Should you place long stories in the novel/novella section?

[His_kitty]

I'm sorry if this question has been asked and answered already, by another, but I'm new and almost finished with my fourth story.

So far it is 10000 words long, so should I post it to the novels/novellas or to erotic couplings ?(which is where I intended it to go when I started writing the story)

My main concern is whether readers ignore that section, because of the length of the stories.

Thanks in advance for any input ya'll see fit to give a 'newbie'

kitty

 

[KinkyKat]

Because I love your stories, and the care you take with both character development and "situation" details, I think there is room for longer stories in the stories section.

Why should more detail -- especially excellent detail -- change the location of a good piece of writing?

 

[His_kitty]

Thank-you

A very sweet thing to say .... and its appreciated. Possibly a lil biased though *grin*



kitty

 

[jon.hayworth]

I think that a lot of people download stories which are longer than one web page. So you take your choice write 1500 word "Jack-Off" stories or you opt to write the stories you want to write in the style you want to write.

Personally I think it is best to forget about the voting, otherwise the formulaic solution would appear to be writing stories between 1200 and 1500 words to post under Incest.

I prefer to write stories I want to write, I must hasyen to add, these are not always the stories I am most comfortable with. The reward I get is from the feedback readers mail to me, that I use to try and hone my skills.

jon

 

[His_kitty]

I think that a lot of people download stories which are longer than one web page. So you take your choice write 1500 word "Jack-Off" stories or you opt to write the stories you want to write in the style you want to write.

Personally I think it is best to forget about the voting, otherwise the formulaic solution would appear to be writing stories between 1200 and 1500 words to post under Incest.

I prefer to write stories I want to write, I must hasyen to add, these are not always the stories I am most comfortable with. The reward I get is from the feedback readers mail to me, that I use to try and hone my skills.

jon

I write what I'm feeling at the time, this story that I'm working on at the moment was probably the easiest for me to write, even though it's longer than all 3 of my previous stories put together and then some. lol

The only reason I like the voting is to see if others enjoy it, sometimes its quicker to vote than to send an email. The email that I have received thus far has been amazing. I've actually received a request to write a story for a woman and her boyfriend. I suspect this probably happens a good bit, but I'm still flattered either way! lol

Ty for your reply

kitty

 

[Axeltheswede]

Longer story

You might also consider breaking the story into two or three parts (chapters) and posting in the category you want. 10K words is not exceptionally long. Many single piece stories run longer.

We have the benefit of flexibility with Laurel. Use that flexibility to your advantage.

It has been said here before, Novels and Novellas is a category that tends to get fewer reads than most.

Good luck with your story.

 

[KillerMuffin]

My general rule of thumb is that if it's longer than 3 webpages then chop it into pieces. I haven't had a story longer than 2 in so long that I forgot how many words that works out to be.

10,000 words is not a novella. It's still considered a short story. A novella runs a little over 15,000 words. A friend with a 16,500 story has 5 webpages. I think you could put all 10,000 in one chapter and you'll be okay.

My thoughts, and this is by no means the way things are, is that anything equal to or less than 3 chapters should go in a regular category unless each story belongs in a different category.

It's entirely up to you, however.

If you want to get a feel for what a long story is like check out Roberta by Mark Singer or Judo Jensen's chapter in the chain story Memoirs of a Lady.

 

[His_kitty]

Re: Longer story

You might also consider breaking the story into two or three parts (chapters) and posting in the category you want. 10K words is not exceptionally long. Many single piece stories run longer.

We have the benefit of flexibility with Laurel. Use that flexibility to your advantage.

It has been said here before, Novels and Novellas is a category that tends to get fewer reads than most.

Good luck with your story.

I had considered breaking it up. But my worry was since it flows rather nicely now, it wouldnt if i did that. Also I worried that some who would read it, wouldnt remember the first part without re reading it. (Not knowing if this tends to happen or not, just a guess)

I do appreciate the input, and I don't feel so bad now over how long it's turning out to be.

kitty

 

[His_kitty]

My general rule of thumb is that if it's longer than 3 webpages then chop it into pieces. I haven't had a story longer than 2 in so long that I forgot how many words that works out to be.

10,000 words is not a novella. It's still considered a short story. A novella runs a little over 15,000 words. A friend with a 16,500 story has 5 webpages. I think you could put all 10,000 in one chapter and you'll be okay.

My thoughts, and this is by no means the way things are, is that anything equal to or less than 3 chapters should go in a regular category unless each story belongs in a different category.

It's entirely up to you, however.

If you want to get a feel for what a long story is like check out Roberta by Mark Singer or Judo Jensen's chapter in the chain story Memoirs of a Lady.

Well its only 10,000 so far, I keep thinking of more things that I want my characters to say and experience. I really do appreciate your advice, and will consider everything once I'm ready to submit the story.

kitty

 

[Frederick Carol]

My story, 'The Gift', is 11500 words, came to 4 Lit web pages long and was quite well received, despite being in 'Romance'.

FC

 

[His_kitty]

My story, 'The Gift', is 11500 words, came to 4 Lit web pages long and was quite well received, despite being in 'Romance'.

FC

ty! just what I needed to hear, gives me a round about idea how many pages long mine may be as well...... off to read 'The Gift' now.


kitty

 

[Uther_Pendragon]

In response to several posts on this thread.
:
1) The first question. If your placement is *way* out of line,
Laurel will put it where she thinks it belongs. I don't
think 10,000 words (about 60 K) is a particularly long story.
Anyway, erotic couplings isn't going to get any huge
readership.
:
Somebody wrote that you had the choice between a short
stroke piece and a long story involving character
development. I don't believe that this is so. My own
"The Longest Minute" is too short for Literotica, but it
is a full story with character revelation -- if not quite
development. (Available on my webpage, hint, hint, plug,
plug.)
Some things can be expressed in a short short, some things
call for a longer treatment. I've seen so many stories in
which the author spends inordnate time introducing details
which *don't matter*, which don't advance the story and
don't tell us anything interesting.

 

[His_kitty]

In response to several posts on this thread.
:
1) The first question. If your placement is *way* out of line,
Laurel will put it where she thinks it belongs. I don't
think 10,000 words (about 60 K) is a particularly long story.
Anyway, erotic couplings isn't going to get any huge
readership.
:
Somebody wrote that you had the choice between a short
stroke piece and a long story involving character
development. I don't believe that this is so. My own
"The Longest Minute" is too short for Literotica, but it
is a full story with character revelation -- if not quite
development. (Available on my webpage, hint, hint, plug,
plug.)
Some things can be expressed in a short short, some things
call for a longer treatment. I've seen so many stories in
which the author spends inordnate time introducing details
which *don't matter*, which don't advance the story and
don't tell us anything interesting.

I agree that there is the danger of falling into too much detail, most that isn't necessary or condusive to the story itself. I don't think that mine has gone that way though, at least I only hope that it hasn't.

As for erotic couplings not getting much readership, while I am rather new, I haven't found that to necessarily be the case. My series 'The Shower Surprise' has had a good many *hits*, a good ratio of votes to the *hits*, and quite of bit of reader feedback.

I guess my point here is, I'm not all that worried that my stories, that fit into erotic couplings, may not get viewed as often as say the 'Orgy' category. I write for myself, what I'm feeling and my fantasy at that particular moment. Don't get me wrong, I love when others read them and find something they like, or get some enjoyment from them. But I'd rather get one great feedback letter, telling me why they liked it, what they liked about it, than to have 20,000 people read it and not have anything to say.


Ty for your input



kitty

 

[Nudemodel]

His Kitty,
Good to find that another writer has agonized over story length. Probably like you and most of the others, I just write a story until it seems finished. Then it's usually "long." I broke up my too long story "Interracial Anilingus" into two parts. The "Bar 69" series was a little different. I took the first one and wrote a sequel, then another, then another. But then there is a problem. I am not sure that tthe stories, either broken into segments or written as sequels, are kept together so the readers might follow them to their logical completion. So that might be a reason for not breaking a story up. Nudemodel

 

[His_kitty]

But then there is a problem. I am not sure that tthe stories, either broken into segments or written as sequels, are kept together so the readers might follow them to their logical completion. So that might be a reason for not breaking a story up. Nudemodel

Well my two parter (so far) are together on the list, since its alphabetical. So that isn't 'too' much of a worry ...... my main concern over breaking it up is that it would screw the flow. That even if I submitted both parts, within 2 days of one another, people may be lost reading the second if there was a first.

So I've decided that so long as the final draft is under 15,000 words, I'm keeping it intact. (if it turns out to be longer, I'll decide then) I think that the readers that do appreciate more of a story line will be just fine with a longer story, and those that don't are more than welcome to skip on through and pick out the erotic bits.

Either way, I really need to get my hiney in gear and quit posting on the boards, and finish that dang story! lmao


Good luck with your writing and ty for your remarks.


kitty

 

[Nudemodel]

Kitty,
Sounds good to me. Probably what I would have tried. What can we writers do? Nudemodel

 

[Quint]

NudeModel,

With regards to your worry that the chapters of a lengthy story would be split up:

I think that many of the readers, when they read a very well-done story, will do a search for more stories by that particular author. I do this all the time now. That way, you can have different chapters in totally different categories, but the reader can still have them nicely catalogued for their viewing pleasure.

 

[Nudemodel]

Quint,
Thanks. I guess I didn't realize that people searched for more stories by an author. Still, my stories are not all that good. And I still worry slightly about the sequence of events being lost.

First let me say that I don't regard "Slave Whore Teacher" as my story because i wrote it to a "story idea" post just to see if I could do it. My other stories were drawn somewhat from experience. In "Slave Whore Teacher" I couldn't really get into it and visualize or feel. And it was a lousy subject.

But the others are all either a broken-up longer story or a sequence of several related short stories. One thing that I did is to repeat a lot of the introduction, just in case the story would be picked out alone to read. But even so, a reader might miss the fact that there were earlier events related to those in that particular story.

I guess what I am saying is that if related stories could be linked together in some way it might be better. Nudemodel