Estimating story length

[hugh_jarce69]

This thread has really helped, thanks.
I used to write sports stories (I’d get back to that if I could ever stop writing Lit stories ) and the general view was anything over 3,000 words just won’t hold the attention long enough.
But I guessed with this being a reading site that wouldn’t hold true.
I’m currently writing one which will be the longest I’ve ever done so I wanted to ask the question on here. Thanks for answering it before I needed to

 

[ElectricBlue]

I wondered if any of you estimate story length early in a project and, if you do, how do you do it?

Never.

Unless I'm targetting 750 words I have no idea how long a story will be until I get to the end. The idea of a word budget is absurd to me.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

I never work with a word target, but I do have a sense of how long the story will be and I do keep track of the counts to gauge where I am and how far I might have to go. Writing a story is essentially project management, so keeping some basic stats helps manage that. It helps me keep everything corralled in the big picture.

Also, as writing is essentially creating a reading experience for someone else, I feel that it is important to understand just how much story you are dumping onto the reader, to fully understand the experience that you are giving.

So, yea, I don't work to a word count, but I am always acutely aware of the word count and story length.

 

[IWroteThis]

I've skimmed/skipped too many stories on this site because the writer focused too much on padding the word count and not enough on the actual story. Some have been really disappointing, as I think there was a pretty good idea buried under all of the rubble.

Typically, the only estimating I do is whether or not it could work as a 750 word story. If so, then I worry about the word count. If not, I just write the story.

The one time I did start estimating word count was when a short story took off, and I wondered if it would reach novel length. Even then, I didn't try to stretch it, I just was curious. The first draft fell short of the common 50K plateau, but it blew past the 40K mark, which is the accepted cutoff between novel and novella. I'm curious where the final draft will come in, but that number will have no role in my editing.

 

[iwatchus]

I try to have an estimate about how long it will be only to think about how low it is likely to take me to write it.

I am bemused by how wrong I often am, but I would never pad a story to make it fit a pre-supposed length. Why would anyone do that?

Most of my stories are 10K+.Every extra word has a chance of scaring off readers who are intimidated by the length. I know I have set aside stories I have thought about reading because of their length (being too long, not too short). I think longer stories tend to do better ratings-wise partially because people like the depth in the stories. So if the story needs the length to provide better depth, that's good, but outside that, longer is fundamentally worse.

 

[EmilyMiller]

I wondered if any of you estimate story length early in a project and, if you do, how do you do it?

I tend to get a feeling early on. But sometimes that leads to a question. How I’m writing now this feels like a 15,000 word novelette, but do I want to go into greater depth and turn it into a 30,000 word novella?

 

[UnexpectedLuggage]

I just sort of write until I'm done. I never set out with a specific word count in mind, just the story itself.

I think I'd struggle real hard with the "write a story in X words or less" type stuff

 

[SugarStorm]

Kendra started life as a fifteen-page skeleton banged out in a single six-hour orgy of creativity

Ah yes, the famous Areala-chan Writer Retreat™, where sleep goes to die and plot bunnies thrive. Is this invite-only?

I wondered if any of you estimate story length early in a project and, if you do, how do you do it?

Similar to crookedletter, I try to estimate; the story politely ignores me. Once I hit the first big turn, I can usually tell if it’s a short story or if it's going to swallow me whole.

 

[Statius]

It's done when it's done. No more, no less. I don't care if it's 3k or 30k.