Exactly how short are your short stories?

[Elder the Dwarf]

I've come up with a character idea I like and am thinking of writing a short story about him. I have most the story kind of laid out in my head, and was wondering how long your short stories usually are.

 

[Karoly]

If you have a goal (IE you are writing for a magazine, and it needs to be exactly 12 pages), well then that's how long it needs to be. Otherwise, it's just however long it takes to tell the story.

Ernest Hemmingway was once asked to write a sad short story. This is what he came up with:

"Baby's Shoes for Sale: Never Worn."

 

[Shadoe]

Mine vary. The shortest I've written was a page and a half. The last one was over 65,000 words.

 

[Johnny Cosmo]

The shortest I've written was a page and a half. The last one was over 65,000 words.

Your last short story ​was 65,000 words? That's a little long...

 

[Elder the Dwarf]

Haha that's a freakin novel! The other part is comforting though, because mine should end up being about two to three pages, and I was wondering if that "counted" as a short story haha. I know, stupid question.

 

[Benjamin Clayborne]

I wrote several short stories several years ago. They were in the 2k-5k word range.

I don't really like short stories (reading or writing), because they aren't usually long enough for character development to be interesting enough (for my tastes). They can be sort of neat little appetizers, but I prefer a full-size meal. It depends, of course; I recently re-read The Mountains of Mourning by Lois McMaster Bujold, but because I'm already familiar with Miles Vorkosigan as a character, its length doesn't bother me.

 

[TWErvin2]

If you're looking to find a magazine or ezine to publish your short stories, in general, the shorter the better. If you go to duotrope.com you search varous lengths (normally estimated by word count).

Generally it's far easier to sell a short story that is under 5000 words in length, even if the market says up to 7,500 words. Online markets generally prefer a bit less than 5000 words.

The shortest piece I ever sold was 64 words and the longest short story was 8,800 words.

The thing about a short story is that it simply isn't a condensed novel, just as a short story can't easily be stretched into a novel. The structure and other elements make this difficult, if not impossible in most instances.

 

[Sheilawisz]

Well, my shortest novels are about 37000 words long... I know that they could be considered short stories or novella, but I call them novels anyway =)

 

[MichaelSullivan]

I concur with everything here. I think 3,000 is a good length for most magazines. If it is something you are going to publish yourself (say through a $0.99 ebook) than 3,000 - 7,500 is probably a good choice.

 

[mythique890]

There are a lot of online publications these days that prefer flash fiction, which I understand to be 1,000 words or less (though I could be wrong). I've written one flash piece, which I'm sort of sending around right now. I've seen other publications that take 7,500 words, but I agree with the others, those are harder to sell.
On the other hand, I've seen short stories in anthologies that were upwards of 10,000 words. But I've noticed that those are usually by established authors.

 

[Benjamin Clayborne]

There are a lot of online publications these days that prefer flash fiction, which I understand to be 1,000 words or less (though I could be wrong). I've written one flash piece, which I'm sort of sending around right now. I've seen other publications that take 7,500 words, but I agree with the others, those are harder to sell.

I haven't really looked into these much, but I'm sort of intrigued; what's a good place to start looking?

 

[mythique890]

You can do a search on Duotrope.com, it will give you a good list. I've heard the most about Daily Science Fiction and Abyss & Apex. A handful of writers on the other forum I frequent are published in one or both of those.

ETA: DSF publishes all sorts of speculative fiction, fantasy included, don't be deceived by the name.

 

[Benjamin Clayborne]

Thanks. I wrote and submitted a quick bit of flash fiction to DSF, just for fun. The whole thing took about an hour so no great loss if they reject it. ;-)

 

[Lillian Crowe]

The shortest piece I ever sold was 64 words and the longest short story was 8,800 words.

I love short short stories! They're challenging in an entirely different way.

 

[SeverinR]

The short story writing contest I just entered was 8000 or less. Recomended 3k or more.

 

[Bear]

The last short story I wrote ended up being about 40 pages. My latest work topped in at around 25,000 words. I consider that one more of a novella.

 

[Steerpike]

Shortest story I ever sold was around 1000 words. I guess that's within the scope of "flash fiction" in some circles.

 

[Twook00]

Probably many answers to this question. I think if you know where you are sending it that is a good place to start. Many publishers or sites give their preferred word count in the submission guidelines.

I recently sent Kij Johnson an email asking this question because I was struggling with a story that felt like it was getting too long. Her reply was very helpful...

"Word count is important, but forcing a story to be too long or two short to fit a word count from a publisher doesn't work: it won't sell because it's not as good as it could be. If you're writing something that's the wrong length for a market, then you usually will have to send it somewhere else."

 

[Will]

Four paragraphs.