When is a serial story finished?

[Euphony]

When I finally get to the point:
I love my two lead characters dearly. I could keep writing them. But their story doesn't have a happy ending. They were conceived of by a younger, less-mature me, and the characters reflect that age and stage, and so must the plot. So, my question is, how do you know when a story is finished? Do the demands of erotica as a medium that attempts to satisfy masturbatory desires weigh into your decision on when to stop the story? ("Happy endings are just stories that haven't finished yet," et al.)

If life has beat into me any constant, it's that a person's story may run astride a person's physical life but, in most cases, will prove just how detached when they come to their shared end.

Fiction is often suggested as an idealized version of "real life" so non-threatening escapism can occur but it doesn't have to always be that way (nor should it.)

Litmus test for me is whether the theme has been explored and supported thoroughly. That is the driver of what the muse worked with you to share.

There needs to be an end but not a perfect end.

I only rankle (and only a bit) when there is a rather sudden directional shift to a miserable outcome after a work mostly comprised of cotton candy romance.

One giant ending bait and switch doesn't offend me b/c it is real life, maybe even more so than many stories crafted, but it also can feel a lazy "gotcha."

There are a few authors here who strive for a reader to feel emotion(s) they have constructed over meeting what an audience (thinks) they want. And big kudos to them.

But the bomb drop at the end feels like an author lacking the confidence to explore the complexities of emotional reality/real life outcomes and randomness so leverages significantly building up the audience's expectation in one direction and quick cutting against it for a natural emotional conflict.

It's a bit like Alfred Hitchcock speaking on having a scene on a plane where a bomb suddenly goes off versus showing the bomb ticking down an letting the tension build from an informed place.

Neither are wrong per se but one seems far more elegant storytelling than the other.

Story characters shouldn't be guaranteed a happy ending, especially when exploring themes/subjects that run counter to its general realities (Deux Ex Machina abuse is frustrating and rampant) but, in most cases, they should have a mostly conclusive, authentic ending that they earned throughout their tale.

 

[MillieDynamite]

This is an excellent question. I'm not sure what the answer to it is. I've outlined 6 parts to Written in Blood, and while the full story is complete and whole, in my mind, getting there is proving to be difficult. It's quite hard to work on it, put out something else, and work on contract writing at the same time. So, in the case of my Blood Tales, it isn't so much when it is done, but when can I work on it?

On another series, The Theodora Drummond PI stories, I have several written but not edited, nor are they second draft quality. This one is going to be the when is enough, enough. I should be writing.

 

[Emilymcplugger]

The backstory:
I submitted the sixth installment of a series over the weekend and it was published a few hours ago. It's a sentimental series for me; the first chapter was the first erotic story I ever wrote. I drafted it when I was nineteen and then let it, and every other story and poem I wrote, languish on my hard drive for years, unread and unedited. Then two years ago, I made a pact with a friend on new years to "get rejected ten times" in 2021, to overcome the fear of negative feedback. One of my intended rejections was to post that story onto this website. (I did not edit it, and it's likely riddled with grammar mistakes. The horror!)

Of course, I did not get rejected. Instead I found a community of readers so welcoming it brought me back to writing for the pure joy of it. The positive feedback and requests for more installments inspired me, and I found myself posting installments 2-5. On number 6, I wrote my rough draft and then couldn't bring myself to publish it for almost a year. Why? Because I think it might be the end.

When I finally get to the point:
I love my two lead characters dearly. I could keep writing them. But their story doesn't have a happy ending. They were conceived of by a younger, less-mature me, and the characters reflect that age and stage, and so must the plot. So, my question is, how do you know when a story is finished? Do the demands of erotica as a medium that attempts to satisfy masturbatory desires weigh into your decision on when to stop the story? ("Happy endings are just stories that haven't finished yet," et al.)

When I type THE END.

I usually know where I’m going (roundabout) in a story from the start. The characters may add changes and wrinkles to my plans (HOT AND FUZZY included, final part to come) but I always have a clear “start from here, end here” idea in mind when writing.

But, if you have ideas for an ongoing serial then it’s wherever it feels like a satisfying climax. Only you can decide for you.

What does you think in this case?

 

[oneagainst]

How do you know when a story is finished? Do the demands of erotica as a medium that attempts to satisfy masturbatory desires weigh into your decision on when to stop the story? ("Happy endings are just stories that haven't finished yet," et al.)

The end is the sweet part: so, actually writing the story is like trying to hit a target that's over the horizon with clear no line of sight. The readers get to the end hopefully without seeing it from a mile off, and it's job done. If I'm writing 20-odd chapters, the end is one of the first things I put down, even if it's just the final two lines of dialogue. It also motivates me to do the hard yards to get the payload to the target.

Plus, like I found with writing Only Consenting Adults (which pulls together all preceding stories), it's never goodbye. You give the characters a just finale at the end of the series, but you can also catch back up with them later. They have kids now or they've been divorced or they've finally found love, etc. - and a new story starts.

 

[TinaG_2023]

OMG!! I'm lucky if I ever get the first one written. Every time I look at it I find things to change. A series will take me a lifetime!! lol

 

[gunhilltrain]

This is about television shows, not short-story series, but it is worth reading.

https://www.theringer.com/tv/2023/5...ale-making-of-sopranos-mad-men-six-feet-under

I have seen some of these. My own quick take on two of them. I'm not sure I liked the Mad Men finale. I had some problems with the whole show, although some of it was great. It missed the whole point of why advertising exists at all, but I won't pontificate here.

I still think the ending of The Sopranos was simply because they did not know how to end it. Then they created a justification - backwards, one might say. Just an opinion

 

[Blind_Justice]

Easy. When the author says it's done. My "Ghost In The Machine" story is done. The evil AI has been brought low, humanity can rebuild. The protag sits atop a colossal pile of shambles, his girlfriend is basically a veggie with a cooked brain and he has no idea if she'll ever recover. I thought it was a pretty definitive end, but the comments under GitM ask for more. Not gonna happen, seriously.

 

[tenyari]

When I start a serial story I have a lot more idea of when it will finish than I do once it's underway and actually going there.

But that original goal - when and if it ever gets reached - is when the story is finished.

And once I do hit that point, thus far I've been very adverse to sequels. Once a character's journey is done being told, it is done being told. Spin offs I can accept. I'm usually mentally starting a dozen of them while writing - most of which never go anywhere. But a spin off means it will be about different characters and different stories who just have some aspect in common like setting, relationship, or whatever.

 

[ColinPiper]

I'm not a fan of serial stories that appear to be a continuation "by popular demand". My stories tend to be standalone of around 3k to 4k words. That's what works for me. Readers wanting more is generally not an incentive for me to write more - I take it as a sign of a good story. I do have ideas for common themes, but they can still work as discrete stories. I also have ideas for much larger stories, but I can imagine how they end before I start.

There's a cultural aspect also. US-made movies and TV series have given audiences an expectation that if something is popular, it will continue. In Europe, not so much, especially in the movie sense.

For me, life is too short for flogging dead horses. And we're not getting paid here.

But each to their own.

 

[AchtungNight]

It's done when it's done. That's all I can say. I am writing an epic saga now that will incorporate much of my past writing and I have an ending planned, but it may not be the last story I write and may never be posted if something were to happen to me. We'll see what happens. Feedback is appreciated. Check the Story Feedback area for the link.

 

[Nellymcboatface]

Ha ha ha ha... How long is a piece of string...
I've 3 serials and wish I could finish them... I struggle to, mainly as I have an existing story thread, but keep thinking of extras...
As for stand alone stories, I could easily turn them all into series...
If you read comments to them, readers are annoyed at loose ends left and request more...
So I could write 24/7 and ignore life and work and still not finish as new ideas crop up all the time...
I try to go for happy endings, but I still find it hard to close the book on a story...

 

[Gamblnluck]

My longest story is Slave Camp.It ran 36 chapters, each averaging 12k words. About two thirds of the way through it I got an idea for an ending of sorts. I ended it with a line I'd used several times throughout the story. In actuality while that series ended, I did bring a few of the characters in a separate series called "You Gotta Pay the Piper". It remains unfinished. I got sidetracked a few times and have a couple chapters written but not fully finished.
I even had a couple of those characters appear in another story that took several chapters to tell. When I have a character cross stories, I try to make them periphery characters.
In answer to your original question, only you know when you have finished the story (brought it to a successful conclusion) or you simply abandoned it.

 

[dmallord]

If you are a 'pantser' writer, it can go until your imagination runs dry. If you are a 'plotter,' you know how many chapters are in your story.

As an on-screen reader at my age, I tend to move past stories that run over six or seven Lit pages. My eyes can't take the strain - and neither can my mind, I'm chagrined to admit.

 

[MajorRewrite]

Limit it to 3 chapters at most. The first chapter is inevitably the best and it’s all downhill from there.

 

[oneagainst]

Limit it to 3 chapters at most. The first chapter is inevitably the best and it’s all downhill from there.

Uh, 10 chapters in or 15 chapters into a story the most reliable indicator of reader view numbers is the strength of your episode tagline. Get good at inserting the right words and you see a marked lift, even like I said a long way into the series. I've gotten comments on e.g ch 12 like "So good, will now go back to the start and read." - so I guess your mileage varies. Point is, after the initial surge as people read ch 1 or 2 and decide it's not working for them or it is, after that it's very much possible to maintain pretty constant, strong viewing figures.

 

[Jodaily]

When the box is empty

 

[ColinPiper]

I think this is my main gripe with the majority of stories on this site - the authors don't seem to appreciate the difference between a short story and a novel.

 

[Tomh1966]

I love feedback of 5 people saying, "This chapter sucks and I am leaving" (Followed by them commenting on the next chapter) and 5 more saying, "I love this series."

Write: There will be lovers and haters. Remember the haters are usually the loudest. One of my latest chapters is rated AWFUL and has been favorited more than the previous one.