Is it more optimal to make a longer story or leave it at three pages?

Question

I have short story that is three pages and a paragraph. It's based off a short story by one of my favorite authors in order to learn their prose. Three pages seems a bit short. I think the length of scenes and the amount of detail is adequate, yet the story is only three pages.

Its fine right now at three pages, I suppose. However, I could change the plot or flesh out some bits to make the story more like ten pages. My question then is this:

Are there studies on the length of a story and the amount of entertainment received? Would changing it to be longer be more optimal than leaving it be?

Answer 1

Word Count and Page Count matter nothing when compared to what they contain. If your story is in it's final form, it is in it's final form. It doesn't matter if it's one hundred pages or one. If you feel it can be improved by increasing it's size, by all means do so. If, however, you feel it is fine the way it is, leave it be.

That being said: page count can matter with first impressions. For example, a person may not want to read a fifty page 'short story.' A three pager, on the other hand, may attract more passing readers (Hmm, only three pages? Well, I have time for that...).

And of course, if you do need to pay attention to word count (as with a contest, where there may be limitations), word and page count will matter. The bottom-line, though, is content, not length.