At a recent writer’s conference, I was talking with another writer about short stories. She happens to be working on writing some, and I have written some in the past. However, she told me that when she shares her short stories with others, they want more–more details, more descriptions, more information, more everything. I shared how I had run into the same issue the last time I had written a couple of short stories.

Then, of course, there’s flash fiction, and let’s not forget the microfiction, which means literally creating a story with one or two sentences. Now, with microfiction, I can fully understand “wanting more”. However, the thing is I haven’t heard many people declaring they “want more” from flash fiction and microfiction. Go figure!

Therefore, I just thought I’d take a look at what a short story is in a blog post. I started by doing a Google search to find out what the required word count for a short story is, since we, writers, measure everything by word count. I was surprised by the span I found. According to Writer’s Digest, they claim that according to “general guidelines”, short stories range from 1,500 words to 30,000 words. ChristopherFielden.com states “for contests/competitions”, short story length is usually between 1,000 and 5,000 words, although he has seen some competitions with a 17,00 word maximum. Finally, according to “Every Writer’s  Resource”, the short story falls between 1,000 and 15,000 words.

Now, based on my experience in looking to submit short stories to magazine publications, the maximum I have seen accepted for a short story is 2,000 words, and that’s rare. So, apparently, the actual length of a short story varies greatly, but what I know a short story must have are: a beginning, a middle, and an end. I believe that the reader should feel satisfied that they have, indeed, read a complete story when they reach the end of a short story.

However, I would like to remind readers that a short story is not a novel, nor is it a novella. Therefore, you cannot expect too many details, extremely detailed descriptions, nor every detail of your characters’ lives. What you should expect is to fill in some details with your own imagination based on the details the writer does provide, and you should definitely expect a clear beginning, middle, and end–an end that is clear and feels like an end. You should leave a short story feeling satisfied.

So, I encourage all readers to ask yourself, when you reach the end of a short story, “do I feel satisfied”, then, if you do not feel satisfied, specifically share with the writer what left you feeling unsatisfied. That could be quite helpful to the writer, but, it could also just be a matter of your personal preference for longer stories. So, I suppose one more question to ask yourself is “how many short stories do I read”.

If you are a reader of short stories, I would love to hear your thoughts on this in the comments section below. And, if you’re a writer of short stories, I’d love to hear about your experience with writing short stories as well as reactions from your readers. Please comment below. I love to interact with my readers.