What should happen next?

[cheetahJubie]

I have started three ongoing series (all with a noncon bdsm bent) and I'm at a bit of a loss for what to do with any of them next.

My Initiation is about Alyssa, a dominatrix-turned-professor who is recruited into a sex-slave training organization.
Maribelle's Worst Day is about the titular klutzy redhead who struggles to get to work on time, with lots of sexual misadventures along the way.
Alex of the Mall is about a recently fired retail worker who finds an outlet for his frustrations by punishing the worst customers at the mall (This one I have almost finished a second chapter of).

I'll cop to all of these as being pretty juvinile and sadistic. The stories mostly exist as a way to string unlikely bondage scenarios together and I'm kind of amazed they got approved? But they make me horny to reread and I hope other people enjoy them too.

I would love suggestions for what should happen next. I have kind of a framework for the next few scenes of each, but introducing a bit of chaos in the form of other people's suggestions might give me what I need to keep the writing process going.

 

[Writer61]

This is basically a collaboration request, and they don't do well unless you have a track record and we can judge your style. Most authors are busy with their own stories, and unless there's a good reason, they won't waste their limited time developing a plot for you.

My best advice is to focus on one of those stories and flesh it out yourself. I don't mean write a full story, just the plot points.

Good luck.

 

[anthrodisiac]

Are you talking about continuations of the existing stories, or are you looking for someone to give you story ideas for what to do next?

 

[Rob_Royale]

In my opinion, when you can't figure out what to do next, it's time to end the series.

 

[Britva415]

How about:

What if you don't even focus on one of those ongoing series.

But you just come up with an idea for a story you'd want to write. And write a first draft of that.

Then.

As part of your review and revision process, once you have that first draft written down, think about: Could what I just wrote fit onto one of those ongoing series? Maybe with a little bit of change, to make it fit?

The answer might be No. But! You still wrote a draft of a story.

 

[Voboy]

In my opinion, when you can't figure out what to do next, it's time to end the series.

This.

Chop all of them off, OP. You yourself acknowledge that they're really nothing special; why, then, would you want to just crank out more and more and more?

End all three. Then write something new.

 

[cheetahJubie]

Hrm. I guess that's all fair advice.

I guess I'm happy to let them linger on the backburner until I have a flash of a scene I'd like to put in one. It's how I've gotten this far. I was kind of just curious what other peoples' takes on the premesis were.

 

[Voboy]

I was kind of just curious what other peoples' takes on the premesis were.

Well... there are different ways of looking at this.

To me, a series is a bunch of essentially self-contained stories that contain an overall arc. The arc gradually resolves, though each installment also makes its own point.

From what you're describing, you don't really have an arc. You just have a bunch of related stories where the same thing happens again and again and again. Which is fine; a lot of readers seem to love that sort of thing, and if you've found some, then more power to you.

But I, for one, would not find it fulfilling to write a series that way. To me, if there's no overall story, then I start to wonder why the collection of stories is a "series" at all. JMO.

That's why I'd just end it. From what you tell us, there's not really any arc to resolve? If not, you can make one! Introduce a conflict in your next chapter, then spend a couple more resolving it; boom. There's your ending.

I'm assuming you're getting a little tired of writing these? That was my assumption in my earlier reply, and I think that's what @Rob_Royale suggested as well. If you're sick of it, then that's a signal from the universe...

 

[vanmyers86]

Alex of the Mall sounds promising in a Theatre of Blood* dark-comedy sort of way.

*The movie follows Vincent Price as his character, a deranged Shakespearean actor, murders all of his critics in ways that echo the plots of the plays the critics lambasted him for. Well worth watching if you can catch it on Tubi or another streaming platform.

 

[ronde]

I have started three ongoing series (all with a noncon bdsm bent) and I'm at a bit of a loss for what to do with any of them next.

My Initiation is about Alyssa, a dominatrix-turned-professor who is recruited into a sex-slave training organization.
Maribelle's Worst Day is about the titular klutzy redhead who struggles to get to work on time, with lots of sexual misadventures along the way.
Alex of the Mall is about a recently fired retail worker who finds an outlet for his frustrations by punishing the worst customers at the mall (This one I have almost finished a second chapter of).

I'll cop to all of these as being pretty juvinile and sadistic. The stories mostly exist as a way to string unlikely bondage scenarios together and I'm kind of amazed they got approved? But they make me horny to reread and I hope other people enjoy them too.

I would love suggestions for what should happen next. I have kind of a framework for the next few scenes of each, but introducing a bit of chaos in the form of other people's suggestions might give me what I need to keep the writing process going.

To write anything, be it a juvenile and sadistic short story or a best selling novel, the writer has to have at least a concept of how the thing is going to end. It doesn't have to be an ending cast in stone. It can be pretty ambiguous as long as it points you into some direction. That could be that they decide to never speak again, they decide to make the arrangement permanent, or it's just a one-off and they go their separate ways. The important thing here is that unless you have a goal (the ending), you can't write with a purpose. I think that's how some authors here end up with "Episode 87" of they're story. They begin with an idea and don't know when to stop. They just change a scene and write the same things over and over.

It sounds to me as if you have been "free writing", that is, just writing what comes to mind at a particular time. There's noting wrong with free writing. It can lead to some great works once you stand back and take a thousand foot look. Why not examine what you've written and see if you were headed for an ending or if you setting the stage for a continuation that will arrive at a planned ending?