In one of the earlier entries (or was it a comment in answer to a question?) I said that a story is as long as it needs to be. I was almost right!

A better statement is that a story is as long as the writer needs it to be!

The Mandolin story I started with was some 800 words, and felt complete. The second version was 1000 words, and that felt right too. The third version is around 1300 words, and it feels even better (plus, it's properly edited and proofed). And yes, I normally work the other way, from longer to shorter.

It's still the same story, although there are major changes ' additions ' in each version. In each, the conflict is the same ' the main character (protagonist) needing to escape from a woman who is intent on making him famous (although, in the second version, the implication was that he had killed her). The same story line could be as long as a novel, with some additional actions and partial resolutions. No, I'm not, at this time, thinking of taking it to that extreme.

Maybe that's one of the lessons I should have learned WAY back, when I made a living as a freelance writer. That was before I got into computer systems design and management, which paid better and was a more consistent way to earn money to keep my family fed. An editor I was dealing with made a comment that the piece I had submitted was too short for his magazine's needs as a story, and too long to be a filler. She didn't make any suggestions on what to do with the story, and it was rejected by a number of other people as well, without comments. But, in those days, I was trying to emulate Frederic Brown, and his very short pieces,so I made it a matter of 'artistic integrity'� ' short shorts or NOTHING!

(An aside: Flash fiction wasn't a recognised approach, and had no demand. The Internet was for geeks, sponsored through Universities, and nobody was even dreaming of the Web.)

A story should be as long as you need it to be. Sometimes, it will be very short ' flash fiction, fillers, etc. Sometimes it will be a novel or a series of books. It can be the same story in many different disguises, but the length will depend on just how much you need to 'torture'� the protagonist or antagonist before success or failure. How much 'torture'� you can give the characters depends on how strong and deep the emotional needs are. And editors LOVE to see the maximum in 'torture'� ' especially when they can inflict it on the writers.

Ah, if only I had known this thirty-odd years ago, when I first started out as a freelance writer! (Well, maybe I did know it, but youth and idealism'�.)

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