I much prefer long novels and series. The bigger the better for me. Especially when I fall in love with an author; I never want it to end. As far as short stories go, I do not mind how big or small it is. All I care about is feeling satisfied with the ending afterwards.
When I was a kid I would treat myself to a new book with my pocket money and one of the ways I would choose which book to buy, would be the length of the book. All the books up for consideration would cost the same amount, so I'd choose the longer book because then I would get more reading time for my money. I don't often read short stories (although I have read some of Stephen King's short stories. I liked some and disliked others.) I have the opposite opinion, I cannot stand watching anything he's written turned into a made for TV movie *shudder*. Of course quality definitely outweighs quantity.
I usually prefer novels that aren't overly long. 80-90,000 words or thereabouts seems perfect to me. Started enjoying short stories really only over the last year or so (reading and writing). I've written one novel-length story, to see if I could. Good experience, but not sure I'm doing that again anytime soon. I'd quite like to write a novella and have an idea I might explore for that.
Shameful to say but, increasingly, my reading is restricted to that period of time between getting into bed and submitting to sleep: 15 minutes, on a good day. Given that and my shoddy memory, long efforts aren't ideal, so, the shorter the better.
I love fiction in all lengths. I grew up reading science fiction, which meant reading magazines like Analog and Fantasy and Science Fiction, and also reading the collections of short stories by the likes of Arthur C. Clarke, Robert Heinlein, and Isaac Asimov. Short stories were bread and butter to me. As I matured, I found I loved long novels just as much, like Dune, Lord of the Rings, along with more "literary" works like Melville's Moby Dick and Steinbeck's East of Eden. As a writer, though, I find myself most comfortable in intermediate lengths. Novellas fit me well. I've taken online writing courses that have length restrictions on the short stories we are to submit, and I've always had to work myself to death to compress my stories into the size allowed. I find it very hard to write a story in less than 5,000 words - in fact, I find it hard to write a story in less than 10,000 words. Most of my stuff winds up in the 20,000 word area, and that's very awkward when it comes to trying to get anything published. I'm a huge fan of Joseph Conrad, and I think part of that (besides the fact that he was a terrific writer) is that he was excellent in the novella length. He didn't write many full-size novels, but he wrote many collections of stories that included novella-length works. His most famous piece, "Heart of Darkness", is a novella of around 38,000 words, and it's brilliant. While I love big novels I can get utterly lost in, I think I'm most drawn to the middle lengths.
i like short stories of any length, don't think i have a preference... but for novels, i don't like wasting the investment of my time and curiosity on short ones... the longer the better!
Myself and a couple of colleagues have just started writing within our small team at work. We are all individually writing what we hope to be novels, or at least longer stories. In order to try to improve our writing styles or stimulate our imaginations, we have started to set ourselves monthly for short stories of up to 3,000 words. We decide on a subject and go away and try to write something accordingly. These are easier for us to read in a session (we have 3 to get through each time) so we find they are a manageable size to both read and write. We only set ourselves a limit because of the time to cover things on our monthly meeting, but as long as everything you want to cover is included in your short story, it can be any length and to a great extent should be dictated by the story itself so as not to be cut short of you get to your set limit. hope this makes sense and good luck.
I prefer novels. Actually, I can't remember reading a short story that I have actually enjoyed, and I really HAVE tried. Regardless of genre, I like it when it's longer and you get to know and care for the characters. And I'm under the impression that a lot of short stories are attempts at something new and "artsy", and it's all this reading between the lines stuff. I'm not a huge fan. Huh, that makes me sound like some kind of hick (or whatever the English equivalent of a bondeknøl is...). I'm not sure why, it's like I just can't bring myself to give a damn about what happens when it'll be over so quickly.
I find the content matters so much more than length. If it's good, I'll read it. If it's bad, I won't.
^ Love the picture. I have that as one of my computer's backgrounds. I'm a huge fan of book series and lengthier novels. While I understand that some stories are good for a one-time quick read, I love to read stories that develop plot lines into elaborate schemes, with characters that become either extremely deep or, as I've noticed, fodder, and in some cases both. I may not be a big fan of my country's politics, but when I get to see the entire picture unravel before me (unlike in the U.S., where we rarely get to see the real "man behind the curtain," so to speak) the plot has room to twist and turn, and the characters are able to go through the same sort of changes. Sadly, though, this is my ultimate downfall as a writer. There's just too much detail that I get too caught up in those and forget the story altogether.
Interesting. A lot of people seem to favour longer works for "more bang for your buck" or "better able to immerse in it" reasons, which is the opinion I took up until a few years ago. I do wonder if short stories aren't more along the lines of "writing for writers" whereas longer novels tend towards "writing for readers". Personally, I always admire the ability of a writer to be concise, and to say more with fewer words, hence my affection for short stories. In a lot of cases I find longer novels rambling and clumsy, and my internal editor is champing at the bit to have at them with the metaphorical pruning shears. I suppose it ties in to something I've been wondering a lot for a while now: how does my being a writer influence my reading? I may need to start a separate thread on it, but it's fascinating to hear your answers to the length of piece you all prefer to read
By reason of English teachers (and some other more general teachers) in college, I am more of a fan of shorter works if done well. It's an art to say a lot with fewer words, in my humble opinion. So if a writer can tell me a massive amount of information in one paragraph, and does it well, then I'm more happy versus a writer who may take 3 or more paragraphs to say the same things. I find it takes a large amount of intellect and time to write in such a manner. At the same time, I have read several books not in this fashion where just the content was stimulating enough that I wanted to keep reading. I find most writers do not write in compact fashion. Although, I'm not in the best position to remark about it because I have not read a large amount of content outside of God awful text books. So getting to the point, I like longer novels if the content is good enough to carry me along, but I prefer shorter novels if done right.
Long novels and series can still be concise and say a lot with few words. The word count should not hinder being either one of those if the author is talented.
I am a novel reader then an short story. For me, I think it doesn't really matter how long the pose but it needs to be strong. I just the short stories are good but more importantly, it must get done right. I like short stories but I pefer longer reads. If it betwwen 100-200 pages for an short story, then 300-500 words for an novel - that would be fine. Sometimes writing short stories are easier but its all depends on the writer.
I'm not really sure which I prefer to read. I think I'd probably have to say novels because I can be absorbed in the world better and for longer, and you get more anticipation about what's going to happen so it's more exciting to read because of that. Although, I do enjoy short stories too. I like how they're snippets and that, if they're good, you can get new meanings every time you read it. I also like the conciseness. As for writing, I'm more of a short story writer. I always have been and my attempts at writing novels (lousy half-hearted attempts admittedly) haven't exactly worked out. I think I prefer indulging into a brief moment of a character's life. It's like when you see someone do something as you walk past them or eavesdrop a conversation, and I like that.
If I finish a novel of difficult reading for me, I then read something light like a childrens book, so Jane austin was followed by a childrens book called the apprentice.
I agree with you on this. A few years ago, I didn't appreciate flash fiction and shorter stories (and even shorter novels to a certain extent). Now that I've had some writing experience, I realize how difficult it is to be concise. A good writer has to really pay attention to what words he/she uses. I think this is something a casual reader will find hard to appreciate.
I am a really keen writer (I wouldn't be on here if I wasn't!) and aiming to be an author but I always write stories that are only about ten pages long. It is too long for my school teacher, but how am I supposed to try and publish books as short as that!? When I read my stories to myself, they sound really rushed, like I squished all the action parts together. I get bored when I reach pages full of description, so maybe that has something to do with that. But in books like Eragon, there is plenty of action and not too much description but it doesn't seem rushed at all! Please, how do authors do that, and how can I make my stories 20 times longer!?
I imagine that you are young so first of all - DONT PANIC. Contrary to what you might initially think most of us desperately try to REDUCE the length of our stories because they are often too wordy, or too indirect, to be worthy of initial publishing, so we trim, and trim, and trim away all the fat until we have the real meat of the story. Very few people jump stright into novel publishing. Write what you want, edit it, re-write it, edit it again and submit it for publishing. There are plenty of markets for short works (see duotrope) - even less than 40 words in some cases for flash fiction, and most short story publications prefer between 1,000 and 7,000 words for a short story. Once you are happy with your short's then you can look at fleshing out a novel. By the way, most publishers don''t care about page counts as it doesnt mean much, they are only interested in word count.
Ok, so I should start small? Only problem is, I need a way to smooth out my writing a bit, so everything isn't happening at once. When I go over a word limit, which I always do, I tend to cut away description more than action! Most of what I am left with is just a blur, but I don't often realise soon enough:redface:.
I've always found it quite useful to study film in building a novel. You'll no doubt be aware that almost every film likely to appear in your average cinema relies on a three act structure. I cite a very good description from TVTropes: Within this guideline, you can set aside a chapter for each scene of your novel and spend your time ensuring that you properly convey not only the information you want, but also the emotions, the subtext, the visual and the character arcs. Make little notes for yourself for each chapter, working out every 'beat' the chapter needs to hit in order to contribute towards the advancement of plot, mood and character. Try giving the chapter to a friend and asking them if they got everything from it you wanted to convey. Ask them to describe the visuals in their mind, what it made them feel etc. If you're not hitting your marks, then you need to give it "the old B & D," as Michael Connelly said in a recent novel: breadth and depth. It takes practice.
That's just one thing that can only be resolved with practice and more writing. You don't want to cut away descriptions because they serve a point, but you don't want only descriptions either. You're going to want to mix them up. As you continue to write, you'll start to realize what ideas will be novel length, and what ones will be short story and etc. But, if you're on a set word limit, you're writing a short story. What you'll want is a condensed story, take a critical eye to your work and remove what's not necessary to get the point of the story you're telling.
I'm quite new to writing myself. My first story was short, some 4100 words, just an initial experience. What I found out is that it's too short for what I'm going for, so instead of writing stories below 10 000 words I will go for stories above 20 000 and below 60 000 words until I feel I am ready to begin working on my first novel (2-3 years from now). Writing my first story I saw that there wasn't much room for description. Short stories and novels are different. Since I'm not going for short stories there is no point exercising them, so I go straight for the longer ones. How to make them longer? I'd say read a lot and see how other writers have done it themselves. And, of course, keep writing. Practice and experience makes you better.
Making a story longer usually requires adding more story, not just more words. This may help: What is Plot Creation and Development?. But a lot of it will simply come down to practicing and gaining experience.
Completely agree. Just keep writing, keep trying new things out and see what works and what doesn't. Eventually you are going to see that your writing will naturally get longer. I remember the days when I would write a scene and it would be a few pages long. Now the same scene is sometimes two to three times longer.
