Incomplete series

I see a lot of "Part 1" stories that never follow up with a "Part 2."

I'm wondering how many series writers start a series that never reaches a conclusion. I've got at least two that I've more or less lost interest in finishing.

When you start a series how often do you see it through? How often do you abandon it?

Well I'm up to 33 chapters on my series, all ranging from 6-10k words. I'm currently working on putting up the chapters I skipped over initially before continuing where I left off. I have a fully mapped out draft and already know the ending so I think having that helps guide me through such a large project which spans many years of someone's life. Definitely haven't got bored yet, but mine starts off vanilla and gradually ramps up to hardcore and is LGBTQI+ so I can write literally anything.

I've completed the one series I published, but as utterchaos said above, I already had it mapped out so following through wasn't hard.

My stand-alone series with my character 'Luna' is a different manner. Odd, because you would think stand-alone episodes would be easier, but after 2 adventures, she's been on the shelf.

I've been wanting to start another series, but due to my overthinking, I haven't. Doubt I would abandon it when I do another continual series as I would like to know the ending with those before I even start.

I think it depends on how you want to define a series. For me that's a minimum of three stories linked together.

Not all series need a defining conclusion. I like to leave mine somewhat open so I can add to it or revisit at a later time, some like to have final closure.

In some cases I suspect the author lost interest or was not satisfied with the feedback on a story so the series becomes a stand-alone story.

My problem is that I often don't set out to write a series, but end up with one.

My old series about a bride and groom's adventures after she leaves him at the altar was like that. Started with a matched pair of stories about the failed wedding and then went with some about what happens subsequently.

Of course, that has the upside of people not expecting more.

Even when I have a series planned, I don't usually set it up as one until I finish and post at least two parts. That way, I can always leave the intended first part as a standalone if I drop the series idea. I have a story on StoriesSpace that falls into this category.

I've completed a couple of fairly long ones (6 to 10 chapters) but left others unfinished, where they remain, nagging at my mind to go wrap them up. As others have said, sometimes it's just because you lose interest, or lose your way and get out of the story arc you had in mind. It's also discouraging to watch the number of views drop with each successive chapter, but that's almost always the pattern.

I had one quite long one going at another site, which imploded and chased away most of its authors. Lush's standards are much higher than most other sites and I've just never been able to get enthused about the amount of work correcting and editing it would take to post it here, so it will likely remain in limbo.

It's a constant annoyance to me - and to dedicated readers, I'm sure - when I fail to complete something I've started.

I've only written 2 "series" type stories. One was planned and completed. the other was supposed to be a one-off but I added another chapter. I had plans to write the 3rd part, but it never came together. I've had requests to make a couple of stories into a series but I just can't get a plan in place to know where I want to go so I've left them as single stand-alone stories. I'm in awe of writers who have no problems writing long involved and well-written series.

Quote by darkroot50
I've had requests to make a couple of stories into a series

Honestly? In think some people simply say that whenever they like a story. So I tend to brush it off unless it's a story I actually have an interest in pursuing further. The only time I take suggestions like that seriously is when one comes from a friend or another writer that I respect.

I have nothing but love and the utmost respect for those that can continue to write a series, keep up with it, and keep the action and intensity going. Because I'm so long-winded, quite a few of my writings end up being mini-series (like an X-rated A&E), but that isn't intentional. On my few, intentional series, all of which I trudged through to completion, I've noted that no matter how well-written it may be (not saying that I write well, just saying), how torridly hot the sex may be, or how entertaining it is, readership drops off, logarithmically, with each new installment.

While I write mainly as a self-improvement hobby, wanting to be good at something other than being a slut, so, I write about me being a slut (irony noted), readership isn't really a consideration for me, but it can be daunting to be 80K words into your series for only a few dozen people to read.

I think Krystalg brings up a good point about the series vs a one-time piece.

If you as a writer are excited and totally into your piece and can get your story told in 10k words, that’s great..but does a reader want to read 10k words in one setting?

Or could you find natural breaks to make it a 3 part series with each part 3-4k. Are you going to get more readers actually? Keep readers by teasing the next chapter in your comments? And make sure to submit the next chap within a week.

And I really don’t know the right answer it’s more of a question to the universe. Lol. The very first thing I published here was a 6 part series and it abt killed me lol. Since then it’s 2 or 3 parters or stand alones.

Quote by LilCoffeeLuvr
If you as a writer are excited and totally into your piece and can get your story told in 10k words, that’s great..but does a reader want to read 10k words in one setting?

Conventional wisdom here for some time has been that while 10K is the limit, a longer story might be better split into parts if it works that way. That's more like Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, though, where the publisher made him split a single very long story into three parts (yes, it was not written as a trilogy), than a conventional series where each part kind of stands alone but leads into the next one.

Thank you everyone. I haven't written a series, but I thought if I did, the suggestion to map it out seems helpful. I hesitate labeling anything as a series because I don't know if I will actually continue it. I tend to use my own avi name in the stories and I use the name Mike often, not because I know a Mike, but primarily because I don't know any Mike's here. I would not want to be in a situation where someone here thought I wrote a specific story for them. I write for me. Well, I wrote a lengthy limerick for a specific user, but we've been friends quite a long time and have an understanding.

The way that I write, most of my stories are open-ended leaving the possibility of continuations but I never set out intending to write a series. I have got into the habit of naming continuations at Part 2, Part 3 etc although I used to use the series link option on the 'old' Lush and vary titles sometimes.

I think the most that I have got up to is thirteen parts but I never start with a title of Part 1 in case there is never a Part 2 although in the past there might have been some Part 1's but if there was, there would also be a Part 2.

Sometimes you start something and not know where it's going to end up. And i don't want to add to a series for the sake of adding on. I want to add something if it really adds something. I know that people may want more, i get requests for that in comments. And there will be when i feel i have a story worth telling.

Quote by DonnaCupcake

Sometimes you start something and not know where it's going to end up. And i don't want to add to a series for the sake of adding on. I want to add something if it really adds something. I know that people may want more, i get requests for that in comments. And there will be when i feel i have a story worth telling.

I feel the same about requests for sequels. Most of what I've written here is intended to stand alone. It's nice if there's enthusiasm for the story, but if I don't feel like there's much else to tell that the reader couldn't easily imagine for themselves, there's not much point in writing a follow-up.

Buried in this question is another: Are series planned or do they just happen? As a writer, I’ve authored a whopping, one, of each. The first (La Bella y Il Mostro) was planned, because the narrative arc was just too long to burden the Lush reader in a single sitting. The other (Mrs. Miller) was forced upon me after the initial story, because a few readers persuaded me that the characters and situation warranted more attention. For that one, I introduced a narrative element in the second installment and then let it play out over two more installments. Both were o.k.; I think the planned “Il Mostro” was better (though voters disagreed!).

As a reader, and hopefully this does not offend, most series don’t interest me much. I think the Lush platform is much better suited to single episode stories. It’s hard to keep track of a series when you’re only popping in now and then. Character-driven series are a little easier: “Ah yeah, I remember her…vaguely.” But, it had better be a hell of a character to hold my interest for more than an episode. Plot-driven makes for a far better backbone for a long series. But it is nearly impossible to track successfully for more than a few episodes. And more honestly, it is unlikely to maintain my interest unless it’s a hell of a plot, complete with foreshadowing “page turner” endings.

And so…in my highly personal opinion, series should be rare; they should have a planned arc; and they should be brief.

For me, sometimes a series is intentional, sometimes not. If I have a long, more detailed story in mind, I assume that it will be a series because I'll need to give my audience (both readers) plenty of room to absorb the details without being overwhelmed. Sometimes, I have a single story in mind that could be a stand-alone but is just easier to digest if I break it into two or three smaller parts.

It's somewhat "reassuring" that I'm not the only one in this situation for a weird reason, that I'm not the only one "guilty" of it. My only series, Among the Stars, has 12 chapters published over 32. When I got to write it, note that I wasn't planning on writing it but rather that I needed to, I just started putting words in a document and finished few weeks later with a very long novel. I didn't know what I would do with it, so I found Lush and started publishing it.

It's now been 6 months that I haven't published anything (only got back into it few weeks ago) and I feel so bad about leaving it hanging, considering that some people love my writing and wants me to continue. I even started writing other stuff, which make me feel even worse considering what I haven't finished. Although, I've decided that I would edit my future novels completely before starting to publish, so I do not leave my readers hanging again. This way, it would also mean that the chapters can be released fairly quickly one after the other, keeping the readers hooked as you release 2 to 3 chapters a week.

Personally, I love series, the fact that the author could take their time to develop the characters and the plot. Although, I definitely prefer to read a series once it is all published so I can binge it. Mirroring what Longing was saying previously, it's more difficult to keep track of the characters and plot if the chapters are released only sporadically.

There is no formal way to end a series on this site. On another site, you have to mark the final chapter as "Story Is Complete." You always have the option of adding a new chapter and starting it up again.

Sometimes it's just easier to add sequels with different titles and link each one with the one before it. Or one can link to all the previous stories. I had a stand-alone story on yet another site that grew, in effect, to a series of about eight chapters that way. I even had a plausible ending for it.

On that third site, I once waited six months before I came up with Chapter Two. It eventually ended at ten chapters. When I wanted to later add an additional event in the middle, I made it a stand-alone story because the numbering system could not be changed. I told the readers where it fitted it and they seemed to be satisfied.

I usually try to limit my series to no more than 3 stories, mainly because I lose interest. My two most popular stories are parts one and two of a series I never got around to finishing, even though part three is 90% done, and has been sitting waiting for a worthy ending which I just can't seem to come up with. My apologies to my readers who have asked for a conclusion or continuation... I'm a pretty lazy writer and never happy with what I turn out.

I pretty much always know if it's going to be a series or a one off when I start. But I don't always know where it's going to end up.

The best example is my most recent series. It went on way longer than I expected, but I think it's my best one.

The Fucking She Deserved | Lush Stories

As a newbie here, I will add my two cents. I would assume that the number of likes/comments on a story has a strong correlation to the motivation of an author to extend a series. Something an author may have considered amazing at the time of writing that didn't spark any reaction from readers would likely be demotivating to continue on with.

Quote by Just_A_Guy_You_Know

I see a lot of "Part 1" stories that never follow up with a "Part 2."

I'm wondering how many series writers start a series that never reaches a conclusion. I've got at least two that I've more or less lost interest in finishing.

When you start a series how often do you see it through? How often do you abandon it?

When I start a series I always have the ending in mind. It’s all about telling the story that’s inside my head. Mind you, I’m a rookie writer, and don’t have a lot of work published (but too many ideas spinning). I invest too much time in my characters to abandon them before their story is told.

Ask me again two years from now and who knows.

I have a Part 1 up for a series I had planned called "Teacher's Pets," which I still intend to return to someday, but other projects grabbed my attention first. I'm a firm believer that if I'm not excited about what I'm writing, I can't expect the reader to be, so in the past I've done a lot of flitting from project to project. This year I decided to take my writing a bit more seriously and committed to finishing a few longer series that could be packaged up and sold as ebooks, which is why I put so much work into Only One Bed (nearly done!). After that, I'm planning to do a lot more stand-alone stories to give myself a break from heavily planned stories.

Just a word of warning. No matter how much you're invested in a story and how well it's going, you never know when life is going to kick you in the coconuts somehow and grind you to a screeching halt. I've got a story elsewhere that I started posting in July of 2007. It's book 2 of what's my core fantasy series that most of the other high fantasy work branches out from. I had a tragedy in my life that's intimately connected to that story and the main character on the day Ch. 12 came out in Feb. 2008, and I've only managed to put out 8 chapters in the years since. It bothers me pretty much every time I log in to have it hanging out there.

If you can manage the discipline, don't post one word until you've penned "the end" on the final chapter. Some of my stuff doesn't come out until years after I originally start it because of that, but that's so much better for me than having an incomplete story hanging over my head in public. At least when it's still sitting on my hard drive, I'm the only person I'm disappointing.

Quote by RejectReality
If you can manage the discipline, don't post one word until you've penned "the end" on the final chapter.

I agree. I wrote my 'Room for Rent' series like this - that is from start to finish before I published any part of it. Having it done let me roll it out regularly and quickly without leaving readers hanging too long for the next installment. In contrast, I have another series, The Neighbor series, I've been coming back to periodically, but it might be a year between episodes as I work on other ideas, and wait for inspiration to return to get back to it. It's probably frustrating for fans of that series to have to wait so long for the next episode and most have lost interest, I believe. If I hadn't jumped the gun on publishing, writing the series would likely have progressed at the same pace, but the (eventual) reading experience would have been a lot better.

I've written a couple of series stories, but never more than 2 or 3 parts each. I have a number of old stories I'd lke to add at least another part to (one has been written but I just think it's missing something so it sits unsubmitted). When I was publishing stories, ideas came to me but I never thought of them as a series, even thoose that wound up having multiple parts. And I don't think the way my mind works that I'd be able to start a story and write the ending for another part before publishing. But I do enjoy reading series, espeically those where character development is involved. More power to those that write series.

I'm only referring to stories that are genuinely multi-part where there are lots of things left unresolved at the end of each part until the final one ties a bow in the last dangling plot thread. If you're writing connected stories that each have a beginning, middle, and end, that's a completely different thing. Post away and let the feedback fuel you.

For most of mine in this pen name, the sex is the resolution of the "plot". There could be more that comes after, but the major tension is getting laid in the first place.

I was a little disappointed that the follow-up to Luna Launch fizzled, ( or rather that I felt it was going to take too many parts to get to the broader idea I had in mind. The second part actually got finished. It's just unpublished. ) but it doesn't bother me as a standalone. There's enough resolution that while readers may want more, but they don't need more. You'll never actually get to see him and her dad go fishing, but he got Luna's blessing to do it. Plot thread resolved.

There are a hundred dangling plot threads in Sisters of the Mists. That one bothers me.

I just have so many series in my head that I can't keep them all going at once. Right now I'm focused on new chapters of Midlife Renewal. I think It's a Date will pick up when that winds down. Then, I'm hoping to revisit Becoming A Man, the first series I published. That one reached its logical conclusion, but I'd like to spiff it up with cover images and fill in a couple new intervening chapters.

Two of my series, Keith and Kate and Dating Daphne, each have only two chapters published, but at least three more each that are fully drafted. But as fellow writers know, that first draft is only 10-20% of the work. Maybe when I get the above two series fully fleshed, I'll polish these up and get them out.

One that I really did leave hanging fairly indefinitely is Contagion, a series that I whipped out in April-June 2020 at the height of the Pandemic, culminating in a six-way all-holes-balled orgy as pent-up energy from the lockdown was released. I intended to pick up the following morning with several more chapters, but never got around to it. I still intend to pick it up again if/when we have another lockdown.

My series on Lush rarely start out as series. Usually I write a standalone story and then take a liking to the characters such that I want to tell more about them. My three about Alan and his pastor's daughter Lisa certainly followed that pattern, as did my old April Stories.

My StoriesSpace work, on the other hand, often has me thinking in terms of longer work, even if it rarely comes to fruition.