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.
The traditional short story, is there is such a thing, tends to range from 1,500 to 15,000 words. Most magazines and publishers tend to require stories of around 5,000-10,000 words. Most competitions, especially those run by writing magazines, limit short stories to 2,500 words and have become a genre of their own.