Forum / Longer pieces

• 
  Andrew Stancek

  Mar 19, 01:19am

  I am very new to Fictionaut, just getting my bearings.

  One very obvious observation I have made is that it seems to be almost totally a venue for short pieces. I find that quite surprising, although perhaps it makes sense with the current flowering of flash everywhere.

  Has that always been the case here? Is there any group which deals with longer pieces? Are there any members who are interested in longer pieces? Should we start a group?

• 
  Frank Vander Rasky

  Mar 19, 03:12am

  Hi Andrew. Welcome to Fictionaut!

  If you’re looking for an Fnaut group which deals with longer pieces, try this one. The group is appropriately named The Longer Story (according to the admin’s description at the following link, for stories 1,500-words or longer):

  http://www.fictionaut.com/groups/the-longer-story

  By the way, I love your three-word description of your occuption, “writer, translator, dreamer.”

  I can relate to writer and dreamer, so already I’m liking you and have just added your name to my contact list. Please stick around. There are times on the Fictionaut forum when I could use a good translator.

• 
  Frank Vander Rasky

  Mar 19, 03:37am

  Grrrrr...I exterminate typos. Delete in the second last paragraph ‘occuption’ and replace with occupation.

• 
  Christopher Allen

  Mar 19, 10:39am

  Hi, Andrew,
  I've found that anything over 500 words gets little attention if not many people already know your name. My 250-word stories get many more hits than my 1000-worders. I once posted an 8000-word short story: 6 hits, no comments. I'm certain no one wanted to take the time to read it, and I have to ask myself why I posted it anyway.

  It's no one's fault. I'm sure your story is wonderful.

• 
  James Lloyd Davis

  Mar 19, 03:45pm

  Andrew, yes, flash fiction and poems seem to get the most attention. It's not surprising, given the volume here. There is so much flash fiction that it tends to drown out longer prose when it shows up.

  There are groups for longer pieces and I've used them, but they are not all that active. The front page and the forums get a lot of attention, but when longer stories show up ... not so much.

  However, if you do gain a reputation for good writing here with shorter pieces, then you can slip in a longer story and people will read it and comment because consistent quality creates expectation. It's a fact of life that time is a commodity for people on the net and they tend to gravitate toward the known and often miss some really great fiction because it's long ... because of what they sub-consciously consider a 'significant investment of time.'

  Of course, there are many who will dive into a long story, but if you haven't grabbed them within the first few sentences ...

  But you know that.

  Welcome to Fictionaut! I look forward to reading your work.

• 
  Susan Tepper

  Mar 19, 04:20pm

  Hi Andrew,
  I've read some of your work here and on the 52/250 Group and it is awfully good writing. What everyone said seems to be fact here on F'naut: you get more attention on short flash fiction. But if you want to post something longer then you should, by all means. Post whatever you want and see what happens.
  My longer stories get less hits, favs, etc, but I still post them because I'm happy if one person sees it and likes it.

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