Advice on writing an episodic series.

[TheRedChamber]

Up till now, all of my works have been one and done stand alone stories. I'd gotten about 4k words into my latest BDSM story and, while pleased with how it was going, had to stop to work out what the scope of the thing I was writing was, as it seemed to me that there were a lot of possible stories I could do with the couple I was creating (a professional dominatrix dating an inexperienced sub).

So I had a burst of creativity yesterday and worked out exactly how the relationship would progress over the years and came up with a document with about 50 different plot bunnies arranged into eight 'seasons' of about six episodes each, with each season representing a different stage of the relationship (1: they're dating but sub is not involved with her clients yet, 2: sub regularly takes part in sessions 3: sub experiments with being switching 4: marriage etc). Now most of these ideas are rudimentary and many of them are probably terrible, but it gave me an indication of what might be possible, and I also wrote mode detailed synopsis for four of the episodes in season one and they seems like they are workable.

As indicated above, the way I'm thinking about it is that it won't be a complete story, but more like an old-school television show where each episode is complete in and of itself and doesn't particularly need any you to have seen any of the previous ones. The current state of the relationship will be signalled to the reader early on in each story.

The question I have for everyone is how do I effectively fit this approach into Literotica's particular ideosyncracies? It seems like there are basically two options.

1) Treat the series like a traditional story and give each episode a chapter number. The problem with this is that it gives the impression that it is one long story and you have to read each of the previous parts, where really I'd like new readers to be able to dip into each and any story as they are published. I personally am not a big fan of long stories and tend to avoid reading anything that says things like 'Our Amazing Sex Life Ch. 57' - but that's what this series may end up as. It also makes the stories less individual as, once you've put in the series title and chapter number, you only have a few letters left for an episode name - so you end up with 'Our Amazing Sex Life Ch. 57 - Doggy'. It also seems to be accepted wisdom that readers for multipart stories tend to drop off quite quickly.

2) So the alternative approach seems to be not to give chapter numbers, but just to make titles and blurbs that are interesting and follow a certain pattern to signal to regular readers that this is part of a series. So for example, I'm planning to call the first episode 'Those Grand Devilish Designs' and the second episode 'Those Little Devilish Details' - following this pattern should
make the stories unique enough to be recognizable, although I might occassionally need titles that break the alliteration or need a word other than 'Those' at the beginning. I could then add an authors note at the beginning indicating which episodes are present in the series and the exact episdoe order for those readers who are particular about wanting to read things exactly in order.

Has anyone tried anything similar to this or does anyone have any ideas about which way is to be better?

 

[Voboy]

All my stories are interlinked in a way sort of similar to what you're describing, but not really sequentially. I title them independently because they are independent, even though they borrow from a similar universe and many of them contain the same characters.

By this time, I've developed several "strands" or "branches" of several main groups of characters, settings, etc. I maintain a document for myself that spells out all those interrelationships, including placing them in rough chronological order, and my author page tells readers to get in touch with me if they'd like a copy of that document. I get that request, oh, about once every couple of months. Seems to make them happy.

I do have a few chaptered stories, but only one of them (my earliest) was meant to be chaptered from the beginning. I wrote that when I had a poor understanding of how big a readership there is out there for longer works. The other ones include a loose two-chapter story written when a sequel occurred to me, and an ongoing SF story currently at nine chapters (I think? And counting?) with a couple of offshoots in the same universe. But even that SF story is connected to all my other pieces, and it's included in my master document.

That SF series, contrary to received AH wisdom, was neither planned as a series nor fully complete before I posted any chapters. Instead, I just write installments as they occur to me. There's been a dropoff in the readership, naturally, but I still get a couple thousand reliable readers each time. And, more importantly, I get the enjoyment of writing the tales.

 

[PennameWombat]

About two-thirds of my stories exist in a shared universe ("Mel's Universe"), based out of my earliest stories (Carole at the Art Lecture and Mel's Phone Call). That said, most stories in the universe are meant to be readable on their own, the various interconnections and cameos provide added depth for those who've read widely, but mostly not meant to distract (not a balance I always manage, but it's what I aim for.) (I have a couple of other universes separate from this one, e.g., my Mermaid stories and some others.)

I have a chaptered series in that Universe (Chronicle: Mel & Chris, ch. 01), which follows the primary characters (Mel and Chris). Each subsequent chapter will not really make sense without having read the previous chapters, but I try to make sure that the events that happen in other stories in the Universe and are mentioned are covered sufficiently to not force readers to go to those stories (they're free to go, of course, but not required to enjoy the entry.) As every piece of advice you'll read on this Forum says, there is dropoff in readership numbers for subsequent chapters. But, it is what it is. My personal problem is I'm not diligent enough in putting out new chapters. I'd like to, but I get entranced by the side stories as well as writing unrelated stories. And, it's not like anyone's paying me. But, more chapters are planned.

More pertinent, maybe, to your question, I have my You Promised Me Geeks series (all use that as the initial part of their title). This focuses on two main characters, Asha and Tracy, and exists in Mel's Universe. But, these are more 'serials' or closer to your episodes. Same characters, they do somewhat refer back to prior stories, but they're more explicitly meant to be readable without reading the whole series. There is also a drop off in readership for these, but it's harder to tell. The initial story was part of the Geek Pride event, and the others weren't.

I do use my forewords to mention various of these things, including whether or not any individual story is meant to be read alone or not and direct relationships. I also add an afterword to recommend more widely related stories I don't want to mention in the foreword to avoid confusing prospective readers.

And, per Voboy's comment, I provide a guide on my Author's page to 'recommended' reading order and which stories exist in which universe.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Most of my stories are interlinked in one way or another, but I don't really bother explicitly joining them up too much - although if you look at my story list, you'll see a number of longer series which do continue on in sequential chapters.

I rely on my readers to know my stuff well enough to say, "Ahh, okay, this one continues that story line" - but it doesn't really matter, because each set is pretty much standalone. They're more parallel universes, rather than sequential, with characters wandering in and out of each other's stories. There's no over-arching story arc, that's not how I write (it's too much like hard work to make them all completely fit together).

 

[SimonDoom]

I have not exactly done this but I've read other authors that have done this and I think the better way to do is to create a shared universe without numbering the stories. Publish the stories as standalone stories. The advantages of this are 1) more people will read them and 2) you don't disappoint people who will expect that stories in a chaptered sequence satisfy the same kink. It's more flexible without numbered chapters. You can use words in common in the titles, as you have suggested.

 

[HectorBidon]

It's possible to have series with titles "Series: Episode", i.e., without chapter numbers. For example, I have three stories The Sweetness of the Pear: Mekela, etc, that the site considers a series. The problem is that they are listed in alphabetical order, so that (in my case at least) the one that logically comes first and serves as an introduction to the series isn't listed first. I also note that Wombat's series follows this titling convention but the site considers them as separate stories, so you may have to specifically request that stories be considered part of a series in your submission notes.

My understanding is that the site has plans to eventually allow authors to have the ability to group stories into series themselves, but who knows how long it will take them to implement this.

 

[AshesandAsses]

I think it helps with engagement if every self-contained entry in the series can be work as a standalone piece.

Think of procedural stories you see on TV — the characters do develop, they just do so slowly, so that the changing audience can come and go.

 

[TheRedChamber]

Thanks for all the replies. It looks like not linking them and having a pattern name is probably the way to go.

I do use my forewords to mention various of these things, including whether or not any individual story is meant to be read alone or not and direct relationships. I also add an afterword to recommend more widely related stories I don't want to mention in the foreword to avoid confusing prospective readers.

And, per Voboy's comment, I provide a guide on my Author's page to 'recommended' reading order and which stories exist in which universe.

The Author's page is probably a good place to put this information. I was planning on putting some episode information in the authors note at the start, but the more you put there the more likely people are to not even start your story.

I think it helps with engagement if every self-contained entry in the series can be work as a standalone piece.

Think of procedural stories you see on TV — the characters do develop, they just do so slowly, so that the changing audience can come and go.

Yes, this is it. There's not going to be any great backstory to anything, just a couple whose BDSM lifestyle brings them into contact with various strange and not so strange people and kinks each 'week', many of which test their relationship in some way. They'll start as stranger and end up married with a child (assuming I get round to writing 48 episodes - I've written 0.25 so far), but the state of their relationship will be clear at the start of each story.

My understanding is that the site has plans to eventually allow authors to have the ability to group stories into series themselves, but who knows how long it will take them to implement this.

That'd be nice. If I start with the same word, those stories will be grouped together anyway.

 

[BobbyBrandt]

You can see how I have handled "series" versus "chapters" HERE.

A trick that I use for all my stories is to create a separate "sheet" in an Excel file that holds the plot ideas, characters, timelines, and nuances for every story I have written. This allows me to storyboard what I am writing and maintain continuity between series or chapters.

 

[Emilymcplugger]

Up till now, all of my works have been one and done stand alone stories. I'd gotten about 4k words into my latest BDSM story and, while pleased with how it was going, had to stop to work out what the scope of the thing I was writing was, as it seemed to me that there were a lot of possible stories I could do with the couple I was creating (a professional dominatrix dating an inexperienced sub).

So I had a burst of creativity yesterday and worked out exactly how the relationship would progress over the years and came up with a document with about 50 different plot bunnies arranged into eight 'seasons' of about six episodes each, with each season representing a different stage of the relationship (1: they're dating but sub is not involved with her clients yet, 2: sub regularly takes part in sessions 3: sub experiments with being switching 4: marriage etc). Now most of these ideas are rudimentary and many of them are probably terrible, but it gave me an indication of what might be possible, and I also wrote mode detailed synopsis for four of the episodes in season one and they seems like they are workable.

As indicated above, the way I'm thinking about it is that it won't be a complete story, but more like an old-school television show where each episode is complete in and of itself and doesn't particularly need any you to have seen any of the previous ones. The current state of the relationship will be signalled to the reader early on in each story.

The question I have for everyone is how do I effectively fit this approach into Literotica's particular ideosyncracies? It seems like there are basically two options.

1) Treat the series like a traditional story and give each episode a chapter number. The problem with this is that it gives the impression that it is one long story and you have to read each of the previous parts, where really I'd like new readers to be able to dip into each and any story as they are published. I personally am not a big fan of long stories and tend to avoid reading anything that says things like 'Our Amazing Sex Life Ch. 57' - but that's what this series may end up as. It also makes the stories less individual as, once you've put in the series title and chapter number, you only have a few letters left for an episode name - so you end up with 'Our Amazing Sex Life Ch. 57 - Doggy'. It also seems to be accepted wisdom that readers for multipart stories tend to drop off quite quickly.

2) So the alternative approach seems to be not to give chapter numbers, but just to make titles and blurbs that are interesting and follow a certain pattern to signal to regular readers that this is part of a series. So for example, I'm planning to call the first episode 'Those Grand Devilish Designs' and the second episode 'Those Little Devilish Details' - following this pattern should
make the stories unique enough to be recognizable, although I might occassionally need titles that break the alliteration or need a word other than 'Those' at the beginning. I could then add an authors note at the beginning indicating which episodes are present in the series and the exact episdoe order for those readers who are particular about wanting to read things exactly in order.

Has anyone tried anything similar to this or does anyone have any ideas about which way is to be better?

I did a 5 part story with over 100,000 words.

Some people prefer doing it as all one story, sone prefer splitting …HOWEVER …if you are splitting it then make sure it’s entirely finished first.

Good luck.

 

[TheRedChamber]

I did a 5 part story with over 100,000 words.

Some people prefer doing it as all one story, sone prefer splitting …HOWEVER …if you are splitting it then make sure it’s entirely finished first.

Good luck.

Because it's episodic rather than one story, it's not something that is necessarily ever finished. Each episode would be a complete, satisfying story in itself. That said, I would probably write 6 or so stories together and release them as a series relatively close together. Each series would probably end in a place where, if I didn't write anymore, it would probably feel complete. There's no particular end destination in the overarching story other than 'happily ever after'.

 

[Brutal_One]

When I first submitted I had envisaged a series. The main reason was to at least make a start. I had the advantage of having written a lengthy story before first submitting.

in some ways the submission in parts was also an ongoing edit, in part to make it suitable for Lit.

Some early comments were favourable but suggested too short (around 1 - 3 Lit pages).

if I was starting over I would still write a series as it becomes one continuous story but make each submission longer in pages (probably 5 - 6 Lit pages).

You still need a structure - beginning, middle, end but as I have learned you don’t have to submit in that order. You can start with the end which may help draw readers in. They are potentially intrigued by the ending and what led to it.

For other reasons (principally Lit sensibilities) the story series ended up being a 2 part novel. The last part does start in a way with the beginning of the ending and was by far and away the longest submission.

Writing as a series (plus a related series of much shorter stand alone short stories) just helped in writing a much longer novel length story.

Brutal One