Question:

[Guest]

(Forgive me for posting this question in the Gen board, but I am putting it here so I can get opinions from people who may not always venture into the otehr boards. Thank you.)

If there was a collection of stories, and each was sent in as one sumbission (instead of a novella), would it be bad if one (or all) of the stories were roughly only a page long? Would it be alright and still flow with the group of stories, or would it be a borrish waste of time to be so small?

I'm wishing to get several opinions on this question. I'm debating if I can submit some writings as is, or if I should thicken one story.

Thanks for your time.


~Tiggs

 

[cymbidia]

One Lit page or one Word page?

One word page, that might be a little too short, really, in my opinion. It's difficult to get a story told in one Word page. The most common criticism i recieve from all my stories and poems combined is that the shortest one (almost two Word pages) is too short.

One Lit page = about three Word pages. That's a good length for a short story. (Most of my stories are one Lit page long so this could be construed as blatant self-interest.)



Updated answer: I thought that one one Lit page = about three Word pages but i happened to need a hard copy of my story "Pierced" and decided to pull it off Lit to check that theory.

"Pierced" has 4,081 words, excluding title, author name, and disclaimer.

"Pierced" is about 1.25 Lit pages long.

I have Microsoft Word 2000, v.9, and in there, it's almost exactly 7.5 pages in 10-pt Verdana font.

My hard copy, however, is 8.5 pages long.

Interesting, the differences.
Okay, interesting to me, anyway.

 

[Andra_Jenny]

See people are afraid to offer opinions

and here is the proof of the pudding. I think you should mix short and long. I have read some very short Checkov that I enjoyed. Metamorphisis (sp?) was not thet long. But even in writing. Always using short sentences, or long rambling sentences, is bad. I think the same applies to paragraphs, chapters, stories, etc.

Do what feels right. It's your art! If it is not art, don't bother writing it. There are enough bad whack-off peices as it is.

Good Luck! Go back to the proper board! AJ

 

[Guest]

One Lit page = about three Word pages.

I didn't even know that ratio difference. There has been times when I thought a story I had been working on would be "too long" as one submission, and so I was going to consider more than one submission to "help out" both Laurel and the readers. lol Right now, one of my stories is only one MSWord page, so maybe I'll try to figure out a way to let them all flow as a whole.

 

[Andra_Jenny]

The daily diary approach? Or has that one been done to death?

 

[Guest]

Go back to the proper board!

I posted my question on three different boards to really make sure I got it out there! lol It has been a long time since something really just came to me and flowed easily. I typed and typed and typed. (It started out as an e-mail fantasy to a friend-BTW, I'm thinking of the title, or titles, to be Erotic Fantasies or something similar-and after copy/pasting it to MSWord, I had one page EXACTLY! )

 

[Guest]

The daily diary approach? Or has that one been done to death?

I don't really know if it has been done to death or not. I'll admit, I haven't read as many stories as I used to when I first came to Lit (damn you BB posters! j/k), but I have not seen this concept done very much. Perhaps I was reading the "wrong" stories? lol

 

[cymbidia]

The daily diary approach? Or has that one been done to death?

That's a pretty used-up approach, sad to say. It's easy to write that way and gives an author all sorts of room to move the character in and out of seemingly unrelated situations, but it's definitely been done and readers tend to glaze over and click out of the too-familiar, i think.

The current and on-going Erica chronicle, Memoirs of a Lady, is written, loosely, in diary or memoir form and it's definitely working for us, but usually the format is rather stale.

(BTW, Memoirs of a Lady is an ongoing collaborative effort by a number of noted Lit writers? Chapter 7 was just submitted. http://www.literotica.com/stories/stories_by_category.php?category=28 All the chapters are a hell of a good read, if you've missed the continuing saga.)

 

[Andra_Jenny]

Let me know when it is posted

I've really stopped reading the stories, but when someone is trying so hard, I owe them a read, I think.

 

[Guest]

Awww...

Thank you. Hee hee hee. I have a feeling that if posted as separate stories, Laurel will scatter them in the topics since I think the first one will hit the Extreme section. lol

 

[beckbabe]

I hate the overly long stories. I like the idea of a collection of short stories.

 

[CW]

If there was a collection of stories, and each was sent in as one sumbission (instead of a novella), would it be bad if one (or all) of the stories were roughly only a page long? Would it be alright and still flow with the group of stories, or would it be a borrish waste of time to be so small?

It would work if the submissions, were posted no more than two days apart. Much more than that and I'm afraid that there would be a loss of interest.

Plus a notice at the end would be helpful,,, about more waiting to be listed,,, make sense?

As far as them being scattered, simply attach a note to Laurel requesting a specific section for posting. If they are inter-connected in some way, I would not think that a problem.

I really can't see a reason that it would NOT work.

What I get bored with is an on going set of chapters that stretches much geyond 8 or so.

 

[Weird Harold]

other opinions...

can be found at http://www.literotica.com/forum/showthread.php?threadid=37615

 

[Guest]

Thanks WH. I've been checking all 3 boards. lol I've got the mail notification on.

 

[Weird Harold]

Thanks WH. I've been checking all 3 boards. lol I've got the mail notification on.

I just wanted to make sure you saw it before I went to bed. I'm going out of town tomorrow, and won't have as much time to spend on the BB for a week or so.

 

[Guest]

Ah.

Okay. I'll have to peek at your story to see if I can work that styled theme into mine.

 

[Weird Harold]

Re: Ah.

Okay. I'll have to peek at your story to see if I can work that styled theme into mine.

I sort of stole the principle from a series of anthologies called "tales from the spaceport bar" which mentions the history of "bar tales" or "travelers campfire stories" in the introduction of the first volume.

 

[Weird Harold]

Doin' the bumpty-bump

 

[Guest]

Well...

I now see first hand what one page of MSWord, 11pt. font, does for a "story". lol For any who is interested in reading what I have "so far", check out the tree sex thread over in how to.

Tree Sex

 

[Laurel]

If each part works as a separate vignette all by itself, posting it as separate parts would be good. However, there are no length limits (except for whatever our database can handle, which is a lot), so if they small pieces function best when read together, it may be best to submit as one work. It's up to you as the author...if the pieces are, for example, two paragraphs long each, it would probably be better to post it as one whole work with some sort of divider to indicate the beginning and end of each piece.

Make sense? Probably not...it's late, and I'm fried. Too much Carls Jr. for me...

 

[Guest]

Lol...

Make sense? Probably not...it's late, and I'm fried. Too much Carls Jr. for me...

G'night, Laurel.

 

[april-wine]

short stories, well written, are something i look for....about a 1 or 2 lit pages, longer than that, and my eyes are stinging.....