1. Lolani

    Lolani New Member

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    Short Story

    Discussion in 'Genre Discussions' started by Lolani, Sep 25, 2008.

    Okay, so my creative writing teacher is asking me for a short story to put in the contest. Well, actually, he's asking the entire class, but I'm having some trouble.

    I have the whole thing planned out and set up, but I'm unsure of how long a typical short story is. Is it ten pages? Is it five pages? Is it one page?

    Please and thank you in advance!:p
     
  2. Cogito

    Cogito Former Mod, Retired Supporter Contributor

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    Actually, you should ask your teacher or whoever is running the contest what the word limits are. They are usually explicitly stated.
     
  3. Lolani

    Lolani New Member

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    He actually never stated it 'exactly'.

    He said 'It will vary for everyone.'

    I don't want to write too much, and I don't want to write too little, and I wont be seeing him again for two weeks, which is when the story is expected to be done.

    I asked the others in the class and they were just saying they'd write what they could (considering they said they weren't writers, but that's besides the point)

    So, I'm pretty much just looking for a general guideline.
     
  4. Cogito

    Cogito Former Mod, Retired Supporter Contributor

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    Well, I'd say 1000 - 3000 words would make a fairly substantial short story. Our weekly Short Story competitions run 500-3000 words, with most entries under 1500 words. Our major short story competitions, with a couple months submission period and a cash prize, run with a 4000 - 8000 word range.

    You can look over past entries in the Competitions section of th esite to get an idea of how much story can be written with various lengths - word counts are always posted in the voting threads.

    I hope this helps.
     
  5. Lolani

    Lolani New Member

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    Why, thank you very much.

    I'll be looking forward to your help in the future!

    You can even consider this topic closed.
     

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