Literotica Word Count?

[TheAntiRebel]

I've never submitted a story to Lit, but I'm considering it and I have a few questions...

What causes the page breaks in the stories? (IE: When story goes to a second or third page) Are they added by the author, do they occur after a set amount of paragraphs or words?

Second, what is a good word count to shoot for on a Lit story? I'm afraid of writting one thats too long, or too short.

 

[cloudy]

I've never submitted a story to Lit, but I'm considering it and I have a few questions...

What causes the page breaks in the stories? (IE: When story goes to a second or third page) Are they added by the author, do they occur after a set amount of paragraphs or words?

Second, what is a good word count to shoot for on a Lit story? I'm afraid of writting one thats too long, or too short.

Someone will be along shortly, I'm sure, to tell you how many words are on a Lit page, but the powers that be do that, not the author.

Too short is anything under 750 words. It'll get rejected. And, to be quite honest, I can't even get a story started with that few words.

There is no such thing as "too long."

Oh, and it's "writing," one t, not two. Two would be pronounced "ritting." Pet peeve.

 

[TheAntiRebel]

Oh, and it's "writing," one t, not two. Two would be pronounced "ritting." Pet peeve.

Ooops. Typo. Thanks for the reply, though.

 

[TitianaPeaks]

Don't worry about too long.......the only way a story is too long, is if you write a WHOLE lot, but don't tell the story. Sometimes more isn't better, it's just more.

 

[TheAntiRebel]

Well, the thing I'm worried about is having too short a story, even if it is over 750. I'll probably find a lit story where I like the length... of the story... and copy and paste it into MS Word to find the word count that I like.

 

[cloudy]

Well, the thing I'm worried about is having too short a story, even if it is over 750. I'll probably find a lit story where I like the length... of the story... and copy and paste it into MS Word to find the word count that I like.

Just go where the story takes you, and don't worry about the length. My favorite story here runs 15 Lit pages long, and I've read some I've really enjoyed that are one page.

I think by trying to write to some predetermined length (unless its flash, which is a different thing), you are limiting yourself too severely.

Tell the story. That's all that matters.

 

[TitianaPeaks]

Well, the thing I'm worried about is having too short a story, even if it is over 750. I'll probably find a lit story where I like the length... of the story... and copy and paste it into MS Word to find the word count that I like.

Ok, maybe I didn't follow that train of thought very well.....Did you get the part about too short is anything under 750 words? Submit it to a volunteer editor before posting it, if you're really nervous about how the story is....they are pretty decent about helping with content, development, etc.

 

[TheAntiRebel]

Ok, I'll take your advice and 'just do it'. Here goes nothing.

 

[glynndah]

Ok, I'll take your advice and 'just do it'. Here goes nothing.

Oh, yes. Please go write something for the FlashFic thread. 100 words or less, but who counts? Okay, we all do but that's our own personal quirk. The current subject is "Board Games". Thank you.

 

[starrkers]

It runs to about 3000 words to a Lit page, I think.

 

[TheAntiRebel]

Thanks for all the replies, everybody. I just started writing, and I quickly passed 750, and I'm at 1,539 right now, and not even close to ending. Looks like length won't be a problem for me...

Thanks for all the input.

 

[TxRad]

Between six and seven Word pages equals one Lit page. If that helps any.

And welcome to the trenches. keep your bayonet fixed, there be trolls in the woods....

 

[Vermilion]

ooh, I thought it was about 4,000 words to a Lit page.

I generally find 2 Lit pages is my average length... Anything more than 4 and I might be put off a story unless it was *really* good, anything less than 2 and I would feel I'd been sold short a little.

Did that make any sense? I think I just sneezed my brain out :-S

x
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[galaxygoddess]

I type everything in word. One of my stories is like 7 pages in word and 1 page on lit. *shrugs.

 

[CrimsonMaiden]

Page breaks are between 3500 and 4000. There's no set word count that's the answer because it all depends on the number of characters and not actually words. We had this discussion in the survivor forum because the Novella submissions have to be two pages long.

 

[Weird Harold]

Page breaks are between 3500 and 4000. There's no set word count that's the answer because it all depends on the number of characters and not actually words.

Correct, but to expand on the information:

Many moons ago, I sampled 100 stories and came up with an average of 3,767 words/page. That's an awkward number to deal with, so I use 3,500 words to estimate Lit pages.

AS best as I could determine, the page break comes at the last paragraph break before 15,360 (15KB) characters, including any HTML tags for formatting or special characters.

...what is a good word count to shoot for on a Lit story?

"A story should contain exactly as many words as are required to tell the story and not one word more or less."

I don't recall the original source of that quote, if I ever knew it. It was relayed to me by a succesful author, publisher and editor who helped me a great deal when I started writing.

I know it's not much help, but it's the only answer that fits every situation.

 

[TheAntiRebel]

Thanks for the input everybody.

I finished my story, and the word count came out to something like 4,200, which I think is pretty healthy. Not that it matters to anybody but me.

 

[drksideofthemoon]

ooh, I thought it was about 4,000 words to a Lit page.

I generally find 2 Lit pages is my average length... Anything more than 4 and I might be put off a story unless it was *really* good, anything less than 2 and I would feel I'd been sold short a little.

Did that make any sense? I think I just sneezed my brain out :-S

x
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My guess is the real answer has to do with the number of lines, and not words.

But, 3000 to 4000 words is the average Lit Page.

 

[Weird Harold]

My guess is the real answer has to do with the number of lines, and not words.

Lit's format can't count lines, because the number of lines depends on the browser window size -- i.e. there is a dynamic word wrap.

A lit page is determined by the target file size of 24-25KB per page, not counting ad graphics. With approx ten KB of HTML overhead, that leaves roughly 15KB (or 15,360 characters) for the story text.

However, the script backs up to the last paragraph break to avoid splittting a paragraph beween pages, so there is no hard number of words, characters, or lines that can be given.

 

[Boxlicker101]

Lit's format can't count lines, because the number of lines depends on the browser window size -- i.e. there is a dynamic word wrap.

A lit page is determined by the target file size of 24-25KB per page, not counting ad graphics. With approx ten KB of HTML overhead, that leaves roughly 15KB (or 15,360 characters) for the story text.

However, the script backs up to the last paragraph break to avoid splittting a paragraph beween pages, so there is no hard number of words, characters, or lines that can be given.

This is interesting, because I have always assumed it was line count. A story with mostly narrative in long paragraphs (not a good idea) would have a lot of words to a page. Another story that was told in dialog, with mostly very short sentences (also not a good idea) would have fewer words, but the same number of lines.

 

[Carnevil9]

Here are just my observations, which are similar to others, but not identical: my writing style tends to put 3900 words on a Lit page. I use that as my guideline.

I like to make my stories go to a second page, but never spill over to a third page. But that is because of my own prejudice of rarely reading a story with a third or more page. Maybe I'm selling my fellow Litizens short, but I assume most will have the same short attention span that I have, and don't want to dissuade them with a too-long tome.

 

[Weird Harold]

This is interesting, because I have always assumed it was line count. A story with mostly narrative in long paragraphs (not a good idea) would have a lot of words to a page. Another story that was told in dialog, with mostly very short sentences (also not a good idea) would have fewer words, but the same number of lines.

If you click View/Source (in IE), you can see how the stories are formatted. the only delimiters are the double line break (<BR>) between paragraphs -- as in his sample from chapter three of your story Mary and Ryan

...The first time they showered together, Marian sneaked up on him, and joined him, ostensibly to wash his back, but actually to do much more than that. There was no longer any need for subterfuge; they both knew what they were going to do that day, or thought they knew. <br />
<br />
Once the shower was running, and warming up, Marian stepped up behind Ryan and pulled his T-shirt off over his head. ...

In order to use a line count, the scripts would have to define a maximum line length so the number of lines doesn't change with screen resolution or window size.