Is 4000 words good for a short story?
Most short stories are between 2,000 and 7,000 words long, with the most popular length between 2,500 and 4,000 words. Unlike a novel or even a novella, a short story is about just a small slice of life, with one story thread and one theme.
A work of fiction between 20,000 and 49,999 words is considered a novella. Once a book hits the 50,000 word mark, it is generally considered a novel. (However, a standard novel is around 80,000 words, so books between 50,000 to 79,999 words may be called short novels.)
A short story length is typically around 5,000 words in length but maybe as long as 7000 words. Stories that range from 500 to 1,00 words are classed as flash fiction (here's a great example). Stories less than 500 words are considered to be micro-fiction.
If you'd like some guidelines, you can assume that the average nonfiction book is about 50k words and that most nonfiction books have about 12 chapters. So around 4,000 words would be an “average” chapter length. That number actually lines up pretty well with the data we have on this.
Writing 4,000 words will take about 1.7 hours for the average writer typing on a keyboard and 3.3 hours for handwriting. However, if the content needs to include in-depth research, links, citations, or graphics such as for a blog article or high school essay, the length can grow to 13.3 hours.
A short story is a work of prose fiction that can be read in one sitting—usually between 20 minutes to an hour. There is no maximum length, but the average short story is 1,000 to 7,500 words, with some outliers reaching 10,000 or 15,000 words.
| Word Count | Slow (125 wpm) | Average (300 wpm) |
|---|---|---|
| 4,000 words | 32 minutes | 13.3 minutes |
| 5,000 words | 40 minutes | 16.7 minutes |
| 7,500 words | 60 minutes | 25.0 minutes |
| 10,000 words | 1.3 hours | 33.3 minutes |
How Long Should a Short Story Be? The average short story should run anywhere from 5,000 to 10,000 words, but they can be anything above 1,000 words. Flash fiction is a short story that is 500 words or less.
Very Short Story: 1,000 – 5,000 words – $0.00 – $0.99. Short Story: 5,000 – 10,000 words – $0.99 – $1.99. Novelette: 10,000 – 20,000 words – $1.99 – $3.99. Novella: 20,000 – 40,000 words – $2.99 – $5.99.
However, the word “short” can mean different things, but generally speaking, a short story can be anywhere from 1,000–15,000 words, but most publications only publish short stories between 3000–5,000 words. Anything less than 1000 words is categorized either as a flash fiction or a micro-fiction.
What makes a winning short story?
Build to the climax efficiently
In short stories—emphasis on short—your plot needs to build efficiently. Every paragraph, every sentence, every word should take the reader closer to the climax. If a piece doesn't serve this purpose, cut it. Short stories just do not have space for meandering.
A person speaks on average 120 to 160 words a minute, which means the average five-minute presentation will be anywhere from 600 to 800 words.
In any of these books, some chapters are longer than others. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone has an average of 4,560 words per chapter. Twilight uses about 4,580 words per chapter.
Answer: 4000 words is 8 pages single spaced or 16 pages double spaced.
Light novels are often called ranobe (ラノベ) or, in English, LN. The average length of a light novel is about 50,000 words, and is published in the bunkobon format (A6, 10.5 cm×14.8 cm or 4.1"x5. 8").
Easily. 4000 words isn't much at all; the time-consuming part is the research phase. Once you know what you want to write, you can type that length out in a few hours.
If you came here for the number alone, the answer I come to a bit later is about one peer-reviewed reference for every 200 words of essay body, based on the body being 75% of the word count.
A 4,000 word essay is 26 to 27 paragraphs. A 5,000 word essay is 33 to 34 paragraphs. A 6,000 word essay is 40 paragraphs.
While there are many different short story styles, here we will consider three popular short story types: lyrical, flash fiction, and vignette.
There is no defined number of paragraphs in a short story, as it's up to the writer to decide how to structure their manuscript. Generally speaking, if you're expecting to write ~5,000 words, you could be looking at 25 paragraphs if they are 200 words long.
How many stories do you need for a short story collection?
Once you get about 10, you might have yourself a short story collection. And remember—you can usually collect stories even if some or all have been printed elsewhere before.
Short stories, which are usually between 1,000 and 7,500 words long and very rarely have chapters. They do, however, sometimes include scene transitions and breaks to denote a change in setting or scene, or the passage of time.
If you've written a novella and are seeking a publisher, you can be confident that a small press is a good option. Don't be put off by the fact that not a lot of novellas are published by small presses. Publishing is always a tough act, but if you've got a great novella, you'll see it published if you keep at it.
A novella is a standalone piece of fiction that is shorter than a full-length novel but longer than a short story or novelette.
But you can, and likely should, still write your short story in a single sitting. Of course, it depends how long your short story is, how long you can remain sitting, and whether the passion with which your short narrative whips you up can carry you from beginning to end at hurtling locomotive speed.