Found a wild fact about word counts in short fiction that surprised me

I was browsing through some old writers' market guides at a used book store in Portland and saw that most magazines still cap stories at 3,000 words for debut authors, which is way shorter than I thought. Has anyone else run into weird submission limits that caught them off guard?

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emma_mitchell5mo ago

That 50 word limit @the_alex mentioned is brutal. It feels like the same trend everywhere, like how recipes online have a huge life story before the ingredients now. We're all getting pushed to fit ideas into smaller boxes, but the demand for a full experience is still there. I had to cut a 1200 word story down to 500 once and it felt like performing surgery with a butter knife. The real skill is making something feel complete within those arbitrary lines.

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the_alex5mo ago

Portland's used book stores are still gatekeeping with those 3k limits, huh? Once saw a call for "micro-flash fiction" that had to be under 50 words but also include a full plot twist. What's the shortest story you've ever had to chop down for a submission?

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