How long is to long for a story

[sammiluvscock]

I always found that I liked reading shorter stories, maybe because when I'm reading them I only want like 5-10 minute chunks so that I can read several during a 'session'. Although I have only submitted one at the moment, with the others I am trying to keep them short, like no more than 1500 words. The problem I find primarily concerns dialogue. I want to build up a background, and I want to have conversations, but if this goes on to long then I imagine interest will be lost, and even my enthusiasm has gone by the time I get to the good stuff.

Its very tricky, because I have read some great long stories. Even better though is when they get broken down into chapters, so that I can come back next time for the latest installment!

xx

 

[Pure]

length

i think 2-3 Lit pages is pretty common, but skilled or interesting tale tellers have posted two or three times that. each Lit page is worth about 7-8 regular typed ms.pages (250-300 words). actual book pages range in the area of 2 ms pages. the amount of dialogue affects (stretches) the page count.

i doubt i've read anything at Lit greater than 5 Lit pages, though, when very young, i managed to read Anna Karenina.

 

[lovecraft68]

My average is 4-5 pages and I have pretty good ratings on mine. It depends if you can hold the readers interest until you get to the climax.

Always wanted too, is a top author here (over 2000 fav's) Many of his stories are longer than three pages so not everyone is looking for one page strokers.

 

[LaRascasse]

For me the problem is more how short is too short. I just want to spit out ideas onto the screen as fast as I can. Quite often people have said I dont spend too much time on one situation and rush through them.

This comes from my fear of stagnation in the story. I dont want the reader to have to skip a page and then resume.

It's too long if the reader loses interest at some point and does that.

But on the other hand, how short is too short?
lovecraft68 spent the entirety of one chapter on a fight scene (5 pages if I remember right). I would probably have finished the entire Finale in 5 pages( and it would be nowhere near as good.)

If anybody has any pointers on how to find the balance, tell me.

 

[estragon]

A really good story by a top-of-the-line author can go 37 Lit pages (see Sir_Nathan's brilliant "Culture Shock"). OTOH, I've been bored by one-pagers that were would-be strokers going nowhere. What have you got to tell me that I want to read, that isn;t like what everybody else is saying or writing?

For myself, and I wish I had the ability to do it, I want to follow the old cliché I heard years ago: "A good story is like a good skirt--long enough to cover the subject but short enough to be interesting."

 

[SevenSquared]

For me I tend to consider anything that doesn't make a second page to be too short even for a stroker. That's just not long enough to develop a plot, characters and relationships enough to make it interesting for me. Plenty of one page stories have good ratings though, so lots of people certainly feel differently.

 

[KatieTay]

What about length of series?

I'm getting the sense that people want a shorter series from me.

 

[sexiskye]

For me the problem is more how short is too short. I just want to spit out ideas onto the screen as fast as I can. Quite often people have said I dont spend too much time on one situation and rush through them.

This is my thing too.

So many ideas I just want to get them out.

 

[SevenSquared]

What about length of series?

I'm getting the sense that people want a shorter series from me.

Well I don't think there really is a maximum length for a series. However, I do think a lot of series (not all by any means) go on too long and I would tell anybody writing a series to bear in mind the following:

1. All the best tales have a beginning a middle and an end. Stories that reach the end should be considered finished, whether that's after one chapter or thirty. There's nothing wrong with leaving a few loose ends or a few avenues left unexplored, if anything that can add to the appeal of a story.

2. In many erotic stories, sex is the climax. It the final release of the sexual tension between two characters, or the resolution to the 'will they or won't they?' question. If the story continues after that, a lot of the mystery in the story will be gone. Of course, this doesn't mean that all stories must end after the first sex scene (that would be silly). But if you are writing a story where much of the interest derives from not knowing if (or at least how/when/why) certain characters will first have sex, then once they do your story either needs to wrap up or find a new direction fast.

3. The longer a series goes on for, the less reads it will get. Periodically readers will lose interest in a series and not read any further, and nobody is going to suddenly pick up chapter 9 of a series without having read the previous 8.

4. Many authors fall in love with their characters and want to continue to write about them long after most readers have stopped caring about them. There's nothing wrong with that, if you are merely writing for your own pleasure, just bear in mind that not everybody will have the same emotional attachment to your characters that you do.

5. But by the same stroke often authors will carry on a series just because they get a few comments requesting a sequal. Again, there's nothing wrong with writing more parts of a story to please your 'fans' if that's what you want to do, but bear in mind if the author doesn't believe a story will be good then it almost certainly won't.

 

[KatieTay]

Hmm.. good thoughts... thanks.

 

[sr71plt]

2. In many erotic stories, sex is the climax. It the final release of the sexual tension between two characters, or the resolution to the 'will they or won't they?' question. If the story continues after that, a lot of the mystery in the story will be gone. Of course, this doesn't mean that all stories must end after the first sex scene (that would be silly). But if you are writing a story where much of the interest derives from not knowing if (or at least how/when/why) certain characters will first have sex, then once they do your story either needs to wrap up or find a new direction fast.

Overall a very good rundown. I think the quoted #2 paragraph could use some contrary discussion, though. Whereas this statement is mostly true, I think, for Romance erotica, other forms of writing, for instance, horror erotica are more likely to put the sex scene farther forward. In fact, the literary approach to erotica--emphasizing the story over the sex while still being erotic--would also have the story fed by a sex scene rather than ending in it.

 

[SevenSquared]

I'm not sure we actually disagree on anything here. I'm totally with you that in certain genres and certain types of story the sex scene can be used to move the story along, or even get it going. I'm more talking about the kind of story that starts like romance erotica and then, after 15,000 words of good storytelling reaching an obvious climax and fitting ending, tries to morph into something else after the story should rightfully have finished. Usually something like:

Chapter 1 - Christine meets Dave at the gym and afterwards can't stop thinking about him.
Chapter 2 - Christine meets Dave again and despite some obvious sexual tension, they are disturbed and he leaves without getting her number.
Chapter 3 - Christine tracks Dave down at work after hours and they have a long three page fuck
Chapter 4 - Christine and Dave go meet up a few days later and fuck again
Chapter 5 - Dave takes Christine's anal virginity
Chapter 6 - Dave sticks it in every orifice over and over again
Chapter 7 - Dave and Christine are randomly joined by Christine's friend Olive. Christine suddenly realises she's bisexual
Chapter 8 - Dave introduces Christine to BDSM or something else that he has given no indication of liking up until now.
Chapter 9 - Probably some kind of group sex
Chapter 10 - Fuck knows, nobody is reading any more.

 

[sr71plt]

Yeah, I completely agree with you on the never-ending, rambling, post-as-you-write soap opera, let-it-be-influenced-by-comments-from-readers type of chaptered story.

Of course, as people like to read/write those, they are OK to post here too. They are just sort of a sticky glop to have to wade through to find real stories.

 

[KatieTay]

I'm not sure we actually disagree on anything here. I'm totally with you that in certain genres and certain types of story the sex scene can be used to move the story along, or even get it going. I'm more talking about the kind of story that starts like romance erotica and then, after 15,000 words of good storytelling reaching an obvious climax and fitting ending, tries to morph into something else after the story should rightfully have finished. Usually something like:

Chapter 1 - Christine meets Dave at the gym and afterwards can't stop thinking about him.
Chapter 2 - Christine meets Dave again and despite some obvious sexual tension, they are disturbed and he leaves without getting her number.
Chapter 3 - Christine tracks Dave down at work after hours and they have a long three page fuck
Chapter 4 - Christine and Dave go meet up a few days later and fuck again
Chapter 5 - Dave takes Christine's anal virginity
Chapter 6 - Dave sticks it in every orifice over and over again
Chapter 7 - Dave and Christine are randomly joined by Christine's friend Olive. Christine suddenly realises she's bisexual
Chapter 8 - Dave introduces Christine to BDSM or something else that he has given no indication of liking up until now.
Chapter 9 - Probably some kind of group sex
Chapter 10 - Fuck knows, nobody is reading any more.

Ouch! That's exactly what I've done. Oh dear... I really should cut it in half and wrap it up next installment then. :/

 

[amofiga]

I've struggled with the story length issue like some have described as above. I've only been a member about a month, and I have only done two storied here. However, I have done stories in other venues. The first was about 12 msword pages which worked out to about two Literotica pages and the second was about 22 msword pages translating to almost 4 literotica pages. I struggled with the second story's length and debated as to whether or not to break it into chapters. However, I felt that the impact of what I wanted to say would be lost by breaking it up because many might not opt for moving to chapter 2. There would have been too much left unsaid with a break. I got positive comments about the second story and that it had good content and pace so I feel it was ok to keep in intact.

A problem I face is that I don't want my stories just "for stroke" as one poster put it. I don't want them to be just a collection of dirty words and actions. I want relatively full character development so that the reader can understand the motivations of the characters other than just lust. I also have some things to say about relationships between men and women that I want others to think about. In short, I want to do good graphic, hardcore stories with a message and the background to show that the characters aren't one dimensional.

I'm also concerned about breaking up chapters that might be moved into different sections of the website, i.e. one chapter might fit best into the incest section or erotic encounters section and another best in the BDSM section depending on content. How does one make sure that chapters will be contiguous? Are they simply listed alphabetically so that "XXX chapter 2" is posted right after "XXX chapter 1"? I do like to leave "hooks" at the end of my stories to make a reader think and wonder but I also want to make sure that they can find subsequent chapters even if they are posted weeks apart.

Sorry if I sound uninformed, but like I said, I've only done to so far but have thoughts for many more and for continuing chapters.

 

[KatieTay]

I think the editors actually trouble to do it for us.

 

[SevenSquared]

I've struggled with the story length issue like some have described as above. I've only been a member about a month, and I have only done two storied here. However, I have done stories in other venues. The first was about 12 msword pages which worked out to about two Literotica pages and the second was about 22 msword pages translating to almost 4 literotica pages. I struggled with the second story's length and debated as to whether or not to break it into chapters. However, I felt that the impact of what I wanted to say would be lost by breaking it up because many might not opt for moving to chapter 2. There would have been too much left unsaid with a break. I got positive comments about the second story and that it had good content and pace so I feel it was ok to keep in intact.

While people on the forum love to poke fun at the 'strokers' I actually think the average lit reader is a lot more discerning than they are given credit for. I have seen a lot of long stories with only a small amount of sex in that have scored very well. My recent story was 6 lit pages (about 21,000 words) with only one sex scene, yet it received very good comments. And that is in a category notorious for its density of stroke readers.

 

[amofiga]

While people on the forum love to poke fun at the 'strokers' I actually think the average lit reader is a lot more discerning than they are given credit for. I have seen a lot of long stories with only a small amount of sex in that have scored very well. My recent story was 6 lit pages (about 21,000 words) with only one sex scene, yet it received very good comments. And that is in a category notorious for its density of stroke readers.

Your comment brings me to another thought. How can you get people to read and comment on your story? In the past in other venues have run into problems where it seems that I might inject too much feeling into a story even though I also want them to be on the "raw" side. I got the feeling there that they wanted stories to be shorter with less character development and less emotion. "Get to the sex quicker."

I've always wanted to more than just write a "fuck and suck" scene, and have it make sense in the context of someone's life. If I would have been a porn movie producer back in the '70's or '80's, I would have been one of the ones wanting to have real story, decent acting, and good production values. I've never liked the euphemistic "imply it but don't say it" sorts of things in many "romance" novels, but also didn't want my stories to be just dirty jokes. I've known women who are not put off by graphic action and language so I sort of want to appeal to those sorts of women by including the "why" and not just the "how" of a story, but also want to make the guys happy by keeping it a gritty and sleazy.

In addition, I've done stories set in BDSM and Incest relationships, but want to show that even in these envirnoments which might put off some sensitive sorts of people, there can be sincere human emotion and a message. I would assume that most people viewing this web site would be open minded enough to perhaps read a story with a description about "a devoted brother and sister support each other thourh life" because it doesn't simply dwell on the "eeeewe" factor of a brother and sister having sex. So, do we just post them and hope somebody will drop by and check them out, or (dare I say it) promote them a little?

Which gets to something else. (I hope I'm not acting too stupid as a newbie.) I've learned that Literotica indeed publishes works in the mainstream market. I was actually surprised (newbie naivete) when I saw them on Amazon. How does one actually get considered for having something published in that type of an anthology?

Thanks. Just trying to learn my way around this place.

 

[Eroscott]

I have written what I call novellas, too long for a true short story. They were (in Word) 47K, 30.8K, and 25.5K words in length. Some people really liked them for their length and development, some did not. I write the story that comes out of my imagination . . . until I get to the end. I segment, or make chapters, because that many words without logical breaks are too hard to read. Besides, if a peson can't get through the whole thing at once, then they need a point to stop that they will remember. Finally, reading long stories (or any long document) on the computer is hard. If it was in hard copy, in your hand, where you could sit back, or lie back and relax, get comfortable and read it, long stories are then much easier to read. If you can write short, to the point stories, then do so. If you think it needs more development and more length, then don't be afraid to do that. And don't worry about comments. If you are a good writer more people than not will like what you write, and there will always be those who don't. Work your craft, practice your craft, and please yourself.

 

[nicecthulhu]

Like some others, I just write what I enjoy and I expect other authors do the same. If the story is 1000 words, so be it. If it's 75 000, so be it. Each story just seems to have it's own length, where everything winds up and the characters complete a journey. While I prefer to read the stories that are 4 or less pages, I find my own tend to be considerably longer. As an author, as long as someone enjoyed reading it enough to vote or to favourite it or me, I'm happy. I'd be even happier with constructive criticism. I enjoyed writing it, then rereading it, then rereading it again (and maybe a couple more times) and so I submitted it.
So, why worry about the length of the story? It is what it is and as long as you and at least one other person enjoy it, it's good.
Unless you're hoping to become a real author with sellable stories...can't help you at all there.