Oops; or a corollary to "Banishing Was"

[BigTexan]

I went through a story I'd written some time ago searching for "Was" and "Really" and some of the other words noted in the "Banishing Was" thread. I didn't take action for each one, but when I read the section and it needed to be changed I did it.

My story went from 10,000 words to nearly 25,000.

It reads better, no doubt and the beginning is much better at grabbing the reader. However, it is a fantasy story and most (not all) fantasy magazines limit submission lengths to less than 25,000 words.

So how do you know what is the "right" length for a story? This particular story has been rejected by some of the best. Usually the comment was "The beginning didn't grab me." (6 of these) or "needs more development." (4 of these). All were form letters some with boxes to check Gotta love cookie cutter responses eh?

Now, I find that I'm limited in the number of places I can even send it. Should I go back and trim it down? If so what is the best way to do that?

BigTexan

 

[g1ory]

Perhaps you could do another search and try elimating the word 'and' as much as possible. This is by far my worst offender. I find (when I remember to edit in this way) that my word count goes down considerably when I eliminate 'and', and my writing is always much better for it. Same thing for most 'ly' words.

Other words you could try searching for are 'of' and 'with'. Try taking them out completely. For instance, rather than writing "He hit the corner of the desk with his hip." try "His hip hit the desk's corner."

Hope this helps. Good luck.

glory

 

[wildsweetone]

really good question BigTexan.

a story is as long as it is meant to be. IMHO

i have played around with word count limits. a while back on here, i wrote stories containing less than 500 words, then 700. the longest story i've written on Lit is (very approximately as i don't have it handy here) about 16-18,000 words, and if i wanted, it could easily be continued for double that.

'and' is a very good word to remove from writing, you'll soon discover how few 'and's are really necessary. you will also learn how to reword some sentences and probably find that the rewording sounds better... that has been my experience in my own writing.

This particular story has been rejected by some of the best. Usually the comment was "The beginning didn't grab me." (6 of these) or "needs more development." (4 of these). All were form letters some with boxes to check Gotta love cookie cutter responses eh?

the comments from the rejection forms don't appear to be concerned so much with length as with the story itself... the fact that you have received comments at all tells me the story is definately worth looking at whatever you choose to do, don't put it in a box and forget about it.

if you'd like, i'll take a peek at your story for you

 

[Whispersecret]

WSO is right. The editor's comments weren't about length.

Gimme your first 500 words. Let's examine the hook. Let's see if there's any fat there to trim. Perhaps you're not starting your story at the right place. That's often the problem when a beginning seems flat.

 

[TrinaT]

A good resource for trimming your stories is grammarbook.com. Also, checking out the author guidelines for submission on various website (i.e. WickedVelvet.com; LiquidSilverBooks.com; www.erotica-readers.com, etc.).

Hope this helps,

Trina T.

 

[BigTexan]

the comments from the rejection forms don't appear to be concerned so much with length as with the story itself...

No, the comments weren't about length, but then the story at that time was only about 10,000 words. Nicely sized for publication. Not it's a lot longer.

Thanks to everyone for your comments. I think I'll go through the story again and see what I can do.

Thanks ya'll.

And WhisperSecret and WildSweetOne I'll take you up on your offers after one more pass through.

BigTexan

 

[karmadog]

You're not going to get to a more publishable length by cutting a word here and a word there. First, rewrite the beginning to make it grabbier. Set up a puzzle, a conflict, ASAP. Next sit back and think about what the story is really about. Not just what the plot is, but what its meaning is. Then start cutting things that do not advance the theme. I'll assume that you have cut things that you felt didn't advance the plot, but if you haven't, get rid of them. If you know someone who can give you a capable story edit, ask them to do so. After chopping your story to pieces, make sure that you tie it back together so that it flows.

Did I mention that you have to make sure to save the original version? You may decide that it's just better the original way. If so, you may have a short novella and getting it published will be very, very difficult.

 

[Guest]

Wildsweetone.......

And I quote:

"a story is as long as it is meant to be"

I think the same thing could be applied to men as well sweetheart!

Something to think about.......

I remain,

 

[wildsweetone]

I think the same thing could be applied to men as well sweetheart!

Oh Sandman of my dreams!

Size does not count. None of my stories contain measurements for that very reason, and for that matter, my dreams are incredibly realistic, right down to the last detail. Realism makes for some wonderful erotic dreams and thoughts

 

[Guest]

Like minded........

We're certainly alike in that respect kiddo. One of my pet "peeves" is writers who insist on giving dimensions, especially when they really arn't applicable to the story. I think it's much more exciting, arousing...to let one's imagination create some guys penis size...or how BIG a woman's breasts are without giving the fucking bra size. In everyone of my stories I will elude to a woman's bust by simply saying she hard large full breasts...along those lines. The reader can then make them as big as he imagines them to be. Likewise with a man's penis. Why tell the reader the guy has a twelve inch dick? Which BTW...it seems that there's an awful lot of guys in the story's who have monster sized cocks. Whatever happened to Joe average anyway? Yeah...I confess, I've written in a few stories with guys having large cocks...but that's about all I say, "He had an enormous cock"...that way YOU get to decide how big you want it...not me.

LOL...ok, off my soapbox. I think size matters when it's applicable to the story. But if it isn't....let the reader enjoy wondering just how big the guys dick is, or what shape/size of boobs a woman has. Afterall...isn't that half the fun?

I remain,