How big a story would you read

[Le Jacquelope]

in the context of erotic stories?

If you would at all possible read a 100,000 word story, how much of it would you want (assuming it has a deep and engaging story line) to be erotic in nature?

I just redid a story from scratch and recycled what I had before and filled in about 61,000 extra words on top of that. Approaching 100K words total. *gasp* and I'm 1/5th through toward one story milestone (where I'll cut it and declare it one book).

Argh. Is this endeavor inevitably doomed unless I cut the word count, or what?

 

[minsue]

I prefer longer stories.

 

[Guest]

 

[minsue]

I write long stories and prefer to read long stories.

And yet, our posts are quite short.

 

[BlackShanglan]

One of my favorite stories on Literotica ("To Tempt the Devil") was quite long - I would guess about 80,000 words. Admittedly, when I first saw how long it was - over 12 web pages - I was hesitant about keeping with it. But by then I was at the bottom of the first page and it was extremely engaging. I think that that is the key. For those a little reluctant to take on such a large work, you need to hook them in the first few paragraph so that they simply can't resist it. Once you're there, and if you can keep them hooked - doesn't matter how long it is.

I think that the same is true on sex. What I really admired in that story was a slow, careful building of the characters. There was no real sex until quite late in the story, and I really didn't care - the rising tension was delicious and the little grace notes of characterization - the heroine's humorous, warm relationship with her brother, for instance - were just as interesting and kept me wanting to see more.

Good writing will triumph over most obstacles, IMHO.

Shanglan

 

[sandmartin]

I prefer long stories too. Stories that paint the fuller picture rather than sex, sex, sex and more sex.

For what it's worth, I'm led to believe that publishing houses prefer a word count of around 80,000 and generally won't accept anything in the region of 100,000-120,000 word count from an unknown author.

 

[nushu2]

I'll buck the trend and say that I prefer stories between 2 and 4 Lit pages. I just don't have the time to devote to reading. Breaking it up into chapters makes me hesitant to even start because it could take months before the next installment and could go on indefinately.

 

[Wicked-N-Erotic]

I like longer stories as well. One of my favorite Lit stories is 41 Lit pages, not sure of the word count but it must be up there. It wasn't "packed" with erotica but it had an engaging storyline.

The story by the way was, Tender Mercies , by Phineas. There are also two other parts to this story I have yet to get to.

Wicked

 

[Guest]

 

[impressive]

For any online reading, no more than 20,000 words. Anything longer & I want real paper in my hands. Same with chapters.

Perhaps if Lit offered a "printable format" option, I'd print the longer stuff. Don't know.

As for the sex -- hmmmm -- that's why we're here. Don't need it every other paragraph, but in 20,000 words I'd probably expect at least 2 meaty scenes.

 

[Guest]

 

[MLyons]

I like longer stories in general, but as BlackShanglan said, it must continually engage me in one way or another. If I lose interest, I'll start skimming, and eventually abandon it. But when it's a really good one (at least for me), the longer stories are more interesting to me. It allows me to immerse myself into an environment and explore the deeper context that shorter stories don't provide. As with anything though, I actively avoid making rules about my reading habits. I just read what's interesting. Longer stories can be a real chore if they just drag on without focus.

Like Impressive, I do like to read from a page rather than the screen, so I print the stories out. Takes up a lot of paper though, I wish Lit would make more printer friendly format where more text could fit on each page.

 

[BlackShanglan]

Cut and paste to Word? That's my method.

Shanglan

 

[Marsipanne]

Copy and pasting for me too. And printing (I've got a laser printer on my computer). I have too much erotica just lying around my room, and I end up having to tidy up before anybody walks in. I used to have a ringbinder full of stuff, but I gave it to a friend.

 

[Sabledrake]

Long stories -- good. Posting them all as one big story here -- not so good. One of mine, "Infernal," ended up as something like 10 Lit pages and doesn't get a lot of reads (okay, it's also dark, evil, and nasty, which may have something to do with it).

I posted "The Ravishing of Constance" in something like 20 installments of 2-3 Lit pages each, and I think it was in the 80,000 word range. Just to give you an idea of what sort of numbers you might be looking at.

Sabledrake

 

[Le Jacquelope]

I prefer long stories too. Stories that paint the fuller picture rather than sex, sex, sex and more sex.

For what it's worth, I'm led to believe that publishing houses prefer a word count of around 80,000 and generally won't accept anything in the region of 100,000-120,000 word count from an unknown author.

Ouch. That's not good. I'm going to have to break mine up even smaller then.

I tend to post my stories in a format the website admins want and also I keep the original on my own website for users to download. I see that's a pretty good policy, given that people want it that way.

I just hope in the end that it doesn't need to be printed out, but that is sometimes unavoidable. It sure would save a few trees...

 

[shereads]

Nothing over 2 pounds.