What's the perfect length?

[ThanksForAllTheFish]

And no, I don't mean that.

I'm talking about how long you think a story should be. These days I often get really invested in my characters and end up spending months writing 30 or 40 thousand words for each submission. However, when I first started i rarely strayed over 10 thousand words, and I've been trying to get back into writing shorter questions.

My question is what is your preferred length? Personally I love longer stories, as long as they stay engaging throughout, but what about you guys?

 

[WyreBendr0417]

Write what you wish. There really is no perfect length. I posted a story around Christmas and most of the negative comments were about it's length. 77,000 + words. Others loved the story and didn't mind the 22 pages it took up. I asked the same question on here and most of the advice I got boiled down to writing what, and how I wanted because you're not going to make everyone happy. Write to make yourself happy, If it's good the length doesn't matter.

Personally I like a story that develops over time, delving into the characters a little at a time. Like you said, as long as it is engaging, I don't care how long a story runs.

My Stories: https://www.literotica.com/stories/memberpage.php?uid=5796107&page=submissions

 

[lovecraft68]

According to my wife, the perfect length is....oh, sorry, you meant story length.

My opinion is just write the story and see how long it goes. If there's a good natural break in it, you could make it into a couple of chapters, or just leave it as a stand alone. A lot of popular stories here are over 10 pages, some over 20.

 

[Euphony]

There is no perfect length other than to tell the story you wish to tell.

A brisk encounter is as legitimate as a sprawling epic so long as it fully supports the author's vision.

Longer works for many (and me) b/c it gives plenty of space to deeply explore complex themes wished to be explored. But, it is important to not overleverage that freedom by keeping action apace and moving towards a cohesive whole direction.

But that's just a preference.

Some of the most inspiring works here are narratives that *feel* deeper than they are. Seeing an author deftly navigate trickier narratives (like incest considerations/relationships) in respectful, explorative, but streamlined prose can be breathtaking.

 

[SimonDoom]

I'm glad you qualified the thread title with the question, "What is your preferred length?" That makes it clear that this is a completely subjective question. There's no right answer. People like what they like.

Personally, I prefer to read erotic stories that are somewhere around 7000 to 20,000 words. Around 2 to 6 Lit pages. I don't come here to read novels. I like stories that set up an interesting erotic situation, build the erotic tension, and finish with something fun and erotic. I find that can almost always be accomplished to my satisfaction in 6 pages or fewer. I tend to write stories in that range as well. I've written two longer series, and in those series the chapters tended to fall right within the page range I like.

There's a huge readership at Literotica for all kinds of stories, so nobody should ever be dissuaded from writing the story they want to write based on length.

 

[Zootonius]

I advocate for chapters if it's too long. Like with a book, the reader can read a chapter or two, then pick up with the next one later.

 

[Bisexguy70]

I like shorter stories myself. I dont mind a little back ground but cut to the sex. But spend a great amount of length describing the sexual acts . I want to be able to read a story in about an hour or less. Remember the penthouse forum magazines? Those stories were a perfect length for me. I got off reading them and its where i learned to appreciate hot erotic literature. Id jerk off reading those stories just as much as i would looking at the hot photos. Oh and as far as the other important length…8”.