Advice on writing sequels and multi part stories

[storyteller19]

I have a few stories that I have written and posted the first parts to, but I haven't followed any of the storylines past 1-2 submissions. I want to start adding on to these stories so looking for any overall tips on this. I usually write first time or incest/taboo stories.

 

[KeithD]

Write your complete series before you post any of it and then as one chapter posts, submit the next. Don't assume readers will stick around for "whenever" the story might continue. That's my advice and that's what I do. In the opening chapter of my series I give a note up front saying it's finished, how many chapters there are, and when I anticipate the last one will post.

 

[standingstones]

If I plan on writing a story that will have additional chapters I normally have these stories mapped out in my mind. This would be a brief outline and resolution of any more stories.

 

[SamScribble]

My only advice on writing a sequel would be: don't rely on the reader having read the original to be able to follow the story and characters. My most successful sequel has more readers that the original. Go figure.

 

[oggbashan]

My only advice on writing a sequel would be: don't rely on the reader having read the original to be able to follow the story and characters. My most successful sequel has more readers that the original. Go figure.

I usually start the next part with a summary of the story so far.

 

[Inkhorn]

I’ve seen a number of different authors handle it in different ways. Some post all at once, others bit by bit, and a few seemingly update whenever they get around to it (usually with apologies in the first paragraph for taking so long. It’s hard for me to discern the impact on ratings for any given method, though; I simply haven’t been here long enough.

If you’re doing a multi-chapter or -installment story, efinitely have an outline! That’s good advice right there from standing stones. Also consider doing a short recap at the start of each addition just to help the readers get caught up. There is also the age old truck of ending a given segment in a cliffhanger; a bit hokey, yes, but it is a tried and true way of getting readers to come back. Granted, writing effective cliffhangers requires a bit of a knack on the author’s part. At the end of each chapter, you could also include teasers. Finally, if you can’t bring yourself to post all of the installments at once, try to at least keep the rate that you submit them constant. Working with self-imposed deadlines helps some and hinders others, but readers are more likely to be patient if they have a rough idea as to when the next part will be coming.

For sequels? Do a forward at the start of the new story to introduce the premise and to urge them to read the previous story(-ies) first; don’t forget to include the name(s), either!

Just my 2 cents I’m sure someone will have change for a nickel, though.

 

[8letters]

If I plan on writing a story that will have additional chapters I normally have these stories mapped out in my mind. This would be a brief outline and resolution of any more stories.

Oh my gosh. A standingstones post!

For those of you that don't know, standingstones is one of the most prolific authors on this site with over 500 stories published. He is in the top 50 favorited authors and is consistently in the top 5 of the most popular I/T authors for the last 30 days.

9 posts since 2004. I feel like I just saw Bigfoot.

 

[tomlitilia]

Write your complete series before you post any of it and then as one chapter posts, submit the next. Don't assume readers will stick around for "whenever" the story might continue. That's my advice and that's what I do. In the opening chapter of my series I give a note up front saying it's finished, how many chapters there are, and when I anticipate the last one will post.

Amen.

 

[Hypoxia]

How to deal with multi-part stories? Any way we want! Dr Johnson said, "Only a fool writes, if not for money." LIT authors aren't paid with money -- some brownie points at most, but LIT contributors are mainly fools. Thus we're free to post whatever we can get away with.

Some get away with spinning endless unplotted strokers while some work from detailed outlines or internalized formulae. Some post single entries with scores of internal chapters. I wrote one taut 3-part arc that drew demands for more; I finished it after 18 chapters but spin-offs are possible.

Some chapters are indeed integral pieces of a story puzzle. Some chapters may be standalones, like TV show episodes, where prior events aren't critical to grok the current piece. Some may deserve summaries and/or foretellings. ("Next: The Pope and his daughter.")

Write for LIT long enough and you'll get an idea of what works for you.

 

[sdsioux]

Good point that we write for free.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

And then there are us who have a lot of chapter stories that aren't finished. We would like to finish them, really we would but, some times things get in the way. Like starting another story with multiple chapters, or writing thing that don't seem to have the ending you wanted, or ah hell real life.

 

[Hypoxia]

And then there are us who have a lot of chapter stories that aren't finished. We would like to finish them, really we would but, some times things get in the way. Like starting another story with multiple chapters, or writing thing that don't seem to have the ending you wanted, or ah hell real life.

Yah, real life is such a bothersome toy. If not for IRL, I'd be rich & infamous & empowered & brilliant & nefarious & satisfied. Instead, I'm... Hypoxia Smurf. [/me suffers vapors, swoons] But I digress. Why haven't I finished chaptered series?

• I've not bothered to work out the sequence.
• I've plumb fucking run out of usable ideas.
• Completion doesn't seem as crucial now.
• Multiple painkillers have dulled my mind.
• Do I need an excuse for laziness?

Someday the voices in my head may awaken and lead me to conclusions of the Black & White arcs, and more Evil Queen and Left Behind and FotoFun and Botanists, and Book Of Ruth spinoffs, and plugged-in episodes of Ron's Journals, and much else when the weather breaks. That's my excuse, hey?

 

[MelissaBaby]

My advice on writing long series? Write the beginning, write the end, then fill in the middle. I think of it as a journey. I know my destination, then decide on the route.

 

[OneAuthor]

My advice on writing long series? Write the beginning, write the end, then fill in the middle. I think of it as a journey. I know my destination, then decide on the route.

This is exactly how I am writing my story as well. It gives me some freedom to "meander" in the middle, as the inspiration takes me. But ultimately, the story will arrive at the planned ending.

 

[JackLuis]

Beginning-End- Middle is the best way to do this. My Spreading Seeds Sagas wasn't done this way and it became a years long struggle to wind it up. However in my defence, it was supposed to be an endless story of "Can a young man find happieness in a world of 10 women for every man?" With each chapter a different woman,women.

After 200,000 words it got a little old but did score 4.85 to 4.5, and never made the top scores lists.

So I advocate writing the closing Chapter early so you have a target to aim at. Then if you sour on the writing, you can publish the ending, get everybody off, and start a new one.

 

[KeithD]

I have an ending in mind when I write, but I don't write it down and it may end up changed. I write straight through--beginning, middle, end. I don't claim that's the only way to write a story, but I don't agree with anyone who says there's only one way to write as story at all.

 

[Hypoxia]

Beginning-End- Middle is the best way to do this.

That's like IBM's paradigmatic HIPO design methodology -- which should really be HOIP, Hierarchical Output-Input-Process. That is:

• Hierarchical -- build higher-level structures from lower-level blocks
• Output -- decide on your desired product
• Input -- name the inputs needed for that output
• Process -- what it takes to turn inputs into outputs

Your procedure puts Input (setup) first, which is okay if you don't know yet what the end looks like. Sure, set the players loose and transcribe their antics. That's how my 3-part series grew to 18 chapters. Fun while it lasted.

 

[CJoshua]

Hi,
Lumus Fantasies was my first multi-part story about Neotantra and the power of light rays. I had it in 4 parts. Nobody is saying that a first multi-part story can't be massive, but it is usually so.



Main Literotica Forums >> Authors' Hangout >> Advice on writing sequels and multi part stories >> Next topic >> Books on how to write with a short collection essay writer

 

[CJoshua]

I published my first short story on the nosleep community to see the reaction and only then developed it into a full narrative, but that was a huge mistake. I started reading responses and there was a mess in my head.

 

[ElectricBlue]

I spent the best part of a year writing a 103k word novel from start to finish, and published it over the course of a fortnight. It was a labour of love, and it's been read to the end by... 1700 readers. The downside was, during that year I only published two other pieces, so my presence vanished.

Since then, I've published four or five separate story cycles on a "publish as I go" basis (about twenty or so chapters overall) with a significant upturn in traffic - which proves to me the old adage, it's always about keeping the content flowing.

Readers seem to be quite happy to wait for the next chapter - the trick is to give them good sized pieces to go on with. Based on my own experience, therefore, I'm less inclined to the view that says "write it all first is best." For me, these past two years have shown the strategy of "release as you go" has been better.

 

[BiscuitHammer]

I feel called out...

One of my series, what I now call the Alexaverse, was originally my first submission to Lit some years ago, meant to maybe span five or six chapters. It has mutated, Tetsuo-style, into a Brobdingnagian, multi-arc colossus with at least four stories attached to it, explaining the universe from different POVs, and showing no signs of abating.

Alex & Alexa, the original story, ended up being seventeen chapters. I immediately followed that with Mike & Karen, which is currently also seventeen chapters, and likely to be fifty at this damn rate. Mike & Karen has branched off into at least two other stories, one of which is ongoing, Freja & Jeanie. There's two other side arcs planned, and beyond Mike & Karen, a future arc to tie everything together, IF I ever get there.

This is the one series I can say initially got ahead of me. I'm glad it did, since I"m enjoying the story so much more than my initial, limited premise. But having said that, my only advice is to try and map everything out ahead of time, so that you can see the end of the story in some manner. I see my end to this series very clearly, I just need to get there.

Mike & Karen was a sequel, and an expansion to Alex & Alexa, since it also deals with flashbacks about how this universe came to be. Freja & Jeanie is my lighthearted comedy side-story to the universe, since those two are clinically insane. Karen & Alexa represented a fixed-point plot where momentum in the series shifted.

Knowing what I do now, I'm really convinced that just having a solid understand of how far you COULD take a story is key. That way you know if you want to put in the effort or not. My characters grew ahead of my intentions, and I had to play catch-up. Now I am always in control, at least of story length and character development.

 

[jsmiam]

I have a few stories that I have written and posted the first parts to, but I haven't followed any of the storylines past 1-2 submissions. I want to start adding on to these stories so looking for any overall tips on this. I usually write first time or incest/taboo stories.

$0.02 - some of us hate series. If lit somehow had a “don’t show series” button, I would click it. They clutter up the place

That of course is just one opinion. I certainly don’t think they should be banned rolleyes: hmmmm)

But to me seeing a new story labeled “part 29” (anything past one) when for sure (since I hate and avoid series) that I didn’t read the preceding chapters, it’s just noise, keeping an actual new story from being on that “new” list. (I also like the random story categories and also listings of the ‘search stories’ feature. Again, cluttered with “part 29” type listings.

 

[jsmiam]

And on the other hand... more fingers!

I do think series are good for authors. The scores (very generally) are higher because followers seek them out, and they wouldn’t be followers if they didn’t like the previous part. Demographics, see? And us annoyed people avoid them. So broadly, it’s a more friendly and receptive audience. All the biggest fans.

 

[SimonDoom]

I think you should feel free to do it however you wish, but in making your decisions you may want to take account of some realities others and I have observed about series at Literotica:

1. Generally speaking, there is a big dropoff of views from chapter 1 to chapter 2, with dropoffs continuing from chapter to chapter until the number begins to stabilize with a really long series.

2. The longer you wait to publish a chapter from a previous chapter, the bigger the dropoff will be, but this can be exaggerated. I published an 8 chapter series over a span of 10 months, and the final chapter has about one-third the number of views as the first one, but it's still a lot of views.

3. Switching categories from one chapter to the next will, usually result in a more significant dropoff in views, but this isn't always true. It's not true if you switch from a lightly viewed category like erotic couplings to a more heavily viewed category like anal.

4. Your story will fare better if the chapters are not too short. "Too short" means under 3 Literotica pages.

What do I take from this?

1. If the story's not too long, write the whole thing and publish it as one story. It makes no sense whatsoever, if you care at all about reader response, to publish an 8-Lit page story in 8 1 page chapters. Publish it as a single story. It will fare far better with readers.

2. As KeithD advises, it's better, if it works for you, to write the completed story first and then publish the chapters close together. I personally don't recommend submitting them all at once so they're published one day after another. I don't think that's the strategy for maximizing reads. Space them out a little, like 3-7 days, to give readers more time to read each chapter. This way, too, you draw out the period of time that your story is exposed on the story hubs, which is crucial to maximizing exposure. I don't think writing the story as a whole first should be regarded as a hard and fast rule. If it's going to take you a year to write it and you don't want to wait that long, then don't. Write each chapter and then publish it.

3. Pick the right category for your series as a whole and stick with it.

 

[8letters]

I think you should feel free to do it however you wish, but in making your decisions you may want to take account of some realities others and I have observed about series at Literotica:

1. Generally speaking, there is a big dropoff of views from chapter 1 to chapter 2, with dropoffs continuing from chapter to chapter until the number begins to stabilize with a really long series.

2. The longer you wait to publish a chapter from a previous chapter, the bigger the dropoff will be, but this can be exaggerated. I published an 8 chapter series over a span of 10 months, and the final chapter has about one-third the number of views as the first one, but it's still a lot of views.

3. Switching categories from one chapter to the next will, usually result in a more significant dropoff in views, but this isn't always true. It's not true if you switch from a lightly viewed category like erotic couplings to a more heavily viewed category like anal.

4. Your story will fare better if the chapters are not too short. "Too short" means under 3 Literotica pages.

What do I take from this?

1. If the story's not too long, write the whole thing and publish it as one story. It makes no sense whatsoever, if you care at all about reader response, to publish an 8-Lit page story in 8 1 page chapters. Publish it as a single story. It will fare far better with readers.

2. As KeithD advises, it's better, if it works for you, to write the completed story first and then publish the chapters close together. I personally don't recommend submitting them all at once so they're published one day after another. I don't think that's the strategy for maximizing reads. Space them out a little, like 3-7 days, to give readers more time to read each chapter. This way, too, you draw out the period of time that your story is exposed on the story hubs, which is crucial to maximizing exposure. I don't think writing the story as a whole first should be regarded as a hard and fast rule. If it's going to take you a year to write it and you don't want to wait that long, then don't. Write each chapter and then publish it.

3. Pick the right category for your series as a whole and stick with it.

Great stuff. Let me add based upon my limited experience - be prepared for people to hold off on their "this is a great story" comments until the last chapter, but that they will flame you on a chapter if they dislike it for some reason. One of the reasons I prefer to publish whole stories is that then the comments are on the whole story, not just one part of it.