Hi, I'm currently writing some short ghost stories for an anthology, and wondered how long and how short they should be. I envisaged a book for commuters. I'd welcome your experience, and feelings on this please.
Hi, I'm currently writing some short ghost stories for an anthology, and wondered how long and how short they should be. I envisaged a book for commuters. I'd welcome your experience, and feelings on this please.
10,000 words does seem very long, but if that's how many words you need to tell your story it's not wrong. Personally, I like to have a word limit because it does make you choose those words carefully. I usually write a long, rambling first draft just to get the story 'out there' and then I cut, edit and cut again. When you have to look for them it's surprising how many unnecessary words you can find!
The only advice I would give is that if you're planning to publish the anthology as a paperback the number of pages in it will affect your costs, but that doesn't need to be a consideration with an ebook.
Good luck with it!
Everyone will have their own idea of how short a story should be to fall into the 'short' category.
Personally, I think 10,000 words is a bit too long but that's probably just because none of mine are even close to that so far. Also, I feel you should be able to read a short story in one go and not put it down.
5,000 could be a nice average. Again, that's just my opinion.
Hi, thanks for this. I didn't know about The Fiction Desk. I'll tell the others in my group, and maybe get them to apply.
It's me who's organising the collection. I'm trying to trim down my current short ghost story down to 10,000 words, but the other members tend to be a lot more succinct than that. I don't want to impose a limit on them if that's their style. It's supposed to be a fun exercise.