# Can a story be too short?



## kelliegator (May 18, 2021)

Maybe a dumb question, but one I've been thinking about when working on my latest project.

It was never intended to be long. In fact, I haven't really intended for it to be longer than a 100 pages, or even 80. But even so, I'm wondering if I'm writing something that's a little too short because I'm 23 pages in and already feel like I don't have more than maybe ten pages left or so of it.

I'm not good at writing long stuff and... I feel kinda bad for it. I keep wondering if I'm missing out on important location descriptions or character developments or anything like that. Maybe too many concerns on what's essentially a first draft, but I really care about this project and want it to be something good, since I'm hoping to publish it in some way, shape or form (probably self-publishing).

What do you guys think?


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## TyraWadman (May 18, 2021)

You can tell a story with just a few words. And honestly, I struggle with keeping my stories short. 

I think in order to properly gauge something like that, we'd have to know more about it. Do you have the beginning, middle and end planned out?


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## The_biscuits_532 (May 18, 2021)

Nah

I'm a big fan of Lovecraft's writings. Some of his stories are like, a page long. 

_Azathoth_ comes to mind.


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## Punji (May 18, 2021)

I think it depends on what you'd like to do with the story itself. A good short story can be very short or very long.

I did write a short story once for fun, where I had to describe a character walking in an endless desert without ever directly referring to him. Needless to say it's pretty short. But if the audience didn't mind a very small piece, that's completely fine I think.


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## kelliegator (May 18, 2021)

TyraWadman said:


> You can tell a story with just a few words. And honestly, I struggle with keeping my stories short.
> 
> I think in order to properly gauge something like that, we'd have to know more about it. Do you have the beginning, middle and end planned out?


Well, I haven't planned it very well but I have a beginning and a middle and I'm sort of approaching the end now. I'm not entirely sure how it should end but I know I'm close. I dunno if that answers any question.


The_biscuits_532 said:


> Nah
> 
> I'm a big fan of Lovecraft's writings. Some of his stories are like, a page long.
> 
> _Azathoth_ comes to mind.


Oh yeah, that's true. I haven't read Lovecraft. .w.


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## Raever (May 18, 2021)

A short story could be one page long and still make for a good story; though most short stories run between 2,000 to 2,500 words, and no more than 5,000 – 6,000 words. I think that certain writers "prefer" certain lengths to feel justified, but the definition of a piece of writing is actually very nuanced. For example, A manuscript over 40,000 words is considered to be a novel. However, very few novels these days are as short as that. Generally a 50,000-word novel would be the minimum word count. Most novels are between 60,000 and 100,000 words.

Then there are Novella's, which is a fictional piece between a short story and a novel with anywhere from 10,000 to 40,000 words. There's an even narrower story option—the novelette—that has a word count between 7,500 and 17,000 words. Finally, we have "Epics" which are monsters of 110,000 words or more.

Yet they are all stories in the end.


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## kelliegator (May 18, 2021)

Raever said:


> A short story could be one page long and still make for a good story; though most short stories run between 2,000 to 2,500 words, and no more than 5,000 – 6,000 words. I think that certain writers "prefer" certain lengths to feel justified, but the definition of a piece of writing is actually very nuanced. For example, A manuscript over 40,000 words is considered to be a novel. However, very few novels these days are as short as that. Generally a 50,000-word novel would be the minimum word count. Most novels are between 60,000 and 100,000 words.
> 
> Then there are Novella's, which is a fictional piece between a short story and a novel with anywhere from 10,000 to 40,000 words. There's an even narrower story option—the novelette—that has a word count between 7,500 and 17,000 words. Finally, we have "Epics" which are monsters of 110,000 words or more.
> 
> Yet they are all stories in the end.


I'm not sure what I'm writing fits into any of those categories but it may when it's finished and this helps me put things into perspective, thanks.

Now I just have to worry about writing a satisfying ending and... I'm kind of clueless. .w.


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## TyraWadman (May 18, 2021)

What are your characters' objectives? What is the conflict/main focus of the story?


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## kelliegator (May 18, 2021)

TyraWadman said:


> What are your characters' objectives? What is the conflict/main focus of the story?


I always feel weird sharing details of unfinished work but basically it's a war story of sorts where a civilian, a cyborg and a soldier on Earth is trying to get to the planet Mars, where the Earth's political and financial elites reside, to confront leading politicians and try to stop the war on earth.

All three main characters have reasons for wanting to stop the war. The civilian wants revenge on the politician, the cyborg is programmed to to be the civilian's bodyguard, and the soldier just wants peace because he's kind of scared shitless and didn't want to be in the war to begin with.


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## TyraWadman (May 18, 2021)

kelliegator said:


> I always feel weird sharing details of unfinished work but basically it's a war story of sorts where a civilian, a cyborg and a soldier on Earth is trying to get to the planet Mars, where the Earth's political and financial elites reside, to confront leading politicians and try to stop the war on earth.
> 
> All three main characters have reasons for wanting to stop the war. The civilian wants revenge on the politician, the cyborg is programmed to to be the civilian's bodyguard, and the soldier just wants peace because he's kind of scared shitless and didn't want to be in the war to begin with.


Do the characters start off together or is that where the middle happens, when they come together?

How do they get there? Is it fairly easy to get there or do they have to plan things out and hijack their transportation? 

And I'm curious: what is the reason for these wars?  resources? Because some  a rich man handed them a bunch  of money and told them to? Territory?

how do they plan to persuade the politicians to end the wars?


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## kelliegator (May 19, 2021)

TyraWadman said:


> Do the characters start off together or is that where the middle happens, when they come together?
> 
> How do they get there? Is it fairly easy to get there or do they have to plan things out and hijack their transportation?
> 
> ...


I'm kind of embarrassed here because you're asking questions that I didn't think so hard about. :S

Well, main character is the civilian, who meets the cyborg early on. A little closer to the middle they meet the soldier.

The war is kind of an interventionist kind of thing where the humans are trying to remove the leader of the mutants and replace him with a dictator of sorts that serve human interests.

As for how they plan to persuade the politicians, I haven't fully figured that out yet but I have something of an ending worked out now but I dunno if I should spoil it or not. .w.


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## Toasty9399 (Jul 4, 2021)

Honestly it depends on what type of story and what you're trying to convey.


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## Kumali (Jul 5, 2021)

Richard Brautigan's story "The Scarlatti Tilt" is two sentences long.


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## Ratt Carry (Jul 5, 2021)

Fuan no Tane has chapters that are two pages.


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## Mambi (Jul 5, 2021)

kelliegator said:


> Maybe a dumb question, but one I've been thinking about when working on my latest project.
> 
> It was never intended to be long. In fact, I haven't really intended for it to be longer than a 100 pages, or even 80. But even so, I'm wondering if I'm writing something that's a little too short because I'm 23 pages in and already feel like I don't have more than maybe ten pages left or so of it.
> 
> ...



A story can be any length. Sometimes there's just nothing more to say, if what you wrote is concise and gets to the point well. 
I wouldn't worry too much about the length but more how it *is*.


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## Jaredthefox92 (Jul 5, 2021)

Ironically, I've worried about this when I've wrote Amanda's BIG Day, I was too worried that the story wouldn't be as "kaiju horror" as I wanted it to be.


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## Vakash_Darkbane (Jul 21, 2021)

Stories dictate their own lengths.  Sometimes I'm like.   "I swear this is going to be 20 pages and done."  Then its a two parter consisting of 90 combined pages.  Others they wrap up in 15 and im frustrated but there is nothing more to tell.


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## perkele (Aug 9, 2021)

Why use many word when few word do.


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## O.D.D. (Aug 9, 2021)

"For sale: baby shoes, never used."


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## MrSpookyBoots (Aug 9, 2021)

A story can be as brisk or as lengthy as you want it to be. A 30 page story would likely be considered just a short story. There's nothing wrong with that.

If you're wanting to write more than what you have already, however, this will require further planning on your end. But if it works in 30 pages or less, perhaps adding more content would hurt in the long run.


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