Character continuity

[Sin_Nombre]

Hi guys,
What are your thoughts on stories that involve the same characters?
Do you feel they need to fit on a timeline or can they be stand alone?
Obviously if it's a multi story series then it needs to work together, but what about other stuff.
Not sure if I explained myself properly, but any ideas much appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[Rob_Royale]

I think your talking about an anthology series. Stories that involve the same characters, but the stories are not connected or follow a timeline.

I'm about to start one. My plan is to list them with a title with a subtitle.

Bob and Katie - Naked at Six Flags
Bob and Katie - Seducing the Meter Maid
Bob and Katie - Enslaved at the PTA Meeting

I really like stand alone stories. This will make me happy as a writer and the readers happy who want more of the nasty Bob and Katie.

 

[gunhilltrain]

Hi guys,
What are your thoughts on stories that involve the same characters?
Do you feel they need to fit on a timeline or can they be stand alone?
Obviously if it's a multi story series then it needs to work together, but what about other stuff.
Not sure if I explained myself properly, but any ideas much appreciated.

Thanks!

If you have characters reappearing, you probably want to have some kind of timeline for them, which includes some geographic continuity for them too. (Assuming you have them living in a particular place.)That said, you don't have to be too rigid about it; you can alternative timelines and some diverging ones too. I've probably could have been more careful about that if I had planned a bit better when I started on here a while ago. But, that's the way it went, and I guess I can live with it. You probably want to have some links and/or comments at the bottom of the story mentioning at least some of the other relevant stories.

 

[Sin_Nombre]

Thanks for the tips

 

[gunhilltrain]

I think your talking about an anthology series. Stories that involve the same characters, but the stories are not connected or follow a timeline.

I'm about to start one. My plan is to list them with a title with a subtitle.

Bob and Katie - Naked at Six Flags
Bob and Katie - Seducing the Meter Maid
Bob and Katie - Enslaved at the PTA Meeting

I really like stand alone stories. This will make me happy as a writer and the readers happy who want more of the nasty Bob and Katie.

Enslaved at the PTA Meeting! I know it's probably a rhetorical example, but what kind of school district is this? By the way, they are not meter maids any longer; they are traffic enforcement agents. A surprising number of them in New York are South Asians of some sort.

 

[AWhoopsieDaisy]

Yet another thread for AH

 

[gunhilltrain]

Yet another thread for AH

Technically yes, but maybe Sin_Nombre has more faith in the Story Ideas people. Then again, he only joined last month.

 

[Sin_Nombre]

Technically yes, but maybe Sin_Nombre has more faith in the Story Ideas people. Then again, he only joined last month.

Sorry if posted in wrong forum, I'm new!
Can a mod move it?

 

[gunhilltrain]

Sorry if posted in wrong forum, I'm new!
Can a mod move it?

Mods will sometimes move a thread on their own initiative. You could ask the mod here to move this one if you wish.

 

[Carnevil9]

I've seen series done both ways. When sequence is important to storytelling, it's best to give each chapter a number. If you can read them in any order, all you need to do is indicate that they go together, like @Rob_Royale suggested above.

It's like the difference between 1980s and earlier television shows vs. current shows: the old shows, nothing significantly changed from episode to episode, so you could watch them in any order. Modern shows, there is usually an "arc" so they only make sense in order. Either way can work fine.

 

[gunhilltrain]

I've seen series done both ways. When sequence is important to storytelling, it's best to give each chapter a number. If you can read them in any order, all you need to do is indicate that they go together, like @Rob_Royale suggested above.

It's like the difference between 1980s and earlier television shows vs. current shows: the old shows, nothing significantly changed from episode to episode, so you could watch them in any order. Modern shows, there is usually an "arc" so they only make sense in order. Either way can work fine.

Most of those old shows were "timeless" in the sense that there was no on-going plot line. Every episode was a stand-alone story that was barely connected to the other episodes. A few shows like The Fugitive eventually wrapped up the story in the last episodes. A show like Hogan's Heroes should have ended with the end of the war, but that was never done. (Did anybody really care?) Later MASH seemed to take place in that long period of static warfare between 1951 and '53. It did with the end of the end of war (although a true peace treaty was never signed.)

I would guess with short stories (or series) or Lit, there should be some on-going time line. I've never tried to do the "timeless" option, but I guess it's possible.