Anyone have an idea what the average length is (in # of words) for entries? Also, what is the minimum entry length? I know the max is 17,000 words, but what if my would-be entry is mor elike 5,000 words? Or 2,000?
Posted by Bent Tree (Member # 7777) on :
I don't know what the average is, but according to Dave Wolverton, one of the judges, more is better. I'll try to find the quote and post it here.
That isn't to say it is nescessary. Short pieces place to.
Posted by Bent Tree (Member # 7777) on :
Quote from Dave Farland's "Kick in the Pants"
quote:4) Story Length. I've noticed over the years that if you are entering a contest where, say, there is a 10,000-word limit on the length of stories, the longer stories tend to do best. Here's why: let's say that you write a beautiful and brilliant short story that is five pages long. In it, you show that you're a genius in four different passages. Now, I come in and enter a story that is forty pages long, but in it I show that I'm a genius twenty times over. Who do you think has a better chance of winning the contest? Obviously, with a longer story I have a good shot at overwhelming those folks who write beautifully over a brief period. And the truth of it is that in a longer story, where I have more time to spend developing characters that the judges will care about, I can probably create a more powerful story, too.
[This message has been edited by Bent Tree (edited July 21, 2008).]
Posted by JeanneT (Member # 5709) on :
Out of curiousity, I just figured a rough average of the stories in volume 22. It came out to very close to 7,000 words which is a bit on the long side for short stories, but nowhere near the maximum. Of course, averages don't mean much either and some were longer, some shorter. But there was a surprising similarity in their being pretty close to that range. Of course, that was only one year.
Posted by annepin (Member # 5952) on :
It would be interesting to look at the median and mode, as well.
Honestly, though, I wouldn't worry about length. Write a good story. Period. Of course, one of the things I like about submitting to WotF is that they _do_ allow longer stories. Most other pubs tend to want around < 7,000 words, it seems.
Posted by JeanneT (Member # 5709) on :
That would be interesting but I don't feel like working that hard. LOL
I think you're right. Just go with the right length for the story. I've read they've had a flash winner as well as winners near the maximum length. I suspect that extremely short better be even more superlative than usual.
Posted by WouldBe (Member # 5682) on :
I guess they have a fixed number of selections S, and want the published volume to be a minimal length, L? So the average story length has to be L/S.
Posted by JeanneT (Member # 5709) on :
They don't have a fixed number of selections.
They have a minimum and a maximum number. The minimum is the twelve winners. The maximum number is the twelve winners plus the non-winning finalists.
Posted by WouldBe (Member # 5682) on :
Just a detail. The principle is the same. A fixed length that must be filled by a substantially limited number of stories.
Posted by JeanneT (Member # 5709) on :
According to Amazon, volume 22 had 121,000 words. However there were 4 articles which took out about 20,000 words of the available maximum. That means that (assuming they want articles in each volume.) that they need to fill 100,000 words. That gives an average of 8,000 if they use ONLY the winners. However they have the option of using all of the non-winning finalists as I mentioned. That would be 32 storeis in all. If they used all of those they could have an average of around 3,250 words. So I'd say they have plenty of flexibility and don't have to select according to length.
