Does size really matter?

[annaswirls]

Hello!

I am actually finished my first story and I am planning on submitting it here shortly.

Any guidelines as to the length of a story? How long is too long? I saw that there was a min of 750 words....

I know I know it depends upon this and that and the other thing, but in general......

Any help would be greatly appreciated!




Anna

 

[minsue]

Hello!

I am actually finished my first story and I am planning on submitting it here shortly.

Any guidelines as to the length of a story? How long is too long? I saw that there was a min of 750 words....

I know I know it depends upon this and that and the other thing, but in general......

Any help would be greatly appreciated!




Anna

I don't think I'm representative of the Lit audience, but I prefer long stories with plenty of character and plot development. Many others prefer a one page stroke story and I'm sure there are plenty out there looking for something in between.

- Mindy, being ever so helpful as usual

edited to add - I would suggest reading a good cross section of stories on the site. That would probably be more helpful than reading babbling posts such as my own.

 

[Sarastro]

The stories can be as long as you want. Note that there is a "Novels and Novellas" category for the longer works.

 

[Boxlicker101]

Hello!

I am actually finished my first story and I am planning on submitting it here shortly.

Any guidelines as to the length of a story? How long is too long? I saw that there was a min of 750 words....

I know I know it depends upon this and that and the other thing, but in general......

Any help would be greatly appreciated!




Anna

That depends on what you want to do. If you want to write a stroke story, anything over about 3,000 words is repetitious. A romance, with plot development and character development and the whole thing, maybe 20,000 words, which would be novella length. An anecdote, 750 words. Most people would rather read a long, interesting story than a short dull one.

 

[Dirty Slut]

ROFLMAO When I read the title of the thread I thought you wanted to know if the size of the male's penis mattered. LOL

DS

 

[gauchecritic]

Anna,

The length of a story is dependant mainly on only one thing; where it ends.

Just make sure you spell check and edit before you post, mindst, knowing you, there'll probably be words strewn all over the page, everything will be redlined and your spellchecker will go up in smoke.

Gauche

 

[Uther_Pendragon]

There are two answers to your question, even leaving out
the question you allude to.
One. The 750 word minimum is a Literotica rule, and --
unlike the "over 18" rule -- not a hard-and-fast one. (The
double entendre was unintentional, but leaving it in was
intentional.) There is no formally-decided maximum.
Two. What makes a story work? Generally, for your first
story, I'd advise keeping it rather simple and short. OTOH,
writing a really short story which is a real story also
takes experience and practice. Note the comments by the
people who can't do it and deny that anyone can. I
would try neither a novel nor a very-short piece for my
first submission.

 

[dr_mabeuse]

Personally, I generally like to have my story pretty much set up and into the action within a thousand words or so.

A page on Lit is something like 4000 words. When I read, I usually make my decision to stay with it or bail out of a story within the first thousand words.

I think it's useful to think of long stories in terms of episodes, because a long story is rarely just one long scene. An episode should probably not be more than 3 or maybe 4 Lit pages. If your episodes take longer than that to make their point, then you're probably writing too slowly for most people.

If you're writing a long, multi-episode story, you have the choice of publishing the episodes separately as chapters, or publishing them all together as a novella or very long story. If you p[ublish them as chapters, it's a good idea to make them as much like stand-alone stories as you can. I've done both, and in my experience novellas get fewer reads but higher scores.

I cut my long stories into 2-4 Lit page chapters now. I think they're more attractive to readers that way, and you get more feedback while you're working. It would be pretty horrible to write a huge story only to find out that no one can get through Chapter 1.

---dr.M.

 

[annaswirls]

Thank you!

Thank you, lovely story writers, for your helpful words!

More for me to think about....

I am just happy that after under or over writing many many many, I actually FINISHED my FIRST story! Whoo hoooo! Well, finished is as finished does, I met my self imposed deadline. Hopefully it will be posted on the Valentines Story contest shortly...


I actually came to lit to write stories, and got stuck in the poetry forum.

It is quite a switch from poetry to prose, too many words to screw up.


My best to you and yours and his and hers,



AnnaSwirls

 

[Svenskaflicka]

Ofcourse size matters!

Anything more than 30" is just exaggeration!



Unless it's in the Interracial category, where it would be considered "modest".

 

[Colleen Thomas]

Almost all of my stories go long. In general you will have the most luck with stories that stay one or two lit pages long. I think that's about 12 to 14 word pages. Basically you are far better off letting the story tell itself. Once you cross the 750 word minimum there is no practical upper limit that I know of that Lit can't support.

As with all stories it isn't the number of words, it's what you do with them that really matters. Ogs is the only onw I know who consistently goes as long or longer than I do, but his stories are engrossing and you don't realize how much you have read, you just want to know what happens next. AS long as you are doing that, carrying the reader alon, don't let the top end bother you. tell the story and you'll be fine

-Colly

 

[SlaveMasterUK]

Generally I find the shorter stories get more reads. The vast majority of Lit users IMO are after something to get them off, which usually takes 1-3 lit pages.

My latest story is 3 lit pages long and has almost twice the votes and feedback of my first novella, which was IIRC 10 lit pages long.

My novel is 19 lit pages long and doesn't even get feedback.

If you're writing a longer story with plot development etc. then maybe you could benefit from Dr. M's advice of chopping it down into chapters. The problem with this is readers will insist on reading them in the wrong order, thus spoiling the whole point of writing the story in sequence.

Also, I don't think many people write a story from beginning to end. I might write the first chapter first, but it usually gets more edits than any other chapter once the story is finished - usually because I change plots, characters, endings etc. half-way thru a project when I realise something is a bit weak. If you write this way, think about not posting the first chapter to Lit until you're happy with the way the story progresses.

ax