It is not your imagination.

[dirk2024]

It depends on the subject matter. Here is my February the 2nd entry for not just the 750 word challenge but also for the Pink Orchid challenge and the Valentine's Day contest. As you can see, I have 20,507 views. I am still gobsmacked at that number

Her Orgasm

I was #15,547 to read it. I loved it!

 

[Actingup]

With the recently finished 750 challenge, I was struck by the overall lower scores for these stories compared to the rest. I have had a few of mine come in lower than my average as well.

Just for fun, I wanted to know what the ‘price tag’ for a 750 story is, that is, what is the average point score difference between them and the rest of the stories.

I took a random sample (LW not included) of fifty stories from the recent challenge and compared the average score to a random sample from the same general categories of stories published in late 2025. I used the same number of each category in the analysis. (Romance tends to have higher scores, so I did not want to skew the data by having more of them in either pile, for example.)

Comparing 50 stories in each pile, the random average comes out to be almost exactly 4.5 while the 750 average is 4.24.

While I am not a statistician and the sample size is not huge, this crude analysis does support the notion that the 750 stories are at a disadvantage from the git-go. While I initially thought the difference between the groups would be bigger, a delta of 0.26 is still impressive. And in my mind I can add 0.26 to my 750 scores and feel a lot better about things.

Thanks for doing this. I had a decent response to my 750 worder last year, but this year I felt that there was a distinct 'meh' smell in the air, and I don't think it was just my story (although probably last year's was better). I wonder if there's a strong er pushback now at the sheer number of stories? It would be interesting to just limit it to one each per year and see if that helps.

 

[Rob_Royale]

Based on my results on the 750s I've done, I'm positive @Trionyx is correct. The stories that are in the categories I regularly contribute to are 0.2 lower or more, than average. If I delete the eight 750's from my spreadsheet, my overall average of my work jumps from 4.57 to 4.66. If I was to delete the LW scores as well ... oh my. But that's another thread.

I think that most readers just aren't willing to give a 5 for 750 words.

 

[anthrodisiac]

Thanks for doing this. I had a decent response to my 750 worder last year, but this year I felt that there was a distinct 'meh' smell in the air, and I don't think it was just my story (although probably last year's was better). I wonder if there's a strong er pushback now at the sheer number of stories? It would be interesting to just limit it to one each per year and see if that helps.

I've seen reader comments on stories complaining about being inundated with a massive wave of 750ers that bury the "normal stories," so it wouldn't surprise me that part of it is a saturation issue.

There were 225 as part of the list that was included in Laurel's post of all the stories. Contests have around 100 - 150, and several people mentioned that one or more of their stories didn't even make it on the list, so it's probably even higher than that.

The other thing might be that readers that would normally bounce after the first page and not vote can much more easily get to the end and be disatisfied, meaning they'd hit the rate button, whereas for a longer story they wouldn't have even bothered.

 

[MrPixel]

This phenomenon has been discussed before. For one thing, there are a number of readers in the general population who don't tolerate the 1040A version of an erotic story. They need the long form.

The other is it is way too easy to down-vote a 750 - you don't need to go to the next page or anything like that to give it a 1-star. There it is, front and center. Bang. And it's sweep-proof.

Y'know what I mean, Verl?

 

[ElectricBlue]

The other thing might be that readers that would normally bounce after the first page and not vote can much more easily get to the end and be disatisfied, meaning they'd hit the rate button, whereas for a longer story they wouldn't have even bothered.

This.

And for that reason alone, I'm increasingly of the view that the scores for 750 word stories may in fact be a more accurate appraisal of your stories, simply because voting is so easy, and the votes are less likely to disappear. The votes you get are an immediate gut reaction.

Mind you, I would say that, because my 750 worders are by no means the lowest scores in my pack. And I tend to keep away from the annual anthologies, because I do think they give some (many?) readers the shits.

 

[TheLobster]

And for that reason alone, I'm increasingly of the view that the scores for 750 word stories may in fact be a more accurate appraisal of your stories, simply because voting is so easy, and the votes are less likely to disappear.

The scores for 750-word stories are a decently accurate appraisal of your 750-word stories. Like a few people pointed out, those pieces flash fiction are totally different beasts than full-blown short stories, let alone novelettes or novellas, and demand a rather different set of writing skills.

For this reason, the scores you get on 750-worders may in no way reflect on your ability to put together a longer story. I'd certainly refrain from thinking that you one should mentally subtract 0.2, or however much, from the non-750 scores to obtain the "true" and "accurate" rating.

 

[BobbyBrandt]

Unfortunately, or fortunately depending upon your perspective, I have brain farts longer than 750 words, so I never even consider that sort of word limit.

My shortest story here, excluding "How-To's" is just over 1,800 words in EC. I was playing around with some different techniques and perspective ploys at the time. I have always been surprised at how it did with readers.

I have to force myself not to pull it and write a real story based on the original premise.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

Some of my 750s have been not great, the structure not really fitting the story. Others have been pretty good. In both cases, they've scored probably about .25 less than my longer stories of similar standard - my two best ones had red Hs for a while.

I'm sure there's a penalty for 1-page stories, alongside the fact that the worse stories on Lit also tend to be one page.

 

[RejectReality]

There's a natural down pressure on anything that's only one Lit page long. People who don't like it, or simply didn't love it and might otherwise back-click are more inclined to express that with a vote when the voting form is right there.

I've also heard a lot of hate for the 750 challenge concerning it pushing "real" work off the new listings while it's running, implying that people are just coughing them up with minimal effort. Anyone who believes that has never tried to confine themselves to a targeted minimized word count. LOL Most of the people complaining are just complaining, but there's inevitably a few who feel the need to do something about it. So, add in some trolling to discourage people from participating in the challenge in the hopes of killing it, and you've got some serious score depression.

 

[Rob_Royale]

And for that reason alone, I'm increasingly of the view that the scores for 750 word stories may in fact be a more accurate appraisal of your stories, simply because voting is so easy, and the votes are less likely to disappear. The votes you get are an immediate gut reaction.

I disagree. I think the lower scores are a result of the readers disappointment that they only got one bite of something they liked and wanted more of. I offer the comment page of one of my most recent 750s rated at a 4.29 as data to support my theory. https://www.literotica.com/s/mistress-mindy/comments.

 

[crookedletter]

I don't think the lower scores on 750 word stories is at all surprising. Flash fiction in general is not to everyone's taste. I myself like it more as a writer, I think, than as a reader. I read it with a writer's eye, in part, curious to see what someone can do with fewer words in which to do it.

But especially on an erotica site people are going to find it disappointing. Many (most?) readers come here looking to be aroused, even to get off. 750 words just isn't a lot of room to build to the kind of payoff a lot of such readers are looking for. And it's not a lot of room to win over those who might be reluctantly open to stepping outside of what they come here looking for.

Flash fiction is hard. And even if you nail it, it's not for everyone. I think those who might appreciate it even at its best are a narrow subset of the readership here (if not entirely just the writers).

 

[anthrodisiac]

I disagree. I think the lower scores are a result of the readers disappointment that they only got one bite of something they liked and wanted more of. I offer the comment page of one of my most recent 750s rated at a 4.29 as data to support my theory. https://www.literotica.com/s/mistress-mindy/comments.

It's a mix of a lot of different things, and the reasons for a dislike of 750s is not universal across all readers and all stories. Readers have different reasons and criteria for giving the scores they do, and that holds true for 750s. For one person, it's because they were just starting to get aroused when the story ended (like you mentioned). For someone else, they want their characters more fleshed out. And for yet another, it's because they see the 750s being pumped out all around the same time, which makes it harder to find the longer works they like more. And those are just the reasons explicitly linked to it being a 750, there are plenty of other confounding factors as to why someone would rate that particular story lower compared to another, longer story.

 

[IWroteThis]

I disagree. I think the lower scores are a result of the readers disappointment that they only got one bite of something they liked and wanted more of. I offer the comment page of one of my most recent 750s rated at a 4.29 as data to support my theory. https://www.literotica.com/s/mistress-mindy/comments.

And I disagree with you, because I compared this years 750-word stories to the ones from previous years in determining that the correlation between comments and ratings is off, not to mention that the scores trended lower overall.

Sorry, but there is more evidence of an increased backlash this year specifically against the project and the word count than there is for it all just being about story quality.

 

[Djmac1031]

My 750 stories always do lower numbers. Didn't help that my last two were in two of the pickiest categories, Non Con and LW, and intentionally poke the bears there.

 

[Erozetta]

I get a fair number of comments on mine usually, but otherwise they are meh overall. I like them for getting vignettes out of my head or just a general personal dumping ground for something that might otherwise be a very difficult write/read on an emotional level.