Story Length Opinions

[RubyRedLips]

In the reviews of many stories, you may find complaints about how long a story is, or how it is "too wordy", and of course that is, for the most part, a matter of taste. I, for example, love both exposition and descriptive narrative but readily accept that others may not.

With that in mind, I'm curious as to opinions on the following, based upon your take on what makes a successful submission:

1. What approximate word count would you associate with descriptions of a story as long, medium, or short (flash)?
2. What is the maximum word count that should be submitted as a single chapter or part?
3. Are long multi-part stories best submitted in the section which best describes the story type, or in the novella section where you take what you get in terms of subject matter?

 

[NotWise]

In the reviews of many stories, you may find complaints about how long a story is, or how it is "too wordy", and of course that is, for the most part, a matter of taste. I, for example, love both exposition and descriptive narrative but readily accept that others may not.

I don't think the readers count words. In my case, they usually want more. I had one lone reader comment that a story was too long, and I think that was because the story was in I/T and there was no incest until about half-way through a 9-page story.

I've never had a reader comment that a story was wordy. That's a matter of style, not length.

With that in mind, I'm curious as to opinions on the following, based upon your take on what makes a successful submission:

1. What approximate word count would you associate with descriptions of a story as long, medium, or short (flash)?
2. What is the maximum word count that should be submitted as a single chapter or part?
3. Are long multi-part stories best submitted in the section which best describes the story type, or in the novella section where you take what you get in terms of subject matter?

I don't know what constitutes "a successful submission" for you: Many view? High score? Votes/View? Personal satisfaction? Something else?

As to score, I don't think that the answers to the first two questions are relevant to reader acceptance of a story. The shortest story you can post on Lit is 750 words, which isn't really flash fiction. Short stories (one page -- 3700 words or less) seem to be penalized in the scores.

As to question 3, Novels and Novellas is best thought of a place for stories that don't fit into one category. You can probably put long stories into any category, and many categories reward long stories. Stories in Novels and Novellas are sometimes rather short.

 

[RejectReality]

On Lit, anything 1 page or less is flash, and typically doesn't do very well.

2-3 pages is probably the sweet spot for maximum attention.

Everything else is long. Not necessarily a bad thing. Plenty of readers for that, and even more in some categories.

There are single entry stories with high scores and incredible numbers that are like 64 Lit pages long, or around 240k words.

:: shrug :: Do what you do, and the readers will find you. There's a readership for everything under the sun on Lit with the amount of traffic that comes through here.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

Hmm.... I write until the story is done... Usually. What I mean I never shoot for a length. I write until I think the story has been told.

I have written a few flash stories and what some would call short stories. But most of my stories are over 3 Lit pages long. I have a few that are more than 20 Lit pages.

Do what you want but, I don't really think there is a perfect length.

 

[Misshotndeep]

Story length is all about content for me. If you're a wordy writer like Bontë, then please keep it short. If your story is can be a trilogy and has substance then make it so Captain. If you're looking to just get a good erotic scene out there then keep it short.
I guess it is a case by case thing.

 

[KyraSaden]

1. What approximate word count would you associate with descriptions of a story as long, medium, or short (flash)?

It really, really depends on whether you're aiming for a one-off or a series, the genre you're working in, and the particulars of your fanbase.

2. What is the maximum word count that should be submitted as a single chapter or part?

I try to aim for a minimum of 5k words and around a max of 30k words, but that's just me. Anything less than a full page is usually considered "unfulfilling" by Lit standards regardless, unless you happen to be super into flash fiction, which I feel gets more traction from fellow writers than actual erotica readers.

3. Are long multi-part stories best submitted in the section which best describes the story type, or in the novella section where you take what you get in terms of subject matter?

Definitely post multi-part stories in the relevant section, NOT in "Novels and Novellas." The average reader searches for the kind of material they're most interested in by genre, not by heading on over to "Novels and Novellas" and hoping they happen to stumble across a series that pushes their buttons.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

1. Word Count. As noted, the rule of thumb is that one Lit page equals 3,700 words. If two or three pages is the sweet spot (and I think a case can be made for that) then you’re looking at 7,500 - 11,000 words. But, as noted, longer stories do very well, too.

2 & 3. Per KyraSaden

 

[ElectricBlue]

Here's a link to the last discussion on this topic:

http://forum.literotica.com/showthread.php?t=1513084

 

[wastelandwriter]

2-3 Literotica pages seems to be what most readers are hoping for. With SFF (my usual category), they're often hoping for more than that.

2-3 Literotica pages is a hell of a lot more than 2-3 pages by any other standard, whether we're talking paperback pages or single-spaced on 8.5 x 11.

I totally understand the desire for stories with some depth to them, and I'm happy if that's what readers want from me... but readers often want more and more, too, not realizing how much WORK they're asking for--on a site where everything is FREE. Some will acknowledge this while still asking for more.

It's super nice to be in demand, but honestly? When readers complain about a writer's output not being timely enough for them (on a free site), it's just exhausting. And I'm not sure how to remedy that.

 

[ElectricBlue]

2-It's super nice to be in demand, but honestly? When readers complain about a writer's output not being timely enough for them (on a free site), it's just exhausting. And I'm not sure how to remedy that.

So don't give in to their "demands" - you're the writer, surely you dictate your own terms?

Alternatively, don't publish anything until it's finished. That can take discipline, but you're the only one calling the shots if you do it that way.

 

[Maeven_quinn]

I don't think the readers count words. In my case, they usually want more.

Readers don't count words. They count boring, unnecessary phrases, sentences, even paragraphs.

That's what people mean when they tell me I'm too wordy, at least.

 

[yukonnights]

Readers don't count words. They count boring, unnecessary phrases, sentences, even paragraphs.

That's what people mean when they tell me I'm too wordy, at least.

But knowing this doesn't help us much. By the time I've worked on it, and read it from start to ending multiple times during the process — every story I write is boring, full of unnecessary phrases, sentences and even paragraphs!

The only hope is to find a willing (foolish ?) somebody (preferably someone who writes well) — to read the miserable thing for an unbiased opinion. I'm not sure I'd get anything out the door if I mine was the final opinion.

There's some stats floating around on the 'scientific answer', but honestly it doesn't seem to matter on the length. I'm always nervous about a story being too long, but I've been proven wrong by the reception of those. The only thing that seems really reliable in my experience is that really short stories don't fly as high.

I'll add that on multi-part stories, I do tend to keep the length in mind. I think the manageable reading length is one of the strengths of this approach as it offers the busy reader a format that works for them. In that situation overall length/number of parts is pretty open-ended. I tend to write those as a whole, keeping tabs on the word count/length as I go in order to carve out chunks of about 3 pages (~11,250 words).

I haven't written any that I needed to worry about content/category change, but it sounds problematic in that; A satisfied reader(s) may become an unsatisfied reader(s) if I try to take him/her to a place they don't like midway through the story.

 

[JaxRhapsody]

2-3 Literotica pages seems to be what most readers are hoping for. With SFF (my usual category), they're often hoping for more than that.

2-3 Literotica pages is a hell of a lot more than 2-3 pages by any other standard, whether we're talking paperback pages or single-spaced on 8.5 x 11.

I totally understand the desire for stories with some depth to them, and I'm happy if that's what readers want from me... but readers often want more and more, too, not realizing how much WORK they're asking for--on a site where everything is FREE. Some will acknowledge this while still asking for more.

It's super nice to be in demand, but honestly? When readers complain about a writer's output not being timely enough for them (on a free site), it's just exhausting. And I'm not sure how to remedy that.

A Lit page is 2 1/2 MS Word pages I believe.

 

[ElectricBlue]

A Lit page is 2 1/2 MS Word pages I believe.

A Lit page is 3750 words, give or take fifty words or so. More like 10 - 12 typical Word pages (if my drafts are anything to go by - typically 12 font, line and a half spacing).

 

[KeithD]

A Lit page is 2 1/2 MS Word pages I believe.

A Word page can be finagled to be anywhere from about 150 words to about 500 words, so it's use as a measure is pretty useless.

 

[yukonnights]

A Lit page is 3750 words, give or take fifty words or so. More like 10 - 12 typical Word pages (if my drafts are anything to go by - typically 12 font, line and a half spacing).

Speaking of Lit pages; I was curious, while writing the one I'm working on for Valentine's Day, whether or not the new Lit Reader page is the same average 3750. I copied a page of a story and pasted it into a word count tool and it was really close to the same 3750.

Anyone found or heard something different?

It's an important bit of info I imagine we all use. It is for me as I write in order to gauge where I'm at and how/if to break things up, etc.

 

[NotWise]

Speaking of Lit pages; I was curious, while writing the one I'm working on for Valentine's Day, whether or not the new Lit Reader page is the same average 3750. I copied a page of a story and pasted it into a word count tool and it was really close to the same 3750.

Anyone found or heard something different?

It's an important bit of info I imagine we all use. It is for me as I write in order to gauge where I'm at and how/if to break things up, etc.

I haven't seen anything different, but I haven't looked real closely.

Those who have studied the coding say that the limit is actually more like 20,000 characters, rather than 3700-3750 words. I tested that and found it to be modified because Lit breaks pages at paragraph boundaries, but otherwise it works.

LibreOffice Writer gives me the document size (or selection size) in both characters and words.

 

[yukonnights]

I haven't seen anything different, but I haven't looked real closely.

Those who have studied the coding say that the limit is actually more like 20,000 characters, rather than 3700-3750 words. I tested that and found it to be modified because Lit breaks pages at paragraph boundaries, but otherwise it works.

LibreOffice Writer gives me the document size (or selection size) in both characters and words.

I have been curious about that. Characters are probably a more accurate measure. I've used words because it's what I knew about. My stories computer data is in KB, I should work that one out, then wouldn't have to mess with word/character count so much.

 

[RejectReality]

If I'm remembering correctly, it is actually character count that the pagination is based upon, rather than words. It will break before any paragraph that exceeds the maximum character count.

 

[ElectricBlue]

If I'm remembering correctly, it is actually character count that the pagination is based upon, rather than words. It will break before any paragraph that exceeds the maximum character count.

Agree that. Last go around we had on this, someone clever identified character count as the probable determinant. I did some random checks of mine, and 20k characters was the maximum bin size found for a page.

 

[yukonnights]

Agree that. Last go around we had on this, someone clever identified character count as the probable determinant. I did some random checks of mine, and 20k characters was the maximum bin size found for a page.

I just checked the 20KB/page and it's real close to what I came up with using a word count and 3750...definitely close enough to use. So much quicker and easier - Nice

 

[regularguy13]

Why is it that I never get the answer I want!

I was planning on a multi-chapter story. I figured four characters = four chapters. I wrote the first one and was pleased that it had 3753 words. A good length, I figured. Only to learn that that equates to one Literotica page!

I too am annoyed by 'short' stories or chapters. Now, I'm annoyed with myself!

Can anyone tell me why we become the things we hate?

 

[CarstenAT]

I try to keep my stories to about 3000 words, but don't worry about it too much. Sometimes I write longer stories, but the long ones often have two sex scenes, with a pause of some kind in between.

Like any other genre, erotica needs to keep the story on point and avoid rabbit holes. I read one recently (but didn't finish) a story with so much detail that it felt like I was wading through sludge. If every word tells part of the story, I don't think length matters very much.

 

[ElectricBlue]

I try to keep my stories to about 3000 words, but don't worry about it too much. Sometimes I write longer stories, but the long ones often have two sex scenes, with a pause of some kind in between.

Like any other genre, erotica needs to keep the story on point and avoid rabbit holes. I read one recently (but didn't finish) a story with so much detail that it felt like I was wading through sludge. If every word tells part of the story, I don't think length matters very much.

3000 words is less than one Lit page which in Lit terms makes it almost flash fiction. The "problem" with such a short story is that it doesn't give much time for arousal. Erotica is, I think, different to other short story forms in that arousal is usually an objective; and for stroke stories the whole point is the outcome. 3k words is a very small lawn, you'd only need a two-stroke mower .

Your comment is a personal preference, not a rule. Some readers crave the detail and the rabbit holes, and there are writers to provide it to them. Mind you, the other day I was counselled that "less is more" - but they had managed two courses and were complaining about dessert, so I took it as a back-handed compliment.

 

[KeithD]

3000 words is less than one Lit page which in Lit terms makes it almost flash fiction.

Not in mainstream terms, which rarely go above 3,500 words in contest cutoffs now. Of course you can form a good short story in 3,000 words. Literotica readers just encourage flabby writing (not to say that 15,000 words can't produce a good story too. Anything over 20,000 is at least a novelette, though, not a short story).

It might be a good idea to spend more time worrying about what you put into your story and how you word it than how long it will be--and, for that matter, what the nonexistent Literotica reader wants it to be.