1000-word stories

[IWroteThis]

I write around 750-1200 worded stories, and I do it because of my attention span...
They get great reviews

I agree. There is a very vocal group opposed to them, but they seem to be a minority. Their comments are often good for a laugh at least.

 

[Ssbbw4u1974]

Just bragging here, but here's my example of 1 of my 1000 word stories:
https://www.literotica.com/s/the-island-45

 

[KittyOfSteele]

I'm going to say something that people here won't like: you guys are bad listeners.

Sure, stories that go over more than a Lit page get clicks, but the reason is not the one that you think. The problem is that this community is made out of authors who are more novelists than writers of short stories, or poets. How do I know this? This comment that Trionyx got says so:

“This is so jr high and hardly romance. Zero erotica. HATE THESE 750 CHALLENGES AS THEY ARE A WASTE OF TIME. Even the most experienced writers never make it worth reading as there is no chance for true development of even the smallest segment of interaction for erotica/romance. It would make more sense if they did a 1500 word challege not counting any words less than 3 letters. Not even the folks behind Literotica could meet the challenge of 750 words or less with any success.”

The problem is not an aversion to the short forms of fiction, especially when there's sites where stuff that gets read in less than 10 minutes is king. The problem, again, is that we have here more novelists than writers of short stories, and try to apply all the checklists for a novel into something that can't have that, or it can be, but don't know how to compress that into something dense instead of long. My first story after I wiped out my profile, Do Disturb is my shortest story that isn't a 750-word project, and is below the threshold of 1K, and it was well received. A commenter praised it exactly for its brevity and how stripped it was.

I prefer to keep things short, and not treating the list of what all characters or a story must have as a shopping list for stuff I can't live without. It's already difficult for me to start reading, and if you aren't persuasive, brief, vulgar, insane, witty, or quick, I will lose you. Pulp fiction thrives on constraints, brevity being one of them.

Seriously, do you really need a deep motivation for a stroker when horny is enough?

Whatever man, if you love to bloat your stuff and complain about not finishing a story because you can't work on a budget, do it. Your writing is valid, write whatever and however you want.

 

[Rustyoznail]

A well crafted short story can do well. I've done some 750 stories, and some much, much longer. There are readers that like both. My short stories may not have great scores, but they have some great comments.

Basically, write the story you want. There's an audience for it.

Good luck!

 

[ElectricBlue]

Seriously, do you really need a deep motivation for a stroker when horny is enough?

If someone is getting off on a thousand words, they're either super dooper horny, or they've only just turned fifteen!

There's sorta kinda a minimum length to get to a man's maximum length, if you know what I mean - and the equivalent measure if you're a woman (whatever that measure might be). Haha, my auto-predict just gave me a red shoe . I wonder what size the shoe is?

 

[flights_of_fancy]

I just read two of your three stories and thoroughly enjoyed them. Your writing style is unique and artful. And I even learned a new word:

aphantasia

I looked it up and sort of understand it but don’t think I fully grasp what it means to actually live with it. Do you plan to work it in to future stories?

Thank you for your kind words. I’m on a bit of a writing break at present but maybe I will use aphantasia in future stories.

 

[KittyOfSteele]

If someone is getting off on a thousand words, they're either super dooper horny, or they've only just turned fifteen!

There's sorta kinda a minimum length to get to a man's maximum length, if you know what I mean - and the equivalent measure if you're a woman (whatever that measure might be). Haha, my auto-predict just gave me a red shoe . I wonder what size the shoe is?

Nice way to chop off the context of my text. That bit referred to motivations of characters, not readers.

Also, you are assuming how readers consume. You have no idea of what happens at the other side. None of us do. Big mistake too is to treat readers like one and the same.

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

Mine had a very specific beginning and an even more specific and very tragic ending. Those two paragraphs totaled less than 100 words and covered an elapsed five minutes or so. The challenge was the filler ~650 words that told the story of 24 hours or so in between.

 

[SimonDoom]

I'm going to say something that people here won't like: you guys are bad listeners.

Sure, stories that go over more than a Lit page get clicks, but the reason is not the one that you think. The problem is that this community is made out of authors who are more novelists than writers of short stories, or poets. How do I know this? This comment that Trionyx got says so:



The problem is not an aversion to the short forms of fiction, especially when there's sites where stuff that gets read in less than 10 minutes is king. The problem, again, is that we have here more novelists than writers of short stories, and try to apply all the checklists for a novel into something that can't have that, or it can be, but don't know how to compress that into something dense instead of long. My first story after I wiped out my profile, Do Disturb is my shortest story that isn't a 750-word project, and is below the threshold of 1K, and it was well received. A commenter praised it exactly for its brevity and how stripped it was.

I prefer to keep things short, and not treating the list of what all characters or a story must have as a shopping list for stuff I can't live without. It's already difficult for me to start reading, and if you aren't persuasive, brief, vulgar, insane, witty, or quick, I will lose you. Pulp fiction thrives on constraints, brevity being one of them.

Seriously, do you really need a deep motivation for a stroker when horny is enough?

Whatever man, if you love to bloat your stuff and complain about not finishing a story because you can't work on a budget, do it. Your writing is valid, write whatever and however you want.

I'm not a novelist. I write mostly standalone short stories that average 6000 to 20,000 words.

I don't agree with Trionyx, but I think there IS a certain built-in limitation with the 750-word story from an erotic standpoint. They're not long enough to get most people off. That's the rub of it. Maybe some can, but I think many cannot. I've written a few of these stories as an exercise, and I've found it worthwhile, but the word limit makes it nearly impossible for me to write a story that I consider truly satisfying, artistically or erotically. I think many authors, not just "novelists," feel the same way.

I'm always struck by how many commenters, despite the obvious word limitation, complain that my 750 word stories should have been longer.

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

I'm always struck by how many commenters, despite the obvious word limitation, complain that my 750 word stories should have been longer.

They probably don't understand the nature of the exercise.

I had one say they had to read it twice to understand what was happening, but once they did, it hit them HARD.

Paraphrasing another one from memory, the comment was about how so much emotional impact could be in related so few words.

 

[KittyOfSteele]

I don't agree with Trionyx, but I think there IS a certain built-in limitation with the 750-word story from an erotic standpoint. They're not long enough to get most people off. That's the rub of it. Maybe some can, but I think many cannot. I've written a few of these stories as an exercise, and I've found it worthwhile, but the word limit makes it nearly impossible for me to write a story that I consider truly satisfying, artistically or erotically. I think many authors, not just "novelists," feel the same way.

It's the same thing that I'm saying: it's not a matter of a word limit, it's a matter of bad writing. People have sexted in under 160 characters twenty years ago. My last 750-word story is three 250-word vignettes chained one after the other. The secret to writing this is not compressing a giant clock into the size of a ring, but making the machinery simpler. If non-authors could've written spicy messages under 160 characters, why can't we write 750-word stories? How come the complain is always about skill, not length? Length is the scapegoat.

 

[ElectricBlue]

It's the same thing that I'm saying: it's not a matter of a word limit, it's a matter of bad writing. People have sexted in under 160 characters twenty years ago. My last 750-word story is three 250-word vignettes chained one after the other. The secret to writing this is not compressing a giant clock into the size of a ring, but making the machinery simpler. If non-authors could've written spicy messages under 160 characters, why can't we write 750-word stories? How come the complain is always about skill, not length? Length is the scapegoat.

I agree that you can write a very spicy piece of erotica in very few words, but one of the reasons they don't go down so well with readers is there's not much time for arousal, to get a reader to orgasm. That's why they're much more a writer's indulgence, I think. That was the point I was light-heartedly making up above.

I personally love a short piece as a way of showing a sweet skill with words, and there are some superb pieces, not only in the 750 Word anthologies, but also other stories published outside those collections. But they're mostly erotica, not porn - that arbitrary distinction - because they're unlikely to end in orgasm. A sweet tingle, definitely, but not the O.

And sure, that might not be their purpose. If they're written well, they can be like a piece of elegant jewellery, but they're not a Faberge clock. They're more subtle than that - which is why fellow writers like them more than Charlie, who just wants to rub out a quick one before bedtime.

 

[KittyOfSteele]

I agree that you can write a very spicy piece of erotica in very few words, but one of the reasons they don't go down so well with readers is there's not much time for arousal, to get a reader to orgasm. That's why they're much more a writer's indulgence, I think. That was the point I was light-heartedly making up above.

I personally love a short piece as a way of showing a sweet skill with words, and there are some superb pieces, not only in the 750 Word anthologies, but also other stories published outside those collections. But they're mostly erotica, not porn - that arbitrary distinction - because they're unlikely to end in orgasm. A sweet tingle, definitely, but not the O.

And sure, that might not be their purpose. If they're written well, they can be like a piece of elegant jewellery, but they're not a Faberge clock. They're more subtle than that - which is why fellow writers like them more than Charlie, who just wants to rub out a quick one before bedtime.

you are assuming how readers consume. You have no idea of what happens at the other side. None of us do.

Not everyone is Charlie. If that's who you're writing for, then that's on you. If you need to make someone aroused with more than a thousand words, then that's also a you issue.

 

[anthrodisiac]

I'm not a novelist. I write mostly standalone short stories that average 6000 to 20,000 words.

I don't agree with Trionyx, but I think there IS a certain built-in limitation with the 750-word story from an erotic standpoint. They're not long enough to get most people off. That's the rub of it. Maybe some can, but I think many cannot. I've written a few of these stories as an exercise, and I've found it worthwhile, but the word limit makes it nearly impossible for me to write a story that I consider truly satisfying, artistically or erotically. I think many authors, not just "novelists," feel the same way.

I'm always struck by how many commenters, despite the obvious word limitation, complain that my 750 word stories should have been longer.

Heh. "That's the rub of it."

 

[ElectricBlue]

Not everyone is Charlie. If that's who you're writing for, then that's on you. If you need to make someone aroused with more than a thousand words, then that's also a you issue.

Did you read what I said? I'm agreeing with you, that there's a place for short stories. But they won't get someone to orgasm unless they're a two stroke.