Wendy Palmer on Nostr: #WordWeavers March 2: Do you prefer writing series or stand-alone books? Why? Despite ...
#WordWeavers March 2: Do you prefer writing series or stand-alone books? Why?
Despite having written a duology and a trilogy, I prefer writing stand-alones…which could also be a series called The Procrastination Novels since I write them while avoiding working on sequels.
Once I’ve finished the currently-avoided sequel (which is actually the stand-alone I meant to write before having the bright idea to do a book in the same world which then turned into a prequel), I think I’ll be avoiding anything too closely related (same world, different time or place is fine). Oh, except I do have a character from my duology who really wants his own book, so I’ll probably give it to him at some point.
I know they’re good for building audiences, going deep in a world, developing favourite characters etc. But writing them makes me feel unpleasantly constrained by my own damn rules. I worry I’ll drain my characters dry, turn them into caricatures as often happens with a series that goes too long. And being a discovery writer means I haven’t planned it well enough to have foreshadowing etc in the first book, to use in later books, and I don’t like that either.
I also much prefer *reading* stand-alones. That said, I stuck with Stephanie Plum all the way to Book 12 before noping out: if I start a series early enough, I’m happy enough to follow along. I do prefer an overall arc. But there’s some extra hurdle with thinking about adding nine books and counting to my groaning TBR…the series starter has to be pretty damn good to get past that.
#WritingCommunity
Despite having written a duology and a trilogy, I prefer writing stand-alones…which could also be a series called The Procrastination Novels since I write them while avoiding working on sequels.
Once I’ve finished the currently-avoided sequel (which is actually the stand-alone I meant to write before having the bright idea to do a book in the same world which then turned into a prequel), I think I’ll be avoiding anything too closely related (same world, different time or place is fine). Oh, except I do have a character from my duology who really wants his own book, so I’ll probably give it to him at some point.
I know they’re good for building audiences, going deep in a world, developing favourite characters etc. But writing them makes me feel unpleasantly constrained by my own damn rules. I worry I’ll drain my characters dry, turn them into caricatures as often happens with a series that goes too long. And being a discovery writer means I haven’t planned it well enough to have foreshadowing etc in the first book, to use in later books, and I don’t like that either.
I also much prefer *reading* stand-alones. That said, I stuck with Stephanie Plum all the way to Book 12 before noping out: if I start a series early enough, I’m happy enough to follow along. I do prefer an overall arc. But there’s some extra hurdle with thinking about adding nine books and counting to my groaning TBR…the series starter has to be pretty damn good to get past that.
#WritingCommunity