Story length

[Gary Chambers]

Most of my work has been written for hard copy publication. I seldom write anything less than 2,000 words, often 3,000 to 5,000. Internet attention spans can be low. Anyone got any advice on what an ideal length for this site is? I know about the minimum 750, but what's a logical top end?

 

[raphy]

If you can split it up into chapters, and submit it chapter by chapter, there really isn't a top end.

 

[sanchopanza]

I'd say about 6,000-10,000 words. Past that you are really taking the piss.

 

[Gary Chambers]

I'd never post 10,000 Sancho. Too much work to post that for free anywhere. But a few thousand, yes. I can see a mercenary advantage to having my work here. I can provide a link from my site to Literotica. My visitors will like this site, and I get to offer them my stuff without building more pages. But Raphy, are you saying that a story of say 3,000 words should be split into pieces, or are you talking about novelettes in the 10,000 range and up?

 

[sanchopanza]

3,000 words seems to me too short. Maybe I've got a long attention span.

 

[Guest]

Anything up to about 2 Lit pages in length seems to suit the average reader here. One Lit page is roughly 3,000 words (I think!).

If someone is looking for a good, quick, sexy story then one Lit page usually suffices. So, GaryBob, your usual story length sounds about right for the average reader at Lit.


Lou

 

[sanchopanza]

I think more in terms of pages than words. Like Tatelou suggests, 2 lit pages which in a word processor is about 13 pages, if you fill both lit pages.

 

[Gary Chambers]

Thanks, I think I've got the length picture now. The other thing I like to do is push some boundaries, but nothing that was listed as taboo here.

 

[Gary Chambers]

Thanks, I think I've got the length picture now. The other thing I like to do is push some boundaries, but nothing that was listed as taboo here. I'l just post something that pushes the limits a little and see what happens.

 

[Gary Chambers]

Thanks, I think I've got the length picture now. The other thing I like to do is push some boundaries, but nothing that was listed as taboo here. I'l just post something that pushes the limits a little and see what happens.

 

[Gary Chambers]

Thanks, I think I've got the length picture now. The other thing I like to do is push some boundaries, but nothing that was listed as taboo here. I'l just post something that pushes the limits a little and see what happens.

 

[Colleen Thomas]

My average story is probably 3 to 4 lit pages, but I post some that are upwards of 6. It hasn't hurt them as far as voting goes. It isn't the word number, it's what you do with the words you use. An engrossing story of 20K words may well read better and faster than a convouluted hack job coming in at 3K.

That said you probably loose most of the stroke crowd if it runs much over a lit page. Depends too upon who you are aiming at as an audience.

-Colly

 

[oggbashan]

I lose all the stroke crowd with my longer stories.

With the longest ones I lose everybody and never pass ten votes.

Og

PS. Who says that 50 or 60 A4 pages is long? Apart from my current NaNoWriMo project I have one story that isn't yet finished and is well over 100,000 words. If my outline is correct it should be completed in 250,000 but I might break it into chapters.

 

[Colleen Thomas]

I lose all the stroke crowd with my longer stories.

With the longest ones I lose everybody and never pass ten votes.

Og

PS. Who says that 50 or 60 A4 pages is long? Apart from my current NaNoWriMo project I have one story that isn't yet finished and is well over 100,000 words. If my outline is correct it should be completed in 250,000 but I might break it into chapters.

Thats different ogs, you're a master

-Colly

 

[whispering_surrender]

In my humble opinion, nothing is worse than reading a story that has obviously been altered for word length. It either feels like something is missing because the author was shortening, or something feels redundant just to add words. Let the story dictate the length, then worry about whether to split it into sections....

Or ignore my rambling and move on. Your choice. *grin*

Whisper

 

[Weird Harold]

Anything up to about 2 Lit pages in length seems to suit the average reader here. One Lit page is roughly 3,000 words (I think!).

An average Lit page is 3,767 words, if the statistical analysis I did a coupleof years ago is valid through a couple of revisions to the scripts that decide where to break the pages. I've found 3,500 a good number to estimate the number of Lit pages.

I've noticed that many of the online short stories run about 4,000 to 6,000 words at sites like ASSTR.org, Lit, Storiesonline, etc. -- or are broken into chapters of that length. Personally, I find that to be too short in most cases -- 7,000 to 10,000 words seems to be the length I'm most comfortable with.

However, it all depends on the story rather than the word-count. I've read some very good "flash fiction" in the 500 - 600 word range and some truly horrible longer stories. Write what the story requires and don't worry about the word-count.

 

[Dirty Slut]

An average Lit page is 3,767 words, if the statistical analysis I did a coupleof years ago is valid through a couple of revisions to the scripts that decide where to break the pages. I've found 3,500 a good number to estimate the number of Lit pages.

I've noticed that many of the online short stories run about 4,000 to 6,000 words at sites like ASSTR.org, Lit, Storiesonline, etc. -- or are broken into chapters of that length. Personally, I find that to be too short in most cases -- 7,000 to 10,000 words seems to be the length I'm most comfortable with.

However, it all depends on the story rather than the word-count. I've read some very good "flash fiction" in the 500 - 600 word range and some truly horrible longer stories. Write what the story requires and don't worry about the word-count.

This is the best advice for story length that you will ever find. For the most part I write for the strokers, and adventurous couples, and I tend to keep the length to no more than two lit pages, but that's just because I get all tangled up in the actual sex, than trying to write a novel. LOL

DS

 

[Wills]

Dear DS

I quite like getting all tangled up in the actual sex

I've just done a word count on my 'almost' finished link story, ten parts averaging 3100 each, longest is 5000, shortest 1200.

I think I'm comfortable with that.

Will's

 

[Vincent E]

Size Matters

From my experience I have found that approximately seven pages of text in MS Word equates to about one screen on Lit. I never try to limit the length of a story or chapter, but the story usually seems to end itself just in time.

 

[MathGirl]

An average Lit page is 3,767 words, if the statistical analysis I did a coupleof years ago is valid through a couple of revisions to the scripts that decide where to break the pages.

Dear Mr Harold,
Do you mean the mean? I mean, that's mean.
Demeaningly,
MG

 

[Weird Harold]

Dear Mr Harold,
Do you mean the mean? I mean, that's mean.
Demeaningly,
MG

I cut and pasted many stories into Word, used the word count function to find out how many words and divided the total bythenumber of pages I checked -- I don't know if that's properly called a Mean or an Average, but most people call it an "average."

The exact number of words for any given story is unpredictable, because the page breaks are determined by a character count and modified by the nearest paragraph break.

 

[Gary Chambers]

Most of my writing has been for hard copy publishers, so I'm used to thinking in length terms. I'm not saying that's good, however, because having the freedom to write what is needed and cut what is boring is part of the attraction at Literotica.

My concern is mainly based on the attention span factor. Strokers are an excellent example, but not the only one. A friend told me the other day that some researcher claims to have evidence that surfers only retain the first screen load of written copy. After that they read on autopilot or something.

I'm not going to get hung up on it though. I just wondered what others thought was ideal. Obviously many have considered it, and thanks for all your input.

Gary