The 2025 750 Word Story Challenge Support Thread

[Duleigh]

The 7th Annual 750 Word Story Challenge Support Thread

Back in 2019, author jezzaz wondered:

Is it possible to write a complete story in exactly 750 words? That's the minimum limit that Literotica will accept, and after talking among ourselves, some of the writers on Lit decided to see if we could do it. After all, it's 750 words, right? How hard could it be? It's not like editing it is going to take long, after all.

Is it possible?

Here's your mission - Write a complete story in exactly 750 words. The challenge is to get all five parts of a well crafted story into 750 words. Those parts are Exposition (Introduction) rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution. It's quite a task to attempt without falling to the temptation of spreading the story over several 750 word entries, so chapters do not fit the spirit of the challenge

If it's a word less than 750, Lit's bots will reject it, if it's too long some wide eyed reader will spot it (they do!) and call you out on it. Write a story that is EXACTLY 750 words long using Microsoft Word, Google Docs, or Literotica Control Panel Editor word count - no more, no less. Note: each word processor handles word count differently, The story must be 750 words EXCLUDING title, description, tags, etc. Word count includes story text only. (Pro tip: write the story first, get your 750 words, then add title, description, tags, etc.)

It is allowable (and encouraged) to set reader's expectations with a line that reads something like:
This story was written for the 2025 Literotica 750 Word Challenge, below this line are exactly 750 words:

Submit your story (stories) in any story category February 1st thru 28th (because February is the shortest month allowed by Literotica)

The list of all participating stories will be posted on March 1st.

Copy and paste this phrase into the Note To Admin section of the submission form: "750 WORD PROJECT 2025" (without the quotation marks). Please copy and paste this so that a typo doesn't keep your story from participating!

Please add the following as a tag 750-2025

This thread is to reach out to each other for support, suggestions, and good-natured ribbing. Please keep in mind that this is a challenge, it is not a contest.

And as always, please, no wagering.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

Here’s my initial reaction:

Wheee! I’m in! I have just the idea!

To be followed by, in short order:

Done like dinner. Now to cut out a hundred words or so.

Now, here in the Principality of Pantser, the wretched thing is at 1,426 words and has taken wing like a homesick angel. There’s no hope of 7,500, let alone 750. Oh well; it will make a fine novella.

Thanks for doing this, Mr. D.

 

[Duleigh]

Now, here in the Principality of Pantser, the wretched thing is at 1,426 words and has taken wing like a homesick angel. There’s no hope of 7,500, let alone 750. Oh well; it will make a fine novella.

I know exactly how your battle is turning. My 3rd ever 750 word story 750-3 Saturday Evening landed at 750 words but it was incomplete, it NEEDED more! So I dove back in and my sweet May/December romance between a nice lady from NYC and her young Florida surfer boy Physical Therapist took off and became a Mafia murder mystery in Saturday Evening landing at 42k words. But MORE called so I doubled the story and it became Love's Last Kiss - it needs better cover art but I'm finally happy with the story (mostly)

 

[TarnishedPenny]

I know exactly how your battle is turning. My 3rd ever 750 word story 750-3 Saturday Evening landed at 750 words but it was incomplete, it NEEDED more! So I dove back in and my sweet May/December romance between a nice lady from NYC and her young Florida surfer boy Physical Therapist took off and became a Mafia murder mystery in Saturday Evening landing at 42k words. But MORE called so I doubled the story and it became Love's Last Kiss - it needs better cover art but I'm finally happy with the story (mostly)

More.

My arch-enemy, the nemesis supreme for all short story scribblers.

I can even picture her Official Villain’s Costume - form-fitting catsuit that is almost, but not quite, too tight, those thigh-high leather boots that almost have enough heel, those smouldering eyes that almost reveal a dark and tormented history, promising almost everything a man - or woman - could ever desire.

More - I hate her.

 

[MrPixel]

Knocked out my first one of the year after dinner. Currently at 835 words, it'll be easy to trim. Problem I have with it is it's purely LW. No debate.

 

[Trionyx]

I cranked one out recently but I am not at all happy with it. Delete. Start over.

But maybe I shouldn’t. My two stories last year ended up with scores the opposite of my prediction. Go figure.

 

[OffNSFW]

I just bashed out a couple of them.

I've been stuck in that zone for a while now where every story I write, no matter how much I promise myself otherwise, turns into a kudzu vine and takes way more work than I ever intended. I forgot how therapeutic it can be to put a strict low word limit on it and see what comes out.

 

[Duleigh]

I just bashed out a couple of them.

I've been stuck in that zone for a while now where every story I write, no matter how much I promise myself otherwise, turns into a kudzu vine and takes way more work than I ever intended. I forgot how therapeutic it can be to put a strict low word limit on it and see what comes out.

You are absolutely right! I've been mired down in novel length stories this year (Andi's Dream #6 just won't end!)
Cranking out something short and to the point is fun! But I always look at it when I'm done and think, "There's so much that I didn't write..."

 

[Bazzle]

Oh. Hell. This. Painful. Challenge. Has. Returned. Panic. Time.

Just need to find 740 more words

 

[LiterallyLiterate]

I keep coming back to that scene from A river runs through it, where he’s being homeschooled by his dad and has to write a story.
Every time he hands it over, his father takes one look, crosses it out and hands it back, saying ‘again, half as long.’


Not sure if I have it in me to write that short, but maybe I’ll find something in a dusty corner of my mind.

 

[Duleigh]

Just for grins and giggles, I challenged an AI engine to write a 750 word story. I let it make four attempts and I pasted each attempt into Word for an 'official' word count. This is the results:
Try #1 - 681 words (AI claimed it was 750)
Try #2 - 684 words (AI claimed it was 750)
Try #3 - 786 words (AI claimed it was 750)
Try #4 - 4,268 words (AI claimed it was 750)

THIS is why they don't allow AI in Literotica - it's freaking stupid!

 

[sinfantasy]

I have taken so much bashing for my first two short stories in L/W that I am scared to venture into that section... but yeah... let's write some short stories with bug punch

 

[LiterallyLiterate]

Edit: the quote from Sinfantasy above got lost, somehow.

I actually posted a story there, years ago, with another profile. Got trashed so bad I deleted the account and just recently decided to post under a new name. Rough crowd in there…

 

[Voboy]

I dabbled in this for a couple of years, but I found it pretty unrewarding.

Good luck to everyone going for it.

 

[sinfantasy]

Edit: the quote from Sinfantasy above got lost, somehow.

I actually posted a story there, years ago, with another profile. Got trashed so bad I deleted the account and just recently decided to post under a new name. Rough crowd in there…

Yah... it flickered for a while but it's still there...

I am working on a new submission for L/W.... in spite of the hard critics, it offered very high engagement and responses...

As for 750 words... now I know a lot about what not to do... It's a nice challenge to make your point, make it hot, and make it complete... all in that short frame

 

[MrPixel]

While I deplore the practice in general, I'm probably going to adopt another persona just for LW stories. I've already acquired "followers" who are standing by to hammer anything I post, so why go for more?

...sigh...

 

[MillieDynamite]

I'm planning on three stories for the contest. The issue with the word count is that MS Word might give you one count at 750 words, while another checker will say you have 748 words, and still another might say 751 words. I have no idea why there is a discrepancy. Word used to count hyphenated words as one word or, in the case of three words like ready-to-go, would still be counted as only one. But it seems now that Word counts even hyphenated ones, as individual words. A long dash is used to count both words on either side of the dash together. The easy answer was to put spaces around the long dash, but then it counted the long dash as a word. But it appears these days, all those hiccups have been fixed.

 

[ElectricBlue]

I'm planning on three stories for the contest. The issue with the word count is that MS Word might give you one count at 750 words, while another checker will say you have 748 words, and still another might say 751 words.

Why do you think it actually matters? I doubt Laurel has ever knocked back a story with such a small discrepancy.

 

[MillieDynamite]

Well, I try to make it exactly 750 words, but I'm not gonna manually count the individual words to make sure.

Why do you think it actually matters? I doubt Laurel has ever knocked back a story with such a small discrepancy.

 

[MrPixel]

I doubt Laurel has ever knocked back a story with such a small discrepancy.

She has. I had one that was kicked-back because of scene separators increasing the count. I figure on calling that to her attention on the next ones.

 

[ElectricBlue]

She has. I had one that was kicked-back because of scene separators increasing the count. I figure on calling that to her attention on the next ones.

Interesting. I wouldn't have thought it was that important, given there's no technical basis behind the word count. 750 words isn't a fixed character count within a data field - my words wouldn't be the same as your words.

 

[MrPixel]

My take was she was defending the spirit of the event. I didn't keep the quick note as to why. No harm, barely any delay.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

I may enter this again, despite the lack of appreciation of the stories - they do lead to a few readers finding my other stories. More importantly I have an idea that would work, whereas I'll never get round to the longer version of the story, at least not in 2025.

 

[MillieDynamite]

I got a bump in readership and followers after the event the last two years.

 

[Wonderer67]

I am not much of a writer but I’ve written a few. I really enjoy this challenge. It fits me and my style well.