The Merits of New Stories vs. Continuations

This question has been bugging me for a long time now, brought on by frequent comments and feedback requesting additional chapters to my existing stories.

The question is this: I have so many ideas rattling around in my brain for new storylines to explore, but should I be focusing on my old storylines instead?

I write based on what is exciting to me, sometimes new storylines and sometimes old ones I hope to improve upon. So often, I introduce characters, develop them (sometimes at great length) and then they get to the big finish and I think "well, that's enough of them." I find that I don't have the same enthusiasm for them as I did when I typed the first word. Yet, every time I get readers insisting I write another chapter, more recently a scathing comment that prompted this thread. Instead, I write a new story that is, thusfar, convincingly well received. This approach hasn't failed me yet and it has been an enjoyable path as a writer.

But am I missing out on something? Am I letting down fans by leaving them hanging? Am I missing an opportunity to become a better writer by "abandoning" my characters as one commenter wrote. I would love to hear from readers and writers alike. What are your feelings on the matter?

You should only write for you, not them. If you feel the story is finished, then it is.

You said in your post by the end you have no desire to continue so if you did what would the story be like....it would be uninspired and probably suck.

Readers will always ask for sequels and more more more. They are not going to stop following you if you don't deliver sequels, trust me, I get asked to continue every damn story I have written(as do many others here) and I don't and that's it.

I have a series that went over 40 installments and the ending had full closure yet I still get asked for more.

The story is done when you feel it is, pure and simple.

Stories mostly reach logical conclusion (most stories in life are slice-of-life vignettes, not epics to the death) and are "finished" before readers (if they are written well) want them to be finished.

That said, I mostly leave them as written, but sometimes I decide later to continue them. It's based on what I want to do with them, though, not reader requests.

"As one commenter wrote" is the key phrase here.

If you're not getting regular comments from ( as best you can tell ) multiple people saying that you're not finishing your stories, then they're just fine the way they are. You've provided a satisfying ending for the majority of readers.

Requests for "more!" aren't an indication that your story doesn't have a satisfying ending, either. It's an indication in the other direction, most of the time. They want a new story with the same characters, but they're not going to crucify you if you give them a new story that pushes their buttons instead.

Write what you want to write. Otherwise, you're not likely to turn out your best work.

My favorite request was "I want more of Nancy and Sarah! Please do another chapter"

The characters were Karen and Mandy.....

Originally, my first story was a one-off, but I started getting comments and PMs asking me when I was going to have more stories with my main characters. So, now its a chain of stories and I simply explore new things with each episode. I've actually grown quite fond of the characters myself, so I'll actually miss when I stop using them.

PTWaters1 said:

Originally, my first story was a one-off, but I started getting comments and PMs asking me when I was going to have more stories with my main characters. So, now its a chain of stories and I simply explore new things with each episode. I've actually grown quite fond of the characters myself, so I'll actually miss when I stop using them.

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For close to two years "Mark and Megan" from SWB haunted me awake and asleep....I heard their conversations, saw their actions, felt their emotions...

When I typed the end on the series The next few weeks I missed them I felt as if I had a void where they used to be, as if they were real.

lovecraft68 said:

I have a series that went over 40 installments and the ending had full closure yet I still get asked for more.

The story is done when you feel it is, pure and simple.

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This is probably where some of my uncertainty comes from. I've never even attempted anything beyond three chapters. Granted, my stories tend to be of significant length and could probably be broken out into chapters but I do feel as if I've left stories unfinished. It's not that I have no desire to finish them, but more that I just come up with something I want to devote my time to more.

I agree with the sentiment that I should write what I want to write. Yet so often the most highly rated stories are "...Ch. 08" It seems like readers really do want to see more no matter what, and isn't that why we actually post them: for others to appreciate? And then there's what you write about getting so invested in characters while writing a borderline saga that you feel their emotions. Perhaps I am missing out on something in that regard.

Follow Ian Malcolm's advice: "Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they never stopped to think if they should."

If a story is done in your mind, then it's done. No need to conjure up an unnecessary sequel.

lovecraft68 said:

For close to two years "Mark and Megan" from SWB haunted me awake and asleep....I heard their conversations, saw their actions, felt their emotions...

When I typed the end on the series The next few weeks I missed them I felt as if I had a void where they used to be, as if they were real.

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Lindy, Clara, and Helen are my Muses in a sense. Their feelings and adventures are part of my "Secret Life of PT Waters" and each represent a part of me. To be honest, once the Lindy Series ends, I may just have to find another creative outlet in order to not feel like I'm betraying them...or myself. I hope that makes sense

I've found that in a series of stories, each succeeding chapter gets fewer views, fewer votes, and fewer comments. Sometimes they get higher average scores, but they definitely get lower volume of readership.

Not that this should necessarily matter, but if you are looking for maximum feedback, you are better off starting fresh.

This is always a popular subject with me. I've both had single stories that I always intended as stand alone stories, that get requests for continuation, and a couple of series' that I can't seem to end.

The very first story that I posted here was supposed to be a one-off. But I had to admit to myself that it had definite openings for a continuation and later on I did start a story that intended to tell "the rest of the story". I couldn't seem to pin down an ending and kept writing further chapters. So far I have six chapters and a spin off. At this point it has been nearly two years since I've posted anything in that series. As far as the story line goes I definitely could go on, in fact it is pretty much up in the air.

The other I probably never will continue, unless I do a compete rewrite of the second chapter. Even though the scores are low I still get asked for a continuation.

As has already been mentioned, the trend is normally for follow up stories to get fewer views and votes, I do have a later story with more in one instance, but a much lower score. But that's an anomaly.

The thing that is attractive about a series is that you've already got characters developed and you have readers.

At this point just about every story I started as a stand alone has requests to continue. I've resisted so far on most.

As someone else has advised, write for yourself. It took me a long time to decide to do that. And I still have mental itches every time I get a request. But as the OP mentioned, there's a lot more to write.

If I ever get back to writing I'll pretty much abandon multi-chapter stories UNLESS I writte and submit them as a unit. Instead, for continuation-type tales, I'll focus on standalone episodes in a shared universe. And writing them as LWE or Incest or Mature is the best way to grab eyeballs. That's my goal -- get people to read my stories. Long series with ever-diminishing view-counts ain't my desire.

Carnevil9 said:

I've found that in a series of stories, each succeeding chapter gets fewer views, fewer votes, and fewer comments. Sometimes they get higher average scores, but they definitely get lower volume of readership.

Not that this should necessarily matter, but if you are looking for maximum feedback, you are better off starting fresh.

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I've taken a slightly different tack with my stories. Like Hypoxia, I write from a universe, but with only 3 main characters to limit the focus. But like most television shows, each story is its own episode that explores different aspects of their sexual exploits, interpersonal relationships, and daily lives. I've actually gotten more hits on later episodes than my earlier ones as I learn the art of erotic story telling. Who knows, I might actually be learning something!

Adding "chapter" to self-contained stories taking place in the same "world" dramatically reduces the readership on later installments vs. posting them all as individual stories.

The problem being that there's no way to group them together in a timeline on your submission page on Lit. You can fudge it with author's notes and stuff in your bio, but if you could do it on your submissions page, that would be sweet.

So, it's either use some sort of chapter designation, or fudge it as best you can.

RejectReality said:

Adding "chapter" to self-contained stories taking place in the same "world" dramatically reduces the readership on later installments vs. posting them all as individual stories.

The problem being that there's no way to group them together in a timeline on your submission page on Lit. You can fudge it with author's notes and stuff in your bio, but if you could do it on your submissions page, that would be sweet.

So, it's either use some sort of chapter designation, or fudge it as best you can.

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If you use numerals, not chapters, and write them as stand-alones, and make it clear that each story can be read in any order - then you can order them on the submissions page.

My alt jeanne_d_artois has done that with her Laundry Tales, now at number 10.

Laundry Tales: 10 Part Series

Laundry Tales 01: Twins' Charade
Laundry Tales 02: Riding for a Fall
Laundry Tales 03: Valentine Cake
Laundry Tales 04: Blind Man's Buff
Laundry Tales 05: Haunted Shawl
Laundry Tales 06: Nude Maiden
Laundry Tales 07: Bustling
Laundry Tales 08: Droit De Seigneur
Laundry Tales 09: Nude Fiancé
Laundry Tales 10: Lady of Misrule

RejectReality said:

Adding "chapter" to self-contained stories taking place in the same "world" dramatically reduces the readership on later installments vs. posting them all as individual stories.

The problem being that there's no way to group them together in a timeline on your submission page on Lit. You can fudge it with author's notes and stuff in your bio, but if you could do it on your submissions page, that would be sweet.

So, it's either use some sort of chapter designation, or fudge it as best you can.

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I use "The Lindy Series" to group mine, a la:

The Lindy Series Ep. 01: Lindy Grows Up
.
.
.
The Lindy Series Ep. 06: Lindy's Special Birthday

Are various ways to order stories without total serialization. If they follow a rough timeline, they can be sequenced alphanumerically:

KISS MY ASS: A Hard Time (standalone)
KISS MY ASS: Be Hard 01, 02, 03 (arc)
KISS MY ASS: Coming Hard (standalone)
KISS MY ASS: Damned Hard 01, 02 (arc)

Or even the old alphabetic trick:

MOTHERFUCKER! A is for Ass-Deep
MOTHERFUCKER! B is for Boobs-a-Lot
MOTHERFUCKER! C is for Cunnilingus
MOTHERFUCKER! E is for Everything
MOTHERFUCKER! G is for Gonorrhea
MOTHERFUCKER! L is for Lamasery

I have a story cycle labeled A TASTE OF INCEST with numerous standalone episodes and mini-series that don't necessarily share a universe, just a concept. The episode titles are absolutely un-ordered. Except for those explicitly numbered as 01,02,03 etc they should not be mistaken as continuations.

There are far more sequels in the world than stories that needed them.

Hypoxia said:

.....
MOTHERFUCKER! L is for Lamasery
......

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Sorry; no bestiality.

I'll join the chorus of "Write the story you want to write." That said, I've had stories that I only meant to be one-offs, but the sequels just seemed to write themselves.

Sometimes you can create a character(s) that are so well received, that readers can relate to them and have already imagined future scenarios of things they might do. This is when a series involving those people plays out well if each segment of it holds the same level of interest.

Some characters just live a life of one story and exist no more. Your reader response should let you know if writing more is worthwhile, but shouldn't dictate whether you have to or not. Mostly it shows you have a good formula to write with so keep working on that more.

Carnevil9 said:

Sorry; no bestiality.

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"A one-L lama, he's a priest,
A two-L llama, he's a beast."

I was being careful. Or setting bait. BTW the declension of LLAMA is pretty interesting.

As it happens, was a llamasery just down the road. I bicycled past regularly. I carefully kept my distance. Why?? I was first up-close to a llama at a traveling circus in Guatemala. The llama was staked in a small pasture. I stopped to look. It looked me in the eye, and spat at me quite accurately, a good loogie-shot to my face from twenty feet away. Since then, I keep jy distance. I need no more great expectorations.

That's a tough one. I like to write new stories and generally don't revisit the old ones.

I have so many requests for sequels right now that I'm writing 3 right now.

I feel like I owe it to my fans.