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How Long Is The Average Short Story

How Long Is The Average Short Story. The 'regular' short story, usually found in periodicals or anthology collections. (any shorter than that, and you’re writing what’s known as flash fiction, which is pretty cool, too.)

Reading Comprehension Worksheet Paul and Austin
Reading Comprehension Worksheet Paul and Austin from www.comprehension-worksheets.com

There are plenty of published short stories that exceed 12000 words, for example. Precise word count definitions will vary, but as a general rule of thumb, a short story is anything up to about 7500 words (sometimes 10,000), with higher word counts typically called novelettes, and short novels called novellas. A novel is anything over 40,000 words.

There Are A Lot Of Elements That Go Into Writing A Story, Like Fleshing Out Characters, Piecing Together The Plot, And Crafting The Perfect Ending.


Short story competitions vary in length, but the average short story length is between 2,000 and 3,000 words. And the divisions between flash/short story/novella are not cut and dry. Most 'genre' zines will features works at this length.

In Addition, There Are Subsets Of Short Stories With Even More Restrictive Word Counts.


There are plenty of published short stories that exceed 12000 words, for example. Anything where the text is long enough to be broken up into chapters. Novels range from 55,000 to 300,000 words, but i wouldn’t recommend aiming for the high end, as books the length of war & peace aren’t exactly the easiest to sell.

How Long Is A Novel?


You can sell your short books on amazon kindle and to popular magazines. As long as you credit me and link back to this site. Below is a guide to story lengths and how they might be named (there’s a fair bit of overlap as research shows that opinions differ greatly):

Precise Word Count Definitions Will Vary, But As A General Rule Of Thumb, A Short Story Is Anything Up To About 7500 Words (Sometimes 10,000), With Higher Word Counts Typically Called Novelettes, And Short Novels Called Novellas.


(any shorter than that, and you’re writing what’s known as flash fiction, which is pretty cool, too.) The 'regular' short story, usually found in periodicals or anthology collections. On the technical side of things, authors need to consider the number of words that will be in their completed.

How Long Does It Take To Write A Short Story?


There are general guidelines for each literary category: A short story is a work of fiction with fewer than 10,000 words. Under 70,000 or over 100,000 could be hard to sell to an agent/publisher and might seem unusually short or long to.

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