Very basic question

[Writer61]

Hmm i know elsewhere there's projects that convert the html pages into an epub, and then you can just use your ereader with it's internal management to keep track of which exact page you were on. Plus it's offline then.

Thanks, but I'd rather read to the break the author intended than simply to the point where I fell asleep.

 

[Trionyx]

There's no such thing as an average word length on Lit,

There is, it’s just that no one has done the math on the many, many thousands of stories to calculate the answer.

 

[yano2mch]

There is, it’s just that no one has done the math on the many, many thousands of stories to calculate the answer.

I've got quite a few of the stories archived down. I could write a script and run it and find out if you really want to know. Would likely include most everything up to 2018. Or do say 100,000 stories/entries. Hmmm might have to specify to ignore non-english, audio and poetry, how-to's.

 

[ElectricBlue]

There is, it’s just that no one has done the math on the many, many thousands of stories to calculate the answer.

It's a pointless piece of maths though, in the context of the OP's question.

 

[StillStunned]

There is, it’s just that no one has done the math on the many, many thousands of stories to calculate the answer.

It's a pointless piece of maths though, in the context of the OP's question.

And it would change every time a new story is added.

 

[yano2mch]

And it would change every time a new story is added.

When you're talking over a million entries, a single story would likely swing it very very little unless it's incredibly big, or very tiny. Even a completely empty story would change it very little.

They say, that collective knowledge together is more accurate than even experts. The example given people guessing how much a pig weighs before they weigh it in a raffle, and combined with the wildly 1000lb to 10lb from the outsides, to the far more conservative and closer answers, the closest answer would be the average of them all.

So there is merit in knowing, if nothing more than curiosity's sake.

 

[BobbyBrandt]

So there is merit in knowing, if nothing more than curiosity's sake.

And what, pray tell, would that merit be?

There are far too many other factors involved to make such a claim. For example, unless you established averages for every category of story on this site, you would be comparing apples to fire trucks; novels to 750 word stories or "how-to" articles.

Then there are the stories published in pieces rather than as a whole submission. Ten 10K chapters would not be measured as the 100K story that it is. You could clarify your statement by getting the average size of submissions, but then you still have the category variable to deal with.

Even if you did separate categories and accounted for piecemeal stories versus single submissions, the best that your analysis would accomplish is identifying an artificial story length target for some writers to shoot for. There is zero literary merit in doing that.

 

[yano2mch]

And what, pray tell, would that merit be?

There are far too many other factors involved to make such a claim. For example, unless you established averages for every category of story on this site, you would be comparing apples to fire trucks; novels to 750 word stories or "how-to" articles.

That's why i said i'd likely remove poetry and how-to's and others from the list, including non-english.

Then there are the stories published in pieces rather than as a whole submission. Ten 10K chapters would not be measured as the 100K story that it is. You could clarify your statement by getting the average size of submissions, but then you still have the category variable to deal with.

While I'm sure there's submissions that are 20+ pages long, and others are 1 page long, a multi-part submission would just have to be treated as it's multiple parts, as that's how it's put up. It might be a longer story but each chapter could be submitted months or years apart, and follows entirely different mindframes from one block to another. And in many cases people write as they go and get feedback and iterate, rather than trying to do everything in one chunk.

Plus if everyone did everything in one chunk, well while it would be a little more organized but a lot of people wouldn't submit anything at all, hitting writer's block, or never feeling like they are done.

But this is also the same problem as multiple books in a series. Is Lord of the Rings 3 stories? or 1 really long story spit in 3 parts? Do you look at it as 3 600 page novels or a single 1800 page novel? I mean, who wouldn't want to be carrying around a 1800 page book that's unwieldy and cumbersome.

Even if you did separate categories and accounted for piecemeal stories versus single submissions, the best that your analysis would accomplish is identifying an artificial story length target for some writers to shoot for. There is zero literary merit in doing that.

As i said with the pig weighing example, you have the outsiders who gave highly wildly wrong guesses, which ultimately make the final group average guess more accurate than even the experts.

And being able to say 'the average post is N words' as an estimate (rounded to say 10 or 50 of the final result) I think would be fine. It may not answer one of the secrets of the universe, but you have thousands of data points of how long a writer wants to write before publishing; Though without corresponding read count, it's harder to say the most popular length ones or if it's just particular authors.

 

[BobbyBrandt]

That's why i said i'd likely remove poetry and how-to's and others from the list, including non-english.

So it would be an average of only select categories? Why not limit it to stories written by select authors instead? Inherent biases would exist with either approach.

While I'm sure there's submissions that are 20+ pages long, and others are 1 page long, a multi-part submission would just have to be treated as it's multiple parts, as that's how it's put up. It might be a longer story but each chapter could be submitted months or years apart, and follows entirely different mindframes from one block to another. And in many cases people write as they go and get feedback and iterate, rather than trying to do everything in one chunk.

This introduces the hundreds of incomplete stories on the site into the equation. This alone would invalidate the data.

And being able to say 'the average post is N words' as an estimate (rounded to say 10 or 50 of the final result) I think would be fine. It may not answer one of the secrets of the universe, but you have thousands of data points of how long a writer wants to write before publishing

There are several new and aspiring writers coming to the Authors Hangout threads every day seeking sound advice on proper writing techniques and trying to hone their skills. Providing them with misleading and worthless data just because you can does not reflect well on you.

Now, if you wanted to query the most experienced authors in the AH and ask them to provide an average size for their complete stories published on Literotica in each category, that might make sense. I still question it merit and value where new writers are concerned, but it could be an interesting comparative for us to discuss.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

There is, it’s just that no one has done the math on the many, many thousands of stories to calculate the answer.

While it won”t be really useful in any real sense, I would be interested in seeing what you come up with.

 

[Comshaw]

There's a contingent of us who won't read a lit story of more than 4 or 5 lit pages, and there's another contingent who won't read a story that's only 4 or 5 pages. Pick your poison.

This ↑ I wouldn't put much thought into how long a story is. Some will love the length of a story. Some will hate it. Most will be noncommittal about it as long as the tale keeps their interest. Put your effort into crafting the best possible tale and let the story decide how long it needs to be.


Comshaw

 

[yano2mch]

This ↑ I wouldn't put much thought into how long a story is. Some will love the length of a story. Some will hate it. Most will be noncommittal about it as long as the tale keeps their interest. Put your effort into crafting the best possible tale and let the story decide how long it needs to be.


Comshaw

I love long stories, but i don't like slowburns. So plenty of intermixed sections of story/plot and steamy sections. If it's say over 7 pages and no sex scenes (when I'm going here to get off) it sorta really leaves me in a rut. To which shorter stories I've already read but get to the good meat is preferred.

Curiously erotic horror fits very interesting needs in that way...

This introduces the hundreds of incomplete stories on the site into the equation. This alone would invalidate the data.

Don't see how, it's a published post so it's valid. Also we're still talking in the hundreds of thousands or a million entries on the site. Shorter incomplete ones will likely fit as much as just the short stories.

This isn't exactly rocket science where the wrong ratio can be the difference between rocket fuel and a camp fire. It's more likely ballpark figures, getting rough ideas rather than being precise. If you categorize by long or short blocks you'll end up with averages of a definition rather than useful data. And if we go by author, then select authors would likely have to be used, who will of course likely write a lot more and the 'average' of what a typical user would write is wrong. Then you'll end up with Simpsons where he has 200 words left and just puts 'screw flanders' over and over again to hit the word count.

No, again with the pig weight guessing, you take the big with the small to get a proper more accurate average than curating it. Some (a lot of people) probably write short stories. But dedicated people are the ones writing and posting. Or people who just want to share something with no expectations. Or maybe they are an aspiring author and are testing the waters to see if it's even going to get enough reads/likes to pursue. The reason doesn't matter.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

On thinking further, I have the realization that just getting the average length of all Lit stories, while interesting, may be somewhat misleading. There are a host of variables at play. For instance, maybe the question an aspiring writer ought to be looking at is what is the average length of stories earning a red H? Or, perhaps, what is the average length for contest winners? Etc.

 

[StillStunned]

Whatever the length, men will always say it's more and women will always say it's not quite enough perfectly adequate darling.

 

[Britva415]

Once we know the number, Procrustes will be pleased to know how long to make his bed. I'm sure no stories will get mangled as a result.

 

[EmilyMiller]

On thinking further, I have the realization that just getting the average length of all Lit stories, while interesting, may be somewhat misleading. There are a host of variables at play. For instance, maybe the question an aspiring writer ought to be looking at is what is the average length of stories earning a red H? Or, perhaps, what is the average length for contest winners? Etc.

I would be unsurprised if the average length of comp-placing stories was not significantly longer than that of regular standalone stories (comp entries aren’t meant to be a chapter of a series, though standalone works leveraging existing characters are allowed).

Longer stories have technical as well as artistic advantages.

 

[TheLobster]

Whatever the length, men will always say it's more and women will always say it's not quite enough perfectly adequate darling.

So many people brag about their 9 or even 11 page stories, when in reality 3 or 4 pages works just fine.