# [Meta] What is the Average Length of Your Story Hour Installments?



## el-remmen (Oct 21, 2006)

I was looking through the Story Hour index that Sterverooo started way back when and got caught on this part of the entry template he came up with.



			
				steverooo said:
			
		

> *Average Installment Length: *Short/Medium/Long/Verbose (No hard & fast rule, decide for yourself).




And I thought, most people write up their installments in word or some other word-processing program and must keep saved copies of previous installments, we should be able to figure out an actual guideline.

So I went back to my ten most recent installments (including the one I will post tomorrow after proof-reading it) and did a word count and figured out an average.

Here is my data:

The average word count was: 3740.7 words per installment (an installment is any single posting of the story of a story hour, whether it be one whole session, part of a session or multiple game sessions)

The longest one was the most recent, at 7012 words.  This was one of only two of the 10 installments that were longer than 4000 words.

The shortest was 2528, which was one of only two that were shorter than 3000 words.

So anyway, take 5 minutes and figure out your numbers and post them.  At the very least, it will just be interesting to see how much variation there is among this group of writers.

I am adding a poll as well, but that is just for a quick gander at results - I still would like people to actually post them.


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## megamania (Oct 21, 2006)

I tend to keep my Installments or "Segments" as I like to call them short.  Part of this is time related and the other part is I like to show background activities of the bad guys or supporting caste.  Since one or two players watch these I try to limit what is exposed ahead of time within the segment.  Since each segment is numbered, it is easy to track also.

I did not count the words.  I guessed.   In word I fill between 1 and 2 pages per installment so I guess that places me at the < 1000 word section.


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## Ankh-Morpork Guard (Oct 21, 2006)

Word count wise...I have no idea.

I have a minimum, though. I make sure to write AT LEAST 1 full page. Note that this is in Wordperfect, with 10 Font, so one page is a bit more than text for me than for some.


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## BLACKDIRGE (Oct 21, 2006)

I'm around 2500-5000 words, usually avergaing around 3500. I really think that's the sweet spot; it's long enough to give your readers something to chew on, but not so long that it becomes difficult to read on a message board.

BD


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## Lazybones (Oct 21, 2006)

Between 1.5 and 5 pages in Word, single-spaced with 12 point font. Most times I shoot for 2-3 pages, but I will go longer if it ends in a juicy cliffhanger.    I think that comes out somewhere between 1000 and 4000 words, give or take.


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## shilsen (Oct 22, 2006)

I'm generally somewhere around the 2,000 - 4,000 word mark, usually hovering around 3,000.


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## talien (Oct 22, 2006)

After going back through one of my word docs, it's almost exactly 500 words per posting.  I'm now on Chapter 42, so I'm way ahead of what's actually posted online (uh...chapter 15).


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## Jon Potter (Oct 22, 2006)

After doing a sampling similar to el-remmen's I come up with an average of 1,573.1.

Shortest was 743.

Longest was 2,441.


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## Silver Moon (Oct 22, 2006)

I've never done a word count before.  My rule of thumb is five pages +/- a page in Microsoft Word.   I just checked and that puts me in the 3400 to 4200 word range with an average of around 3800.    The exception to that are GameDay logs, where a 30-45 tape block works out to around two Microsoft Word pages  (around 1500 words) which tends to be sufficient material for a chapter.


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## spyscribe (Oct 22, 2006)

When I started out three and a half years ago, I kept updates shorter than I do now, trying for right around 1000 words.  Mostly because when I'm reading a story hour, I don't want each new update to be a huge time commitment. 

These days, as long as the story is tight, I don't worry if an update is running on the longer side.  I've found that how long an update feels is only partly related to the number of words involved.  Format and pacing matter a lot more.

Which is the long way of saying, recent updates have run between 1,500 and 2,500 words.


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## Shemeska (Oct 22, 2006)

My updates tend to be around 9-14 pages in Word, though there might be the occasional 20 page update. But the longer ones I try to cut myself off at the most logical point and leave the leftover material for the next update.


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## PieAndDragon (Oct 22, 2006)

Less that a thousand average. I'm trying to vary the viewpoint between the PCs, resulting in several shorter postings per playing session.


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## el-remmen (Oct 22, 2006)

I went back and did a sampling of 10 installments from a little more than a year ago, and I have been prett consistant. . . I would have guessed that the further back I go the longer the installments are, but the average for those 10 was 3711.5 words / installment.


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## el-remmen (Oct 24, 2006)

Just wanted to bump this in case people haven't seen it, as it was posted over the weekend.


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## Nonlethal Force (Oct 24, 2006)

Well, you asked for it:

[Sblock=Word Count for each installment up to my current installment]I keep track of this data for my personal use, so it is easy to supply here:

2,637
3,333
2,530
2,936
3,291
2,958
3,656
3,537
3,893
3,361
1,027
1,181
1,726
1,941
1,148
1,226
1,382
1,730
1,161
1,417
1,137
2,023
1,157
1,515
1,932
1,463
1,759
1,459
2,460
1,128
2,214
1,596
2,122
1,279
1,854
1,687
2,316
3,150
2,431
1,294
1,823
2,002
1,947
2,209
1,355
1,479
1,142
2,052
1,799
1,368
1,556
1,715
2,046
1,390
2,544
2,308
2,190
2,523
1,538
1,161
1,576
1,521
1,250
1,123
1,553
1,539
1,573
1,692
1,737[/Sblock]

[Sblock=Statistical Analysis of the Above Data]
That averages out to be 1,909.54 words per installment. {Note, the first 10 skew the data}

If anyone is interested, I currently average about 6 installments per chapter.  My average words per chapter is currently at 11,820.09.  My longest chapter was 10 installments at 17,920 words.  My shortest chapter (not counting the current one I just started with my latest update) is 4 installments of 5,486 words.[/Sblock]

I used to teach math, so statistics are a love of mine.  

When I write, I never stop unless I've done 1,000 words.  I find that I can write at most about 2,500 per sitting.  Actually, when I first started my Story Hour (Bitterness Overcome) that was part of why it updated so infrequently.  I would try to write between 3,000-4,000 words and it was simply a daunting task.  I can easily whip out 1,500 words in about 40 minutes ... so I can update more frequently.  

Actually, for me that change alone is the difference between writing about 6,000 words per week rather than the old 3,000 I used to do.  And the thing is, I enjoy writing the 6,000 broken into 4 or 5 chunks much more than I enjoy writing 3,000 words done all at once.

I don't know about other readers, but I tend to read better when a post is 2,000 words or less.  Even some of my longer posts in my own Story Hour feel too long to me.  I'm of the camp that would rather read 1,500 words three times a week than 4,500 once. 

But, as they say - different strokes.  We all beat to a different drummer, and not all of us can write/read as often as the next guy.  Just like there are varying opinions on use of color in the text I think there are varying opinions on text length itself.


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## Nonlethal Force (Oct 24, 2006)

Ankh-Morpork Guard said:
			
		

> Word count wise...I have no idea.
> 
> I have a minimum, though. I make sure to write AT LEAST 1 full page. Note that this is in Wordperfect, with 10 Font, so one page is a bit more than text for me than for some.




If you are looking for a word count estimate, I always type in Word, Times New Roman font, size 10, and with standard 1" margins all around.  I find I get between 650 - 700 words per page.  Of course, if I do a page where there is no dialogue I can get and much as 800-850 per page.  But dialogue and the spaces that follow it take up much room for words.


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