Valentine Contest - Word Count?

[cbsinclair]

Hi! I just read the rules for the Valentine's Day contest, but I didn't see anything about word count. Maybe I missed it. Is there a minimum? Do any of the story contests have word count minimums?

Thanks!

-CB

 

[Hypoxia]

The minimum for a story is 750 words. I don't think poems have a lower limit but nobody reads those here. Upper limit is theoretically somewhere in the zillions of words. One author did a test submission of many thousands of pages with no problem. But a story needs at least 750 words. Cheers!

 

[oggbashan]

The minimum is 750 words.

It is a story contest, so poems labelled as Poetry are not eligible.

But - you can do what I have done in the past - submit several linked stories as a single submission. Sometimes I write 50 word stories, so I have to submit a set of 15 (15 x 50 = 750) to be long enough as a story contest entry.

 

[cbsinclair]

The minimum is 750 words.

Oh, whew! What a relief! Thank you for the replies!

I had read somewhere a comment about a 10,000 word story and I freaked. I don't think I've ever written anything that long. I'm honing my craft right now and working my way up.

 

[Hypoxia]

I had read somewhere a comment about a 10,000 word story and I freaked. I don't think I've ever written anything that long. I'm honing my craft right now and working my way up.

10k words is only 3 LIT pages (about 3700 words per page). A recent contest winner was ~66k words, 19 LIT pages; in the mainstream, that qualifies as a novella.

How long should a story be? As long as it needs to be. Some readers prefer pieces around 10k words, 3 LIT pages; some prefer shorter; some don't mind reading super-novel-length stories. Tell your story till it's done.

 

[cbsinclair]

The longest thing I've written recently was only 5300 words, so it's a bit overwhelming to think about double that amount. I don't think I could finish and edit a 10,000 word story before February 5th. I don't even have any ideas at the moment, so I might not submit anything at all. I was just wondering if there was a minimum.