How long is a typical short story?

Question

I usually write juggernaut novels, so I honestly don't know...

How long is the average short story? Word count? Page count?

Answer 1

They average out to around five thousand words.  It depends heavily on the genre.  Some are quite long.  Vonnegut's rule for them was they had to be short enough to read in one sitting.  (Without much effort, would be a good modifier for that rule.)

A good way to get yourself a decent range is to look through the market guides and see what their submission min/max are.  Also, target your specific market publications and keep a kind of rolling count of how long the stories are.

But 5,000 words is a decent ballpark, and it's a little on the heavy side too.  So you could do well shorter and be comfortable.  Mine fall around 2,500 most of the time.

Answer 2

Depends on perspective. I don't think there is an accepted length.

Some magazines will only accept up to 5,000 words and others up to 12,000.

It's surprisingly difficult to fit a plot into such a small amount of words, so long enough to get a point across, short enough so that it doesn't sound like a condensed novella. I think 7,000 words is a good number.

Answer 3

If it's for like school then like nine or ten but for like real life twenty or thirty.

Answer 4

I don't think there really is a length. I guess it depends on how long you want it?

Answer 5

My 9th grade teacher made us write short stories. She said they had to be like a max of eight pages..