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Alright, so Ive written two stories so far. I've received lots of amazing feedback, but there's one thing I noticed a lot. People either say my story is too long or too short. The first story I made was kinda long and it had a stable plot. Due to this, people rarely finished it, but they liked that they had connections to the characters. In the second story, it was way shorter, and you got less of a chance to grow close to the characters. People either say its too long or too short, what do you prefer. I wanna make something that people will like.

I typically prefer shorter stories. The best stories though, are almost always long in length. As a general rule, if people are complaining about the length, the length isnt the problem, its just that its probably a bit boring....theres plenty of 8/8 length stories on this site with high ratings that no active members would say is too long. Its all about execution. 

Okay! I'll make it more engaging and exciting. Thank you!

Shorter games get more immediate attention, longer ones bring in higher ratings over time and make you more respected. (If I ever finish my main project I'll be able to just unzip and lay my big digital dick on the table at any time someone wants to argue with me.)

People are also be more likely to read stories without huge amounts of text on each page, and they feel more interactive if there's more choices that dramatically change things.

I never knew it worked that way!

Ohhh okay, that's good to know! Thank you!

My advice is to write whatever you want to and worry about the length later. While most of the site’s top storygames are extremely long (over a hundred thousand words), there are shorter ones which are very highly rated too. I personally admire writers who can tell a compelling, cohesive narrative in a few words.

What matters most is that your story’s length fits its scope. For instance, trying to write a larger story where a shorter one would suffice means you’ll have lots of unnecessarily wordy paragraphs or filler text that the reader would get bored skimming through. On the other hand, if you planned for an epic with multiple branches and parallel character arcs, trying to reduce your word count may mean the plot appears abrupt with too many under-developed elements. 

Either way, best of luck with whatever you decide to write next. There’s also a contest going on too, if you're interested in getting guaranteed feedback: https://chooseyourstory.com/forums/news-and-updates/message/30125
 

Oh, Thanks for the link! I'll check out the competition. Thank you for your advice!

I think that it's a good idea to decide which characters you want to flesh out and which characters you want to leave vague. Trying to give too many characters too many details will lead to a bloated story.

If it were me, I'd really dig in and write maybe three to four really well-developed characters and have them interact with each other extensively and have side characters only show up to move the plot forward if necessary. Hell, I wouldn't even give the side characters names.

The story length will therefore depend solely on how many main characters you have and how much you want to develop them. As long as you stay focused on the main characters, I think that even a long story isn't really a bad thing.

P.S. I'm a noob too as far as writing is concerned. If you think I'm not making a lot of sense, and you disagree with my views, that is totally fine. There are so many different ways to write a good story. :]

P.P.S I actually read your second story and had left a review. That was before I had read your first one, so I probably missed some references. Maybe add a link to your first story in the description of the second one so dumbasses like me don't read them out of order ;)

I get that, focus more on major characters, and for the side's, don't worry TOO much. Thanks!

I'll also add a link lmao

A story should be as long as it needs to be, no less and no more. Complaints of it being too short might mean a reader felt like it wasn't developing certain story elements enough, or just that they enjoyed it and wanted more. And if they're saying a story feels like it's running over long for the plot though, there may be reasons it's struggling to hold people's attention.

There's really no objective measure of "too long" though when we've got storygames like Eternal and Dead Man Walking that are the most popular on the site.

But seriously, don't write for other people. Writing is ultimately something you do for yourself, because there are stories in your head that need to get out. Criticism and advice can help you be more mindful of certain things and hone your ability to do that more effectively, but you're never going to please everyone. If you write something YOU are happy with, it's bound to click with someone out there though.

That said, it had actually slipped my notice that you published two of those stories, I'll have to see how the other one goes.

Yeah in my first story, I think it was mostly the before part of the chaos. Thank you!

If you're trying to find the "correct" length story to please everyone who ever has or ever will visit this site, that's a fool's errand. It cannot be done.

If you're just trying to get that 7-8 rating based on length alone, shoot for around 100K words, that should do it.

Otherwise, just write your story. It is completely impossible to please everyone.

Your right, thank you so much! I'll strive to do the best I can