that my longer pieces have probably done better on average than the shorter ones.