Hey, amazing writers! After I posted my 25 Short Story Ideas last week, I got a few questions about the usual length of a short story. I’m going to show you the actual word counts of some very successful published short stories, but first, here’s the simple answer…

A typical short story word count is between 4,000 and 10,000 words.

However, a short story can run shorter…even as short as 1,000 words! (Any shorter than that, and you’re writing what’s known as flash fiction, which is pretty cool, too.)

But what’s the ideal length for a short story? And how many pages in a Word document does that add up to? To shed a little light on this, I did some research.

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I counted the words in the first three short stories in Best American Short Stories 2020 and then figured out how many pages they would be in Microsoft Word, Times New Roman font, 12 pt, double spaced (which is a pretty standard way to format fiction.)

 

The first story, “Godmother Tea” by Selena Anderson, was published in Oxford American. It’s 7,616 words. In a Word document, this would be 22 pages. (This is a great story. I really enjoyed it.)

The second story, “The Apartment” by T.C. Boyle, was published in McSweeneys. It’s 7,382 words. In a Word document, that would also be 22 pages.

The third story was “A Faithful but Melancholy Account of Several Barbarities Lately Committed” by Jason Brown, published in The Sewanee Review. It’s 6,931 words, and would be 21 pages in a Word document.

I also looked at a couple of short stories that have been published in The New Yorker.

“Premium Harmony” by Stephen King, which was published twelve years ago, is much shorter: 3,720 words. That would be 12 pages in a properly formatted Word document.

“Cat Person” by Kristen Roupenian, which created a real sensation when it came out in 2017, is 7,203 words, which would be 22 pages formatted in Microsoft Word.

Those are all literary stories, but I also took a look at the collection Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2020.

“Life Sentence” by Matthew Baker, published in Lightspeed Magazine, is a science fiction story. It’s long: 9,259 words. That would be 35 pages in a Word document. If you write much longer than that, you’re probably writing a novelette or a novella.

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Clearly, 7,000 words or so is a pretty average story length. If I were writing a short story, personally, I’d aim for around 20 pages in Microsoft Word, and I’d challenge myself to only include what was truly necessary to pack a literary punch.

Edited to add: However…one of our awesome friends, Bonnie, has just pointed out in the comments section that a lot of short story contests ask for submissions between 1,200 to 3,000 words. Great tip! So whether you tend to run short or run long, there are lots of opportunities for you.

I hope this was helpful. If you have comments or opinions about the length of short stories, please share them in the comments section below! If you have questions, go ahead and ask them—I’ll answer if I can. Thanks so much for reading, and happy writing!

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