Story length sweet spot?

Quick and dirty, less than 2000 words? 3000? 5? screw it if it's not straining the 10k limit it's not worth the time?

I have one i the pipe (Hopefully approved in the next couple weeks, just shy 5,000, on deck, 4200. what say ye? oh, they are both part ones.

Some perspective for consideration.

My advice would be to split the existing 5000 and 4200 in approximately half. You'll get more readers (ignoring factors for subject/tags/writing quality) as you'll find in WannabeWordsmith's link to a similar thread.

If the story and writing intrigue me enough the length becomes irrelevant but if I haven't read the author before I might ignore a story of 4-5K in favour of a shorter one.

As long as the content is intriguing and captures your attention, I think length is irrelevant. I have read wonderful long and short works here, then again, some not so much.

One of the more frustrating aspects here is the 'cute' practice of clogging up the system and mods' queues by submitting extraordinarily long 'stories' broken into masses of chapters. If people wanted to read such drawn-out sagas, the numbers would reflect that. I see no evidence to support this. A 'cunning' way to beat the system is one thing, but when mod queues build up, they do so, in part due to the proliferation of 'part (insert large number)' submissions. Each of these segments often run to lengths way beyond any readship 'sweet spots' of stand alone stories, yet are appearing so often that stand alone stories appear lost in a sea of them.

At a time when many of us are treating 'recommendations' regarding periods between submissions as a courtesy and complying, I hope the same is true for those using mod time in relation to a very niche and generally tailing-off interest area. If there isn't widespread interest in anything I've put together, I have the consolation that it hasn't also taken up many hours of volunteers' time in the process. A moment of simple maths, in terms of combined word counts will illustrate the point.

I've been ranting about serial stories for awhile. Hasn't stopped people publishing them, but I agree with your point about needlessly chopping up stories to get bigger stats. It's annoying and crowds out other work. I hardly ever click on "part any number" because there's a ) no guarantee the author will see it all the way through to a conclusion, and b) the effort to sustain a lengthy serial story very often leads to more and more contrived plots, inconsistent characters and generally just bad writing. Not just here, but TV and even the endless sequels, prequels and other nonsense that clutters most major movie franchises after a certain point. Just tell your story. Do it well, but do it efficiently. And then be done with it and have a new idea.

I'm going to disagree respectfully. Can I write short? Yes, in fact, I think Dante might be one of the more popular stories I've written. However, I LIKE writing multi-chapter stories, and I think many people like them as well. As far as "clogging" the queue, I go in knowing that the mods may pass over reading Nikki Part 2 over a flash story; I'm good with that, but the fact of the matter is, I don't publish as soon as a story is live. It's been asked to give it a couple of days, and I do. Bottom line is you do you, boo. If you don't like Mandi 1-4, don't read it, but don't demand that it not be written or published, because the world doesn't revolve around you. If the time comes when I don't see eye to eye with the mods, then it will be time to go. Until then, I write what makes me happy.

I agree with the "diminishing returns" point. I can't remember the last time I finished part two of anything.

I just do Micros when I write anymore. It's all folks can stand from me.

My current 7000ish word story is doing nicely, both views and likes. Better than my Elements entry at c. half that length. I suspect that category and subject matter is as important for popularity as length. The new story is in Group Sex with a Cheating tag, both popular around here. The Elements story is in Supernatural, which is a bit of a graveyard category, and might have got more eyeballs in Lesbian Sex with Supernatural as a tag.

Quote by kistinspencil

I agree with the "diminishing returns" point. I can't remember the last time I finished part two of anything.

I just do Micros when I write anymore. It's all folks can stand from me.

Flashing's about my limit, or is that a reply to a different question? I'm easily confused. I enjoy giving people what they tell me they can cope with from me.😇