The 2026 [lit] 750 Word Project Support Thread

[EmilyMiller]

I like to think that I am merely following in the footsteps of George Orwell when he brilliantly summed up socialism with the words:



The word equal should never have a comparative modifier. George Orwell uses it to drive home a bitter truth, I on the other hand will use something like that as a punchline because I love wordplay. I have a huge volume of the fun Terry Pratchett had with the English language. I have to avoid using Sir Terry's punes [SIC] or my story ends up on the back of a sea turtle flying through space.

I think maybe politics forum.

But that line is a comment on human greed for power and control. Animal farm is a warning about what happens when a political vision is corrupted to create - or in this case - restore autocracy. It’s important to understand Eric Arthur Blair the man to understand his work.

Try reading The Road to Wigan Pier, for example.

But, as I say, politics forum.

 

[kreemi_pi]

I think maybe politics forum.

But that line is comment on human greed for power and control. Animal farm is a warning about what happens when a political vision is corrupted to create - or in this case - restore autocracy. It’s important to understand Eric Arthur Blair the man to understand his work.

Try reading The Road to Wigan Pier, for example.

But, as I say, politics forum.

I always smile when I see your name and your pretty face pop up.

 

[Duleigh]

I think you misunderstood what @lovecraft68 meant by padding. I believe they were referring to raising your story count while writing as few words as possible. You know, kind of like posting each chapter separately instead of as a complete work.

Oh... that's interesting. Does he think that story count is a contest? Is Story Count Padding against NHL rules? Does the man who dies with the most stories win?

Does he even know about the (long gone) Survivor Series? That was a contest here at Lit where prizes were awarded for the most stories posted in a specific period. Writers like Goldeniangle or SaraJaneParker had over a thousand of (awful) stories.

Who cares about story count? Show of hands!

 

[Duleigh]

I always smile when I see your name and your pretty face pop up.

She's awesome. One of the top 750 word participants.

 

[kreemi_pi]

Oh... that's interesting. Does he think that story count is a contest? Is Story Count Padding against NHL rules? Does the man who dies with the most stories win?

Does he even know about the (long gone) Survivor Series? That was a contest here at Lit where prizes were awarded for the most stories posted in a specific period. Writers like Goldeniangle or SaraJaneParker had over a thousand of (awful) stories.

Who cares about story count? Show of hands!

Sorry my hands are busy

 

[dream_yahoozie]

750 words. Who doesn't love a quickie?

 

[TarnishedPenny]

Quickie: “This won’t hurt, did it?”

 

[Trionyx]

The word equal should never have a comparative modifier.

Amen to that.

 

[Trionyx]

750 words. Who doesn't love a quickie?

As long as everyone leaves satisfied.

 

[Duleigh]

How much story can you get into 750 words?
Hopefully all of it

 

[SamanthaBehgs]

‘Perfect’ is perfect and there can be no degrees of perfection. If something is ‘perfecter’ or ‘more perfect,’ then the perfect item to which you are comparing clearly wasn’t perfect. I realize your use of this term was in jest, but I had to mention this to keep my father from turning in his grave.

The US constitution uses ‘a more perfect union’ in its preamble to the screams of horror from language purists.

Another term which should not have comparative modifiers is ‘unique.’

OK, I’ll get off my grammar-Nazi soap box now before the rotten tomatoes fly.

I think I might love you just a little for this.

 

[SamanthaBehgs]

750 words. Who doesn't love a quickie?

Ironically, I had already been thinking of starting a "quickie" series because I had some ideas that weren't really more than that (inspired by some of the earlier discussions of "strokers" and wanting to really maximize the "stroker" nature). This contest seems like a really fun way to do that.

People padding their story file is unfair to the other folks trying to get actual stories out

I am curious about this one, though. Like, genuinely curious and I want to make sure that's clear. Is there a benefit with regards to readers or what people think of you as a writer if you have more stories rather than fewer? What about if you have more stories but they are poorly rated versus fewer stories but they have better ratings?

My curiosity has to do some with the discussion that was already here and some with my curious self wanting to mess around with various formats (poems, audio, etc) but being afraid that having more things, but not doing some of them well, could be a net negative for me. Is somehow more just better in the Lit world in a way that it isn't in, say, the world of persuasion where having more arguments but some are very weak actually makes you less convincing than if you just stick to 1-2 good arguments.

 

[EmilyMiller]

How much story can you get into 750 words?
Hopefully all of it

You can do an awful lot in 750 words if you have even a modicum of talent.

 

[alohadave]

I am curious about this one, though. Like, genuinely curious and I want to make sure that's clear. Is there a benefit with regards to readers or what people think of you as a writer if you have more stories rather than fewer? What about if you have more stories but they are poorly rated versus fewer stories but they have better ratings?

My curiosity has to do some with the discussion that was already here and some with my curious self wanting to mess around with various formats (poems, audio, etc) but being afraid that having more things, but not doing some of them well, could be a net negative for me. Is somehow more just better in the Lit world in a way that it isn't in, say, the world of persuasion where having more arguments but some are very weak actually makes you less convincing than if you just stick to 1-2 good arguments.

lovecraft likes being the resident curmudgeon. It's his shtick.

No one cares if you have more stories or less. If you write good stories and write in popular categories, you'll get views and votes.

Readers tend to not like 750 stories overall, but it's not like they'll be downvoted into oblivion just because they are short. 750 stories are much tighter and require that you focus only on what directly tells the story. If you can do that, you'll be fine.

And if not, no big deal. They don't take long to write, and you can experiment on something that only takes you an hour or two.

 

[Trionyx]

They don't take long to write, and you can experiment on something that only takes you an hour or two.

An hour or two? Not in my universe. Certainly they may not take as long at a 29k novella, but comparatively speaking, I find they take more time per words than longer stories. Every word, every phrase has to be carefully assessed: is this word vital? Can I use one word here in place of these two? Will the meaning change appreciably?

I’ve seen some excellent works in the 750 challenges with poor scores because many readers want so much more than can be delivered in such a short story.

One of my favorite comments from a reader said they hated the 750 word stories. Uh, then why did you read it?

 

[Duleigh]

Every word, every phrase has to be carefully assessed: is this word vital? Can I use one word here in place of these two? Will the meaning change appreciably?

That is so true, especially if you love the characters and the plot you developed.

I took one story, 750-03 Saturday Evening, and expanded it, adding even more plot and it became a 42,000-word novella Saturday Evening. I took that and added even more plot into the 95,750 word murder mystery novel Love's Last Kiss. Not my best seller but I love the plot, the characters, and the twists of the novel. Even the background research was fun. All from a 750 word micro-stroker.

It was all fun, every word, and isn't the fun of the exercise why we're all here?

 

[Trionyx]

I read a 750’er last year which had a very interesting premise but was full of needless words, words that prevented the author from increasing the real ‘meat’ of the story.
It was a fun exercise for me to rewrite it by removing those useless words and phrases and, in turn, build up the tension of the plot. I would never publish it, it would be plagiarism if I did, but I enjoyed the exercise solely to see what I could produce.

 

[IWroteThis]

They don't take long to write, and you can experiment on something that only takes you an hour or two.

Well, that would explain why so many people are disappointed with 750 word stories.

Sure, I can knock out a rough first draft in that time, but it's never going to be as good as what it will become with proper editing. In fact, my lowest scoring story was a case of rushing the editing because I was on a high from creating my account and getting feedback on my stories, but I ran out of stuff that was ready to publish. I rushed one so I could get another story in the 2024 750 Word Project, and it shows. I haven't edited or deleted it, because it's my reminder to do better.

Actually, one of the first lessons I learned when I was working up the nerve to create my account and started taking my stories past the early draft stage is that proper editing the final draft takes longer than writing the first draft. Editing is what allows you to just flow while writing and get the bones of the story laid out before it fades away.

One of my favorite comments from a reader said they hated the 750 word stories. Uh, then why did you read it?

I can somewhat understand those comments when I forget or can't fit "750 Words" in the title, but I just shake my head out how many people click on them just to complain about them. Then I laugh as I remember the quote, "The lady doth protest too much, methinks."

I took one story, 750-03 Saturday Evening, and expanded it, adding even more plot and it became a 42,000-word novella Saturday Evening.

Out of curiosity, what do you consider the cutoff between novella and novel? Everything that I can remember reading puts it at 40K.

 

[IWroteThis]

A question for those of you who write 750 Word stories…

Do you approach writing them differently than regular stories?

When I'm writing regular stories, I edit in place, overwriting what I had previously written with the new version. I know I can always recover the old version from the backups, but I don't. I just keep rewriting it until I'm happy.

However, with 750 Word stories, every time I start a new editing pass, I clone the story and edit the new copy. That way, if I end up cutting some words in one place, rather than adding new words to fix the count, I'll go back and look for things I had liked but cut to make the word count. For me, at least, that reduces future editing because I've already tweaked it some before it was originally cut.

So, I'm curious if anybody else has any tips or tricks that are 750 Word specific.

 

[Duleigh]

Out of curiosity, what do you consider the cutoff between novella and novel? Everything

For me - 40k and up is a novella. 90K and up is a novel.

 

[SamanthaBehgs]

And if not, no big deal. They don't take long to write, and you can experiment on something that only takes you an hour or two.

An hour or two? Not in my universe.

I'm in the same boat as @Trionyx here. I am verbose by nature (see nearly every forum post I make really). I'd want to do this type of challenge to help me be more concise in my writing, at least sometimes. I can imagine it taking me longer and being more demanding with regards to mental energy. I suspect the editing will be me asking myself "is that detail really all that important?" on repeat for a while.

lovecraft likes being the resident curmudgeon. It's his shtick.

No one cares if you have more stories or less. If you write good stories and write in popular categories, you'll get views and votes.

Maybe it's because I'm new to the forums, but honestly, I don't care as much how people "tend to be" if they make what could be a really good point and have discussions in good faith. If he doesn't have logic behind it in some way, okay, that might frustrate me, but if he does, I want to hear it. The only time I really worry about this is if by asking I'm opening up a can of worms that cannot be closed again and will ruin everyone's fun. But I haven't really been watching that happen here (or seen it elsewhere). But, again, I'm new here.

Regarding your answer itself, it sounds like your answer is that there isn't any benefit to having a lot of stories, and that is interesting to hear. Readers not liking one story is fine - downvote it all you want. I already have one that isn't doing as well. I just wish I had comments on it telling me why they dislike it. It would be interesting to know, at least (although I write for the joy of it, so I may or may not make changes depending on how linked to joy their complaints are). And it sounds like you're saying those downvotes won't spread to other works just because you've now got eyes on you that have a bad impression. That's a valuable perspective, too. Although you are assuming I write good stories and that my categories are popular. I'm not sure where I fall with that, but I'm sure I'll get better over time.

PS: A good example of me being overly verbose and not having the mental energy to edit down to a shorter post.

 

[EmilyMiller]

Out of curiosity, what do you consider the cutoff between novella and novel? Everything that I can remember reading puts it at 40K.

Opinions differ - if you look at prizes for short stories, novellas, novels there is no agreement. For me, I use:

< 10,000 words - short story
10,000 <= novelette < 20,000
20,000 <= novella < 80,000
> 80,000 - novel

 

[Duleigh]

Do you approach writing them differently than regular stories?

Completely differently. Regular stories have so much more dialogue, so much more exposition, and a lot more character building. 750 word stories have to be lean and leave so much more to the readers imagination so you can fit the plot into the constraints of 750 words

While writing a regular story can be compared to a journey of discovery, writing a 750-word story can be compared to completing a Sudoku puzzle

 

[SmilingLez]

Completely differently. Regular stories have so much more dialogue, so much more exposition, and a lot more character building. 750 word stories have to be lean and leave so much more to the readers imagination so you can fit the plot into the constraints of 750 words

While writing a regular story can be compared to a journey of discovery, writing a 750-word story can be compared to completing a Sudoku puzzle

If you start writing a 750 word story from the mindset of condensing a longer story, you are going to fail. As a poet, I have written poetry under 50 words that meet the criteria and definition of a story. Of course it doesn't have the wordy dialog that most define as a story, but It accomplishes the same task - taking the reader into my world. YMMV

 

[iwatchus]

Opinions differ - if you look at prizes for short stories, novellas, novels there is no agreement. For me, I use:

< 10,000 words - short story
10,000 <= novelette < 20,000
20,000 <= novella < 80,000
> 80,000 - novel

I used to be roughly with you on these, but I have shortened the line for novella vs novel to the 40-50K range. I found this useful list of lengths of famous books.

https://commonplacebook.com/art/books/word-count-for-famous-novels/