Welcome to Writers Talkback. If you are a new user, your account will have to be approved manually to prevent spam. Please bear with us in the meantime
Word Count for Short Story Competition
I'm still new to writing and would appreciate your advice please.
I'm entering a short story competition and the only guidance on length is 'up to 2000 words'. Any thoughts on what is an acceptable minimum length? I've written 1650 words and my story feels complete but I wonder whether I should add another paragraph to get nearer 2000.
Comments
Good luck, Keith!
Having said that, a few years ago the Bristol Short Story winner was a tiny piece of flash fiction. The max length for this comp is 4,000 words!
So... quality, not quantity.
The Bristol Prize win seems to be an exception (that was the year I was shortlisted!) and I have often seen judges say 'why would you not use all the words at your disposal?'. But my answer to that would be 'because it is complete as it is'.
Having said that, I wouldn't take the risk of entering something that would probably better suit a different competition.
But 1650 is well within the bounds of reasonable for a 2k comp.