750 Word Stories - 2025

This short essay was inspired by the threadWhat I wrote and why: Fairytale of New York, which was posted in The Author's Hangout byStillStunned.

As this is in itself - rather self-referentially - a submission to the 750 Word Event for 2025, the text appearingafterthis foreword / the titles andbeforethe footnotes is exactly 750 words long.

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WIWAW -- 750 Word Stories

WIWAW -- 750 Word Stories

by Emily Miller

by Emily Miller

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I was a busy bee last February. I thought that I would write a couple of stories for the 750 Word Event. I ended up writingtwenty[1] instead!

Like quite a lot of people with my non-traditional neural wiring, I can occasionally be obsessive (in the same way that The Pope can occasionally say his rosary). But I also had this idea about publishing a 750 word story in every Literotica category.

I fell short of this goal, not entirely helped bymy Interracial storybeing moved to Lesbian Sex. I ended up with two Lesbian Sex stories, and I already had two Toys & Masturbation stories, so I covered eighteen categories in total. This included my only stories in:Gay Male,Mind Control,Transgender & Crossdresers, andNon-human. And my first contributions toCelebrities & Fan Fiction,Mature, andErotic Horror; [2]. Indeed, my 750 word Erotic Horror story, Angel Vengadora, was the direct inspiration forThe Old House by the Beach, which is slightly longer at eight thousand words.

Two of the above stories,Walking in Beauty

andJuliana Jones and the Rod of Ra, were my contributions to a couple of sub-challenges that I set other authors as part of the event. Both were image based.

Walking in Beautyhad the picture prompt of a tall, dark haired woman in a diaphanous summer dress walking by the side of a lake, only described as the 'mystery woman.' You can view most of the seventeen stories that people wrote about herhere[3].

Juliana Joneshad the picture prompt of a female version of the famous archaeologist (notionally her big brother) wearing a fedora and a khaki bra / bikini top. She was described as 'the Jones girl.' You can view the five stories that people wrote about herhere.

Why did I - and many others - find this format addictive? It's close to impossible to write a fully-formed story, or even a rounded vignette in so few words. The readers don't seem to really appreciate the form, and many down vote them on principle. The site was flooded with these micro-stories, leaving precious little attention available for each. Authors who didn't take part in the event also complained that their stories were lost in the 750 word tsunami. What's to like?

Well, to me, they are writer's exercises. It's a major challenge to convey anything at all in only 750 words, let alone to create something of merit. Many writers - me included - like challenges. Exercises also tend to get you in shape. Writing such short pieces tones your authorial muscles. It lets you use some that you don't normally employ in your more quotidian writing.

And - as is probably evident from my list above - 750 word stories are an opportunity for writers to dip their toes in the water of categories they would normally not consider. I doubt that I would have committed to writing a ten thousand word Gay Male short story. It's not a genre I read, it's not a genre in which I have any real-life experience. And - frankly - I was worried about getting it all wrong and a) causing offense or b) being laughed at; not sure which would have been worse. But a micro-story lowers these bars considerably. With three of the new categories in which I wrote 750 word stories, I later wrote longer works. That probably wouldn't have happened without the event. My horizons were expanded.

I don't have hard data to back this claim up, but my impression was also that my 750 word stories let me reach new readers. Part of this is perhaps the normal competition and event phenomenon; such stories stay visible for longer, and may be seen by more people. But I also think that brevity lowers the bar for readers as well as writers. Perhaps people who would never have chosen to read any of my longer stories thought it might be worth investing a few minutes to read 750 of my words. I did get people who first commented on my event stories, and then went on to comment on my regular work. It's anecdotal but, I suspect, nevertheless true.

What I learned last year was: don't attempt to do the impossible in 750 words. Instead just try to capture a scene, or a moment, or an emotion. And try to do that as well as you can. The exercise will be its own reward.

Footnotes

[1] I had also written one 750 word story prior to the event, so the total was twenty-one; twenty-two now I guess.

[2] I published my subsequent Mature story,A New York Fuck, on my experimentalRolloJTomasiaccount.

[3] The list erroneously includes an entirely separate and older story by SamScribble, RIP. And excludesone less well-tagged contributionby a reprobate who shall remain nameless.