Forum / Hello, I'm new, does anyone here write fiction more than 2K words?

Sturla Grey
Dec 18, 04:29pm

Hello Dear Fellow Writers

I am so happy to be on fictionaut with you all.

In my initial wanderings through the groups I see a lot of super short fiction, 1000 words or less, and a lot of poetry, a lot of it well written.

I wrote longer fiction, say 3K-6K words in length mas o menos.

Anyone else out there do this? I like the short short stuff but I am seeking longer stuff as well. Looking for the tribe, if it's here direct the way!

Thank you and thanks for your writing!

Amanda

Sturla Grey
Dec 18, 04:30pm

write, not wrote.

RW Spryszak
Dec 18, 04:58pm

I.

Gary Hardaway
Dec 18, 05:18pm

Many write but few read anything longer than 1000 words here. Some take larger pieces and subdivide them into bite-sized little lots.

Sturla Grey
Dec 18, 05:25pm

any idea why people don't engage as much with regular sized short form stories? TYI

Mathew Paust
Dec 18, 05:42pm

So much good stuff, so little time. Look in "groups" for those that indicate longer pieces.

Sturla Grey
Dec 18, 05:50pm

how does one's story get on the recommended list?

Gary Hardaway
Dec 18, 06:01pm

The recommended list derives from automated tracking of views, comments, and "faves". An algorithm assesses these signifiers of popularity and ranks pieces accordingly. Quality sometimes determines response/ranking but the algorithm can only track and assess quantitative data.

Marcus Speh
Dec 18, 08:57pm

Don't believe what Gary says, Amanda: the truth is simple and easy to understand for anyone even without any prior technical knowledge as long as you have the patience to follow the steps involved (therein lies the magic of the site and of the ranking):

THE TRUTH ABOUT FICTIONAUT'S RANKING PROCESS

1. One of the founders of the site has a German shepherd dog named "Fritz Lang".

2. Each time a new story is submitted to the site, each time a story gets a fave or any comment, the dog gets a sausage. (All sausages are of the same shape, size and quality. They're imported from Milan. This may not be relevant.)

3. When a story gets a negative comment, the founder kicks the dog (only a little! The founder is not a dog-kicking kind of person, this is just the process and the dog is, after all, German, hence responds to a modicum of kicks with gratitude rather than chagrin).

4. At the end of each week, the color of the sausages fed to the dog because of the stories changes. Unfortunately (now this is a tad complicated, I admit it:) the dog is color blind. It sometimes misses things.

5. After ten sausages (this number has increased since the early days of Fictionaut—the dog used to get only one sausage per day!), printed versions of all the stories submitted during the past fifteen hours are placed on a carpet in the founder's study and the dog is asked to shuffle them. The order of the stories after the dog's shuffling of the papers results in the "Recommended" list!

6. The dog is clever. It has realized that the sausages will come irrespective of the way of the shuffling as long as some shuffling takes place. (This is probably why Gary says the "algorithm" assesses only 'quantitative, not qualitative data', whatever that means? I'm only a dog walker not a rocket scientist?)

7. The founder's family thinks this whole thing takes too much time and that the dog gets too fat. Together with engineers in Wiesbaden, Germany, they've been working on an alternative routine that does not involve sausages or color changes or the shuffling of papers.

8. Whatever the story behind the story, community members regularly and enthusiastically agree (after a joyous period of disagreeing followed by final agreement) that getting on the "Recommended" list is a synergistic effect, largely the result of three things: story, timing, participation; and three actions: posting, commenting and ranking.

9. I really don't get it!

10. There has to be a tenth item, at least within the sphere of Christian influence. Also, there are ten sausages, remember?

Marcus Speh
Dec 18, 08:59pm

447 words — and welcome to Fictionaut, Amanda!

Gary Hardaway
Dec 18, 09:50pm

Marcus exaggerates the role of sausages.

Foster Trecost
Dec 18, 10:47pm

With all the sausage here in Germany, why would he import from Italy? Italy has the worst wurst.

Foster Trecost
Dec 18, 10:49pm

Yes, I'm aware wurst is pronounced with a v sound :)

James Lloyd Davis
Dec 19, 12:44am

No one ever told me about the sausages. Now it all makes perfect sense.

Joani Reese
Dec 19, 12:49am

The dog likes the blue sausages best.

Sturla Grey
Dec 19, 12:55am

ok - well if anyone reading this writes longer form short stories, if I may call them "full" short stories please drop a line here and I will go and read them!

stephen hastings-king
Dec 19, 01:18am

What JLD said. I knew that, sooner or later, someone would tell what went on behind that curtain.

Welcome, Amanda. I'm of no help with your quest for longer pieces. But welcome all the same.

James Claffey
Dec 19, 02:57am

i like long sausages.

Sturla Grey
Dec 19, 04:29am

Thanks for the kind welcome. I look forward to more conversations Chaps!

Sturla Grey
Dec 19, 04:31am

PS- if you have any attention span left over after all you reading and writing, please read my stories and please comment! They take approximately 15-25 minutes to read depending on word count. Thank you!

Gloria Garfunkel
Dec 23, 09:55pm

Amanda, I had a 7000 word story nobody read, Birds of Prayer, so I divided it into 8 "hot flash linked fictions" and I got at least five people to read it and the first three in the series were published in a journal. I like this idea of linked flash fiction series. I think it improves my focus and writing. I post them on the group Serial Hot Flashes. I then pull them back together and try to publish them as whole stories but haven't succeeded at that yet. A lot of original novels, like Charles Dickens were written as serials. It's an interesting way to think of writing. I'd love to have exchanges with you about it. Welcome.
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