How Long Must A Story Be?

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AliceShiki

『Ms. Tree』『Magical Girl of Love and Justice』, Female
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Some time back I was reading an article written by Mark Rosewater that touched on this topic... If you don't know who he is, he is the Head Designer of the Magic the Gathering card game for 16 years now. And if you're asking yourself why was the head designer of a card game talking about that, the answer is because Rosewater has a formation involving, communications, psychology and writing... Not sure what exactly he majored in, but it's the main things that influence how he works.

Aaaaaaanyways, when he touched that point he said that a lesson he took to heart was what one of his writing teachers told him about story length... He said that the optimal length of a story is about as short as it can possibly be, and then you cut 10%. I'm not sure I agree with this, but it's definitely something worth thinking about.

I mean, we all heard someone complain about xianxia stories with over 1000 chapters that repeat themselves over and over and over again, haven't we? There is a reason this kind of complaint is so common... Because well, a story shouldn't reach 1000 chapters, it's too big, it loses itself, starts going nowhere and... Well, it's just not good.

So... I think striving to be as short as it can be, and then cutting 10%, can actually be a very solid way of making a proper story that has a fluid plot that doesn't repeat itself and that is pretty dynamic... But the question is... Do we want that?

I mean, if I am reading a shounen that is probably the ideal length I'd want for the story, I don't want to read another Naruto final arc of 4 years... Or another Bleach final arc of 5 years... I'd much rather see the story actually move and get somewhere.

On the other hand, when I'm reading a shoujo or a slice of life story... I don't really want the story to go anywhere? I mean, I want to see the characters getting developed and I want to see them grow, but... Those stories often times don't have an end goal in itself, they're just... Stories focused on themselves, all that matters are the characters, often times there isn't even a plot per se, it's just people's daily lives going forward. Do I really want their daily life to progress in the minimum duration possible, with 10% cut? I don't think I do.

I mean, imagine those high school stories... Wouldn't it be weird if they went through each year of HS in 1 volume of the manga and by the 4th volume they were already in university? If you think about it, much of the fluff of slice of life can easily be cut to make this kind of fast progression... But that's not really what I want when reading slice of life, I want something much much slower than that.

Shoujo isn't much different... I don't really want to see time passing that much, I just want to see the character's romance and personalities developing... I don't mind if the entire story lasts 8 volumes and only 1 month in in-story time, as long as I enjoy the ride, I'm happy with it. And well, I generally enjoy the ride in those~

So... It kinda makes me wonder what would be the right length then... I'm not sure if there is a right answer to this, but my own answer would be... "Show everything you want to show, but don't delay the story longer than you should." I think that's a good way of thinking of it... More than anything, if we feel like it's time to move the story forward, then we should move it forward... Staying forever without going anywhere will just ruin the story's quality.


Mmmmmmmmmm... This whole talk made me think of Devil May Cry 5... Well, I only saw the trailer of the game though, I don't even know if it was already released.

But something interesting about the DMC franchise is how Dante is obviously the most popular character and the one all the fans want to see... Yet both on game 4 and now the 5, the main character is Nero, not Dante... Why?

Well, I don't work for Capcom to answer that, but I think there is a pretty reasonable explanation to this... Which is... Dante's story is already over. It's long been over, it ended in game 1 actually. Game 2 was a weird continuation that didn't work out very well, Game 3 was a fantastic prequel... And then what? What would they do at game 4? Another weird sequel that probably wouldn't work out very well too? That doesn't make much sense, does it?

So they changed focus to Nero and made Dante a supporting character, which led to an amazing game... And I think game 5 will be awesome too, because they know what they're doing... They know they can't stretch Dante's story anymore, because it's already over, he already did what he had to do... Instead, they're focusing on Nero, who still has plenty of room to growth, even if he isn't nearly as fun and interesting as Dante is.

I'm not sure where I'm going at this point, I guess it was just an example I could think of that was following the idea of not stretching a story any longer than it needed to be stretched... Are they following the rule of "as small as you can, then cut 10%"? Probably not, otherwise DMC2 would have never become a thing, but I think they're still doing a good job at keeping their story at a good length~

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Comments

    1. Myriadfold Sep 3, 2019
      I agree with the short part, as you really don't need a story to become more bloated as you continue to read it.

      as for the cutting 10% I think it varies by author, though still rings very true in my ears.

      In my opinion some writers need only cut 5% and others as much as 20%. I think this is because of the intrinsic difference of each writers skill and style. the whole cutting stuff out bit is because by the time the author thinks the story is finished and looks back, we often realise the story ended a while ago and we just kept going to please ourselves, to tidy up loose ends that in reality don't bring anything more to the story besides answering unimportant questions. something that can be done in a bonus chapter or epilogue or Q.A session, or even just left unanswered so the fans and readers can dream up their own conclusions.

      If a story is about a great war, then we don't need a chapter on the peace or pain of victory vs loss that follows its conclusion. the story really ended once the war did and that's the part where the author should really be wrapping things, often times the war is close to ending and the story has already reached its conclusion, either because the result is inevitable and obvious to all those reading, or because exciting stuff happened partway and brought the true focus into light and solved it, before the war that was assumed to be the original focus truly concludes.
      hitedo likes this.
    2. kyoshijiro Sep 2, 2019
      The advice to make the story as short as possible and then cut another 10% is probably advice for writers so that they don't ramble and add too much. When you are forced to be as concise as possible your words will become more powerful, but also very strong, so if you were aiming for flowery words or some similar perception it isnt exactly the best, though if you know what you are doing the same advice could probably be applied. Those stories without plot, slice of life and stuff ,that are episodic or something and are enjoyable just going through life are the same as those 1000 chapter wuxia stories, just different genre, while the wuxia try to keep people hooked with action and face slapping, the slice of life try to keep people hooked with the relationship dynamics and drama. These stories just try to keep customers hooked and keep milking the story as much as possible. The story only ends when the author decides it has to, either cause it isnt working anymore or because they found a good conclusion and see no reason to continue it.
      Super long stories are tiring regardless of genre and only avid fans can stick all the way through
      hitedo likes this.