It is not your imagination.

[Trionyx]

With the recently finished 750 challenge, I was struck by the overall lower scores for these stories compared to the rest. I have had a few of mine come in lower than my average as well.

Just for fun, I wanted to know what the ‘price tag’ for a 750 story is, that is, what is the average point score difference between them and the rest of the stories.

I took a random sample (LW not included) of fifty stories from the recent challenge and compared the average score to a random sample from the same general categories of stories published in late 2025. I used the same number of each category in the analysis. (Romance tends to have higher scores, so I did not want to skew the data by having more of them in either pile, for example.)

Comparing 50 stories in each pile, the random average comes out to be almost exactly 4.5 while the 750 average is 4.24.

While I am not a statistician and the sample size is not huge, this crude analysis does support the notion that the 750 stories are at a disadvantage from the git-go. While I initially thought the difference between the groups would be bigger, a delta of 0.26 is still impressive. And in my mind I can add 0.26 to my 750 scores and feel a lot better about things.

 

[SmilingLez]

It depends on the subject matter. Here is my February the 2nd entry for not just the 750 word challenge but also for the Pink Orchid challenge and the Valentine's Day contest. As you can see, I have 20,507 views. I am still gobsmacked at that number

Her Orgasm

 

[anthrodisiac]

It depends on the subject matter. Here is my February the 2nd entry for not just the 750 word challenge but also for the Pink Orchid challenge and the Valentine's Day contest. As you can see, I have 20,507 views. I am still gobsmacked at that number

Her Orgasm

To be fair, the story has an eminently clickable title, which probably accounts for the high view count. I want to qualify this by saying it's also well-written, and I'm not in any way diminishing the quality of the work or trying to put it down in any way. It's a damned good title, and a very nice story

 

[Trionyx]

It depends on the subject matter.

You are absolutely correct and that is why I took a random collection of stories to generate (the admittedly weak) data.

Good story, BTW. You deserve all the kudos you can get.

 

[SmilingLez]

To be fair, the story has an eminently clickable title, which probably accounts for the high view count. I want to qualify this by saying it's also well-written, and I'm not in any way diminishing the quality of the work or trying to put it down in any way. It's a damned good title, and a very nice story

Exactly my point. You need a hook when writing flash fiction (the title in my case) and you need to write it well. Literotica readers have been snail slow accepting flash fiction as legit. I've also read probably 60% of the 750 word stories from 2026. I believe the lower ratings is due to length not the quality of the work and that is a shame

 

[anthrodisiac]

My 750-project story is my lowest rated, lowest view count and slowest view accumulation, but has a pretty decent view/vote ratio, about 50:1. It's also one of my most commented-on works — granted, 7 comments isn't really all that many compared to a lot of others, but it's a lot for me, damn it

But most importantly, I enjoyed the hell out of writing it! It's very much "old me" writing — wacky, snarky dark humor, whereas almost everything else I've written on this site has been fairly grounded (for having anthros, anyway) and cerebral, with some humor. This, though? This was just zany fun that popped into my head and was written in 30 minutes. It's a reminder that my old writing self is still in there somewhere, which a huge relief, because I thought that part of me was dead.

And just for SnGs (Shits and Giggles; and me having to put that defeats the purpose of using the initialism, much like the first time someone used O.M.G. and then had to write what it meant, which cost extra because it was in a telegram), here's the story: On the Origin of Anthros

 

[anthrodisiac]

Exactly my point. You need a hook when writing flash fiction (the title in my case) and you need to write it well. Literotica has been slow accepting flash fiction as legit

Which is a shame, because flash fiction is amazing. It requires quite a lot of skill to pull it off, and I'm always impressed by how creative people can get when they write it.

 

[millamomud]

My avg is at around 4.4, both my 750 word entries are objectively my worst stories, averaging at 3.6.

Stil, it was an interesting experience.

 

[SmilingLez]

Which is a shame, because flash fiction is amazing. It requires quite a lot of skill to pull it off, and I'm always impressed by how creative people can get when they write it.

What I love about flash fiction is the fact is that you can write your story as complex or as simple as you wish by your choice of words.

My latest flash fiction story for both the April fools contest and the Tainted Love challenge is not doing as well and I understand why. It is non-erotic, written using simple language, and of course the length doesn't help. Those are three factors resulting in a lower rating

 

[old_prof]

I think I'm pulling the averages down. Maybe I'm just not a good enough writer. I thought mine were reasonable, but both of mine are roughly 3/4 of a point (0.75) down from my average rating not counting them. The E&V story also got about a quarter of the views I usually get. Of course not having the H kills views. The next lowest views for me in that category is the only other story in the category without an H. But it's at least close.

 

[crookedletter]

To be fair, the story has an eminently clickable title, which probably accounts for the high view count.

In stark contrast to my 750 word "Moments," which was read by approximately 7 people

 

[SmilingLez]

In stark contrast to my 750 word "Moments," which was read by approximately 7 people

I just read moments, excellent writing. Five stars so I guess I am number 8

 

[anthrodisiac]

I think I'm pulling the averages down. Maybe I'm just not a good enough writer. I thought mine were reasonable, but both of mine are roughly 3/4 of a point (0.75) down from my average rating not counting them. The E&V story also got about a quarter of the views I usually get. Of course not having the H kills views. The next lowest views for me in that category is the only other story in the category without an H. But it's at least close.

I wouldn't take that as a sign of not being a good enough writer. You're plenty good enough to write flash fiction! It's not like only the best writers can do it, it's just one of those things that requires practice.

It's an entirely different type of beast from longer works, much the same way a short story is different from a novel, which is different than a 10-book epic series. You're using different skills and techniques in order to maximize evocativity (I know it should be "evocativeness," but I like evocativity more, so I'm using it, damn it!). Word choice is hugely important, because you should strip out adjectives and adverbs and replace them with a word that has the modifier inherent in it, or implicit in how people interpret the word.

The good news is that flash fiction is really short, so you can write a whole bunch of them and practice pretty easily without taking too much time away from your other projects.

 

[anthrodisiac]

In stark contrast to my 750 word "Moments," which was read by approximately 7 people

I just read moments, excellent writing. Five stars so I guess I am number 8

I read it a moment ago, so make that 9 It's more essayistic, which might have dragged it down a bit, but it's damn good

 

[SmilingLez]

The good news is that flash fiction is really short, so you can write a whole bunch of them and practice pretty easily without taking too much time away from your other projects.

I do believe this (you can write a whole bunch of them and practice pretty easily..) dumbs down flash fiction. I know you didn't mean it intentionally. The very definition of (well written) flash fiction contradicts your statement.

Edit - well written flash fiction hits like a small controlled explosion. Conventional storytelling does not.

 

[crookedletter]

I just read moments, excellent writing. Five stars so I guess I am number 8

I read it a moment ago, so make that 9 It's more essayistic, which might have dragged it down a bit, but it's damn good

Well for the record I was not fishing for reads/compliments, but thank you both.

 

[Voboy]

Literotica readers have been snail slow accepting flash fiction as legit.

I don't really blame the readers, because I am a reader. And when I put on my reader hat, the last thing I feel like doing is reading a 750-worder.

So I can hardly lament how badly they do.

 

[Erozetta]

In stark contrast to my 750 word "Moments," which was read by approximately 7 people

Mine is called "Flames" and has been viewed by about 2.3k, has 22 comments, and has 101 votes in a category where it appears most stall around the 600 view mark. In all of February there was one other story that hit the 2k mark for views, but I can't see how many votes.

I thought it was a dead category when I posted there and didn't expect to crack a thousand views, 10 votes or 3-4 comments from friends, and I still don't understand why it went so much higher than expected. Neither the title nor the tagline are especially appealing.

 

[old_prof]

I wouldn't take that as a sign of not being a good enough writer. You're plenty good enough to write flash fiction! It's not like only the best writers can do it, it's just one of those things that requires practice.

It's an entirely different type of beast from longer works, much the same way a short story is different from a novel, which is different than a 10-book epic series. You're using different skills and techniques in order to maximize evocativity (I know it should be "evocativeness," but I like evocativity more, so I'm using it, damn it!). Word choice is hugely important, because you should strip out adjectives and adverbs and replace them with a word that has the modifier inherent in it, or implicit in how people interpret the word.

The good news is that flash fiction is really short, so you can write a whole bunch of them and practice pretty easily without taking too much time away from your other projects.

Well, even beyond this, I don't think I'm a particularly good writer. I'm a reasonable story teller overall, much better than I am a writer. Shorter pieces depend much more on your writing than your story telling. It's good practice, but I'm not sure how many more I will torture the readers with.

 

[SmilingLez]

I don't really blame the readers, because I am a reader. And when I put on my reader hat, the last thing I feel like doing is reading a 750-worder.

So I can hardly lament how badly they do.

I did not blame anyone.

I am stating a fact based on the number of reads, ratings, and comments on flash fiction stories versus conventional storytelling. Literotica readers prefer a longer format just as they prefer a sexually explicit story over a story that is non-erotic and not sexually explicit.

 

[EmilyMiller]

With the recently finished 750 challenge, I was struck by the overall lower scores for these stories compared to the rest. I have had a few of mine come in lower than my average as well.

Just for fun, I wanted to know what the ‘price tag’ for a 750 story is, that is, what is the average point score difference between them and the rest of the stories.

I took a random sample (LW not included) of fifty stories from the recent challenge and compared the average score to a random sample from the same general categories of stories published in late 2025. I used the same number of each category in the analysis. (Romance tends to have higher scores, so I did not want to skew the data by having more of them in either pile, for example.)

Comparing 50 stories in each pile, the random average comes out to be almost exactly 4.5 while the 750 average is 4.24.

While I am not a statistician and the sample size is not huge, this crude analysis does support the notion that the 750 stories are at a disadvantage from the git-go. While I initially thought the difference between the groups would be bigger, a delta of 0.26 is still impressive. And in my mind I can add 0.26 to my 750 scores and feel a lot better about things.

I’ve written quite a few 750 word stories - maybe just under thirty. I have a handful of highly rated ones, but - on average - see the same type of gap as you do.

 

[EmilyMiller]

I don't really blame the readers, because I am a reader. And when I put on my reader hat, the last thing I feel like doing is reading a 750-worder.

So I can hardly lament how badly they do.

They are definitively writer-centric, not reader-centric.

 

[anthrodisiac]

I do believe this (you can write a whole bunch of them and practice pretty easily..) dumbs down flash fiction. I know you didn't mean it intentionally. The very definition of (well written) flash fiction contradicts your statement.

Edit - well written flash fiction hits like a small controlled explosion. Conventional storytelling does not.

I should clarify. Flash fiction requires different writing muscles than longer-form fiction, but luckily it's "easier" to practice it because it takes less time to get a final product than it does if you're writing a novel. I'm not saying it's easier to write them, I'm more saying that for the same number of words, you get more complete products vs. if you're writing longer works. Having more complete products allows you to iterate more, because with each one you finish, you have a better idea of the process from start to finish, whereas a novel takes a lot longer to get to that finished product. That finished product is one of the most important things when it comes to having a holistic evaluation of your work.

When people start out writing, my biggest piece of advice is to write as much as possible, because it gives you practice. The best time to evaluate how things are going is once you have a finished product, so it's easier to start that evaluation sooner with a shorter piece. It's why I recommend starting out with short stories instead of novels for new writers, it allows you to get a holistic sense of the storytelling process and the story sooner than if you're writing a novel. It might take a year to write the novel, and only at that point can you look back at the finished draft and start to take away bigger lessons. If you're evaluating on a per-scene basis, you don't have the benefit of that holistic analysis that can be more informative for certain aspects of writing.

Being able to finish a 750-word story allows you to see how it looks from start to finish in a short period of time. Once you have the final product, and write another, and another, you start to get the hang of where to trim, where to expand, word choice, structure, and most importantly, how to introduce subtext and subtleties using as many tools as possible. It's a different beast, requiring different tools, and the more you practice, the better feel you get for it — like with all things, it comes down to practice.

 

[IWroteThis]

There was definitely a greater number of anti-750-word comments on my stories this year. I try to always put "750" in the title, so it's not like they were surprised after clicking on the title. They clicked on it specifically to complain about it's word count, not what I did with those words.

It's not scientific, but I've developed a pretty good feel for how commenting correlates to ratings on my stories (once the moderated ones come through). For the most part, only one of my 750-word stories came close to matching the normal correlation, and it was the one I forgot to put "750" in the title.

 

[anthrodisiac]

Well, even beyond this, I don't think I'm a particularly good writer. I'm a reasonable story teller overall, much better than I am a writer. Shorter pieces depend much more on your writing than your story telling. It's good practice, but I'm not sure how many more I will torture the readers with.

You don't have to publish them. I think it's good for writers to try all sorts of different styles. While the approaches for flash vs. novels is different, there are plenty of useful tools that you can pick up from flash that can be applied to novels. Word choice, subtext, subtleties, using non-explicit techniques in order to evoke specific reactions from the audience beyond saying it with words.

Few people were good writers at the start. You're at the start of your journey, kid, and the more you write (and if you stay open to learning), the better writer you become. So write the occasional short story. It might not be good, or worth publishing in your estimation, but the practice is the point. Building new muscles, working different techniques, developing new perspectives, it's all important to bettering yourself as a writer.