# Are long stories bad?



## born2beagator (Mar 4, 2015)

So I'm writing a story right now, and its at 4442 words.  I'm not sure I'm even halfway done.  My question is, are long stories bad?  Will readers tire?


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## Conker (Mar 4, 2015)

That question is so damn vague that it's impossible to answer. 

What does the story call for? If the story is well paced and interesting, then it should be as long as it needs to be. That's really all that matters. 

The Internet has a shitty attention span, but that doesn't mean your story should be short to compensate. That does the story an injustice. it's not your fault the Internet grows tired and bored quickly. Write what needs to be written and make it as long as it needs to be, and then go from there.

I mean fuck, most places that publish novels don't want books over a hundred thousand words. Actually, the main cap is around 80k words. "Anything over, don't submit." My novel is a 130k words, so that pisses me the fuck off, but that story cannot get any smaller. I've tried. It doesn't work if it's any shorter.

And fuck, open up any Stephen King novel and they're even longer than mine. By maybe three or four times in some cases.

I wont' promise you that people will respond to good writing, becuase the Internet is big and people are lazy. It takes luck to get noticed. But write what you want and if it gets long, then oh well. Better to post a complete story than an outline in hopes that lazy people will make it to the end.

And honestly, 10k words ain't shit


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## born2beagator (Mar 4, 2015)

As a transformation writer it is for me 

Transformation is tricky to write long stories with.  But I like to flesh out my characters and story, not just focus on the transformation.


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## BadRoy (Mar 5, 2015)

If it's a transformation story I wouldn't worry about length. I find that the people who read TF or other fetish stories aren't looking for long, drawn out stories. 

I keep my  stories around 4,000 words because I feel like an erotic story shouldn't need to be much longer than that. That's usually enough words to satisfactorily establish a context and get a feel for a two or three characters. But Conker is right, you ought to write until you feel the story is complete. Don't let presumptions decide the length or content of your stories.


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## Sylver (Mar 5, 2015)

Pretty vague question, it really depends. I actively search out really, really long stories, and one problem I've noticed some writers have is that they've blatantly stretched out the plot with useless filler. Surprisingly, quite a lot of the long stories aren't like that, and you can just sit back for an hour or two and just read.

Anyway to answer your question, it really depends. Although the rule I'd follow if I were in your place is, don't try to draw the story out just to reach a milestone. I just read the posts above me, but yeah pretty much what they said - just write until it feels complete. The same also applies for extremely short stories, some of them have enormous potential, but they just don't do anything with it and you're left wanting a deeper and longer story.


Then again I'm not the average user...I actually enjoy quality stories and not a 1,000 word story about dog people fucking each other. I guess this comes down to your target audience. Although in my experience, stories with actual substance aren't all that popular in most cases, unfortunately.


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## BRN (Mar 5, 2015)

Nah man! 

The length of the story doesn't matter so much as its _density_. If you've got a hundred or a thousand word's worth of fluff, then your readers won't enjoy it as much as they could. Whether you increase or decrease the wordcount eventually, remember to focus on making each word count, rather than counting the words. <3


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## born2beagator (Mar 5, 2015)

BadRoy said:


> If it's a transformation story I wouldn't worry about length. I find that the people who read TF or other fetish stories aren't looking for long, drawn out stories.
> 
> I keep my  stories around 4,000 words because I feel like an erotic story shouldn't need to be much longer than that. That's usually enough words to satisfactorily establish a context and get a feel for a two or three characters. But Conker is right, you ought to write until you feel the story is complete. Don't let presumptions decide the length or content of your stories.


That's the thing, my stories aren't erotic.


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## Knuxstar (Mar 5, 2015)

It depends on what you are doing my friend  or it often depends on the reader as a published  author I would say that what you are doing is probably barely a short story I agree with the others Write because sometimes you keep on writing and then maybe you realize you wound up with something long enough to be on kindle. 
Take this http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00U54S8J6 For example Long stories are good things.  Have you ever wound up with a  reader who just wanted more and more of a story? Sometimes a short story strongly leaves a reader unsatisfied with that length as well. Your going to have people who like long and those that like short. But you have to stay true to how you feel your story should be.  You don't need us to tell you how you should write. It's one thing to ask about a plot review its another to ask how many words. Only your heart can tell you how far your characters will go. Sorry if this is long lol. Still trying to um....speak more.


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## X_Joshi_X (Mar 5, 2015)

Why should long stories bad?
There even is no bad or good.
If you like it its good, if you dont its bad.
Other people might thing the other way


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## Naesaki (Mar 5, 2015)

The current story I upload on my FA Gallery is chapter based, I don't really count the words but I rarely go over 4500 words per chapter, a lot of people seem to pass it by because I've not uploaded it in the txt format to read on the site but put up as a PDF format which just immediately seems to turn the average user off completely but the ways I've written certain parts would be lost if I catered it to everyone's whims and did it like that.

But yeah there is no good or bad to this, simply don't make it too short and not get enough across or make it too long to the point you are just waffling on/adding padding that isn't needed.


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## RedLeFrench (Mar 5, 2015)

I'd say you'd need to put out short stories at first. Quick glipses into the style you try to convey or even of the bigger story. If it is enticing enough, people will be willing to spend time reading the rest.

Also, lenghth does not equal quality. Some short stories can be incredibly hard to read where other huuuuge ones are page-turners, and the contrary applies. Only your talent will make a story good and with enough talent, you can make the most boring ass situation interesting for the reader to not gloss over (which, for some readers I managed to pull off, but then again, it also boils down to personnal appreciation).


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## born2beagator (Mar 5, 2015)

My stories tend to run at around 3000-5000 words a clip.  and as a new transformation writer, that feels long to me.  What I have been doing is a series.  I've broken the stories up into different segments that all build on each other.




http://www.furaffinity.net/user/born2beagator/
My work if anyone is interested in checking it out


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## Gnarl (Mar 5, 2015)

Good luck with the short stuff! I have tried many times and failed. The shortest one I could manage was a love story and that ended up near 30K.


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## Conker (Mar 5, 2015)

born2beagator said:


> My stories tend to run at around 3000-5000 words a clip.  and as a new transformation writer, that feels long to me.  What I have been doing is a series.  I've broken the stories up into different segments that all build on each other.
> http://www.furaffinity.net/user/born2beagator/
> My work if anyone is interested in checking it out


I imagine most transformation stories are shorter because they're smut. People don't want long smut when they want a wank. They want something quick and dirty.

If yours aren't smut like you said, then there you have it.


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## StormKitty (Mar 5, 2015)

Under 4500 words still falls well into the realm of a short story. If it were twice that long, most would still consider it a short story.



BadRoy said:


> I keep my  stories around 4,000 words because I feel like an erotic story shouldn't need to be much longer than that.


I disagree; an erotic story, like any other genre, can be as long or as short as it needs to be to tell the story. I've got an erotic story on the site that's over 50K words, and I've read much longer ones. Just because a story is erotic doesn't preclude it from having all the main elements of any other genre, such as plot, character development, and world building.


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## KaninZ (Mar 5, 2015)

born2beagator said:


> So I'm writing a story right now, and its at 4442 words.  I'm not sure I'm even halfway done.  My question is, are long stories bad?  Will readers tire?



  Only if you pad the heck out of it in a noticeable way. Don't sweat the length (he typed with a chuckle) and let the tale be told!

Here's an old sci fi standard on submission lengths from back in the day. I can't remember which tradpub house it was from, probably DAW or BAEN:

Short story: 1,000 - 7,500 words
Novelette: 7,500 - 15,000 words
Novella: 20,000 - 40,000 words
Novel: 40,000 words or more

  Like the rules of Piracy (as set down by Black Henry Morgan, y'aar) it's more of a guideline, really


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