Story Too Long?

[golfadikt2]

I've posted a story on here and fear that people didn't read it because it was so long.

How do you (other authors) keep the stories short, but yet describe the necessary details?

 

[SummerMorning]

Post separate chapters

 

[3113]

How many lit pages was it?

I find that most readers want a story that runs about 3-5 lit pages tops. That can be a complete story or a chapter. So if you have a long story (a novel?), you can break it up into chapters that run about 3-5 lit pages and people will happily read along, chapter after chapter. In fact, a lot of readers LOVE to get up in the morning and check to see if the lastest chapter of their favorite story has been posted.

It's only that one-sitting thing that bothers people. If they're sitting drinking their coffee, they get to the bottom of that first lit page and see: 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9 and realize they've 8 more lit pages to go! That can make them give up on the story unless it's really got them in its clutches.

Keep in mind, lit pages are about 20 regular, double-spaced pages to 1. So a story that's 9 lit pages is almost 200 manuscript pages. That's not a nice thing to do to a reader who's trying to read a little erotica during their coffee break

 

[Darkniciad]

There are long story readers out there. You won't have the massive read/vote/comment totals shorter works will pick up, but there is an audiance for the longer tales, and they're quite glad when they find a good one. It will also take a while for them to find your tale. It depends upon the category to some extent as well. Some cats have more regular readers that like a longer tale.

Posting chapters of 1-2 Lit pages will help a lot, as this is within the range those with time challenges can manage in a sitting.

I rarely manage to get things down to that range, trending toward 3-4 lit pages per chapter/short story with my core tale clocking in at 6-7 Lit pages per posting. That monster is going to be about 2 megs of plain text when it finishes, and that's just Book I of three

 

[gauchecritic]

I've posted a story on here and fear that people didn't read it because it was so long.

How do you (other authors) keep the stories short, but yet describe the necessary details?

You limit your audience with long stories, this is true, but on the other hand those who read it all are interested in your writing.

The way that lots of us keep stories short is by knowing that what we are writing is a short story. That sounds a bit glib but there is a 'mode' to writing short stories.

In a longer story there is room for more background, to build up characters, to include more detail.

A short story has to be more immediate, tighter, less waffley. That amazing description of the neighbourhood where the protag. lives and how it affects his outlook on life in general may not be necessary in the short story about how he seduces his next-door-neighbour.

I've often read, here and elsewhere, if it doesn't move the story along, it doesn't belong there. (not a guide that I've followed very often)

 

[Weird Harold]

How do you (other authors) keep the stories short, but yet describe the necessary details?

I never really worried about length -- a story is always as long as it needs to be and no longer.

Still, your question is at the heart of why short stories are considered the most dificult form of writing: in a short story, almost every word does double or triple duty, advancing two or more of characterization, plot, and atmosphere.

I've found that dialogue can be very useful for covering a lot of ground in few words. One simple line like, "How's your steak, Virginia," can introduce a character and establish the scene as a dinner conversation -- with an added dialogue tag like "Dave asked" it can introduce two characters.

Another consideration in trimming the fat from a story is covered in detail in a long ago thread about "how do you make a cup of tea?" In essence, it's about how much detail is really needed to describe making a cup of tea, since most of the steps can be inferred by the reader.

Unless you have a specific purpose in describing every step in a process -- giving the character time to think, creating suspense, or the like -- leave out the parts the reader can infer from the context.

If you have a lot of THEN, NEXT, and other "sequencing qualifiers" in your story, you could probably cut most of them out and let the reader infer the sequence of events from the action instead of detailing the sequence.

 

[Jenny_Jackson]

I was taught, "A story is as long as the telling." I agree you can limit your reading audience by length, but sometimes a saga takes 3 entire Lit pages to tell.

The problem with really long stories is where's the sex? Short stories sometimes start in the 2nd paragraph. Typically that isn't true of longer ones. That looses the "jack off" crowd right away.

 

[Alex De Kok]

I've posted a story on here and fear that people didn't read it because it was so long.

How do you (other authors) keep the stories short, but yet describe the necessary details?

Well, as a search under your name doesn't reveal any stories at all, maybe it's not being read because no-one knows it's there! If it's in a forum thread, I wouldn't read it on principle as I don't believe the forum is the place to post stories.

My 2 cents/pence.

Alex

 

[Selena_Kitt]

I was taught, "A story is as long as the telling." I agree you can limit your reading audience by length, but sometimes a saga takes 3 entire Lit pages to tell.

The problem with really long stories is where's the sex? Short stories sometimes start in the 2nd paragraph. Typically that isn't true of longer ones. That looses the "jack off" crowd right away.

Sometimes it takes 6... or 9...

 

[Jenny_Jackson]

Sometimes it takes 6... or 9...

Yes it does, Selena,Kittyn

But if it's that long, it really needs to be in chapters. The one I just submitted is 18 pages on my word processor... but 3 Lit Pages.

I love you, yanno

 

[Selena_Kitt]

Yes it does, Selena,Kittyn

But if it's that long, it really needs to be in chapters. The one I just submitted is 18 pages on my word processor... but 3 Lit Pages.

I love you, yanno

Not necessarily... I entered a 6 Lit page story in a holiday contest and it did rather well... I've had a couple that long that did well...

just read one yesterday (9 pages) that was amazing...

and if you ever get a chance, check out BlackShanglan's Will... that's long... 9 pages? And Rob Graham's Abyss... also amazing... and 6 Lit pages.

If the story is good, I will keep reading... I don't need it broken up into chapters... I'm a big girl, if something happens and I can't finish, I can always come back later... and the point is, if the story is good, I WILL.

 

[cloudy]

Not necessarily... I entered a 6 Lit page story in a holiday contest and it did rather well... I've had a couple that long that did well...

just read one yesterday (9 pages) that was amazing...

and if you ever get a chance, check out BlackShanglan's Will... that's long... 9 pages? And Rob Graham's Abyss... also amazing... and 6 Lit pages.

If the story is good, I will keep reading... I don't need it broken up into chapters... I'm a big girl, if something happens and I can't finish, I can always come back later... and the point is, if the story is good, I WILL.

...and Colleen Thomas' "The Furies" runs 15 pages, and is easily one of the best stories I've read anywhere.

 

[Selena_Kitt]

...and Colleen Thomas' "The Furies" runs 15 pages, and is easily one of the best stories I've read anywhere.

*nodding* agreed...


although that one's in novels and novellas... I kinda expect those to be longer

 

[JamesSD]

If it's longer than 3 lit pages, split it into chapters.

Make sure there's sex in every chapter (unless it's romance?). Actually, try to get some sort of sexual activity on the first lit page.

 

[AchtungNight]

Most of my stories are long (Conviction and Compensation being the exceptions, they're the only 2 page ones) and all have done well. Forget the jack-off crowd, I say- they can always skip ahead to the sex if they need to. Just write the scene for your characters- make sure they go through all the development they need to to get together. Advance the story with it, put across your themes, give parody if you want (sometimes you must), and lay seeds for future chapters if you have ideas. Then give them the sex they want. Make it hot, interesting, and fun. End openly but on a high note. That's my formula.

 

[Friedrich N]

2-5 Pages seems to be a good length to shoot for in a submission, unless it is a novel or novella submitted in that category. I've never seen readers who are enjoying a story to complain if they can keep reading, unless they chew you out for keeping them up late.

 

[rgraham666]

All my best work is at least five Lit pages long. My most read story The Gift is seven. And as mentioned, thanks Selena, Abyss is six pages.

My short pieces of smut do OK, but they really only get read and voted on while they're on the New List.

I prefer my longer pieces because I keep on getting feedback from them. I also like the depth I'm allowed to explore in longer pieces as well.

Still, a story takes as many words to tell as it takes to tell.

 

[Guest]

.....

 

[AchtungNight]

I have stories here that range from around 900 words (roughly 1/3 Lit page) to 15,000 words. The story is over when it decides there's nothing left to tell.

The impotant thing is that it doesn't stagnate. If it stagnates that is the end of the story for me, because the author lost sight of his objective at that point. If the author doesn't know where the story is going, why should I try to figure it out? The author should lead you through the events of the story, not paint a mosaic that the reader must figure out for themselves.

Amen, Dran. You must also let nothing in the story's length distract you, or if it does, simply let it illustrate a theme.

 

[lucky-E-leven]

If it's longer than 3 lit pages, split it into chapters.

Make sure there's sex in every chapter (unless it's romance?). Actually, try to get some sort of sexual activity on the first lit page.

This is true if your main goal is pleasing those of the instant gratification and short attention span crowd, but my first story here was a full six Lit pages and even after three years has garnered a good number of votes and positive feedback. There are so many different camps of readers out there that there is no way to please them all, but I find that if the story is well-crafted, the characters intriguing, and the plot even remotely interesting the length of the story makes no difference.

I attempted to write shorter and shorter in order to gain more reads, and I think the quality of story really dropped. My advice would be to write what you are comfortable with, and if you get feedback that complains of length and losing interest then it may be time to condense. Otherwise, just do what you're comfortable with and trust that it will hit home.

 

[NoJo]

The are some long stories on here of 50 or more chapters, but most of these chapters consist of fucking , so they're quite an easy read

 

[Stella_Omega]

I was taught, "A story is as long as the telling." I agree you can limit your reading audience by length, but sometimes a saga takes 3 entire Lit pages to tell.

The problem with really long stories is where's the sex? Short stories sometimes start in the 2nd paragraph. Typically that isn't true of longer ones. That looses the "jack off" crowd right away.

First sentence- right in the middle of the sex! Then you backtrack, and tell it all over again.

 

[Oblimo]

*Looks at first Lit submission*

"Hm, seven Lit pages."

*Looks at second Lit submission, a continuation of the first*

"Look at that: four lit pages."

*Runs word count on rest of manuscript*

"Another forty thousand words?"

*Reads this thread.*

"Aw, crap."

 

[Oblimo]

Actually, try to get some sort of sexual activity on the first lit page.

A porn flick, for example, must have a sex scene within the first five minutes. It's a rule of the biz. As a fun corallary, any movie that has a sex scene in its first five minutes is pornographic.

My personal rule for writing smut is: something sexy has to happen in the first 250 words. That is, there has to be a promise of sex on the very first manuscript-length page. Ideally, the hook itself is the promise of sex. That's why, for example, the most tried and true hook for a short erotic story is some variant of the old chestnut:

I'm going to tell you about the most incredible day of my life.

 

[capecodmercury]

Right now, I'm not sure how to go anymore. In the past I followed the rule of splitting longer stories up into chapters of 3-4 lit pages when I can and I've gotten roasted by some of my readers for splitting up the story. My last story I posted as a one shot deal (10 lit pages & 70 single spaced manuscript pages) and I've gotten a bunch of readers thanking me for posting it in one shot and another bunch telling me I should have split it.

I did try to reduce the size where I could, but if you try to tell a story with a background (or a story that takes place over a significant amount of time), its going to take a fair size story. Either way, I try to include an author's note where I tell the reader at the beginning what I have done (i.e., this is three chapters that were all submitted on the same day and will hopefully be posted over three days).

I agree with the prior comment that its not the length of the story but how well you can draw the reader in. I take it as a compliment when a reader "complains" that he was up late because he/she couldn't stop reading.

CCM