End of a series

[Colleen Thomas]

I have finally posted the last chapter in a long running story, well four earlier chapters. Over the last couple of months, requests for the next part have become so frequent I actually felt under pressure to finish the work.

My question is has anyone here finished a series? If so, was the reaction from your readers good or bad now that it was over?

I have had so many ask for more, I just wonder if the final chapter is going to please them or depress them because it's over?

-Colly

 

[minsue]

I have had so many ask for more, I just wonder if the final chapter is going to please them or depress them because it's over?

Speaking for myself, the answer is easy.

Yes.

 

[lucky-E-leven]

I think it's always a little bit sad when a good thing ends, but the great part is that they're all there for consumption any time. The end is normally the best part. The culmination of what's had you wrapped up from the beginning.

It will be awesome. No worries. Congratulations on finally finishing and posting.

~lucky

 

[Lisa Denton]

I have finally posted the last chapter in a long running story, well four earlier chapters. Over the last couple of months, requests for the next part have become so frequent I actually felt under pressure to finish the work.

My question is has anyone here finished a series? If so, was the reaction from your readers good or bad now that it was over?

I have had so many ask for more, I just wonder if the final chapter is going to please them or depress them because it's over?

-Colly

Hi Colly, I haven't done a series and my one story submission is still pending HOWEVER, while my writing is questionable at best I am one damn good reader. Erotic, sci-fi, whodunits, action adventure, drama, and while I dislike poetry some authors say I review it well. Anywho, from a readers point of view if you are determined to end the series, planned it, want to kill it, be done with it, finito, no more. It would probably be in your interest to leave an out, you know, don't kill the main characters. I once talked to a writer who did well with a series, got tired of it, ended it and was glad to move on. Then as he and I were discussing something else I told him if he ever continued that series readers would love it. He said I was the straw that broke the camel's back, so to speak. He had been overwhelmed by the same requests for months, wishing people would forget it, but he suddenly had new interest in it and ideas he wanted to go with. The continuation was probably some of his best work. I was one of a great many who thought so. So, kill it if you must but leave yourself an out, or a way back in, if in the future you decide you'd like to do more. Just a readers opinion, bye.

 

[dr_mabeuse]

If you’ve done your series well, if you’ve thoroughly explored the situation and exhausted its possibilities and brought your characters to their proper emotional home at the end, then I think your readers should be satisfied.

If you’ve left avenues or possibilities unexplored, or left them unfulfilled, or if the story doesn't turn out quite esthetically right, then you can probably expect them to be unsatisfied. As a writer, you probably know when you've done a good job and reached the right ending. I think the readers know too.

It also depends on character. People who ask for further installments are usually smitten with your characters and are reluctant to see them go. I’ve had requests for sequels featuring certain characters, but I’ve never had a request asking that I repeat or revisit a particular situation.

---dr.M.

 

[psychocatblah]

I haven't ended a series before but I'm going to do so probably in the next week. How do you feel about it ending? Saying goodbye to your characters? I'm a little hesitant to let them go now that I'm down to the last chapter.

 

[dr_mabeuse]

I haven't ended a series before but I'm going to do so probably in the next week. How do you feel about it ending? Saying goodbye to your characters? I'm a little hesitant to let them go now that I'm down to the last chapter.

Don't you find that the same characters keep coming back in story after story, only with minor changes and new names?

The biggest series I did ended just right I think. Truth to tell, it ended happily and I was actually blubbering when I wrote the ending, saying goodbye to characters who I'd been through so much with.

It was a very serious piece, and as soon as it was over I started writing something light and silly--a detective farce, and the farce ended up doing better than the serious one.

---dr.M.

 

[dr_mabeuse]

Themes

If you set your sights higher than any but the most basic fuck-story, after a while you notice certain characters and situations showing up again and again in your fiction. Those are your themes, and I wonder whether anyone has noticed them in their work.

And even if you stick to your basic in-and-outer, you should notice themes or topics or problems you come back to time and again, whether it’s a cheating wife, incestuous son/daughter, revenge, unrequited love, boffing some female authority figure, exposing the slut within, the Mysterious Stranger, things like that.

So come on. Let’s set the Author’s Hangout on its ear for a change and get literate. What themes do you see in your writing?

---dr.M.

 

[Colleen Thomas]

It ends happily for all. One of my running themes is a happy ending, I very rarely end one on a down note. The exception to that rule has been one of my most popular stories, but its popularity hasn't changed my mind about happy endings.

I didn't "end" the story, at least not in a Conan Doyle fashion, but I did end it, in that the dramatic crisis of the series is resolved. Certainly I could carry on with the characters and their lives after that point, but at least for now I am done with these characters.

I have several themes that permeate my works. A butch woman, a naive or inexperienced character, my partiality to redheads shows, happy endings, and large strapons. I work to keep these themes from overwhelming my stories, changing things up as ideas occur to me. I try to branch out and explore other categories with staying with my F/F format.

This series was not concieved of as a series, but was rather an independet short story. I suppose I would have been beter off if I had concieved of it as a series and planned ahead beyond the original encounters. I am happy to say good bye to the characters, not in that I am glad to be done with them, but more in the vein of being happy for them.

-Colly

 

[psychocatblah]

Re: Themes

If you set your sights higher than any but the most basic fuck-story, after a while you notice certain characters and situations showing up again and again in your fiction. Those are your themes, and I wonder whether anyone has noticed them in their work.

And even if you stick to your basic in-and-outer, you should notice themes or topics or problems you come back to time and again, whether it’s a cheating wife, incestuous son/daughter, revenge, unrequited love, boffing some female authority figure, exposing the slut within, the Mysterious Stranger, things like that.

So come on. Let’s set the Author’s Hangout on its ear for a change and get literate. What themes do you see in your writing?

---dr.M.

This could be a thread unto itself. I think generally my characters are pretty different simply because I'm really interested in making new people in my head. That said, I do tend to borrow from each character here and there and switch things around a bit for either just my own amusement or because something needs to change to work with the story better. Sometimes there's traits that bothered me when I wrote them in one character that I make sure not to try out again.

As for themes, well, yes.... although mine's simplistic and probably extraordinarily trite. I tend to have a rather simplistic version of good vs evil or rather a right vs less right sort of struggle that a character has to sort out for themselves. Not everyone becomes good, and usually redemption isn't achieved within the story. (this completely excludes my wank fics which are just blurbs I write to amuse myself and hopefully others)

 

[rgraham666]

I can't say I've written enough erotica to say I have a 'theme', but I have noticed constants in all my writing.

Most of the characters in my writing are 'outsiders' for one reason or another. I regard myself as an 'outsider' and I've never lived a 'normal' life, so my writing reflects that.

When I look at all the stuff I've written so far, only one has a happy ending. Again this reflects my own life.

My first story posted here wasn't meant to be a series, but it was so long I decided to break it up. and I did get one request to continue it.

I'm starting a series right at the moment. I'm experimenting a little. Each piece of the series will involve the two main characters at five year intervals. I already know how it's going to end. I'm compromising and it will be quite bittersweet. If I can write it properly.

P.S. Colleen? I'm looking forward to seeing how your series ends. I've really enjoyed it so far.

 

[oggbashan]

Congratulations on finishing a series.

I have only finished one - last year's NaNoWriMo - and I was very relieved when I ended it. I was pleased as well but that one I had planned from beginning to end. I didn't know how many words it would turn out to be so I planned 28 episodes linked to the main theme. Eventually I reduced the episodes to 12 which was more manageable.

I have several unfinished series including two massive ones that still need about 20 lit pages to reach their conclusion. Restarting after a break is difficult. I have to read everything I have written of the series so far and study it before I can write more. Several times I have studied an incomplete series and still been unable to produce more episodes. On occasions that study has led me off on a tangent to start yet another series - !!

I ought to tidy up my earlier submissions. I have tried and have several re-drafts but I can lose empathy with the characters.

I find it easier to keep writing the series at a high speed. That way I don't stop until I have exhausted the possibilities. But real life and competitions get in the way.

Watch this space. More stories might finish the several incomplete series but maybe they'll be totally new.

Og

 

[dr_mabeuse]

Re: Re: Themes

This could be a thread unto itself.

It was supposed to be. I hit the wrong button!

I'm going to start it as a separate thread now. Sorry if I inadvertently hijacked.

Here's a link to the new thread:

https://forum.literotica.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=257181


---dr.M.

 

[Colleen Thomas]

I can't say I've written enough erotica to say I have a 'theme', but I have noticed constants in all my writing.

Most of the characters in my writing are 'outsiders' for one reason or another. I regard myself as an 'outsider' and I've never lived a 'normal' life, so my writing reflects that.

When I look at all the stuff I've written so far, only one has a happy ending. Again this reflects my own life.

My first story posted here wasn't meant to be a series, but it was so long I decided to break it up. and I did get one request to continue it.

I'm starting a series right at the moment. I'm experimenting a little. Each piece of the series will involve the two main characters at five year intervals. I already know how it's going to end. I'm compromising and it will be quite bittersweet. If I can write it properly.

P.S. Colleen? I'm looking forward to seeing how your series ends. I've really enjoyed it so far.

I hope you will enjoy it. Strangely, in the earlier chapters I had several fellows write me and ask me not to go to hard on poor Bernie. Apparently the sports fanatics of this world also occasionally skip the game to read porn

Much of the last chapter was written with me wondering how I could end it happily for all. I think I have succeeded there, but only time and feedback will tell.

-Colly

 

[Colleen Thomas]

Congratulations on finishing a series.

I have only finished one - last year's NaNoWriMo - and I was very relieved when I ended it. I was pleased as well but that one I had planned from beginning to end. I didn't know how many words it would turn out to be so I planned 28 episodes linked to the main theme. Eventually I reduced the episodes to 12 which was more manageable.

I have several unfinished series including two massive ones that still need about 20 lit pages to reach their conclusion. Restarting after a break is difficult. I have to read everything I have written of the series so far and study it before I can write more. Several times I have studied an incomplete series and still been unable to produce more episodes. On occasions that study has led me off on a tangent to start yet another series - !!

I ought to tidy up my earlier submissions. I have tried and have several re-drafts but I can lose empathy with the characters.

I find it easier to keep writing the series at a high speed. That way I don't stop until I have exhausted the possibilities. But real life and competitions get in the way.

Watch this space. More stories might finish the several incomplete series but maybe they'll be totally new.

Og

Thanks Oggs

I couldn't participate in nano, I never really felt I had a novel in me. this one is pretty darned long however, maybe I do after all

-Colly

 

[oggbashan]

Thanks Oggs

I couldn't participate in nano, I never really felt I had a novel in me. this one is pretty darned long however, maybe I do after all

-Colly

Go for it this year. Start training. 2000 words a day should do for practice. That allows for a couple of days off for real life and other irritations.

NaNoWriMo doesn't really need to be a novel. It can be stream-of-consciousness stuff as long as it exceeds 50,000 words.

I found it easier to plan a linked theme - like a composer's 'Theme and variations' - with the major plot starting with the first episode and completing with the last, and the chapters in between linked very loosely to the main theme. The theme? Red silk French knickers. 12 people had fun with 12 pairs of knickers.

If you could plan something that works for you - a lesbian lacrosse team telling about their first encounter? - then you could do the NaNoWriMo marathon.

Regards,

Og