Story People - How Much Story Is Enough?

[Lee]

Im working on some text/story related stuff right now and want to put some sample story text on a page and was wondering, in a perfect world, how much text is ideal to draw the reader in to the story but, enough so that it doesnt give everything away?

Right now, lets say im using a 500 word story, im thinking of using a maximum of 300 words for the teaser, do you think that is to much, to little or just right?

Regards,

Lee

[Sana Chan]

Depends on the story. If its a "first person account" story then you don't need all that much. Maybe the intro paragraph and part of the next one.

As for third-person stories, I'd say 400-500 sounds ok. Most of my stories are at least 2000 words so that would be a 1/4 of the story.