How long is too long?

[shirleyann]

I couldn't find the answer to this question on the site, so I decided to ask it here. I don't think I've asked it before, but I've been writing for days...so, I could be wrong.

I know that the minimum number of words for a story submission is 750, but is there a maximum? I recently uploaded the third part in a story I wrote for lit, but I am thinking of my next piece being a longer story that I submit all at once, instead of doing it in pieces.

And no more cliffhangers or abrupt endings...I promise. The ending to my story seems to have irritated a few people. Although, all in all...I got a good response to my first foray into writing a story specifically for this site.

 

[Handley_Page]

I couldn't find the answer to this question on the site, so I decided to ask it here. I don't think I've asked it before, but I've been writing for days...so, I could be wrong.

I know that the minimum number of words for a story submission is 750, but is there a maximum? I recently uploaded the third part in a story I wrote for lit, but I am thinking of my next piece being a longer story that I submit all at once, instead of doing it in pieces.

And no more cliffhangers or abrupt endings...I promise. The ending to my story seems to have irritated a few people. Although, all in all...I got a good response to my first foray into writing a story specifically for this site.

There are some seriously long documents.
And by that I mean tens of Lit pages (at about 3700 words each).

So I really would not worry too much about an upper limit just yet a while.

My personal choice is about 4 Lit pages; a pleasant read without straining the eyes too much. Anything more than 6 and I have trouble.

 

[1handslapping]

There are some seriously long documents.
And by that I mean tens of Lit pages (at about 3700 words each).

So I really would not worry too much about an upper limit just yet a while.

My personal choice is about 4 Lit pages; a pleasant read without straining the eyes too much. Anything more than 6 and I have trouble.

I've always wondered about people complaining in the comments that a story is "too long" can they not put the story down and come back to it later? do they have the same "I’ve started so I must finish" problem with books?

but as to the initial question, I think the longest story I've come across so far is about 25 pages,

 

[SamScribble]

A story is 'too long' when I stop reading before the end. Sometimes that is after a few paragraphs; sometimes that is after several pages.

 

[TxRad]

By paginating the story there should be no maximum limit from Lit's point of view.

 

[Handley_Page]

I've always wondered about people complaining in the comments that a story is "too long" can they not put the story down and come back to it later? do they have the same "I’ve started so I must finish" problem with books?

but as to the initial question, I think the longest story I've come across so far is about 25 pages,

Personally, I've never quite managed to grasp the concept of the computer bookmark so 'coming back to it later' is not so easy.

 

[sr71plt]

Personally, I've never quite managed to grasp the concept of the computer bookmark so 'coming back to it later' is not so easy.

And what is it, about once a week, that someone asks for help finding a story they started and now can't find?

 

[TxRad]

Personally, I've never quite managed to grasp the concept of the computer bookmark so 'coming back to it later' is not so easy.

If you are in Firefox, Right click, click on the star and click done. The story page will be in you bookmark list.

 

[Undersought]

I couldn't find the answer to this question on the site, so I decided to ask it here. I don't think I've asked it before, but I've been writing for days...so, I could be wrong.

I know that the minimum number of words for a story submission is 750, but is there a maximum? I recently uploaded the third part in a story I wrote for lit, but I am thinking of my next piece being a longer story that I submit all at once, instead of doing it in pieces.

And no more cliffhangers or abrupt endings...I promise. The ending to my story seems to have irritated a few people. Although, all in all...I got a good response to my first foray into writing a story specifically for this site.

My most recent story has 172k words (38 pages) and I've seen stories way beyond that. I don't think there is a limit to how many just how few.

As for as too much depends on your story/ follow-ship.

Have fun writing!

 

[GriffyD_Boy]

The longest thing I've ever read on here was 45 pages in length. I don't remember the title, but I do remember that it wasn't that well written, but had an interesting premise. After awhile I ended up skimming through pages so that I could get an idea about where the plot was going without paying attention to the details.

Anyway, my point is that there's an example somewhere on this site that shows that you're going to have to pass 45 pages in total before you have to worry about a maximum page limit.

 

[Weird Harold]

By paginating the story there should be no maximum limit from Lit's point of view.

I know that the submissions page's text box will accept a four million word C&P (10Mb or so.)unless they've artificially reduced that in the last couple of decades. Uploading a file is only limited by how big a file your word-processor can handle.

In short, Literotica does NOT have an upper limit on story size. The "needs of the story" is more likely to define "too long" than Lit is. Worry more about rambling aimlessly than any hardware or software limitations.

 

[jsmiam]

Based on other posts by very knowledgeable people, the upper limit is very, very long.

I do have a strong opinion though, all my own opinion. I hate chapters. If I stumble across chapter 75 of a story, I will never (1) go read the first 74, nor (2) click on chapter 75. I hate, hate, hate them. If I stumble across chapter 1, I will skip it too , assuming that since it tells me up front it has chapters, it won't have an ending where I would prefer it to be. So I don't read it

To be fair, clearly lots of people don't feel the way I do, since some of those 100 chapter stories have lots of readers and high ratings. For me though, if a simple "omit chapter stories" button existed, I would use it every single time I went reading.

You can't please everyone though. Write what you want, it's your story.

Also, a suggestion. Put a link to your story or story index in your signature. If it had been one click away for me, maybe I'd have gone and looked. But it's not, so I didn't. Make it easier for us!

 

[coochiebarber]

One of my story is about 40K words and readers haven't complained about the length except one, so I guess if you got good material the length shouldn't be a problem.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

A story is 'too long' when I stop reading before the end. Sometimes that is after a few paragraphs; sometimes that is after several pages.

YOURE THE WINNER!

I often stop after an awful start, sometimes the awful comes in the last paragraph.

Much of the time LIT stories are as awful as LIT poetry submissions. LIT is like a beauty contest for ugly girls.

 

[SamScribble]

LIT is like a beauty contest for ugly girls.

Harsh. But ...

 

[PervOtaku]

Based on other posts by very knowledgeable people, the upper limit is very, very long.

I do have a strong opinion though, all my own opinion. I hate chapters. If I stumble across chapter 75 of a story, I will never (1) go read the first 74, nor (2) click on chapter 75. I hate, hate, hate them. If I stumble across chapter 1, I will skip it too , assuming that since it tells me up front it has chapters, it won't have an ending where I would prefer it to be. So I don't read it

I suspect that most people don't read online erotica the way they read ordinary novels. With novels, you are probably looking for something longer, and there are reviews you can check on before committing that give more detail than a simple numerical rating. For online porn stories, you probably want something well written, but you also probably want it to be close to the end by the time you've brought yourself off masturbating. Or the end of a chapter at the very least. So a single story or chapter that's more than a few pages long might be more than a reader wants to commit to.

Stories with a large number of chapters are similarly daunting, much like webcomics with years worth of archives, if you didn't get in early and keep current on it, the shear volume of material is very intimidating. Often times these are well-loved series, it's just really hard beyond a certain point to get new readers to commit.

 

[Tigersman]

Long stories

I've been reading stories on Literotica for about a year now. During this time, I've read stories that were of various lengths, from the very short to the very long (9 Lit pages). Some stories had as many as 18 chapters such as the story "Justin Thyme." Although this was a long series, it was very well written with both good plot and character development.

Anytime I have to work at reading a story whether it's long or short, it's not worth my time to wade through all the wrong words, poor spelling and weak character development, not to mention the name changes right in the middle of the story.

It really does not matter how long a story is as long as it holds the reader's interest throughout the story.

 

[susurrus]

As far as the original question:

There are, as you've seen, various thoughts on story length. However, sometimes (often, in my case) the story takes on a life of its own, and you just write until it tells you to stop.

There are obviously people who don't want to read beyond a single page, and others who aren't happy unless they're reading for an hour or more on the same story.

There's no way to satisfy everyone, as this thread has already proven, so write your story and don't fret over it.

 

[Carnevil9]

This reminds me of a quote from Roger Ebert. He was talking about movies, of course, but I think it still applies: "No good movie is too long and no bad movie is short enough."

 

[TxRad]

This reminds me of a quote from Roger Ebert. He was talking about movies, of course, but I think it still applies: "No good movie is too long and no bad movie is short enough."

I thought he was the one that said, "If it's dragging the ground, it's too long."

But come to think about it, he might not have been referring to either movies or stories.