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Writerly Ways
Aug. 14th, 2022 10:07 pmBefore I get into that let me say I'm so not ready to go to bed early so I can get up in o'dark hundred so I can drive 100 miles to my early morning doctor's appointment in Columbus. At least I did get a lot of stuff done, everything's unpacked. I still desperately need to figure out what to do with this living room to clean it up and I got some editing done.
This writerly ways poses questions without clear answers. How do you know when to end a series brought to you by Emergency!. I've read that Netflix has a policy of no more than 5-6 seasons because after that things get stale. You know, I can actually see some sense to that. Some shows have dragged on and on and you keep watching but you're not sure why (looking at you NCIS, The SimpsonS) I'm watching Emergency! last night and tonight and it's season 7. It's been a two-parter in seattle as training session with John and Roy barely in it. It is literally the dullest thing I've seen in forever and I have it on as background noise. But all of S6 wasn't that good either.
I'm also a huge mystery reader as you know. Some of them are 25+ books long. Again I find myself reading because it's there (thank you library) not because I think they're good. To be fair a few still are good 20 books in but many aren't. You can really see the formula (I could outline every J.D. Robb Eve Dallas book at this point) and others have gotten so ridiculous you DO give up (and wish the author did too).
So as the author, how do you know when to stop? I think that's a sticky question than it looks because the obvious answer is when you have nothing new to say. But if you ARE JD Robb, Rita Mae Brown etc you are probably locked into a contract that insists you keep popping them out whether you want to or not until it's no longer profitable and then you get axed.
Worse your series might end too soon. I know a lot of readers won't start reading unless a series finished first (more in the SFF crowd as mystery readers know the books are stand alone and a series never ends...) Try not to do that because if book 1 or 2 don't sell well because you're waiting for all 3 or 4 books in the series to publish you're going to doom it to not being published but that's a talk for another post.
Like I said no clear cut answers but it is something to think about.
OPEN CALLS
Tumbled Tales 1: Stories that Upend Genre Conventions
The Cafe Irreal Fall Window 2022
Not a Pipe Publishing Untitled LGBTQIA+ Anthology must identify as LGBT
Cosmic Roots And Eldritch Shores September 2022
TBD Gothic Romance must be female identifying or non binary
Unspeakable Horror 3: Dark Rainbow Rising
There’s No Place you have to have been homeless at some point to submit
Our Ocean’d Earth
from around the web
12 Fellowships and Other Writing Opportunities for August 2022
Lessons from Almost Thirty Years in the Publishing Industry
How the Duck to Write with a Newborn
Pursuing Approval: the Perks and Perils
How Many Scenes Does It Take to Tell Your Story?
How Suspense and Tension Work Together to Increase Story Impact
4 Steps to Create Perfect Plot Twists
From Bucolic North Bennington To The Haunting Of Hill House: Tracking Shirley Jackson.
8 Great Writing Hacks Every Creative Writer and Blogger Should Know
The Speculative Fiction Workshop With Daisuke Shen costly but not as bad as some
From Betty
The Plotter vs. Pantser Divide Has Been Exaggerated
What is Your Character Hiding: The Power of Secrets
Blockchain For Copyright And Intellectual Property With Roanie Levy
Important Font Considerations for Writers
hHow Perfect Does Your Story’s Structural Timing Have to Be?
Why a Strong Plot Requires a Significant Goal
How To Write Conflict: Writing Great Scenes #3
How to get Your Book Ranked for More Amazon Book Categories
Using Weather to Strengthen Scenes in Your Writing and Storytelling how appropriate I get this right after deciding to use weather as an isolating factor instead of covid.
5 Types of Journaling Writing to Keep You Creative
How to Use Failure in Your Story
Your Story Needs Tension, Not Violence
How Can I Give Aliens Strange Values?
Fear Thesaurus Entry: A Loved One Dying
Fear Thesaurus Entry: Not Fitting In
Five Must-Haves for a Great Ending
How to write a synopsis for a novel
This writerly ways poses questions without clear answers. How do you know when to end a series brought to you by Emergency!. I've read that Netflix has a policy of no more than 5-6 seasons because after that things get stale. You know, I can actually see some sense to that. Some shows have dragged on and on and you keep watching but you're not sure why (looking at you NCIS, The SimpsonS) I'm watching Emergency! last night and tonight and it's season 7. It's been a two-parter in seattle as training session with John and Roy barely in it. It is literally the dullest thing I've seen in forever and I have it on as background noise. But all of S6 wasn't that good either.
I'm also a huge mystery reader as you know. Some of them are 25+ books long. Again I find myself reading because it's there (thank you library) not because I think they're good. To be fair a few still are good 20 books in but many aren't. You can really see the formula (I could outline every J.D. Robb Eve Dallas book at this point) and others have gotten so ridiculous you DO give up (and wish the author did too).
So as the author, how do you know when to stop? I think that's a sticky question than it looks because the obvious answer is when you have nothing new to say. But if you ARE JD Robb, Rita Mae Brown etc you are probably locked into a contract that insists you keep popping them out whether you want to or not until it's no longer profitable and then you get axed.
Worse your series might end too soon. I know a lot of readers won't start reading unless a series finished first (more in the SFF crowd as mystery readers know the books are stand alone and a series never ends...) Try not to do that because if book 1 or 2 don't sell well because you're waiting for all 3 or 4 books in the series to publish you're going to doom it to not being published but that's a talk for another post.
Like I said no clear cut answers but it is something to think about.
OPEN CALLS
Tumbled Tales 1: Stories that Upend Genre Conventions
The Cafe Irreal Fall Window 2022
Not a Pipe Publishing Untitled LGBTQIA+ Anthology must identify as LGBT
Cosmic Roots And Eldritch Shores September 2022
TBD Gothic Romance must be female identifying or non binary
Unspeakable Horror 3: Dark Rainbow Rising
There’s No Place you have to have been homeless at some point to submit
Our Ocean’d Earth
from around the web
12 Fellowships and Other Writing Opportunities for August 2022
Lessons from Almost Thirty Years in the Publishing Industry
How the Duck to Write with a Newborn
Pursuing Approval: the Perks and Perils
How Many Scenes Does It Take to Tell Your Story?
How Suspense and Tension Work Together to Increase Story Impact
4 Steps to Create Perfect Plot Twists
From Bucolic North Bennington To The Haunting Of Hill House: Tracking Shirley Jackson.
8 Great Writing Hacks Every Creative Writer and Blogger Should Know
The Speculative Fiction Workshop With Daisuke Shen costly but not as bad as some
From Betty
The Plotter vs. Pantser Divide Has Been Exaggerated
What is Your Character Hiding: The Power of Secrets
Blockchain For Copyright And Intellectual Property With Roanie Levy
Important Font Considerations for Writers
hHow Perfect Does Your Story’s Structural Timing Have to Be?
Why a Strong Plot Requires a Significant Goal
How To Write Conflict: Writing Great Scenes #3
How to get Your Book Ranked for More Amazon Book Categories
Using Weather to Strengthen Scenes in Your Writing and Storytelling how appropriate I get this right after deciding to use weather as an isolating factor instead of covid.
5 Types of Journaling Writing to Keep You Creative
How to Use Failure in Your Story
Your Story Needs Tension, Not Violence
How Can I Give Aliens Strange Values?
Fear Thesaurus Entry: A Loved One Dying
Fear Thesaurus Entry: Not Fitting In
Five Must-Haves for a Great Ending
How to write a synopsis for a novel
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