length of story

[Sugarpuss]

I'm trying to get up the nerve to submit something for a short story. It's actually from a fantasy novel I've been writing for my own sex-starved amusement and I think it's too long. I can't find anything saying what the maximum length is for the short stories. I have a feeling it doesn't really qualify for novella, either, but I don't know. It all takes place in about two hours and seems to me would seem dumb chopped up, but it may be that it's dumb period. I just wondered what the maximum length is for a short story here at Literotica. I haven't sent it to an editor yet and plan to do so...

 

[Guest]

Hi Sugarpuss

I'm not really able to answer this with any conviction, but I know others can. Og, where are you?

I think anything goes, to be honest. I know there is a minimum limit on wordlength (750 words) but I don't think there is an upper limit.

I hope this helps!

Lou

 

[Colleen Thomas]

I don't know if there is an upper limit or not, but you would have to be talking extremely long here for it to be a problem. I have two stories that are both 6 lit pages long or over 35 pages in word. While you may get some gentle (and not so gentle) ribbing about being long winded it shouldn't be a problem.

-Colly

 

[pop_54]

I'm trying to get up the nerve to submit something for a short story. It's actually from a fantasy novel I've been writing for my own sex-starved amusement and I think it's too long. I can't find anything saying what the maximum length is for the short stories. I have a feeling it doesn't really qualify for novella, either, but I don't know. It all takes place in about two hours and seems to me would seem dumb chopped up, but it may be that it's dumb period. I just wondered what the maximum length is for a short story here at Literotica. I haven't sent it to an editor yet and plan to do so...

As Lou says Sugarpuss as long as the tale exceeds lit's minimum it will be classified as a story, short or otherwise, just write it and post it, don't start worrying about length or you'll wind up cutting bits out and ruining it for yourself.

pops...........

 

[Lauren Hynde]

I've seen stories as long as 19(!) Lit pages, so I think you're safe submitting whatever you got. Whether or not it's a good idea to submit something that big in one go is another question...

 

[Sugarpuss]

Thanks for posting replies

I can't seem to reply to each post here individually, I've never seen that before on a messageboard--I must be missing something. I appreciate the replies. I definitely am longwinded--that I have known for sometime--but I now feel better about submitting. I've already sent feedback to two authors about their stories and blubbered about my own and they have volunteered to take a look if I wanted, but I still haven't got up my nerve. I think I will do that now.

One more question, but off the subject. I see your photos (nice ones, btw). I have a photo posted to my profile but it never shows up except where I edit my profile. How do I get it to appear where someone (besides myself) can actually view it?

Thanks

 

[Jenny _S]

Re: Thanks for posting replies

One more question, but off the subject. I see your photos (nice ones, btw). I have a photo posted to my profile but it never shows up except where I edit my profile. How do I get it to appear where someone (besides myself) can actually view it?

Thanks

The pictures are Avitars. When you reach 100 posts we will give you the secret password to the Avitar library (after appropriate payment, of course) and you can chose you own or one in the library.

 

[raphy]

Don't forgot about the full-frontal, Jenny.

 

[Dirty Slut]

The length of a short story...

Don't get me started! Let's just say that as long as the story is interesting to the reader they will continue to read it.

DS

 

[Lauren Hynde]

Re: Thanks for posting replies

One more question, but off the subject. I see your photos (nice ones, btw). I have a photo posted to my profile but it never shows up except where I edit my profile. How do I get it to appear where someone (besides myself) can actually view it?

Thanks

We can all view it, in your member page: http://www.literotica.com/stories/memberpage.php?uid=262998

It's always a nice policy to have a link to it in your signature, so people can check out your submissions et al.

To edit your signature, go to your UserCP from this page, and Edit Profile.

To reply to each post, use the 'QUOTE' link beneath in (or above, depending which layout you're using).

 

[Sugarpuss]

Re: Re: Thanks for posting replies

The pictures are Avitars. When you reach 100 posts we will give you the secret password to the Avitar library (after appropriate payment, of course) and you can chose you own or one in the library.

My own avitar. I can't wait! Love your Pogo quote, I have used that quote myself at another messageboard on the net.

 

[Sugarpuss]

Re: Re: Thanks for posting replies

We can all view it, in your member page: http://www.literotica.com/stories/memberpage.php?uid=262998

It's always a nice policy to have a link to it in your signature, so people can check out your submissions et al.

To edit your signature, go to your UserCP from this page, and Edit Profile.

To reply to each post, use the 'QUOTE' link beneath in (or above, depending which layout you're using).

Thanks so much for your various answers, seem to still be having a problem getting my hyperlink in here right.

 

[Jenny _S]

I look at story length this way, sugarpus,

Story length is like a dick. All the guys claim theirs is bigger, better and longer than everyone elses. The problem with that is that it just makes it average.

A lit page is about 4000-5000 words. Most stories are 1-3 Lit pages long. But no story can ever be longer than 100,000 words.

Writing Porn, longer isn't necessarlly better. If the reader wanks and cums half way through the story he'll never get to the voting. Personally most of my stories are about 1-1/2 lit pages or about 7500 words. But there really is no real answer to your question
Jenny

P.S. And yes... your AV must contain full frontal nudity, otherwise we have to charge you extra.

 

[MathGirl]

Re: Re: Re: Thanks for posting replies

seem to still be having a problem getting my hyperlink in here right.

Dear SPuss,
Usually three to five days. Sometimes up to a week, depending.
MG

 

[Sugarpuss]

I look at story length this way, sugarpus,

Story length is like a dick. All the guys claim theirs is bigger, better and longer than everyone elses. The problem with that is that it just makes it average.

A lit page is about 4000-5000 words. Most stories are 1-3 Lit pages long. But no story can ever be longer than 100,000 words.

Writing Porn, longer isn't necessarlly better. If the reader wanks and cums half way through the story he'll never get to the voting. Personally most of my stories are about 1-1/2 lit pages or about 7500 words. But there really is no real answer to your question
Jenny

P.S. And yes... your AV must contain full frontal nudity, otherwise we have to charge you extra.

I have hacked and slashed at this and every time I remove chunks I decide to "fix" something, so it is still 15 pages in Word The heck with it I'm going to give it to a couple volunteer editors and get the shrieking and muttering over with, my own that is. All they can do is laugh and say "this stinks on ice"; was there some point you were trying to make?

Maybe the editor can point out what it is I can leave out because I can't figure it out. To me it all looks vital to the story. That's probably because it's part of a longer book piece of fiction. Meanwhile I'm off to check out the volunteer editors. I think I need to look for the ones who write romance. My characters are engaged. To each other. Boring. At least to most readers here.

 

[Guest]

Because of the quotes involved I feel the need to point out the correct spelling is avatar.

Welcome, Puss.

regards, Perdita

 

[Sugarpuss]

Because of the quotes involved I feel the need to point out the correct spelling is avatar.

Welcome, Puss.

regards, Perdita

Thanks for the heads up. I knew it was not the correct spelling, but thought maybe it was being deliberately spelled that way at Literotica to indicate they were special Literotica "mascots" . Good to know. My own avatar. Still looking forward to getting mine--"when the student is ready the master will appear"? Or something like that...

 

[Dirty Slut]

I have hacked and slashed at this and every time I remove chunks I decide to "fix" something, so it is still 15 pages in Word The heck with it I'm going to give it to a couple volunteer editors and get the shrieking and muttering over with, my own that is. All they can do is laugh and say "this stinks on ice"; was there some point you were trying to make?

15 WORD pages is fine here. I wouldn't shorten it any more if I were you.

DS

 

[Sugarpuss]

I have hacked and slashed at this and every time I remove chunks I decide to "fix" something, so it is still 15 pages in Word The heck with it I'm going to give it to a couple volunteer editors and get the shrieking and muttering over with, my own that is. All they can do is laugh and say "this stinks on ice"; was there some point you were trying to make?

15 WORD pages is fine here. I wouldn't shorten it any more if I were you.

DS

Oh, I am so relieved to hear you say that...

 

[oggbashan]

I have hacked and slashed at this and every time I remove chunks I decide to "fix" something, so it is still 15 pages in Word.

I thought you were talking about long? As some of the others will tell you I have barely finished the introduction in 15 word pages.

Some of my stories in draft form are getting close to the 100,000 word limit so I'll have to break them into chapters that are less than 100,000 words.

But I have to have at least some sex in each chapter. That will be difficult.

If you have written your story as well as you post you should have no difficulty getting reasonable comments from editors.

Regards

Og

 

[Alex De Kok]

If it's any help, my best-scoring story here at Lit is 20 pages (in .txt format ready for submission) in Word, and takes up nearly three Lit pages.

Alex

 

[Sugarpuss]

I thought you were talking about long? As some of the others will tell you I have barely finished the introduction in 15 word pages.

Some of my stories in draft form are getting close to the 100,000 word limit so I'll have to break them into chapters that are less than 100,000 words.

But I have to have at least some sex in each chapter. That will be difficult.

If you have written your story as well as you post you should have no difficulty getting reasonable comments from editors.

Regards

Og

Thank you for the kind words about my posts. I had been thinking they that compared with everyone else's salty and succinct comments they seemed singularly dull.

 

[Sugarpuss]

If it's any help, my best-scoring story here at Lit is 20 pages (in .txt format ready for submission) in Word, and takes up nearly three Lit pages.

Alex

That definitely does ease my mind.

 

[Weird Harold]

A lit page is about 4000-5000 words. Most stories are 1-3 Lit pages long. But no story can ever be longer than 100,000 words.

Unless Laurel has changd the formatting script since it was first instituted, an average Lit page is 3,767 words -- at least that's the number I came up with when testing the scripts. The actual determining factor for Lit's page breaks is character based -- somewhere in the vicinity of 14,500 characters/page (plus HTML overhead.)

100,000 words is only a limit if you C&P into the text box on the submission page. If you submit a text file or Word document, you can exceed that limit by whatever amount you want -- up to 32,000+ lit pages. (NOT that I'm recommending submitting an entire saga as one story. ) However, there is at least one story here at Lit that is 150,000+ words in single submission.


Sugarpuss, because your choice of fonts and margins in MS Word affect the number of pages, the only practical way to guage how long your story is, in "Lit Pages," is to use the Tools/Word Count function and divide by 3,500 or 4,000. (You can use the number of 3,767 I gave above but it's a cumbersome number for making quick estimates and really no more accurate than a rounder number. Since the true factor is characters any word count is only an approximation anyway.)

 

[Sugarpuss]

Unless Laurel has changd the formatting script since it was first instituted, an average Lit page is 3,767 words -- at least that's the number I came up with when testing the scripts. The actual determining factor for Lit's page breaks is character based -- somewhere in the vicinity of 14,500 characters/page (plus HTML overhead.)

100,000 words is only a limit if you C&P into the text box on the submission page. If you submit a text file or Word document, you can exceed that limit by whatever amount you want -- up to 32,000+ lit pages. (NOT that I'm recommending submitting an entire saga as one story. ) However, there is at least one story here at Lit that is 150,000+ words in single submission.


Sugarpuss, because your choice of fonts and margins in MS Word affect the number of pages, the only practical way to guage how long your story is, in "Lit Pages," is to use the Tools/Word Count function and divide by 3,500 or 4,000. (You can use the number of 3,767 I gave above but it's a cumbersome number for making quick estimates and really no more accurate than a rounder number. Since the true factor is characters any word count is only an approximation anyway.)

Thanks for the information, I didn't even realize I had a word count function (duh--take the tutorial, Sugarpuss). My word count is 6,141 and the character count (with spaces) is 32,969.