Get shorty

[MaxSebastian]

Evening all. Hope you're all enjoying the Rugby World Cup as much as I am (and remember, dear Americans, you have a team in it, too. Come, learn the joy that is international team competition without the use of guns, tanks, Marines, dodgy intelligence, etc).

I have now written over 30 stories for Literotica, and my general policy has been it will be as long as it needs to be. But, invariably that means it is usually at least 10,000 words long, and that kind of thing takes time. Much as I appreciate it when people ask for more, when anonymouses keep ranting at me for not providing a new story every week entirely free of charge, I'm left there thinking: Damn, I wish I could write shorter stories!

So, fellow Lit authors, your tips on cutting down on the length (no, Mrs Bobbitt, not that kind of length) without sacrificing the creamy goodness, if you please.

 

[oggbashan]

I'm no help. My stories are even longer.

Og

 

[wildsweetone]

Come and join the Snip Group and you'll get plenty of practise at getting rid of the excess verbiage with writing 600 word stories.

Well, heck, I couldn't let a chance like this one escape me. lol

To be honest, the skills used in editing down to meet restrictive word lengths are the same skills you would use to hone your writing for cutting back from any length. At least that's been my experience with the short shorts.

Of course there is other option Max, write longer stories and get them published dear. Or, come and join in the NaNoWriMo group and hone your skills into that novel you've always been wanting to write. (plugs are such fun!)

If you like, put up a paragraph in here and I'll have a go at chopping it back for you in such a manner that you won't miss the words I've taken out.

 

[Colleen Thomas]

I almost double your length on average so I can't give a lot of help, but I can give a suggestion to produce more. Insomnia. It works wonders for me

-Colly

 

[Guest]

Oh, I don't know.

How 'bout a quick jack story?

 

[Pure]

Hi Max,

I haven't read you lately, but most stories at lit are very loosely constructed.

I think Wild SO is correct that most could be edited to almost any length, you just have to be ruthless (for all of us, cutting words is like excising flesh). I think 2-3 lit pages is adequate for a great many stories that are two or three times as long.

A while back I saw a version of G's Faust, the play, which was cut from (iirc) 6 hrs to 2 hrs, by a well known author Randall Jarrell.
More or less successfully.

J.

 

[Seattle Zack]

The very first story I sold, some 20 years ago, was a little over 6000 words when I sent it in. The ms came back with a note from the editor: "This is good. Cut it to 3000 words and send it back."

It seemed impossible, but I did it, and it got published. Twenty whole dollars. As an exercise, maybe take one of your completed stories and try to edit it down to half its length. When I do it, I'm always amazed with what can get removed without really impacting the story.

And I second the Snippetsville reccomendation, as well. It's a very good (if somewhat frustrating) exercise to write a 600 word story.

 

[MaxSebastian]

600 words is a poem!

Those Snippetsville stories are a trip. Soon as you get going, it's over! Like the premature ejaculation of erotic fiction.

You can't really get into a story like that, surely.

 

[Alex De Kok]

600 words is a poem!

Those Snippetsville stories are a trip. Soon as you get going, it's over! Like the premature ejaculation of erotic fiction.

You can't really get into a story like that, surely.

Most of us write longer pieces too, like NaNoWriMo, God help us!

Writing a 600 word piece and trying to actually tell a story is good writing exercise. In one of mine I cut what was originally a 300+ word introduction to 38 words. Painful! Good fun, though.

Alex

 

[Stefan_J]

Sometimes less really is more, i agree, i've just finished a story that's 11,000 words and have contemplated trimming it down some, but i like it too much the way it is. Some of it isn't necessary, sure, but sometimes the most fun part of a story has absolutely nothing to do with the tale itself, an off-hand observation can make a character seem more real, but i might try what you said Seattle, try to make a version that's 5,500 words and see what it looks like, could be fun!

 

[MaxSebastian]

Okay, so I'm intrigued. I've written a 600 word story, cut it down to the bone. You still can't do a lot with 600 words! Can't be a complicated story.

So how do I join this Snipettesville group?

 

[wildsweetone]

600 words is a poem!

Those Snippetsville stories are a trip. Soon as you get going, it's over! Like the premature ejaculation of erotic fiction.

You can't really get into a story like that, surely.

Without getting into the age old discussion about story lengths, I suggested the Snip 'trip' because you asked about cutting down on story length.

The exercise of learning which words are necessary to keep a story moving and which are unnecessary is a worthwhile one to learn, though I do understand for some people it can be almost too much of a challenge. (I myself found 300 and 500 word limits much easier than the 600.)

I did suggest you put up a paragraph here and let me/us have a play about with it.

I think quick fix answers are not there for you Max. Cutting back words is only achieved by 'doing' the job.

Good luck with whatever you choose to do.

 

[Uther_Pendragon]

Well, I've been guilty of some long stories, too. My
longest, not on Lit, is something over 130,000 words.
OTOH, people can write good fiction, even sexy fiction,
at a shorter length. My shortest story is 69 words long.
Ideas:
1) Dialogue. Dialogue can imply the action and the situation.
2) Let the action comminicate the situation and the
characters.
3) English is rich in nouns and verbs. You can clip one
word at a time by finding the noun that conveys the
noun and adjective you used originally or the
verb which conveys the verb and adverb you used originally.

 

[wildsweetone]

Okay, so I'm intrigued. I've written a 600 word story, cut it down to the bone. You still can't do a lot with 600 words! Can't be a complicated story.

So how do I join this Snipettesville group?

Oops, looks like we posted almost at the same time. Sorry about that.

Wow you've written one already. That's great!

A couple of questions before we hit the Snippettsville Group.

1. Will you write more 600 word stories for the SG?

2. Is this 600 word story written along the lines of the Snippettsville ambience?

If the answer is no to either of those questions, then what we could do is start up a 600 word thread on the AH.

Alternatively, you could PM me privately and I could take a look at what you've written.

(The SG has a myriad of threads in the SDC)