4 ms·
I'm pretty skeptical of this methodology for determining the "ideal" story length. In particular, note that none of the stories examined hits this supposed swee
by Zanni 7y ago
I'm pretty skeptical of this methodology for determining the "ideal" story length. In particular, note that none of the stories examined hits this supposed sweet spot. This is kind of like surveying people's personal transportation preferences and landing on "three wheels" as the ideal.
A much more valuable tactic is to look at what various markets are accepting. For flash fiction, that's typically under 1,000 words (though for some, it extends to 1,200 or 1,500). For short stories, the sweet spot seems to be between 3,000 and 4,000 words with a hard cutoff in most markets at 6,000. Anything longer and you might as well push through into novella length.
- rcurry 7y agoI thought flash fiction was crazy but found I really enjoy the challenge of keeping a short story to 1K words or less. It meshes nicely with the idea that you can throw out half of what you’ve written and still tell the story well. It took me a while to understand that but it makes sense - at first blush you’re like “but I REALLY need two thousand words to make this story work” and then if you step back and get ruthless with your red marker you’re like “Holy S—t, I can actually do this with half the words.”
- jeffwass 7y agoTry taking a look at #vss365 (very short stories, daily prompt) and other hashtag writing prompts on twitter. Owner gives a word and you construct a story Or other snippet or poem in 280 characters. Often I try to do it with a line from my WIP (kids Sci-Fi novel). And it’s a real challenge to squeeze in a snippet and make it fit. But plot does force one to consider the essentials of your snippet. Challenging but fun.