Short v long stories

[000zing]

I expect this theme has been discussed before but am curious to know people's views.

Is there a "natural" home as such for the erotic tale as regards format/length? I've seen this referred to constantly by others but usually in passing while discussing some other aspect. Feel free to state your own preference but please try to give your reasons.

 

[davion2308]

Do you mean like a sweet spot for word count?

I think a story gets told in however long it takes. Stories that do better are often north of 4k-5k words. I find most people on Lit want to get wrapped up in a story and read the build-up and development as much (more?) than the sex itself. My best stories, the ones that get that cool little red "H" are the longer stories where I take the time to set the scene, give the reader characters who are plausible, and then get into the fun stuff.

There are some hot short stories. There are dull long stories. There's no natural home for total words in a story from where I'm sitting.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

A 'natural' length? No, not really. I would think that 750 words, the site minimum, is too short to provide the kind of depth needed for a good story of any kind. That being so, longer than that is suggested, but how long is up to the individual writer, I think. I've seen some very good ones with just two pages (7,500 words) and some which are whole novels in their own right.

Format? I'm not sure what you mean, sorry.

 

[oggbashan]

Those who took part in the 750 word challenge - to write a story of 750 words and no more or less - reported comments that the story was too short.

Yet I write 50-word stories in sets of 15 to make the minimum 750 words and they seem to work well.

No story is too long. 50,000 words or more have been posted as a single entity and have done well. I think the ideal is between 3 and 4 Lit pages - about 10,000 to 12,000 words but there is no rule. Whatever fits the story is good.

 

[SimonDoom]

There's no objectively right answer, because good stories come in all different lengths, but if you've been around here long enough you can observe some things.

Literotica stories tend to be on the long side by normal short story standards. If you buy an anthology of famous short stories, you'll notice that they're mostly short--under 6000 words. That's short by Literotica standards. A Literotica page is about 3750 words. "Short" stories--less than two pages--tend not to score as well. Scores on average go up as stories get up to around 5 pages or so, and then scores even out.

I think there is a reason for this. While readers vary widely, a big chunk of readers want a certain kind of erotic reading experience, and for most of them it takes a certain number of words to offer that experience. It consists of introducing an erotic situation, having a fun buildup that draws the reader in, and then having a satisfying sex scene that resolves things. For whatever reason, for many readers (and for me, as an author), it takes over 2 Lit pages to accomplish this in a truly satisfactory way.

 

[Voboy]

Each story wants to be told in its own way. That's true in every genre; erotica is no different.

The sweet spot for a given story is based on what that story is about, and on how long it takes to tell that story. So the only real answer is "it depends," as unsatisfying as that is. On top of that, there's always the fact that we (writers) have no clue what any given reader is looking for, length-wise.

You write the story you want to tell. It comes in at whatever length it ought to come in at. Then the response from the readers tells you whether it ended up being a good story. Length is a part of that, but only a part: I've told successful stories in 10k, 20k, and 30k words. It all depends on the plot. Pay attention as you're writing, and the story should let you know how long it wants to be. I get that that sounds a little mystical, but it works for me.

Tell a good story. Don't worry about word count.

 

[BobbyBrandt]

In addition to the comments from other writers, I would also throw in the suggestion that the category that your story best fits also can influence its acceptable length. People looking for stroke stories will favor certain categories over others, and generally, be more impatient with stories that are slow to build their arousal.

I have eight stories that are between 50K and 175K words, and they have all been placed into the “Novels and Novellas” category. As the name of the category implies, readers will have an expectation of longer stories, many with less erotic content than they would find in something like “Loving Wives”.

 

[MelissaBaby]

I believe that the story is as long as the story is.

Having recently published a 70k word novella, I'll point out a couple of factors to take into consideration when posting a long single piece.

Because it takes longer to read, reactions will come in slow. It will take you longer to get the 10 votes needed to get a red H, and, if you did a good enough job, to show up on the 30 day top list. That will put a bit of a crimp in the number of reads you will get in the critical first few days after publishing.

On the plus side, people who enjoy reading a story that long are probably going to be disposed to giving it a good score.

 

[tenyari]

Those who took part in the 750 word challenge - to write a story of 750 words and no more or less - reported comments that the story was too short.

Years ago I wrote a 500 word story, for something they were calling 'Flash Fiction' at the time on some ASSTR event. Over the years that story has been repeatedly down voted and poorly commented everywhere I had posted it, save for one comment that understood the idea of the challenge...

There's a risk that no matter what length you choose, someone will 'not get it' and complain. Best to just write it for how long it needs to be to tell itself.

 

[Carnevil9]

To paraphrase Roger Ebert, no good story is too long, and no poor story is ever short enough.

That said, for an author I am unfamiliar with, I am only willing to commit to a two-pager or so. But if it is an author who I know to be worth the investment in time, I will read any length of story.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

That said, for an author I am unfamiliar with, I am only willing to commit to a two-pager or so. But if it is an author who I know to be worth the investment in time, I will read any length of story.

Good point! If the story doesn’t catch my interest early on, I’m gone. That doesn’t, even in a Literotica context, necessarily mean hot eroticism, but the tale has to be going somewhere.

 

[SteelPoint]

You are going to get many responses saying, in a variety of ways, that there's no golden rule as to length.

Obviously this has to be true and yet somehow I appreciate the need to ask. I think this is probably because we each favour (perhaps not exclusively) a particular length - and yet cannot help but see that others have preferences which are different. Possibly it worries us that we might be "wrong"!

I for one just happened to have an early literature exposure which included de Maupassant and Somerset Maugham among others. This showed me that there was something of a delicious challenge in having a taut narrative which nevertheless had believable action and characters within a compact form. I was always a bit dubious about the alleged need for a "sting in the tail", though. To me, the cameo nature of a short story was its own justification - you did not need anything more.

I suppose my attitude to the general question is that sex, by its nature, is a short duration affair and as a priority comes behind other basic, longer-term human requirements in life such as food, shelter, warmth, survival. Stretch it out over a multi-chapter affair and you risk losing your reader in the detail.

 

[SimonDoom]

Good point! If the story doesn’t catch my interest early on, I’m gone. That doesn’t, even in a Literotica context, necessarily mean hot eroticism, but the tale has to be going somewhere.

I can't emphasize enough how important this is. You have about 1000 words, at most, to capture my attention. If you do, then I may stick it out, however long the story is. But if you don't, I'll give up, even if the story is only two or three pages.

The quality of the story matters more than its length. But make sure, as an author, that you do enough in the first 1000 words to grab the reader and let the reader know it's a story worth reading.

 

[SamScribble]

How long? Today, a reader left comments on two of my stories. The comments basically said 'these stories should be longer - but that would probably spoil them'. And then he gave both stories five stars. Make of it what you will.

 

[MillieDynamite]

Edgar Allen Poe's, The Oval Portrait, isn't 1300 words. It is complete, fully engaging, and inspired two other writers for a couple of longer works. The 1891 novel the Picture of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde and Nathaniel Hawthorne's 1843 tale, The Birth Mark. Good stories don't have a length requirement.

 

[PennameWombat]

The bulk of my stories here are 15,000-30,000 words, and by and large they are well received. The ones that aren’t suffer from various story defects, not length. The 750 word entries that I have here I was told in a couple of cases were downvoted simply because of their length. One of them received a comment that told me at least that reader found the ‘meaning’ in it, so it wasn’t that I didn’t hit my target. But, by and large, not received well.

I also have a couple that are 70,000 words (give or take a few words), and the stronger one is quite well received, but even the other is rated over 4.

On the other hand, I’ve just submitted to a short story contest with an entry about 4,000 words, barely above a page here. I don’t aim for that length here because such stories don’t seem to do well. Sure, a ‘good story’ can be told in such a length, but various audiences have their preferences, and 1500 word stories here are a hard go.

 

[000zing]

How long? Today, a reader left comments on two of my stories. The comments basically said 'these stories should be longer - but that would probably spoil them'. And then he gave both stories five stars. Make of it what you will.

I "make of it", Sam, that you've come up against the average on-the-ballness of members of Literotica there. That's what I make of it.

Alluding to a previous thread of yours, I'm sure you won't need reminding that many of us were questioning the wisdom of paying any heed whatsoever to "ratings".

 

[GollyRojer]

When I am looking for something to read on Literotica, it is because I want to be sexually aroused. For other types of reading, I go to Audible, Kindle, Goodreads, or my bookshelves at home. When an item in a search on Literotica catches my eye, there's a pattern I go through. I generally bypass anything that doesn't have the "hot" icon (4.5 or higher). Next, I open, not the story that caught my eye, but the author. I'm curious to see whether there's a consistent pattern of writing "hot" stories. Following that, I open the story, immediately page down to the bottom, and check how many pages it has. If it's over three, I normally move on to something else.

 

[Eosphorus]

I love reading all of the insightful responses on this great topic. I've resolved to try contribute on these forums. so here I go:

For me, I shoot for between 7,000 and 12,000 when crafting a story. But I also don't stress over it it. In a series, I think its easier to have shorter chapters because characters have already been introduced and developed some already. What's more important, to me, is that the story (or chapter) is an organic whole. It has to make sense that way. It's why some episodes of "Better Call Saul" are an hour and others are nearly two hours. The story that works in a single sitting needs to be contained in that single sitting.

I'm currently in the revising process of what a few days ago was a 10-part series. There was a long chapter that had swelled to 13,000 words. The content was fine but it felt like two chapters jammed in together. So I split the chapter into two. Now I have a 6,000 word chapter and a 7,000 word chapter. And, just like that, it's now an 11-part series. More importantly, though, is that it works. When all is said and done, I expect all of the other chapters in the series to come in between 9,000 and 10,000 words. I doubt any readers are going to be upset if they notice Ch. 7 and Ch. 8 are a little shorter.

 

[LiverpoolMaster]

Shorter story entails shorter chapters, does it? Why do you think it's necessary to have "chapters" in the first place?

 

[SamScribble]

Shorter story entails shorter chapters, does it? Why do you think it's necessary to have "chapters" in the first place?

An excellent question

 

[Eosphorus]

Shorter story entails shorter chapters, does it? Why do you think it's necessary to have "chapters" in the first place?

I’m sorry if the point I was trying to make wasn’t clear. Perhaps that’s on me.

What I was trying to say was that in a series - of whatever total length. It could be 300,000 words. Hell, it could be a 1,000,000 word saga - the individual chapters can sometimes be smaller than you might write in a stand-alone story and they still work fine.

This is because, often, characters have already been introduced, setting has been established, etc. A stand alone story that is 5,000 words might not be enough to develop enough tension and character (or it might be plenty. There are no hard and fast rules). But the sole point I was making is that, in a series (even of massive length) such a shorter chapter might be okay if it tells a component of the larger story. The secondary point, which I think reasonable, is that chapters in a series need not all be the same length.

I’m sure we can all think of popular books, some of which are quite lengthy, with individual chapters much shorter than the typical short story.

I did not mean that “shorter story entails shorter chapters”. I was not saying a 50,000 word story be divided in ten 5,000 words chapters but a 100,000 word story be divided on ten 10,000 word chapters. That would be ridiculous.

I apologize again if I was not clearer before. Hopefully, I’ve clarified what I was trying to say.

 

[Zootonius]

My two cents. I don't care how long the story is. But I do care how long the chapters are. If pt. 1 of a 50 part series is 4-6 pages I'll read it. But if pt. 1 is 19 pages, unless the first paragraph hooks me, I may pass. I want 10 minute reading chunks. And you can't easily pick up where you left off without chapters.

 

[MillieDynamite]

Oh, for the days of the printed word, where, once you have read enough for that setting, you can put your bookmark and get on with other things. Once you have the itch to read again, you pick up the book, open to the bookmark, and read on.

 

[LiverpoolMaster]

Oh, for the days of the printed word, where, once you have read enough for that setting, you can put your bookmark and get on with other things. Once you have the itch to read again, you pick up the book, open to the bookmark, and read on.

I'll second that, Millie.

Is it just me or has the world gone downhill generally since the advent of computers and the internet? And I do appreciate the irony in this post!