Official Support Thread - 5th Annual 750 Word Project

[KeithD]

I think an interesting follow-on exercise to this one would be for the authors who have written works to the "exactly 750-word" exercise to now take and rework them as the basis of a fuller short story.

One of the comments on one of my 750-word works was that I ended it too abruptly. True that it was extracted as a variant from my current, much longer, work running at Literotica. So, I did expand and rework the 750-word version into 1,600 words with more (and different from the existing long version) at the end and posted it to a different Web site. That was fun. So, multiple versions floating around.

 

[SomaSlave]

My latest, Stress Relief, hit the streets this morning. Two days from submission to publication: that was fast. Re: @Duleigh this is one of the stories that I'd like to work into a larger story, possibly a series.

I love the way this challenge has got my creative juices flowing.

 

[MrPixel]

Well. Subject does matter. My latest (and likely last) for this year's 750 project went up 10 hours ago and already garnered 3 favorites and... my gosh... 50 votes for a tad better that 4.0. So far. No comments yet. I normally write cuckold and wife-sharing for these short stories, this one was older man and college girl, in "Mature" like all the others.

Says something about the audience, doesn't it?

 

[KeithD]

It seems I have another one after all.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

I think an interesting follow-on exercise to this one would be for the authors who have written works to the "exactly 750-word" exercise to now take and rework them as the basis of a fuller short story.

I plan to do that with my one I wrote last year, "Women watching Woman". At some point. When the other dozen drafts stop yelling at me.

I actually wrote a wee story that I posted elsewhere yesterday - I was amused that without trying, it was 749 words and on a quick edit it made 750 exactly. Of course the site it went on says it's 751...

 

[Series 6]

Probably a dumb question, but does Literotica count a hyphenated word as one or two words? Example, when typed in a word.doc, "first-year" would count as 1 word in Word. I get the impression for a story word count in Lit, it counts it as 2. Any suggestions?

 

[Series 6]

I actually wrote a wee story that I posted elsewhere yesterday - I was amused that without trying, it was 749 words and on a quick edit it made 750 exactly. Of course the site it went on says it's 751...

I've that same issue - it will show as 750 on Word, but will show as more on Literotica.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Probably a dumb question, but does Literotica count a hyphenated word as one or two words? Example, when typed in a word.doc, "first-year" would count as 1 word in Word. I get the impression for a story word count in Lit, it counts it as 2. Any suggestions?

Don't get hung up on it, it won't matter.

As a frame of reference, Lit counts
* * * *
which I use as a header or section break, as four words, so I'm guessing Lit counts the spaces between words.

 

[KeithD]

Probably a dumb question, but does Literotica count a hyphenated word as one or two words? Example, when typed in a word.doc, "first-year" would count as 1 word in Word. I get the impression for a story word count in Lit, it counts it as 2. Any suggestions?

The instructions for the exercise permit you to go with the Word count, which treats hyphenated words as one word:

"The story must be 750 words EXCLUDING title, description, tags, etc. Word count includes story text only."

In other news, I seem to have written three of these today.

 

[Duleigh]

THERE ARE ONLY DAYS LEFT!!!
IT'S TIME TO START POLISHING UP THOSE FINAL ENTRIES!​

 

[Omenainen]

Don’t shout at me! I just submitted mine!

 

[KeithD]

THERE ARE ONLY DAYS LEFT!!!
IT'S TIME TO START POLISHING UP THOSE FINAL ENTRIES!​

I'm done. I think I first posted that six entries ago, though (I have three in pending now). My excuse is that at some point I decided to take this and the previous year's entries and make a "Flashing" anthology of them for the marketplace. I have 30 in that file.

 

[DarkWhispers2U]

Just need to say, "Life sucks!" Due to unforeseen circumstances, I will not be able to finish my fourth 750. It was a fantasy one with a god and a vampire, and I really hoped to work the thing out. Anyway, good work everyone on your tremendous efforts. I will attempt to read through the missed entries when the list posts and as the current calamity allows.

 

[oneagainst]

New challenge: take the longest story you've published here, and show it's possible to trim it down to 750 words.

For sale: a pair of handcuffs, never used.

Apologies to Mr Hemingway. Also, highly unlikely story on Lit.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Don’t shout at me! I just submitted mine!

I cocked up the Note to Editor 750 word tag, and had to resubmit. Hopefully this time I got it right...

 

[KeithD]

For sale: a pair of handcuffs, never used.

Apologies to Mr Hemingway. Also, highly unlikely story on Lit.

This is an erotica site:

Lost: a pair of handcuffs, last seen on a blonde.

 

[Altissimus]

Query on this - given that there's 2 days to go, does a story need to hit a certain number of votes/scores to be eligible? In other words, is it a bit late, All Things Considered?

 

[Duleigh]

THERE ARE ONLY DAYS LEFT!!!
You have enough time for one more quickie!​

 

[Altissimus]

This is not a competition. Participating is all that matters. No additional prices except for being eligible the general monthly etc. etc. Winners and Nominees, and Eternal Fame and Glory

Thanks for the clarification. How are winners and nominees selected? Exactly how much glory is up for grabs?

 

[FifthEstate]

The glory is bragging to everyone else on here about your story score or the number of red H’s your story(s) received. I’m opting for the latter because my story has been trashed from the scoring perspective !

 

[Duleigh]

Thanks for the clarification. How are winners and nominees selected? Exactly how much glory is up for grabs?

Again, it's not a competition, it's an exercise for writers to the most story into the bare minimum allowed words. We can easily say winners are everyone that had the guts to give it a try because that first one just doesn't feel right, at least it didn't for me, my stories average 20K words.

Glory can be counted with an H. The more you get the better you are.

 

[Altissimus]

Oh, ok. I wondered if we'd see a score ranking for the stories that qualified, or some such. But I guess it's difficult as stories submitted on Feb 1 will likely have very different reads/votes/favs than stories submitted on Feb 28th.

Anyway, threw one in on the mix. Hopefully it'll get published in time.

 

[Duleigh]

Oh, ok. I wondered if we'd see a score ranking for the stories that qualified, or some such. But I guess it's difficult as stories submitted on Feb 1 will likely have very different reads/votes/favs than stories submitted on Feb 28th.

Anyway, threw one in on the mix. Hopefully it'll get published in time.

Hopefully it does, on March 1 there will be a page going up with all the entries that got their notes to the administrator right. I can't wait to see how many we got

 

[SomaSlave]

In theory, once every month, the highest rated story for each category, with a minimum number of 50 votes is selected (e.g. see here for the Monthly Awards for April 2022). I'm not really sure, but I think the three stories with the highest votes win the monthly price, and all of those stories are nominated for the annual awards.

However, most of the 750 word stories will get low ratings, and chances for getting the highest score for a category are slim. I'd go for the Eternal Fame and Glory, if I were you.

It looks like the April 2022 list you referenced is the last one that was published.

If the monthly honors are being listed somewhere else, could someone post the link?

 

[Duleigh]

It looks like the April 2022 list you referenced is the last one that was published.

If the monthly honors are being listed somewhere else, could someone post the link?

Monthly honors have disappeared. I guess the site has grown too big for Laurel and her small team to keep up with that.