Let Sleeping Dogs Lie?

[Inkhorn]

So my latest story seems to be something of a hit, more than I expected it to be. (Enough so that I’m almost afraid to submit anything else for fear of disappointing people!)

That said, a lot of the folks who commented had unanswered questions. This tempts me to do a follow story that addresses those concerns. Yet a good friend and mentor always said to leave the audience wanting more.

What do you folks do? When you’ve had a hit and people are asking for more? Do you give them what they want or do you move on to other projects?

 

[oggbashan]

Unless you intended to write a sequel? Move on.

 

[CoffeeWithMonkeys]

I have a story posted here, Serendipity, that my friends read before I posted it here. They all said You can't end it like that, I need more. So I decided to write a part two. I started it with a sort of idea of where it was going, but I quickly lost interest and have never finished the part two.


If you're not feeling it, if you think you ended at a good place, then don't attempt it. But if you agree and think, well maybe this could happen, then maybe try it.
But remember you're going to have people who love where the characters went in the next part, and others who hate it. LOL! You can never please everyone.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

I think it would be a question of whether or not you're up for a sequel. Doyle killed off Sherlock Holmes but brought him back when fans protested.

 

[SimonDoom]

Move on to other projects.

This happens all the time to many authors who've written successful stories. Readers want to see the characters get together again in a follow up story. It's tempting to want to comply, because you have a ready-made, seemingly appreciative audience.

I obliged once, a couple of years ago. I wrote a follow up story that was very similar to the first one, which was my most popular story, with the same characters. It got a good rating, but less than one third the number of readers. I don't regret writing it, but I don't feel it advanced the artistic ball in any way.

The truth is that despite the professed wishes of your readers you probably will achieve more, both in terms of art and popularity, by moving on to a new story than by writing a sequel to an existing one. That's not always true, but I think it's usually true.

This advice doesn't apply to a story for which you already had planned to write a series of chapters.

 

[TornConflict]

Honestly, I used to start all my stories with intention to do continued tales. I found that led me to regular writers block. I am still trying to finish a few of them. Since then I have done a lots single stories that could be ended or continued. None were written with intent to do more but those like your problem mentioned get piles of feedback requesting more with same characters.

Specificly my story The Right Price gets me email about two or three times a month, sometimes more. I wrote it for the geek event as really just a throw away idea with a gag at the end. Something about that one hit people in a way I didn't expect. I had no intention of doing more with those characters but I might do a follow up story for the next geek event if I have time.

 

[Vix_Giovanni]

Unless you intended to write a sequel? Move on.

I agree with Ogg.

Part of the mastery of a good story is its unanswered questions. I think F. Scott Fitzgerald is the guy who said (paraphrased) that only the author should know every detail of the story.

 

[Tio_Narratore]

I agree with Ogg.

Part of the mastery of a good story is its unanswered questions. I think F. Scott Fitzgerald is the guy who said (paraphrased) that only the author should know every detail of the story.

And a really good author shouldn't know all the details of the story.

(cf. Claude Lévi-Strauss: "people don't write myths; myths write themselves through people.")

 

[Vix_Giovanni]

And a really good author shouldn't know all the details of the story.

(cf. Claude Lévi-Strauss: "people don't write myths; myths write themselves through people.")

Sí certo! Grazie, Tio

 

[BumbleCat]

I get sequel requests all the time. Even for stories that I consider to all but have a bow on them. For the one series I did write beyond my intended story, I regret it. I _still_ feel like I'm in an abusive relationship with the characters; I haven't liked them for a while. It would take a brilliant idea that I could only tell with those characters to ever dust them off again.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Move on.

If the story demands a sequel, it will nag and nag in your brain, and eventually you'll succumb. But to write a sequel just because readers want more is never wise - it's the wrong motivation.

I often come back to the same characters a lot later and write them a new story, but only when I want to, never in response to requests for more.

 

[Voboy]

What Ogg said.

It’s your story, not theirs. I’ve been in this boat a million times.

 

[mynameisben]

You should write a story about a dog that sleeps and lies to you a lot. In fact, you can make him be the President of the United States.

 

[Tio_Narratore]

You should write a story about a dog that sleeps and lies to you a lot. In fact, you can make him be the President of the United States.

Please Ben! We're supposed to be civil on this forum. There is no need to insult our canine friends!

 

[eroticstoryspinner]

So my latest story seems to be something of a hit, more than I expected it to be. (Enough so that I’m almost afraid to submit anything else for fear of disappointing people!)

That said, a lot of the folks who commented had unanswered questions. This tempts me to do a follow story that addresses those concerns. Yet a good friend and mentor always said to leave the audience wanting more.

What do you folks do? When you’ve had a hit and people are asking for more? Do you give them what they want or do you move on to other projects?

I am reminded by Tim Allen's response to why he decided to end the "Home Improvement" TV show. He said that he didn't think he had another good season in him. If the story is there write it. If not, don't.

Me. i have a universe I like to play in. When it quits being fun and I run out of stories, I will do something else.

 

[MichaelGH]

Has anyone ever written a sequel because a reader asked for it?

 

[Vix_Giovanni]

Has anyone ever written a sequel because a reader asked for it?

I never would.

I do this for free, as a hobby, without editors or deadlines and solely for my own enjoyment. I'd recommend such a reader do the same for his own story.

And, personally, since I'm a numbers chick, I'm always baffled by the "personal requests" when, out of perhaps 50k unique site visits a day, one person in a six to eight week period makes such a request.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Has anyone ever written a sequel because a reader asked for it?

Not me. All of my sequels were written at my own or my character's request .

 

[Inkhorn]

My sincere thanks to everyone. Your input greatly helped me come to a decision!

*laughing at myself* Now if only I can decide which of the five stories I’ve started to focus on!

 

[TarnishedPenny]

Has anyone ever written a sequel because a reader asked for it?

Yes. It worked out quite well, actually.

On the other hand, I've turned down or ignored a bunch of similar requests with no regrets.

 

[Bramblethorn]

So my latest story seems to be something of a hit, more than I expected it to be. (Enough so that I’m almost afraid to submit anything else for fear of disappointing people!)

That said, a lot of the folks who commented had unanswered questions. This tempts me to do a follow story that addresses those concerns. Yet a good friend and mentor always said to leave the audience wanting more.

What do you folks do? When you’ve had a hit and people are asking for more? Do you give them what they want or do you move on to other projects?

If their feedback has changed how you think about your own story, and you can see a good path to continuation, why not? If you didn't have a continuation in mind before, and the only thing that's changed is that readers really want a sequel, probably better to move on.

My first story here was supposed to be a one-shot. Readers wanted to know "what happened next" and when I thought about it, I had a lot of ideas. So I planned out the extended story xxdecided to turn it into a six-chapter story, which ended up going to 14 because I'm terrible at estimating these things, but f.

It worked for me, because by good fortune my "one-shot" had enough to build on, and I was genuinely enthused about following it up. If I'd just been doing it to satisfy the readers, that would've been a bad idea.

 

[SimonDoom]

Has anyone ever written a sequel because a reader asked for it?

Yes.

My story Late Night On The Loveseat With Mom was much more successful than I expected it to be, and I had several readers asking me to continue the story. So I wrote a sequel, Late Night Under The Stars With Mom. I published it about a month and a half after the original story.

It did fine, but to date (both stories were published in 2017) it has fewer than one third the views that the first story does, despite having a higher score. I don't regret writing it, but my experience left me with the view that it's generally better NOT to acquiesce to reader requests to continue a story. It's better to start with a completely new story.

 

[SolarRay]

One of the very first mistakes I made here at Lit was writing a sequel that readers asked for. Although the score was fine, it got a lot of negative criticism, largely because I succumbed to the pressure of what several different fans wanted it to be resulting in a mishmash of nonsense that didn't honor the spirit of the original series. I learned very quickly that it was a mistake. Ever since, if I respond in the affirmative to a sequel request (which I get all the time, as many authors do) it's only because I've already planned for there to be a sequel from the get-go.

 

[Hypoxia]

Has anyone ever written a sequel because a reader asked for it?

Yes, mostly to good effect, but sometimes not so great. I still have a couple of guilty next-chapters awaiting the voices in my head to demand I finish. I've also received good comments suggesting angles for stories and characters, as well as pervos desiring more fetish details than I'll supply. Can't please everyone.

 

[Heartsongs]

I've written two sequels because of kind responses from readers. Both sequels did better in ratings than the firsts.