It's Time To Abolish The 'At Least 300 Words' Rule

Hey guys, first time poster here (long time lurker). I've got a bone to pick, and I don't see any other way to raise this than to post it publicly. <br><br>If you're new to r/creative_writing, you might not know this yet: a post doesn't qualify as a "story" unless it's at least 300 words. Anything less than that is a "snippet", and it's not allowed here. You're told to post that elsewhere.<br><br>Now, it's been pointed out before that this is a stupid rule. I'm not going to be the first person to say that, I won't be the first to contend that it's a bad rule, and hopefully I won't be the last. <br><br>The first thing to say is that, in violation of the spirit of this sub, a story is not a story if it's not 300 words or more. A story is a story regardless of the length. Imagine if every literary magazine or professional publisher adopted that line of thinking. Then imagine what the novel would look like if every single manuscript was forced to meet that arbitrary minimum. How many books do you think you would read that would be 10,000 words longer than it should be? The results would be absurd. You would have to start reading around 1950. A jump straight from the 18th century to the mid 20th century, just to avoid all the books that would have been artificially inflated in length to qualify as a "novel". All of the world's greatest writers would fall short to meet this narrow definition of a story.<br><br>And as it is on this sub, so it is in the real world. In fact, "story" and "novel" mean different things. A story is any narrative of fictional events, whether it's 100 words or 50,000. A novel is a book-length story, which I think is a more common notion of a story than the arbitrary rule we have here. So for example, The Old Man and the Sea is a story, but it's also a novel. The Metamorphosis is a story, but it isn't a novel. Gulliver's Travels is a series of stories compiled into a novel. You get the idea. <br><br>We all have to "pay our dues", as much as I dislike that phrase. We all have to learn how to write a story. And for the most part, that means learning how to write a novel. A novel is a story, just as much as a 250-word poem is a story. That doesn't mean it's a good story. It still has to be judged on its own merits. <br><br>The biggest problem with this sub as it is, is that the only things you see are novels. People will post 1,000-word chapters of a 100,000-word story every day for a month before the story is even half finished. They're not allowed to post the 150-word "snippet" they wrote at the beginning of week three, even though that is a story in its own right, because that doesn't qualify as a "story". <br><br>The other problem, and I think this is the biggest issue in terms of my experience, is that the general quality of the writing here is low. That's not to say it's always bad, that's not always true. It's just that in general, it's not as good as what you would find for example on /c/nosleep. Why? Because that sub doesn't have the arbitrary 300-word rule. <br><br>On /c/nosleep, you will find short stories, long stories, but above all, great stories. The writing is good, the plots are good, the setting, the characters, the themes are all well thought out, well-executed, and the writing is top-notch. Why? Because it doesn't matter too much how long your work is. The only thing that matters is that the story is good. <br><br>Let's say for example that I want to post a 300-word story, but I haven't written it yet. That means I have to reach that threshold and then post it. Why? What point does it serve, to force me to write a 300-word story, when I'm happy with a 250-word story, and when I've already said everything I need to say? Why force myself to add more words for the sake of it? Any writer will tell you that the hardest thing to do is to write more when there's nothing more to say. Forced length adds nothing to a story. In fact, it probably detracts from the quality of a story more often than not. <br><br>On the other hand, if I want to post a 600-word story, I can. But if I want to break that up into 3 separate stories, that isn't allowed. Why? Why post one story when I can post 3? Why force me to post a single 600-word story, when I've already broken it up into 3 stories for a reason? Why put me to the unnecessary and pointless work of combining them? That helps nobody. Least of all me. <br><br>Can I post a trilogy of novels? No. But I can post a single trilogy-length novel. If I can post 3 individual chapters of a story, why can't I post 3 individual stories? Why should it matter that the only common thread between them is that they're in the same universe? Why should it matter that the only crossover between the 3 is that they take place in the same fictional city, or the same fictional era, or have the same recurring character? If I can post 3 chapters of a story, why aren't I allowed to post 3 separate stories? How can I be forced to write 3 chapters, but I'm not allowed to write 3 separate stories? <br><br>Part of the problem is that the 300-word rule is entirely inconsistent with how the sub actually operates. If the moderators actually enforced this rule, this wouldn't even be a sub dedicated to creative writing. It would be a sub dedicated to novel writing. The content would be more akin to /c/AmItheAsshole than to /c/AskTeenGirls. <br><br>I contend that the 300-word rule is just as relevant to the sub as the rule forbidding the posting of links. If you're new here, you might not have noticed that, but it doesn't matter. They're both just as relevant, and both just as necessary. It doesn't matter that one is enforced and the other is a distant memory, because they're equally valid. <br><br>If the 300-word rule doesn't actually do any good for the sub, why have it? It doesn't serve any purpose. It's too vague and arbitrary to be of any use. It doesn't make any sense. <br><br>I guess what I'm saying is that I think the 300-word rule is stupid, it's bad for the sub, and it should be abolished as soon as possible.<br><br>At any rate, thanks for listening to my TED talk. Don't forget to like and subscribe.<br><br>EDIT: The moderators have locked this thread, and contend that they have already abolished the rule. <br><br>> Rule 1: All submissions must be your original creative writing.<br><br>Part of the purpose of this post was to change Rule 1, to make it just that. They've already done that. <br><br>So, to the moderators: thank you. I hope that you'll see this message, and that you'll know that this is why I posted. I was trying to change the rules, but you've already done it. <br><br>To everyone else, I hope you see this message, and know that this post was made in good faith, and I hope that will colour how you see it. I'm sorry if I accidentally misled anyone.