Every reader has a preference on what she likes to read, but what about the length?

What do you think about the length of a story? Some stories take longer than others to tell. Shouldn’t that be the determining factor? Sometimes it isn’t.

I don’t know any guideline that says this amount of conflict is that amount of story. Is there a limit to what I can show in a flash fiction piece? In a novel? I’m sure, but each author treats things differently. You can overstay your welcome in a scene, or you can gloss over too much and enter the dreaded realm of ‘telling’.

All of us have our own ideas about what length the story should be. Isn’t the adage to always leave them wanting more? Not a lot more, surely, but something has to keep those pages turning.