length of short story?

[denita_applebum]

I am having an issue writing a short story. how long is too long? people come to this site to get their rocks off, and I don't think it shouldn't take 10+ pages to do so. this would be my introduction to the site and would like to make an good impression. any suggestions would be helpful. thank you in advance.

 

[MSTarot]

This same question is being answered in this thread.

http://forum.literotica.com/showthread.php?t=994807

 

[Euphony]

I am having an issue writing a short story. how long is too long? people come to this site to get their rocks off, and I don't think it shouldn't take 10+ pages to do so. this would be my introduction to the site and would like to make an good impression. any suggestions would be helpful. thank you in advance.

There's no formula nor a universal user.

Some come here for a quickie. 2-3 pages will do.

Some aren't here just to rocks off and will read much longer works.

Some prefer chapters.

Lits has all shapes and kinds. Writing a good story makes the best impression. Length is much further down the list of importance.

 

[RejectReality]

There's a readership here for stories of almost every length. I wouldn't stress too much over the length of the story, because it will find an audience.

The only thing you might think about is breaking up anything that goes over 5 Lit pages into chapters.

( not Word pages - Lit pages. Figure them at about 3500 words per page or so )

And that's hardly a necessity. There's plenty of precedent of blockbusters that are ridiculously long ( as much as 30 Lit pages in a single submission ) gaining a huge following.

 

[Weird Harold]

I am having an issue writing a short story. how long is too long?

Many, if not most, people who ask this question should worry more about their first story being too short.

Regardless of meaningless distinctions like short, long, novel, novella, flash, etc, a story should contain exactly the number of words required to tell the story and not one word more or less.


Only you, the author, can know what story you wanted to tell and thus how long that story should be. The only time you need to worry about length is if you're being paid or entering a contest where someone else gets to specify a word count.

 

[robertreams]

I used to think people came on this site to get their rocks off and yes, I still measure the failure success of an erotic story by how hard it makes me, but, only adolescents and the trruly inexperienced need to get off quickly. I would hope that by adulthood most of us have learned to treasure the journey as much as the arrival. In fact, many of us have come to realize that the longer the journey the greater the joy at arrival.

How long should a short story be? Start it at the beginning, write until you have no more to say. Then stop!

 

[TamLin01]

There's two answers: As Harold said, the writer's answer is that the story should be exactly as long as it needs to be, but no longer. How long that is will depend on the writer and the story, but generally speaking you should have a feel for it.

The editor's answer is that your story should be at least 10 percent shorter than it is right now.

 

[shutterpsb]

I've only submitted one story so far, it was kind of sex lite as some have said and romance heavy. It's been very kindly received by the readership. It was about 4000 words, or about a paragraph over one Lit page.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

I have yet been able to write a short story under 3,000 words. (correction, I do have two just under that at 2,500 and 2,700) And that's not being verbose with descriptions or character development. I average around 4,000 - 8,000 words per short story.

 

[walkerlong]

The great advantage of a longer story is that people who don't like longer stories will quit reading and go away and leave you alone.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

The great advantage of a longer story is that people who don't like longer stories will quit reading and go away and leave you alone.

Not necessarily true. They could just skip to the end and post a nasty comment to an asshole, which they probably are already.

 

[walkerlong]

Not necessarily true. They could just skip to the end and post a nasty comment to an asshole, which they probably are already.

You're right, of course. There's no limit to the capacity of assholes to be assholes. But many of the readers who stick around to the end will do so because they like the story.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

You're right, of course. There's no limit to the capacity of assholes to be assholes. But many of the readers who stick around to the end will do so because they like the story.

Another fallacy you have fallen into, I guess you have never post in Loving Wives?

They read the story.
Stroke to the story.
Then tell you what shitty author you are for writing such trash.

Assholes everyone of them.

 

[robertreams]

My first assignment in Journalism class (a long time ago now) was to go out and write a news story about an on-campus event and make it as concise as possible. My 1200 word story was 250 words long by the time my professor edited it. So Use colorful wonderful words like exotic spices, sparingly. Then go back and take out every unnecessary "and" "that" "still", etc. Never sit (down) stand(up) unlock the door and open the door and go inside, etc. You will find your stories getting shorter and shorter and better and better.

 

[patientlee]

I used to think people came on this site to get their rocks off and yes, I still measure the failure success of an erotic story by how hard it makes me, but, only adolescents and the trruly inexperienced need to get off quickly. I would hope that by adulthood most of us have learned to treasure the journey as much as the arrival. In fact, many of us have come to realize that the longer the journey the greater the joy at arrival.

How long should a short story be? Start it at the beginning, write until you have no more to say. Then stop!

And people in a hurry.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

During my career with the State I was constantly at odds with supervision while the pet of the lawyers and judges. Lawyers like short & sweet reports that reveal and clarify the issue, social workers prefer epics that conceal the issues and hide culpability and responsibility. When I started work we had 100 words to play with on our crude word processors, twenty years later, when I retired, we had 40 pages of space to use. From TWITTER to WORD.

But I had concentrated for so long it was habit. The judges loved it, and I kept my job. When a judge has time to read a paragraph or two, she doesn't want a 10 page wallow in the mire that says the same thing.

 

[walkerlong]

Another fallacy you have fallen into, I guess you have never post in Loving Wives?

They read the story.
Stroke to the story.
Then tell you what shitty author you are for writing such trash.

Assholes everyone of them.

Clearly assholes are everywhere.