Story length

[eroticstoryspinner]

I know deciding what the sweet spot is for story page length has been an evergreen topic. If you worry about ratings, it seems like less than 4 pages hurts you. Personally I take the view the story is as long as it needs to be. That said, my two lowest rated stories were two and three pages respectively. My higher rated stories tend to be four or five pages. Four pages seems to be the sweet spot. With the site changes, do you think that is still true? Part of the reason I am asking is have the next part of one of my series story has ballooned to the point I am trying to create two or possible three parts out of what I have so far.

As I said earlier, the story is as long as it needs to be, but when you are writing in multiple parts personally like to make a part read in a reasonable amount of time while keeping the segment not ending in a complete cliffhanger.

Any thoughts?

 

[NotWise]

Any thoughts?

You lost me in there somewhere. I'm not sure what you're asking.

I think it was 8letters who did stats on the variation of scores with story length. If I remember right, he found that six Lit pages was the "sweet spot" for scoring. I'm not sure whether that was for stand-alone stories only, or if it included chapters.

The rules might be different for chapters because of the tendency for views to fall and scores to rise in later chapters. The length of a chapter may not be very important. I've seen a lot of high-scoring chapters that were fairly short by Lit standards.

 

[KeithD]

Do you want to write good stories or do you want strangers reading for free to give you nice strokes? Why are you submitting stories here? This topic is really getting tiresome. Sorry, it's not specifically you; it's this fucking neverending "I write for approval from total, anonymous strangers too cheap to buy their literature" crap.

 

[yukonnights]

I too like to try to make multi-part stories break at a satisfying point. That said, I would probably go with a longer part if I had no obvious break point. At a later stage in the series like you are, one would hope the remaining readers would be engaged enough to read a longer part.

 

[ElectricBlue]

4 - 6 Lit pages seems to be a fairly constant rule of thumb for single stories or chapter lengths, whenever this comes up. Mind you, it does so frequently, so it might be a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Rules are meant to be broken, so chapter break wherever it makes sense to do so, I reckon.

 

[Emirus]

As I said earlier, the story is as long as it needs to be.

I don’t understand why you’re asking the question when you’ve given the answer in the same post.

Of course a story is as long as it needs to be. My stories vary from one page to eight pages. I stop writing when I get to the end of the tale I’m telling.

Don’t stretch an enjoyable two page story into a five page story, unless you’ve come up with a good reason for doing so, because you’ll end up with a crap story and a dissatisfied reader. I’ve read one page stories I’ve liked because they were a good idea and told everything there was to be told and longer stories for the same reason. The longest story I’ve ever read was eleven pages. I read it in one sitting because it’s a bloody good story and I’ve read it again. More than once.

I’m writing, or attempting to write, my first series and am looking to make each chapter two to three pages long. I think in a series consistency is needed and writing chapters of differing lengths, in my case personally as a reader, isn’t the best way to do it. I think readers approach a series with a different attitude to reading a stand alone story. But in either case the idea is you want to leave the reader wanting more. Whether it’s more of the same story or to read your other stories.

 

[SimonDoom]

Any thoughts?

If you pay attention to contest winners, you'll notice that they tend to be on the long side -- 6, 7, or more pages is common. I don't think there is a sweet spot, in terms of ratings and popularity. Stories tend to have higher ratings as they go from 1 to 6 or so pages and then they stay high.

Part of it, I think, is self-selection and attrition. A reader who gets all the way to the end of your 7 page story is more likely to like it. Otherwise, they wouldn't finish, would they?

If you have a story of up to 10 pages, I would recommend probably NOT breaking it into chapters. Just submit it as one story. Not everybody agrees, but if reader response is what you are after I think it makes sense.

Dividing a story into multiple chapters works best, in my view, in one of two situations:

1. Where the story is a long saga (novel length -- over 40,000 words) and the interest in it is not wholly or primarily erotic. Readers of these stories will put up with chapters that don't deliver an erotic punch every time. A lot of Sci Fi/Fantasy stories are like this, and that's why it's a good category for chaptered stories.

2. Where the story has a serial/TV show quality and every chapter delivers the erotic goods the reader is looking for. This can be challenging. I wrote an 8-chapter incest story where the "degree" of sexual activity ratchets up every chapter until the final payoff in the last chapter. It was well received but it was tricky finding ways of making things more arousing each time.

 

[jaF0]

I'm not really interested in length or ratings. I write to get stuff off my mind, whether anyone ever reads it or not. I post here only and am not interested in trying to make a buck off it.

My motivation and inspiration is the Penthouse Letters and Varations style of story. Tell a tale of an experience and move on. Very little if any continuity between submissions.

 

[jaF0]

2. Where the story has a serial/TV show quality and every chapter delivers the erotic goods the reader is looking for. This can be challenging. I wrote an 8-chapter incest story where the "degree" of sexual activity ratchets up every chapter until the final payoff in the last chapter. It was well received but it was tricky finding ways of making things more arousing each time.

I rally wish more Adult Entertainment had gone that way. There are so many TV shows that could go explicit and there could be some great crossovers.

TV approaches the limit and stops for obvious reasons. Cable shows step over the line a bit with soft action and implied hard action. Adult generally drops the story pretense altogether and ends up just bumping uglies with not much else.

 

[eroticstoryspinner]

I don’t understand why you’re asking the question when you’ve given the answer in the same post.

Of course a story is as long as it needs to be. My stories vary from one page to eight pages. I stop writing when I get to the end of the tale I’m telling.

Don’t stretch an enjoyable two page story into a five page story, unless you’ve come up with a good reason for doing so, because you’ll end up with a crap story and a dissatisfied reader. I’ve read one page stories I’ve liked because they were a good idea and told everything there was to be told and longer stories for the same reason. The longest story I’ve ever read was eleven pages. I read it in one sitting because it’s a bloody good story and I’ve read it again. More than once.

I’m writing, or attempting to write, my first series and am looking to make each chapter two to three pages long. I think in a series consistency is needed and writing chapters of differing lengths, in my case personally as a reader, isn’t the best way to do it. I think readers approach a series with a different attitude to reading a stand alone story. But in either case the idea is you want to leave the reader wanting more. Whether it’s more of the same story or to read your other stories.

Exactly right. Apologies to all. I never intended to publish this as I answered my own question. Imagine my surprise to see it listed. Trying to figure out how to delete the thread. (does the dance of shame)

 

[SimonDoom]

Exactly right. Apologies to all. I never intended to publish this as I answered my own question. Imagine my surprise to see it listed. Trying to figure out how to delete the thread. (does the dance of shame)

Oh, don't worry about that. No need to apologize or delete.