New Aspiring Author

[BiBibaby1982]

Hi all,
I have a question regarding the length of stories. I joined here about a month ago and have seen a number of a stories In multiple parts. I have a story in mind I'm not sure how long it's going to be. Is there a recommendation on how long a story should be when breaking it into parts versus releasing the entire story at once?

Also I have seen many authors state that they write on word and then transfer it to Lit but formatting can be a problem. Any tips or tricks on how to avoid this issue?
I appreciate your input. Thank you!

 

[8letters]

Hi all,
I have a question regarding the length of stories. I joined here about a month ago and have seen a number of a stories In multiple parts. I have a story in mind I'm not sure how long it's going to be. Is there a recommendation on how long a story should be when breaking it into parts versus releasing the entire story at once?

Also I have seen many authors state that they write on word and then transfer it to Lit but formatting can be a problem. Any tips or tricks on how to avoid this issue?
I appreciate your input. Thank you!

* I recently published a 52K word story, and it did extremely well. I don't think there is a max length for stories. There was one contest winner that was huge (200K words?)
* I recommend starting with 3-4 pages (10K-15K words) for your first story. You're going to learn a ton from your first story. I recommend against committing to a long series where the first few chapters are going to be the worst, shrinking your audience for later chapters. Other authors disagree with this recommendation

 

[SimonDoom]

There have been many threads on this subject, including some in the last two months, so check out the previous threads and read them and you'll get some hopefully helpful input.

Some stuff you should know:

1. Long stories -- stories over 30,000 words -- do surprisingly well at Literotica, both in terms of views and scores. If you have a completed story of that length or more, don't hesitate to publish it as a single story rather than publishing it in separate chapters.

2. Stories under about 7,500 words do NOT do as well as stories longer than that. If you want to maximize reader response, make sure your stories or chapters end up being close to 3 Literotica pages each or even more. A Literotica page is about 3750 words.

3. I agree with everything 8Letters said to you. Write a first story that's 10,000 words or so. That's not too long to be overcommitted but long enough to get a good response from Literotica readers.

 

[astuffedshirt_perv]

2. Stories under about 7,500 words do NOT do as well as stories longer than that.

I posit a coorelation=/=causation effect here. Good authors can keep you entranced for thousands of words, poor authors rarely reach 7000 words. (Full disclosure: poor author here)

 

[SimonDoom]

I posit a coorelation=/=causation effect here. Good authors can keep you entranced for thousands of words, poor authors rarely reach 7000 words. (Full disclosure: poor author here)

It's not just that.

Look at the entrants to the 750 word story events. They ALL do badly, regardless of the talent of the author, and despite the fact that they post disclaimers at the beginning that it's a 750 word contest.

 

[LAHomedog]

I agree with all of the wisdom being given to you on this thread. Allow me to add my belief that your story will dictate its length to you.

Some stories are only 7,000 words or so. Some need much more. Some are episodic. Some are not. The story and your characters will tell you how long it's going to be.

And don't forget to have your beginning, middle, and end. I know that seems simplistic, but I've edited a bunch of stories that forgot about that. Good luck.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Also I have seen many authors state that they write on word and then transfer it to Lit but formatting can be a problem. Any tips or tricks on how to avoid this issue?

A story should be as long as it needs to be, it all depends on the story being told.

To avoid Word induced glitches, cut and paste your text into the box on the submissions page, and Preview. That should show it as it will look when published, and you should be able to see any format errors easily. You can fix them in that working draft.

 

[8letters]

I should add that my advice doesn't apply to SF&F. There they expect chapters, lots and lots of chapters.

 

[gordo12]

It's not just that.

Look at the entrants to the 750 word story events. They ALL do badly,

Uh, no!

 

[SimonDoom]

Uh, no!

You turned off the voting! Doesn't count, man.

 

[gordo12]

You turned off the voting! Doesn't count, man.

One story getting trolled.

Five stories in total. You don't say what you consider doing well but considering most are in LW
4.51
4.43
4.12
4.09
3.99

 

[SimonDoom]

One story getting trolled.

Five stories in total. You don't say what you consider doing well but considering most are in LW
4.51
4.43
4.12
4.09
3.99

That's not bad for stories of that length. My three of that length are 4.07, 4.15, and 4.36.

But it's still clear that the numbers for short stories are quite a bit worse than for longer stories, on average.

 

[gordo12]

That's not bad for stories of that length. My three of that length are 4.07, 4.15, and 4.36.

But it's still clear that the numbers for short stories are quite a bit worse than for longer stories, on average.

Mmm, yes, no. I always say that posting in LW costs you .25 - .50 points. And so far, my ventures into other categories reinforce that. But I would never hesitate to write another 750 if the idea strikes me. I enjoy them.

But to get back to the OP's question. I'm focusing nowadays on my stretch: 15-80,000 word stories.

So to the OP. Feel free to make your stories as long as you like. The 3-page min is a good suggestion. And if you do chapters, make damn sure you have them ready to go. Readers get pissed and drop stories when they're not regularly updated. With the number of stories posted here, nobody is coming back when you post something 6 months later.

 

[SisterJezabel]

I wrote a fairly short piece for the On the Job challenge. It was short because the guidelines stated that the whole story needed to take place at a place of work. I've not expanded on it and fleshed it out to my usual 20,000 words, but I'm releasing it in chapters instead of all in one. Chapter 2 hit yesterday and hasn't got anywhere near the traction of chapter 1 with some average scoring, but I've discovered that as long as I write what I want to write then the scores don't matter.