Story Length

LightNovelNovice

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So as an author there's something I've always been uncertain of... how long should a story be to be satisfying?

As a reader, how many words would you say makes for a good read?
 

Cannight

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This is the kind of question that really has different answers depending on the genre/reader. I can stomach and even appreciate long stories if the author can write it without making it a slog to read through.
 

LightNovelNovice

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This is the kind of question that really has different answers depending on the genre/reader. I can stomach and even appreciate long stories if the author can write it without making it a slog to read through.
Honestly I'm mostly curious about how short a story can be while still being satisfying. I'm on my 10th 2k word chapter for a story, and feel I'm probably around a third of the way through writing it? I just wonder if that's too short.
 

Cannight

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Honestly I'm mostly curious about how short a story can be while still being satisfying. I'm on my 10th 2k word chapter for a story, and feel I'm probably around a third of the way through writing it? I just wonder if that's too short.
That's fair. In terms of word count/chapter, you're definitely above the average (1.3k-1.5k words), but for general story length, you're probably on the shorter side. I've seen lots of stories go up to 100-200 chapters.
 

Fox-Trot-9

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Honestly I'm mostly curious about how short a story can be while still being satisfying. I'm on my 10th 2k word chapter for a story, and feel I'm probably around a third of the way through writing it? I just wonder if that's too short.
If you're writing 2k words per chapter, and you feel you're a third of the way through the story, then that's 30 chapters and 60k words, a goodish length for a novel on the shorter side. A story you can sink your teeth into.
 

Indicterra

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For me I stop when I feel like getting a completion.

A chapter where mc is journey to some place? It will end when he reach that place.

A chapter with a fight? It will end after completion of that fight.

Ofcourse occasionally I end with teasing portion of what going to happen in next chapter as cliff hanger

So my chat is average at 4K
 

LightNovelNovice

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If you're writing 2k words per chapter, and you feel you're a third of the way through the story, then that's 30 chapters and 60k words, a goodish length for a novel on the shorter side. A story you can sink your teeth into.
Thanks for the info! I'll try not to worry about length of story then. :)
 

LilRora

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This is going to massively depend on the genre, style, person, and publishing model. I think for me the best length is 200~400k words, which make three to five physical books. Shorter and it can easily feel rushed and unsatisfying, longer and they tend to drag out and become too convoluted, like Game of Thrones - good story but at some point it becomes a bit too much to keep track of.

With that said though, there's a lot of exceptions to that. Azarinth Healer has 3 million words and it's good, because it's supposed to be a long, gradually progressing story and there's not much deeper plot until close to the end - plus it really helps it was released gradually over many years, chapter after chapter. That makes it fundamentally different from a shorter story that's supposed to be thrilling and engaging, with quick development and a lot of action.

I've also read a number of stories where each volume was completely separate from each other, sharing only the main cast and uniform timeline. Then it's different, because arguably each book is its separate satisfying story - though I never liked how quickly many of them ended.

And the last kind I'm gonna mention (there's probably more) are stories that are supposed to describe a very short period of time. You won't encounter them much online, but they are much more common in paperback and especially popular in the historical genre. When your action spans a month, or a week, or even a day, you can't make a long story - they are usually 50-100k words long if even that, but they can also be really good.

Sooo... TLDR: around 200~400k is the best for me if we're talking about a model similar to modern fiction. Depending on a number of details, every length can be good, but it has to roughly match the genre, style, and content.
 

CharlesEBrown

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The story that's up is about 1K per chapter and will probably end around chapter 20 or so, maybe 25 (but I already have plans for a sequel)
The one that's pending is a lot longer all around, about 3k per chapter and at most one third of the way through at present.
 

Gryphon

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Personally, I prefer books and stories over 600 pages(~150,000 words)or longer. Any less, and I hope its a series. Unless the stories extremely tight, the 300-400 page count stories just feel like they're not unleashing their full potential unless its a full series. Then again, I majorly read fantasy, so standard slice-of-life literature or something more down to earth could easily make do with less.
 

melchi

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For reference a light novel should be 80k to 100k words . But we all know the sky is the limit.
 
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