standalones that turn into series

[allamagione]

Hi! Longtime reader here, working on my first submission, and I had a question for you pros. I'm still trying to figure out how everything works, so your patience is much appreciated if I'm asking a stupid question and don't realize it.

I started this story as a one-off piece, but as I kept working on it, I realized that it would be a good setup for a series. But commitment sends my muse into flatline, so I'm reluctant to post it as a Ch. 01. And if I did write a series, I'd want it to be the kind of thing where each 'chapter' worked as a standalone piece.

Personally, I like standalones that (like good sex) follow a clear buildup-climax-resolution format yet end with a little something that leaves me wanting more. But from digging around forums and comments, it seems like maybe readers get a little ragey over teases like that? And then I read a thread on AH last night where someone's piece was rejected as 'partial,' and I don’t want that to happen because I end a standalone on a teasing note, especially when I'm putting so much work into writing a solid standalone sex scene that leaves readers satisfied. Still, I'd like to turn the screw at the end to hint there could be more to the story.

How do you all feel about this? Have you ever written a standalone piece and ended it so that you could pick back up at a later date if you wanted to? And if you did continue at a later date, did you end up chaptering the work, or did you link the pieces in some other way?

 

[RejectReality]

Almost every story in my profile under this pen name is something that I could continue. My goal is to provide enough resolution that the story can stand on its own, but if I get inspired to write more later, I have openings to do so.

I wouldn't worry much about "partial" rejections, as it seems that most of those have had circumstances such as author's notes or bio entries that led Laurel to believe they might be teasers. Chapter stories are posted every day without a hitch.

If you have a satisfying resolution for the story to stand alone, there's no need to tag it as Ch. 01. It's only when it drops off completely, resolving nothing, that people complain about not having the chapter designation. The situation you're describing sounds nothing like that.

It's exactly how I handled my one story I have continued in this pen name ( Jerk ) and a story in one of my other pen names. ( Kindled In Fiction ) I wrote the initial story, posted it as a stand-alone, and then when I got inspired months later, I added a chapter 2. I could very easily add more to both of those stories, if my muse goes that way, but they can stand as they are as well.

There's no way to group stories except by the beginning of the title, so if you want stories to be grouped, you more or less have to use chapter designations or some sort of title scheme such as "Diner: Julia", "Diner: Emily"

The limit on the number of characters in titles can make the latter difficult.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Its all in how you end the story. That is, chapter one must end 2 ways, it must have a resolution to itself plus suggest that things aren't over with the resolution.

 

[soflabbwlvr]

I write all of my stories such that when I get to the last page, it is the last page. If there is more to the story than what is contained in a single submission, then it is clearly indicated with chapter numbers. However, in one case I felt that there were some things unresolved and--more importantly--I liked the characters so much that I wanted to give them a happy ending. In that case I wrote another story that picked up the next day and resolved all loose threads. I don't plan to do that again, but you never know.

The risk you take when you don't specify up front that there is more to the story is that the readers who get to it before the subsequent part goes up may never know that they haven't reached the end. If you tell me at the outset that this is chapter 1, then if I liked it I'll be on the look out for chapter 2. But if it gets to the end and there's no mention of more story forthcoming, I will probably never see it.

 

[allamagione]

Almost every story in my profile under this pen name is something that I could continue. My goal is to provide enough resolution that the story can stand on its own, but if I get inspired to write more later, I have openings to do so.

I wouldn't worry much about "partial" rejections, as it seems that most of those have had circumstances such as author's notes or bio entries that led Laurel to believe they might be teasers. Chapter stories are posted every day without a hitch.

If you have a satisfying resolution for the story to stand alone, there's no need to tag it as Ch. 01. It's only when it drops off completely, resolving nothing, that people complain about not having the chapter designation. The situation you're describing sounds nothing like that.

It's exactly how I handled my one story I have continued in this pen name ( Jerk ) and a story in one of my other pen names. ( Kindled In Fiction ) I wrote the initial story, posted it as a stand-alone, and then when I got inspired months later, I added a chapter 2. I could very easily add more to both of those stories, if my muse goes that way, but they can stand as they are as well.

There's no way to group stories except by the beginning of the title, so if you want stories to be grouped, you more or less have to use chapter designations or some sort of title scheme such as "Diner: Julia", "Diner: Emily"

The limit on the number of characters in titles can make the latter difficult.

These are very helpful pointers and considerations! Thank you so much for taking time to answer. It sounds like we work in a similar fashion.

 

[Hypoxia]

Echoing some of the above: Yes, you can use a naming scheme such as DIGBY DOES DULLES, then DIGBY DOES DULLES 02 and DIGBY DOES DULLES 03. For my RUTH series, I write fairly standalone episodes with chronological alphabetical ordering: THE BOOK OF RUTH: BEFORE RUTH and THE BOOK OF RUTH: COMING FAST and THE BOOK OF RUTH: DOING RUTH and THE BOOK OF RUTH: EATING OUT. If I write a prequel, it will be THE BOOK OF RUTH: ALL THAT JAZZ or something like that. They'll all show up in the LIT listings as THE BOOK OF RUTH series.

If I have a fairly good idea of where the next chapter or episode is going, I'll end the current piece with a teaser line, like NEXT: Rachel pulls another train. If I'm sure that a series will continue but I'm not yet sure how, my teaser may be like NEXT: Rachel gets into more trouble or something.

A series of fairly standalone episodes may need to handle continuity. In the RUTH series (of which BEFORE RUTH and COMING FAST are posted, and DOING RUTH is half-done) I embed brief recaps, mostly just descriptions but with some slight reference to previous happenings, and encouragements to read the prior episodes.

I started at LIT (just a few months ago) with a few series: one (RON) fairly lengthy, with more possible chapters forthcoming; one (DEXTER) as distinct 3-part mini-series, with more possible; one (ALAN) that started as an unfinished 2-parter, with #3 added and a possibility of more if I ever get off my lazy ass; and one (BRIDE OF KONG) as a planned 3-parter, with #4 added to resolve the ending. Other than those and RUTH (and maybe some more MORON'S GUIDES) all my submissions are planned standalones -- although JENNY BE FAIR could generate some standalone sequels, which will be titled as numbered chapters.

A suggestion: Title your first stories beginning with the second half of the alphabet, like THE (something) or PROBLEMS WITH (someone) or whatever. As you gain experience and writing chops, start titles with the first half of the alphabet. As you build an inventory of stories, curious readers may want to read them all -- and if they start with your rougher first stories, they might not bother with the rest. Alas, my ALAN series was my first, and not my best, so my next (and better) submissions will be titled A FINAL (something) or 99 ODD (somethings). Maybe, when they get to the ALAN tales, new readers will be forgiving.

 

[StrangeLife]

I usually write one-shots, though have been "convinced" by commentators to write a sequel once. But some people write long epic series featuring the same recurring characters and seem to be doing very well.

I suspect it's a good way of building up a steady fan-community.

 

[RejectReality]

These are very helpful pointers and considerations! Thank you so much for taking time to answer. It sounds like we work in a similar fashion.

No problem I do tend to write hard endings in my other two pen names, but even then, I write prequels, sequels, pull minor characters out and make them stars in their own story, jump forward a generation to the character's kids... Things like that.

 

[49greg]

....

A suggestion: Title your first stories beginning with the second half of the alphabet, like THE (something) or PROBLEMS WITH (someone) or whatever. As you gain experience and writing chops, start titles with the first half of the alphabet. As you build an inventory of stories, curious readers may want to read them all -- and if they start with your rougher first stories, they might not bother with the rest. Alas, my ALAN series was my first, and not my best, so my next (and better) submissions will be titled A FINAL (something) or 99 ODD (somethings). Maybe, when they get to the ALAN tales, new readers will be forgiving.

Damn good Idea. I started Willy-nilly as far as titles went, then soon started trying to do think up titles in alphabetic order. Obviously with a few stand outs. So that the further down one goes in the list, the newer the stories are. (with a few exceptions from before I started doing it.)

Except for a couple of "The" stories that are contest entries. So it's kind of a mess. I wish I had seen or thought of your idea before I started posting.

And when I posted my second story, a continuation of what I originally thought was going to be a standalone, I screwed up and didn't use the exact name, (I forgot the 'A', so it didn't join with the first as part of a series.

So remember naming series exactly the same except for chapter numbers or other identifiers.

 

[Bramblethorn]

My first story here was a stand-alone short; after reader encouragement I extended it into a 14-part novel-length piece.

The approach I took was to have two story arcs in mind: the big arc that extends over the whole work, and a little arc that gets resolved by the end of the chapter (often followed by some sort of teaser about what's coming next). The small arc means they have some feeling of satisfaction at the end of each chapter, the big arc means they have a reason to read the next. It seemed to work pretty well.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

Hey, I have several stories that were planned on being a series but are now just stand alone's.

No, I really mean it. Started the sequels but just couldn't quite finish them.

 

[allamagione]

You're a kindred spirit, Zeb. Attention span of a butterfly right here.

Bramblethorn: Thanks for the input. I scouted your submissions page and see you left the 'ch 01' off the first chapter. I think that's probably the way I'll go initially, too, although I have vague ideas about a larger arc. I'm impressed with how you churned out those updates on a regular basis, by the way. Mine would probably be like three in a row and then two years until the next one, and everyone would hate me.

Hypoxia: Thanks! That's good advice on the titles. I also tend to read from A-Z when I find authors I like, but, derp, the implications for titling didn't occur to me.

 

[MSTarot]

The fun one is when you write a standalone and then have 40+ people demanding a series.

Be carefull of that, or your could end up tied to a bed.

http://cdn.mos.totalfilm.com/images/m/misery-00-470-75.jpg

 

[Acktion]

I actually made the mistake of turning in one as a series. I submitted 02 and all was well. Then, I submitted 03 and 04 and got sick. While I was sick, they were both rejected.

When I was finally well enough to check in, quite awhile later, I saw that they were rejected and felt that Laurel was being kind to say it was ONLY because of spelling. Rather than fix the (actually rather glaring) errors and resubmitting, I filed them both in my "slush" file (sounds better than "cesspool") and opened a fresh, clean page and started rewriting.

And sputtered and died.

I finally gave up on it and moved on. Maybe I'll come back to it someday before they nail the coffin shut or maybe I won't. But, I'm not just going to sling something that reads like I dug it out of the sewer line just to keep the series "alive". As a reader myself, I'm fairly sure that the ones who read it would rather wait until I have something that WORKS as opposed to just filing one to let them know I'm still around.

On another one that was originally supposed to be a series, I left out the numbers and was going to use the approach Hypoxia mentioned by titling the first one "Dreamwalkers; First Contact" and the second one would have been "Dreamwalkers; Going Back to the Dream" and so forth, leaving A-E for me to use for prequels if I felt them needed. Again, health issues kept me from continuing the series "on time" and when I came back, I just wasn't feeling the love for the second chapter anymore.

But, leaving it didn't bother me because I hadn't tacked the 01 out there as a promise of some sort that there would be an 02 forthcoming.

Hearing what you are saying about your own writing style, and based on my two experiences before I determined to stick to "one shotters", I would add my voice to those suggesting the latter method for titles.

Best of luck with your writing.

 

[Bramblethorn]

A suggestion: Title your first stories beginning with the second half of the alphabet, like THE (something) or PROBLEMS WITH (someone) or whatever. As you gain experience and writing chops, start titles with the first half of the alphabet. As you build an inventory of stories, curious readers may want to read them all -- and if they start with your rougher first stories, they might not bother with the rest. Alas, my ALAN series was my first, and not my best, so my next (and better) submissions will be titled A FINAL (something) or 99 ODD (somethings). Maybe, when they get to the ALAN tales, new readers will be forgiving.

Note to self: write a story about aardvarks.

Bramblethorn: Thanks for the input. I scouted your submissions page and see you left the 'ch 01' off the first chapter. I think that's probably the way I'll go initially, too, although I have vague ideas about a larger arc.

Yeah, when I posted that I had no idea there was going to be a Ch. 02. I could've changed the title on chapter 1, but as you can see it's not necessary for linkage.

I'm impressed with how you churned out those updates on a regular basis, by the way. Mine would probably be like three in a row and then two years until the next one, and everyone would hate me.

Yeah, that was quite demanding. I tried to keep a buffer, so I'd have Chapter 11 written by the time I posted Chapter 10; it made it easier to keep to the posting schedule in case of interruptions, and it also gave me a little more room to revise the previous chapter if I changed my mind about something while writing the next.

It also helped that I had an outline before I started on Chapter 2. I modified that outline a lot along the way, and it ended up being much longer than I'd expected, but I always had some idea of where it was going; I think a lot of unfinished stories happen because the author doesn't know where they're headed, and after a certain point it gets harder to improvise an ending.

One thing I did discover with that story that is that regularity matters more than frequency. Readers were fine with me going five weeks between chapters, but one time it got held up because of a hiccup with the file attachment, and around week 6 I started getting messages from people wanting to know when the next chapter was coming out...

 

[allamagione]

One thing I did discover with that story that is that regularity matters more than frequency. Readers were fine with me going five weeks between chapters, but one time it got held up because of a hiccup with the file attachment, and around week 6 I started getting messages from people wanting to know when the next chapter was coming out...

That makes sense. People like to know what to expect and probably get antsy when they think they're going to be left hanging.

As a reader myself, I'm fairly sure that the ones who read it would rather wait until I have something that WORKS as opposed to just filing one to let them know I'm still around.

Definitely. And also something where you can tell the author put their heart into it, rather than merely fulfilling a commitment.


Waiting on a story to post, as an author, on the other hand... do not like! I submitted on Saturday, and my impatience is killing me!

Thanks again for all your advice, folks. I gave it a short title starting with a "W" and hopefully tied the ending up nicely while leaving it open. We'll see!

 

[R. Richard]

I wrote a story that I called Second Chance. I couldn't sell the story. I expanded the story to novel length and sold it as Second Chance: God Killer. Second Chance: God Killer sold well and I now have 18 Second Chance novels published.

 

[Hypoxia]

I wrote a story that I called Second Chance. I couldn't sell the story. I expanded the story to novel length and sold it as Second Chance: God Killer. Second Chance: God Killer sold well and I now have 18 Second Chance novels published.

You need to update your links.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

I wrote a story that I called Second Chance. I couldn't sell the story. I expanded the story to novel length and sold it as Second Chance: God Killer. Second Chance: God Killer sold well and I now have 18 Second Chance novels published.

None of you ClubLightHouse links are working...FYI.

 

[49greg]

I wrote a story that did NOT have a 'Chapter 1' in the title, but I did put a 'To be continued' at the end - just didn't think that someone might want to see a chapter number on the first one.

One anonymous comment lamblasted me for not putting in the 'chapter 1' - he apparently wanted to read a single chapter story and got highly upset when it wasn't finished.

 

[allamagione]

I wrote a story that did NOT have a 'Chapter 1' in the title, but I did put a 'To be continued' at the end - just didn't think that someone might want to see a chapter number on the first one.

One anonymous comment lamblasted me for not putting in the 'chapter 1' - he apparently wanted to read a single chapter story and got highly upset when it wasn't finished.

LOL, crazy! I love to be teased. Maybe it's the writer coming out in me even when I'm reading. I enjoy cliffhangers and open endings because they let my imagination run wild.

Although I'll echo what several people have said here. I do like chaptered pieces best when each chapter has its own arc.

 

[sr71plt]

I wrote a story that did NOT have a 'Chapter 1' in the title, but I did put a 'To be continued' at the end - just didn't think that someone might want to see a chapter number on the first one.

One anonymous comment lamblasted me for not putting in the 'chapter 1' - he apparently wanted to read a single chapter story and got highly upset when it wasn't finished.

I can understand that. I think it's logical not to want to commit to a story that hasn't been completed--especially on a Web site where uncompleted stories often are the case. I'd be ticked too--because I don't begin reading any chaptered series that hasn't been completed. It's not a full story until it is.