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I finished Surgeons Lodger last night. 26 parts. This is the first story of any length I have written.
I have several other stories that are multipart, but nothing like that long. Bright boy was 22 chapter's long, but I was feeding off Bev's 90 Chapter story.
Do people prefer reading long running stories or shorter ones?
I'm not sure I want to write another that long, yet there are some huge ongoing stories on here. How do you keep them going?
Comments
Written so I remember it?
If the chapters are written with a prequel built in so I remember what it was all about. Or if there is not more than a day or two between, so it is not all forgotten. Look at Angharad's "Bike" with over 3000 chapters for example. It was mostly daily, and memorable. There are others and I am hopeful that my not mentioning them is not insulting.
Cheers
Gwen
Long sagas
The four books on here that I've done are all part of a long series with at least a couple more books to go. Their concept at inception included a long-term goal/resolution already in mind along with many portions of the story, so keeping them going was pretty much built-in.
I've always preferred book series which were aimed at something from the start instead of 'forced' sequels obviously written after the writer had finished their original ideas. ('Anita Blake' series by Hamilton comes to mind...). But hardly any of us are anywhere near as ambitious as say Jim Butcher who if I recall correctly had mapped out 25 books or some ridiculous number like that when he started the Dresden series. :)
Dunno if this helps...
Long running stories or shorter ones
Personally, I find I most frequently re-read stories that are about a million words long. I have frequently re-read the works of Elsbeth, Shiraz, WolfJess7, Snowfall, etc. Alas, Maddy Bell's Gaby series has gotten so long that I don't re-read it much anymore. However, there are a huge number of shorter stories on BCTS that I re-read regularly as well. Sometimes I will binge read a prolific author like Karen Bishop or Tanya Allan but I just pick and choose which novels to re-read rather than binging on everything.
One thing I have noticed is that I am most likely to read or re-read stuff on BCTS if it is broken up into chapters of 5,000 to 10,000 words or so.
Mind you, if I didn't spend so much time reading books I would probably be much less attracted to reading 1 million word stories.
the size of it
Personally, as long as the writing is of a decent quality, ie reasonable grammar and good characters, it doesn't bother me whether a story ends in 10 chapters or 10 books, it just has to keep me engaged. As to the length, i find between 2 and 3k is ideal per posted part, its long enough to move the plot along but short enough to read in a snatched moment - once you get to 5k and beyond many readers don't have the time to read it in one session so either avoid it altogether or start reading, stop and quite possibly never return. I've discussed this with other authors and most agree that especially in this genre wordy 10k postings are best avoided.
Sometimes a supposed 'one off' idea developes into something bigger, this has happened to me several times, characters and plot devices that are too good to discard for example my Nena series which was never intended when i started to go beyond the first 'book'. I've currently got two others that have grown from the original concept into trilogies with set end points, i had no intention of taking them this far when i started. And i suppose, for me at least, thats the thing, the story runs until it ends, i may have that quite firmly set in my mind but how i get there is determined by the characters.
As regards writing longer sagas - i suppose Gaby at 26 Books of @ 100k words each over 40 chapters counts as quite long, so i have some experience here, it either happens or it doesn't. I never intended Gaby to go so long and i've never planned much over a book forward although i do now have a sort of end that things are headed towards which may be as 'little' as 120 chapters away or it could be more depending where the characters take me.
And thats the key for me, there are obviously key plot markers, for example the Ontario book was all leading up to the last few chapters, along the way characters do stuff which may or may not influence what i write as i head for the next plot marker. In the past this has pushed a key point into the next book, other times, markers have not been reached at all, the whole plot has changed direction. It doesn't mean they were bad ideas, they just didn't work with the new direction, for example, if the Bonds had stayed in Worksop Gaby was going to conned into joining the Guides by her friend Helen, herself a character that i introduced just for that storyline. But the Bond's did move, Helen was never fully developed as a character and the saga rolled on.
Sorry to waffle on but you did ask!
Madeline Anafrid
Madeline Anafrid Bell
Finishing a long piece
has mixed emotions for me.
The first is a sadness that I'm saying goodbye to an old friend for a while. I'll come back later and edit it.
The other is joy at having created something that is hopefully 100% original where I can say with pride, 'I did that'.
I've just finished a contemporary 12 part Political Thriller. Some 39,000 words that I started writing on new years day. I'm relieved that it is done after typing in almost 4000 words today. I know that there is a lot of editing to be done to it before it can be published. It might appear here in the summer.
Not all stories that are long are never-ending. Those that are like that are IMHO, the exception rather than the rule.
While I do write some long pieces, I could never imagine writing a series such as Bike or Gaby. Hats off to those who can write stories like those.
Samantha
Thank you all for the kind
Thank you all for the kind comments. The idea for Surgeon's Lodger came from someone who contacted me on another site, Michelle. She asked me ot write a short story about a trans lady dating a surgeon who performs her operation eventually. It just kept getting bigger on it's own. The same happened when I tried to finish Bev's Feminine Queendom , using Bright boy. I wanted to finish in 2-3 chapters but it just sort of getting bigger.
It is taking so much time recently to write. I have a full time "guy" job and hae to hide my writting from my family. I find writing very therapeutic though.
Leeanna