Web Fiction

[caseyquinn]

In my own magazine and reading I have tried to put my finger on what i call too many words for the web. Right now i have that number at 5,000 words but thinking that even at that length, people lose interest or stop reading.

I think in the long run this will increase more sites, which I see already, who just post micro fiction and flash fiction and less true short stories of any length.

Is 5,000 the right length? When do you stop reading?

[locusta]

I tend to stop reading and start skimming after I have to scroll the page once or twice unless I'm really engaged. But if a website uses links to create 'pages', I've been know to read 10ish 'pages' in a sitting.

I haven't tried it myself, but heard the number 2500-3000 words per chapter on The Secrets of Writing podcast. The podcast creator is arguing that you can have long web fiction/ebook fiction so long as each chapter is only about 2500 words. Its a digestible amount and can be read on a commute or the like. With regards to short stories, I imagine the principle may be the same.

What do you consider to be a 'true' short fiction length? It seems to be all over the place to me.

[caseyquinn]

That is an interesting idea. You are more likely to read a story if the screen only shows say 500 words but the story is 5,000 and you need to scroll through pages more often then if you are just overwhelmed with 5,000 words and a really long page. I will have to keep that in mind!

I agree that the definition is all over the place. If people believe after short stories come novella's and most publishers won't touch a novella unless it is at least 15,000 words (if they touch it at all) then that leaves a huge amount of room for short stories. Personally I won't exceed in my own writing a few thousand words. If you are going to write 7,000 or 8,000 words on a story.... find a new plot of new character and make it a novella...

[Calliopenjo]

Originally Posted by caseyquinn

In my own magazine and reading I have tried to put my finger on what i call too many words for the web. Right now i have that number at 5,000 words but thinking that even at that length, people lose interest or stop reading.

I think in the long run this will increase more sites, which I see already, who just post micro fiction and flash fiction and less true short stories of any length.

Is 5,000 the right length? When do you stop reading?

For me it depends on the the story. If the story keeps my interest then it doesn't matter to me how long it is.

[Valkyrie]

Typically, 1,000 words will begin to really bog down a reader. Some say it is attention span, but I think it is the staring at a monitor with un-ending blocks of text. If something is broken up with interesting visuals-ie: bold type, headers, etc...I'll keep reading.

[caseyquinn]

Wow, 1000 words is a short peak though i agree it is a good length for web. After that, the story needs to be really interesting to be sucesful.

I try to give a story a chance everytime and not stop reading after the first two paragraphs but sometimes it is tough online. I agree that the format really makes a difference. I try to avoid websites with black backgrounds as it hurts my eyes reading against it and if the font is too small, etc.

I really do think micro and flash fiction will be very popular in the years to come

[Valkyrie]

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