First of all, let me just take this opportunity to say thank you to everybody who contributes to this wonderful site. Not just the editors and the authors, but the commenters and the people behind the scenes as well. You all help to make this an enjoyable, lively, and above all else mature place to visit. Which is why I keep coming back.
Anyway… I was wondering what everybody thought about long story series’s (or whatever the heck the plural is) compared to individual stories.
I always avoided any story that had more than one part to it. If I saw that somebody had written a follow-up, a sequel, or even just a ‘Part 2’, I wouldn’t bother with it.
Why? Well, at the time, I justified it by saying to myself that I was reading one-handed (you don’t want details, trust me) and I didn’t have the time to invest in a long story. I don’t mind edging, but ask me to do it for twenty chapters and things will start to fall off.
Or I would say that I’d read too many webcomics whose updates had gotten slower and slower until they stopped completely, so I didn’t want to get hooked on a story that would never finish.
Or, when it came to taboo stories, I was interested in the first time. Not so much the second time and even less so the third.
But I’ve recently come to realise that this attitude has made me miss out on a lot of quality content, so I’m trying to overcome it and get into the serieses (that definitely can’t be the right word) here. I’ve got a lot of reading to catch up on!
So my point is this: I’m in the middle of writing some stories of my own for here. Maybe they’ll be accepted, maybe they won’t. Juicy Secrets has admirably high standards. But which do you guys generally prefer? Do you like reading long stories with multiple parts realised over time (‘seria’ seems like it should be a logical plural, but I guess not)? Or do you like to read one-off stories with a beginning and an end in the same installment?
Or does it not matter?
Do let me know in the replies below!
Regards, Mouse
Standalone is by far the beat way to go
Anything involving young girls gets my vote
As someone who has read every story on the site you can’t really go wrong with either. Though series stories are definitely my favorite you are right that the concern of not finishing is always there. Some of the best stories are unfinished & I hoped would get adopted by other authors someday.
Some of my favourites are Rachel Yukey’s epics (23 and 17 chapters respectively) and “Love is in the Rain” (just over 2,000 words. Make of that what you will.
Two things, the first thing is that I prefer multi-part stories and the second thing is that the plural for series is a lot like the plural for moose in the sense that the plural is the same as the singular.
It all depends. It is sad when you get involved in a series to see it just stop with out an end; never to be finished and you have to wonder. It can be frustrating when you really get hooked on a story and chapters come months apart, though it’s often worth the wait. It leaves you wondering if you should just wait till it’s all finished and then binge read it. But often you just have to read it as it comes.
Series: you often get more out it, story and character wise. Sometimes there’s an atmosphere that develops. One of my personal faves is very film noir feeling, A Young Desert Rose.
Stand alone: single story or One or two or three parts, can be very satisfying, also, and you know you won’t get left hanging.
To my mind it’s all good. And whatever you prefer it’s all here.
Looking forward to seeing a story of your own here someday Mr Mouse. If you write something with more than one part please finish it.
PS, Sorry I don’t know if you are Mr or Ms, apology from me for presuming. We all often do one handed reading regardless of gender.
ppss, Please check out a Pair of Blue Panties, to see just how much a one part stand alone story can do.
I am indeed a Mr Mouse, although I’m determined not to make a song and a dance about it. I’m here for stories, not for match-making.
I do apologise but it seems I replied about my own stories further down. But I have taken note – I won’t start a story unless I at least have the ending in mind. If nothing else, that way I can lead the story towards it.
Oh, and the Blue Panties story was very delightful indeed!
Mystery Mouse is a great name. It puts me in mind of a cartoon mouse detective with hat and trench coat solving crimes.
…and now I just feel sad we don’t have avatars.
You mean Dangermouse? There is no greater Mouse (well, except perhaps Reepicheep).
Don’t forget Mighty Mouse.
My issue isn’t long stories, it’s overload of characters. Pages from a diary has the two main characters, 5 important support, and a few background characters. Perfect.
Some, like Ripples, to me started to get way too many characters so I lost the plot on who is doing what, and doing who, breaking my immersion in the story
Hi Esisi Kazi, I fully understand your perspective, and there have been times when I’ve actually thought the same. Every now and then we’ve started a thread, only to take it out for that very reason. As far as Ripples goes, I picked that title purposely as it was always in the plan that one small act would have a ripple effect as it became harder for the family members to keep their secret contained, and the story ending, i.e. the ‘Society’ gives the game away somewhat on what to expect.
Nevertheless, that is something I’ll bear in mind if I’m lucky enough to get more stories published here. Thanks for your comments.
By the way, that is my only real issue with the story, and your title was just the first that came to mind.
I greatly enjoyed the story for a long time, until all the entanglements became too much for me to follow. 9/10 writing.
Personally, I really like single part stories now and then for a change, and there are some where that is absolutely perfect and adding more would just be for the sake of it, but my ideal would be around four to six parts (I think Jetboy once defined a number below which each episode is a part and above that number they’re chapters). However, although readers don’t really know how many chapters there will be when the first is posted, if there is a really good hook, you are engaged with the characters, and something makes you want to know what happends next, I would be inclined to persevere with the story. Sometimes there are stories that are never finished, but if you start one, it seems pointless not to continue, unless it really starts losing its way.
From the opposite perspective, it is sometimes difficult for authors to know exactly how many parts there will be (unless you’re a seasoned raconteur). I’d imagine the logical step for a new author is to write a short story first and gradually take on longer tales as you get better. When I started Ripples, I’d not really considered how long it would be and envisaged maybe five or six parts, if it was accepted at all, but that was September 2018 and we’re still going. I had a definite storyline and actually wrote detailed notes for the ending. With Jetboy’s tutelage, I began to make more detailed plans and between us, ideas just kept coming so I don’t think even he knew how many chapters we’d end up with (37 posted, 3 with JB and maybe two more to end). I’m still amazed people are still sticking with it but knowing that some are, I hope it makes me think more about how to keep it fresh and interesting, so really appreciate when readers do.
I honestly don’t think it matters, it’s all about the quality of the writing.
Some of the best authors have stories with several, or in some cases, many chapters, e.g Naughty Mommy, Cheryl Taggart, The Kinky’s (Chic and Sis) to name but a few.
But then all these great authors also have some highly enjoyable one off stories.
So really, it’s just a big thankyou to all the writers on here, long or short, one off or series, they’re all greatly appreciated!
When I see the word series I think of three or more books all with the same main characters but with different plots in each book. Kind of like what I did (am doing?) with Unaccompanied Minor.
Stories with one chapter or multiple chapters, as long as they are well-written, have their place. Sometimes you want a longer story to savor over days. And sometimes you want a short, one-part story for those times you want to rub one out on your lunch break. 😛
All the stories posted here at Juicy Secrets will scratch someone’s itch.
I completely agree with you, Amanda. The most important thing is that we are involved in the story and that we spend a very pleasant time reading a short or long text, like most of the stories on this site and some others, like a story by Jojo Starr called “mirror image” that I would love to read on Juicy Secrets.
I’ve read some really good multipart stories here and literotica that I was looking forward to each new part…better than having to wait extra months for one long story to be released all at once.
On the other hand, some multipart stories end up getting repetitive and not really introducing much new each successive chapter. So it depends on the author and the idea they have and their writing ability.
I’m sure many on here would agree.
A thank you to Tim and Purple Les for mentioning us two.
As several have said, both single and multi-chapter can be equally enjoyable. But multi-chapter only when there is a genuine storyline to be played out.
As many will know we have often been asked for follow-up chapters to some of our one-part stories. We rarely oblige, in fact, I don’t think we ever have.
For myself, I do not like stories which are generally referred to as ‘wank fodder’. They invariably have no literary merit; perhaps they don’t need any? I’m pleased to say that there aren’t too many of the more basic kind on JS; although there are a few.
There is a knack to writing a short story that has substance. Few truly have that knack. I believe it is more difficult to write an interesting short story than a long one.
As for my own writing, I get equal pleasure from producing a short story as I do one with several chapters but I always take care not to carry on writing after the point where I have really said all there is to say.
I am with Purple Les, my all-time favourite multi-chapter is ‘A Young Desert Rose’.
As a final observation, no story should ever be published unless the editors have every chapter in the can.
Two things I’ve noticed that seem to contradict each other: With multi-chapter stories posted here, each new chapter generally has less votes than the last, and yet on most standalone stories, readers are asking for a sequel.
In all honesty, I’ve never read anything on Juicy Secrets that was so compelling that I wanted to consume it like I would a good novel. If any of our writing was *that* good, presumably we’d be earning a living from it. For that reason, I find it hard to invest in stories that are too long. I loved Naughty Mommy’s The Joy of Looking, but it was unlikely I was ever going to get through all 133 chapters (by the way, if anyone can tell me what that translates to in pages, let me know).
I’ve written a couple of standalones, but I prefer to write multi-part stories. It’s nice to get to know your characters, which isn’t always possible in short form. I tend to keep them fairly short, though (novellas, I suppose), and I try to make sure every sex scene is unique in some way. I don’t see the point of repeating the same sex scene over and over, chapter after chapter.
Also, the dreaded ‘dramatis personae’ (list of characters) is a surefire way to alienate me. Having that many characters in a sex story just seems a little… unwieldy? Each to their own, though.
In summary, I suppose I tread the middle ground as both writer and reader – not too long, not too short.
I’m enjoying Stranger in the Family at the moment. Looking forward to the next chapter of that one.
As I save every story on JS in my JS archive in case something catastrophic happens, I just checked and on MS Word it’s about 850 pages.
Thanks, that’s quite the epic saga.
“If any of our writing was *that* good, presumably we’d be earning a living from it.”
Who knows. One of them may be a published author and is doing this on the down low because this content would get them banned
Or maybe somebody here is on their way towards being a published author.
Hey, if vaguely BDSM-themed Twilight fanfic’s can do it then anything’s possible!
Cheryl Taggert went on to be a real world author. Sadly she could of course not share with us here the title or her writer name.
Hey, we are all real-world authors. 😤
Maybe “Published Author” would work better? I too have published works under my real name.
J.J. & Amanda Lynn, thank you both for your works here. And Amanda Lynn for your published works under your real name. But that’s something that we may have read but won’t ever know?
But we thank you all just the same.
So..I guess there’s a limit to how many layers of comments you can have here..
Sorry for this one. I’m not adding anything useful or insightful. I just wanted to say how genuinely exciting it is to learn that there are actual published authors in here!
Obviously discretion is keeping me from asking for any further details but I will say that I hope to come across some of these published works one day. I wonder if I’ll notice a similarity in the writing style..?
I have published a book under the name Jacqueline Jillinghoff. (Shameless plug): It is still available at Amazon.
‘Madam Jillinghoff is..the perfect bedtime companion, once the kids are asleep.’
There are just SO many things I could say to that..
Your shameless plug has been rewarded with a sale. A Kindle-only sale, I’m afraid, but such is the curse of modern technology.
Well, thank you! Hope you enjoy it. Let me know. There are sight differences between the kindle and the print editions. I prefer the latter.
Blue Jean-
“With multi-chapter stories posted here, each new chapter generally has less votes than the last”
I write on two other erotica sites and it’s the same on both of them. 1st chapter always gets loads of likes (relatively speaking) then it’s a slow downward trend from there. And as you say, a one off short story often leaves readers desperate for more. So perhaps the middle ground is the place to be, something like a novella length of around 40k words, or 8 JS chapters.
“I loved Naughty Mommy’s The Joy of Looking, but it was unlikely I was ever going to get through all 133 chapters (by the way, if anyone can tell me what that translates to in pages, let me know).”
The Joy of Looking is probably my favorite story on here. My only complaint is that it’s not complete.
I did a little maths, I think the average chapter on JS is about 4.5k words, or 10 pages. So The Joy of Looking would be about 1330 pages or approx. 600k words. The average novel is around 90k words, so you could say that the Joy of Looking is equivalent of between 5 and 7 novels!
I’d love to be that prolific. When I first started writing I was putting out a chapter per week, but that was during one of the COVID lockdowns. These days I’m lucky to get a chapter per month done.
I used to dream of getting out a chapter per month
I mean, if I could devote most of my time to writing, I’d be churning the stuff out. But those bills ain’t gonna pay themselves.
Some of my stories pour out as fast as I can type. A Girl In The Night was written in one day – A Pair Of Blue Panties in not much more.
But … things like Captain Bren take a lot longer. So much thought has to go into the detail
some stories should be implemented with new developments and with the involvement of other people. especially those where there are Little kiddo and preteen or teen.
There are some really hot one off stories! But I enjoy the series, getting to know the characters and “revisiting” them by reading. And some of them, like the awesome ‘Adventures of the amazing invisible girl’ by Purple Les- are only two parts, so it comes closer to a one shot deal. Idk, it takes me a lot longer to cum now that I am on anxiety medicine, so maybe a longer story is alright in that way?
https://www.juicysecrets.club/blog/2019/11/02/adventure-of-the-amazing-invisible-girl-a-bedtime-story-part-one/
And just to add a bit more, I want to say that all of the stories, whether short or long, are so helpful in drawing out our fantasies and helping to meet that need. Nancy Friday is one of my favorite authors, she deals with fantasies a lot in her work….and she says that a good fantasy can actually discharge the energy, it isn’t “acting out.” So I have found that, since I hit puberty myself, I was very attracted to kids, but in a very loving way. The fantasies get hot, the stories here….or making up my own in my head. But in reality, I don’t feel I am ‘missing anything’ by not doing that kind of thing for real. It gets satisfied here, and in fantasizing- and in cuming alone at home. So thank you to the site for that! I have learned, over the years, that this kind of sexual discharge (to be technical about it, lol), helps free up my heart to be fully engaged in the rest of my life- in other words, to love and connect and not have to worry about the sex. So I am very grateful for all of you on the site, and the stories! It helps us meet our needs, and it helps all of us have the healthy boundaries we need to be healthy and safe in our day to day lives.
One of the (many) things I love about this site is its strong focus on consent. While the issue of consent might be a subject for debate out in the real world, in here we know that everybody who does anything sexual does so willingly, gladly, and isn’t harmed by doing it.
That makes it a great place to indulge any fantasies that enter the brain. Rather than obsessing over real people, or real situations, or considering something that will only end in trouble, we have an alternative. We can come here, satisfy any bothersome desires, come here, then get on with things with a clear head.
If this site had a ‘like’ button for comments, I’d be mashing it for yours straight away.
I totally totally agree! Consent in these stories is the trick! Obv in real life a kid is in no way capable of giving consent to most sexual activity, with anyone, even other kids (beyond the very normal stuff like Doctor, etc). Writing a story about nonconsensual underage sexual activity is just as erotic as writing a story about launching a rocket into an apartment building. Developing a fantasy where a kid or kids can kinda sorta almost realisticallyish find themselves consenting to more fun than they would typically be capable of should be the challenge, the dare, of we authors of preteen erotica. Btw Mystery Mouse, just curious if you ever came across my story here, Sisters Do What Sisters Do?
I love that story! I have to load it up right now…
I think ever since I was in later high school I have wanted nothing more in life than to have a twelve- or thirteen-year-old girlfriend. I had a very close, loving friendship / mentor relationship with a girl around that age when I was in college, and as a sane, good person I did not in the slightest act on how in love with her I was. She never knew, and it broke my heart. I’m thirty… five now? Jesus. That kind of thing can never, ever happen, and some of the stories I’ve found have mercifully itched that scratch, though I think I’ve lost most of them. The genre offers me such a deep gift when I connect.
Oh, I’m sorry. That’s the sort of pain that hurts like nothing else. Love is wonderful but it also leaves the deepest scars. Hopefully the stories here help keep the good memories alive.
I did indeed read your beautiful story and I left a comment. It’s one of the ones that will definitely stick in my head over the years.
I like standalone stories or short series. A series that drags on too long gets tiring or just not interesting. It also removes itself from part of the fantasy (at least for me). I have tried to get involved in a long series but just can’t do it. To me, it starts getting a bit tedious because everyone starts having sex with everyone else and that just perplexes me a bit.
Only my opinion. I do appreciate the time and effort it takes to create any story.
I think for me what counts is: where do my characters and my story idea take me? Will it be a short fun ride or will it be a long thrilling adventure?
And yes: it’s very tough to finish a multiple chapter story, but sometimes the problem lies in finding out that you have created characters that you’re just not in love with anymore…or life happens and you just don’t have the time or headspace to continue writing.
But for me the characters and plot idea create their own flow.
My preference is for a series, the epic Joy of looking by Naughty Mummy being my favorite but there are so many great long haul stories on here. That said, I do enjoy the one off stories too, sometimes the compact, short and sweet nature of them that leaves you wanting more is just perfect. There is a place for both, variety is the spice of life.
While we’re on the subject of longer stories, a book mark to help you easily find where you left off would be a very helpful tool.
For me, our genre presents a kind of formidable challenge in regards to story length. Believability is the most important factor for me when I’m reading these stories, and what I mean by that is the child characters need to be somewhat psychologically accurate to their described age AND the development of the sexy shenanigans–stuff no real kids would ever actually be comfortable with ever–needs to feel juuust appropriately enough paced where I can bend reality in my sex brain to go, ok I can totally see this, I’m takin’ off the pants and let’s party. It probably has to do with the fact that I know kids and their psychology so well (for reasons if you really want to know, just reach out), and that’s my problem, but I don’t think it’s a crazy thing to say.
In a sense I think that while this genre’s divine possibilities offer the richest delights in all of erotic fiction, it truly is the most difficult to successfully write. I find that the one-offs typically stretch believability far too much. It’s why I totes cheated with my one story published here (by starting my one-off smack in the middle of a very long developing sexual relationship between an adult sister and a kid sister) and totally why I’ve been stuck for so damn long in my faaar longer story on Archive of our Own (The Little Girls of Lakeside), which so far only portrays sexual encounters among the preteen characters, which I feel is an easier ask. I simply find that if you take innocent little kid characters and drive them into the sex stuff way too fast, especially when it’s between adults / older teens and preteens / younger kids, I can’t help from moving on. There is a sweet spot with this fiction that is so sublime, yet so elusive. At the same time, I totally look for one-offs. A great one is so, so, so hot! I don’t know many of them. I’ll probably check out this post for recs.
Hmm. I guess this will teach me to include my full username next time I submit something for inclusion. Although I’m getting used to ‘Mouse’ as a nickname so..
Anyway, there are some very thought-provoking replies on here. My innate reticence to get involved with a multi-part story is still present, but I’m doing my best to overcome it. There are a lot of quite genuinely brilliant authors on this site and it’s not fair to them that I shun their work for no good reason. So I’m afraid you’ll see my inane comments on some of those stories before very long.
As for me I do have a story already clogging poor Jetboy’s inbox. It’s a one-off..that’s designed to introduce characters and situations for future sequels. Which probably makes me a bit of a hypocrite so I DEFINITELY need to get over this strange reluctance of mine – I can’t expect people to read my stories if I don’t read theirs.
I am halfway through an actual one-off but it’s giving me some trouble. My characters just seem to want to talk and talk without doing anything naughty with each other. Most aggravating!
Thank you everyone for your insightful comments and thank you, again, for helping to make this a great place to be.
Regards,
(Mystery) Mouse
Hmm, I suppose I’d probably say that I prefer multi-part stories, but like, medium length. 30k-80k would be the word count range to keep me invested in finishing.
Less than that just leaves you wanting more. More than that, and I think you risk losing people’s attention.
Honestly, if a story isn’t complete, I don’t think it should be posted on the site until it is. Nothing ruins a good Jill session more than getting to the good part, then…
It doesn’t matter how many chapters there are as long as it’s complete.
I fully agree, it should be complete.
I understand the frustration of an incomplete story… oh, lord, do I ever. Nonetheless, some unfinished works are simply too good to ignore, in serious literature as well as erotica. See Kafka, Franz.
It all depends, of course, on what you have to say. In the golden age of paperback porn, novels tended to follow a formula, with the heat turned up in each successive chapter: solo, oral, intercourse, anal — usually in that order.
Myself, I tend to focus on the short form. An erotic fantasy, for me, doesn’t generally require more than a few scenes. And I avoid — both writing and reading — long stories in which the sex is tacked on at the end of a chapter that’s really about something else. In such cases, the sex can get in the way of the story, or vice versa. As for the jill-off sessions, if you’re going to include sex acts, I would hope at least you wouldn’t cut them act off at the end a chapter.
Multipart with new characters being introduced all the time is what I like
Idk I read stories I like multiple times. I would do very little reading if I didn’t. I tend to keep a list of stories that interested me and return to them whenever I feel like reading them again. I might not finish it in one go and that’s alright. Knowing a story doesn’t diminish my enjoyment one bit. It can even help me enjoy it a little more as I know what to look forward to. I love having multiple chapters to read. Even single chapter stories I like, make me wish for more. There is of course the risk of a story getting off track when someone feels pressure to write more when the story they had in mind is finished.
I honestly don’t even mind unfinished stories that much as there’s always the potential for more. Speculating on how it would have continued is fun in it’s own right.
Nuit du Loup probably won’t write anymore chapters for Learning Phase, but I still enjoy what I can read. I like stories with fantasy and naughty magical shenanigans. Sadly those are pretty uncommon even here.
Er, shameless plug incoming…
Check out my stories here. They have elements of fantasy and magic.
https://www.juicysecrets.club/blog/2021/10/31/the-beekeepers-daughters-chapter-1/
https://www.juicysecrets.club/blog/2022/12/03/selkie-days-chapter-1/
The Beekeeper’s Daughters is one of my favourite stories here. It has everything I like (sisters, mum, teacher) and reminds me of a friend who keeps bees – and has three delectable daughters (all grown up and married now). And it’s just the right length.
Thanks, I remember your kind comments on some of those chapters. 😊
As a big fan of JS all the stories here are great. There may have been one or two I didn’t like as much as others, but all the stories here are good. As to the question at hand, I like both stand alone and a good Series. I especially enjoy a story with some good character depth whether it is stand alone or a serial. I believe it should be left to the author’s imagination as to whether they think a stand alone is appropriate for any given story.
Some of the best (THE best, actually) stories on this great site are series stories. The problem is, video streaming and binging have ruined our (my) ability to deal with drip Fed content. I don’t have the patience for once a week episodes of even great shows like Yellowstone, anymore. I’ll wait until the whole season is up, and then watch it. I can tell Stranger in the Family is going to be just as good as Ripples and Sweet Poppy, but waiting two weeks for ever chapter is a drag. Especially when a chapter is like the last one…just a chapter to move the plot and character development forward, without any real action. So, I’ll probably wait for a few chapters to be released before reading them. But, the writers of these series stories are gifted writers, and the are all truly awesome stories.
I’m with you on this one, I tend to wait until the whole thing has been released, or at least a good portion of it before investing in it.
This is where I think the editing and publishing process on JS is both a blessing and a curse. Whilst it means we get wonderfully written content that has been skilfully edited it also creates a bottle neck that drips feeds chapters quite slowly. As frustrating as it may be, I think the quality of the content is worth the wait though. The obvious answer is to have more editors, but people with the skill and time that have an interest in this genre are rare commodities.
Oh, and thank you so much for including Sweet Poppy in such exceptional company, you’ve made my day 🙂
Hmm. Missed this post in general.
For me..it’s mixed. I personally like the bigger amount of fleshing out of characters that can happen in series stories. To me, it’s a thing where a one-off is more focused on just doing a scenario and then finishes. Sure it explores whatever situation. But it can be not as fulfilling. A series lets one link with the character more in your mind to expand the experience.
I see it as an aspect in the realm of personal imagination. And personal likes,kinks etc. If you have a specific fetish/kink a one-off can be fulfilling. But it needs more of the personal match to the premise to really make it “work for” the reader since you don’t build the personal links as in a series. One offs will have to sort of “get lucky” to match a reader..which might limit those that really can enjoy it. Or if you have just enough character development in it even though it’s a one-off that can make it work. Jetboy’s stories usually figure that out. And some readers can match stories more due to imagination capabilities. And others less so due to reader’s imagination shortcomings.
Conversely, series can run into another issue. Not necessarily bad. And that is having so much good story, you’re involved in it whether there was sex or not. Or the overlying premise is so big it could have been a novel without it. Nuit_du_Loup has those epics in some of which could be made into a mega novel series or movie even, with the amount of fleshing out their world that’s been done. Those are hard to put down until fully read through. And so strong at times that I have glossed over some or the sex scenes to get back to the storyline. I can’t imagine the amount of time put into just arranging the world bases for those.
And then the commitment. I see series stall out, incomplete, which can really irk readers. Or if writers disappear. Like Ebo and such with so many things just waiting out there for the last couple years. That is a rough thing to see. Sure writers may have life happen that interferes with writing but it’s frustrating not knowing as a reader. They also can stall out due to the thought of just trying to come up with a ‘sex scene that’s not been done yet’ like I’m sure Naughty Mommy and others have ran into. It can make things problematic actually taking you away from your main storyline just to “keep fresh” sexually. But there’s kind of a limit to sex possibilities and when you get so extremely grand in size of a series it’s probably easy to hit that.
For me, I love series stories more I’d say. I’d love to even write up a small few chapter series myself. But it’s definitely a lot of work to be great at it. I myself may have a bit of neurodivergence, which tends to make me over write like here 🙂
Re: ranking/voting.. I’ve had issues with stuck in a consideration loop…did I vote? Don’t want to vote again on something I may have voted on before (since all always offer vote button even if you’ve voted before). That’s been just a bit of mental thought for me personally.
Bleh..this was to be a more general thread comment and not specific to Joanna’s chain. Sorry..
There are quite a few series that I like but many seem to lose steam towards the end. My story, ‘A Mother’s Plea’, is a good example. The last chapter waned because I lost the feel of the initial connection between Chelsea and Kim. Many series seem to hit that same plateau and they lose the passion of discovery and wonder found in the earlier chapters. If a story can stay fresh then multiple chapters are definitely warranted. Jetboy counseled me to write a chapter ahead, advice I unwisely disregarded, so I’d know if my next chapter was a worthy addition to the story. If I had followed his advice I would have likely realized my story didn’t have the need for the final chapter and would have cleanly wrapped it up with four chapters.
I’ve also been down that road, and now I will not submit anything to JB for publishing until the whole thing is complete. Although I do send the first chapter or two to get his feedback before I invest in writing more, but I never publish until the whole thing is finished.
This is the reason I’ve currently only got one story published on here, and have three currently in the works!
Joe,
If your upcoming stories are anything like ‘Sweet Poppy’, I simply can’t wait. That one had some moments that left me… TMI… Safe to say, it is a very good story.
Thank you.
Thank you for your kind words. The current story I’m working on is going very well, I hope to have it finished in the next few weeks. So watch this space!
Series is “both” singular & plural.Jacky, thanks Mouse.
Goodness only knows where this reply will end up. I have a tendency to reply to individual comments when I meant to just comment on the whole thread.
But..
I’ve noticed a few people saying that multi-part stories should only be posted when complete. I appreciate the pain of not knowing when, or even if, the next installment of a particularly engaging story will come out. It can be a challenge to deal with.
But I don’t know if that would necessarily work. I know some of the authors here have an amazing throughput but a story could take months or even years to be ready if we did that. Not only would this mean we’d have be left hanging, completely unaware of what wonders are just around the corner, but the authors wouldn’t get the positive feedback from each chapter that they’d need to write the next one. (Plus I can only imagine the strain it’d put on the poor editors!)
Might I suggest an alternative? Instead of writing the whole thing first, why not create the basic outline and work out just how many chapters you’re writing? That way you can have “Cleverly Titled Story: Chapter 5/10” or similar. It might help keep the readers sated as they get an idea of how long the story will last for. And it might, potentially, benefit the author as they have a structure to work to.
I don’t know. I’m not an author so I’m on the outside looking in. For all I know this might be a completely ridiculous and impractical idea. But I’d be interested in everybody’s thoughts regardless.
It’s fairly standard practice to complete a story before publishing it. Admittedly, posting fiction online has changed the landscape in regards to being able to go back and revise your work, but I think generally it’s a good idea to have it down and ready to go.
As far as planning goes, some stories just don’t want to be mapped out. They’ll quite often veer off into strange and unusual directions, and the author might have to revise earlier chapters to take emerging developments into account.
Also, stories grow of their own accord. JetBoy is currently working on a part of our story that I originally thought would be one chapter. So far, it’s turned into four chapters and still growing, and has become a vital act in the story.
As I say, you could keep updating published chapters, but what a chore for the site admins that would be, and possibly quite stressful for the author, knowing they need to deliver the next chapter by a certain deadline. Better to offer the best, final version of your story in its entirety.
Anything good is worth waiting for.
In my role as Grand Editor Pooh-bah of Juicy Secrets, I prefer complete stories. However, I’m willing to accept works in progress if the author has the story mapped out to its conclusion, or with a definite ending in mind and a solid idea of how to get to it. I’ve seen great multi-chapter stories ruined when the author took the plot in what, for them, ended up being an unsatisfying direction, then simply bailed on it.
Of course, you can have a definite ending in mind, then go off on numerous tangents along the way. Sapphmore and I are certainly going through that with “Ripples.” We expected to wrap that one up about ten chapters ago (and did decide on an ending), but keep coming up with more ideas to expand upon.
I can see both arguments here. Ripples first chapter was posted in September 2018!!! I can’t believe it’s taken 5 1/2 years to produce 40 chapters (37 posted), hopefully with only another one or two to write. But from my perspective, it’s inconceivable that I’d spend even half that time producing the full story, only then for it to potentially be rejected. Okay, as it’s my first, maybe if I were to write another long one I might be a lot quicker with all I’ve learned from my collaboration with Jetboy, but it is still a massive time investment for no guarantee of being posted. Whilst I see why having a full story does make sense (when I started writing I had no idea it would be 40+ chapters and thought way less than 10 and wrote the ending at the start) I can see that working for say 5-10 or so chapters, but if you are pretty sure at the start that it is very likely to run to 20 plus chapters, I’d say maybe the most practical thing is to have at least half done, which seems more than enough work to keep an editor busy for quite a while, with a definite story plan for the rest. That could still allow for deviations/new plot ideas. Once you have written a handful of chapters, you should have a rough idea of the overall length, so maybe one solution is to submit the first five for an agreement in principle it is likely to be posted, but without any editing and perhaps just feedback. That would give the author the impetus to continue.