Here are some other specific examples of paranoia: 1  Loathing or hatred of activities you or normal people would usually feel comfortable in, such as parties, large crowds, and the mall.  Excessive worry about what people think about you, or that they are laughing about or whispering about you behind your back.
As a point of reference for the genre writer, the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America define short story length in the Nebula Awards for science fiction submission guidelines as having a word count of fewer than 7,500.
8 Responses to âWhen is a Short Story Too Long?â. 1  Several factors figure into the calculus of how long Iâm willing to sit with a piece and read. 2  The question now is: when is a comment too long? 3  Dear Joe, I couldnât agree more!  For me, 8-10,000 words is a good cutoff for a short story, especially in literary magazines. I like to crawl into bed and have at one story during the dayâs last thirty-minute vestige of consciousness; and I strongly prefer to finish that story.