Chapter/Story Length

[GirlChris]

I've been lurking for the past couple of days, trying to build the courage to ask this and I've finally managed it, so here goes.

I've been working on a story for a few days, but the length of the first chapter concerns me a bit. Almost finished, it's over 15,000 words. I'm afraid the length of it will scare readers away, especially since the first three-fourths of the story is, well, backstory and nothing even vaguely sexual happens. I intended it to focus more on the romantic aspect than the sex, though the sex would be an important part. So, I guess my concerns are:

How long is too long?

In a multi-chapter story with a significant plot, what is a good non-erotic to erotic content ratio?

If the writing is halfway decent and the characters seem interesting enough, how long would you keep reading without finding any erotic content (given there is humor and/or emotional/spiritual/mental development)?

 

[sr71plt]

Write it the way you want it and then look at it for where/how to post it. Folks will point to examples of works like you describe that have done well here. If you have to cater to a large audience, put at least some tension/dilemma up front (no, it's not a good thing anywhere in the market currently to lead off with 15,000 words of background and little/no action or tension). 15,000 words is no problem for a first chapter here--that's on the cusp of moving from four Lit. pages to five. There's no curb on verbosity at Literotica. There are a lot of stories and first chapters at that length. The length isn't the issue--what you did with those 15,000 words is the issue.

Personally, I don't go that long without tension/dilemma/sex. But then, I usually don't have just one sex scene in anything that goes of one Lit. page anyway. This is an erotica site.

 

[RoyceConnors]

As long as you wrote 15k words that captivate your readers, no problem with length. It doesn't matter about length, but the content in it. I've written chapters over 30k words and readers have found it a good read, with no concerns about the length.

 

[Handley_Page]

I've been lurking for the past couple of days, trying to build the courage to ask this and I've finally managed it, so here goes.

I've been working on a story for a few days, but the length of the first chapter concerns me a bit. Almost finished, it's over 15,000 words. I'm afraid the length of it will scare readers away, especially since the first three-fourths of the story is, well, backstory and nothing even vaguely sexual happens. I intended it to focus more on the romantic aspect than the sex, though the sex would be an important part. So, I guess my concerns are:

How long is too long?

15000 words is about 4 or 5 Lit pages. I don't think you have much of a problem.
Authors who I have read, where they have a similar lead-up, put a little note at the beginning of the story explaining what /why, etc.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Write your story then erase what isn't story.

 

[SamScribble]

If you are concerned that what you have written is getting too long, maybe get yourself an editor. Unless you are seasoned pro, writing day in and day out, I doubt that all of the 15,000 words you have written are actually necessary.

Good luck.

 

[Bramblethorn]

I've been lurking for the past couple of days, trying to build the courage to ask this and I've finally managed it, so here goes.

I've been working on a story for a few days, but the length of the first chapter concerns me a bit. Almost finished, it's over 15,000 words. I'm afraid the length of it will scare readers away, especially since the first three-fourths of the story is, well, backstory and nothing even vaguely sexual happens. I intended it to focus more on the romantic aspect than the sex, though the sex would be an important part. So, I guess my concerns are:

How long is too long?

Echoing the other commenters: 15k is longer than average but not hugely so. Some readers will lose interest if it takes 10k words to get to the sex, but if that's not the emphasis of your story, those readers probably weren't your target audience anyway. I sometimes include a short note to help people figure out whether they are my target audience.

SR's suggestion of putting a teaser up front is good; readers are more likely to sit through the backstory if they have something to look forward to.

In a multi-chapter story with a significant plot, what is a good non-erotic to erotic content ratio?

Whatever you want it to be. A lot of readers here don't require high concentrations of smut. I have a novel-length romance story here that's probably about 10-20% sex over all, and it's been reasonably successful; a couple of readers have mentioned that they would've enjoyed it with even less sex. I have another one that's about 16000 words with about one paragraph of vaguely-described sex (plus a few lines of something that could be mistaken for sex but isn't) and that also did pretty well.

You will lose readers along the way as people who are looking for a high-sex story figure out that it's not for them, but there are plenty of others who'll stay.

 

[Hypoxia]

So arouse interest by throwing oot some enticing action up front, with backstory filtered into the subsequent narrative. Such technique is especially effective in short stories but also works with extended tales. Note how many mainstream novels begin with something dramatic-dreadful-diverting, then fill-in the events leading to or following from the start. It's called "the hook". I have a nearby thread on 25 Greatest Opening Lines in Western Literature with more than a few such hooks. To paraphrase a certain saying, "Get'em by the (eye)balls and their hearts and minds will follow."