How to Write a Novel: What are you writing? Stand-alone, series, or serial

Another consideration for your story is whether it exists as a stand-alone, or if it stretches across multiple books in a series, or if it’s an ongoing story delivered as a serial.

Again, you might not know this up front, and for discovery writers, stories can have a will of their own!

When I wrote Map of Shadows, I thought it was a stand-alone story, but after I finished the book, there was more to tell. While I had resolved the initial story arc, I couldn’t leave my characters where they were.

Then I thought it was an episodic series, with the main characters having fresh adventures through different maps in each book, so I wrote book two, Map of Plagues, with that in mind.

But once I was midway through book three, Map of the Impossible, a bittersweet ending emerged and it became a trilogy. I can write more in that world, but there was a clear end to the main story arc.

Yes, it would have been much more organized and simpler to have designed it as a trilogy in the first place, but that’s the joy of discovery writing!

Stand-alone

A stand-alone novel is a satisfying story with a clear ending for the characters that ties up any loose endings in the plot. There is no need for another book. The story is complete.

Stand-alones are more common in some genres than others. For example, horror and speculative fiction are often stand-alone novels. The Deep by Michaelbrent Collings is an underwater supernatural horror novel, and a perfect example of a stand-alone in my opinion.

My dark fantasy, coming-of-age, supernatural thriller Risen Gods, co-written with J. Thorn, is also a stand-alone.

With a stand-alone, you can reinvent your world and characters every time and explore different sub-genres over time — giving you a better chance of writing something that readers love. But this ability to experiment is also the major drawback because stand-alones can take longer to write as you start afresh every time. There is also no sell-through to the next book in the series, so stand-alones might make you less income overall.

Series

If your characters return in more than one book within the same genre and in the same world, then the books are a series. Readers love series because they can sink into a world and spend time with characters they love again and again.

There are different types of series. There are episodic, progressive series; for example, detective mysteries and police procedurals have key characters who work together to solve different crimes in each book.

My ARKANE thrillers are episodic adventures. Morgan and Jake and the ARKANE team solve a different supernatural mystery — and stop the baddies destroying the world! — in every book.

You can also have linked characters in a series where the stories are not episodic; for example, the Bridgerton historical romance series by Julia Quinn follows each sibling in the Bridgerton family. My mum writes sweet romance under the pen name Penny Appleton, and each character has a link to the English village of Summerfield.

There are also series with a long arc but a clear ending, common in epic fantasies like George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire, of which A Game of Thrones is book one. (Although, as I write this, the TV adaptation is complete but the novel series is still ongoing.)

In terms of benefits, you don’t have to invent a new world and new characters every time, so subsequent books in a series can be faster to write. Series books are easier to market as you can use promotions on the first one, and authors who write in a series often make more money over time because readers buy all the subsequent books if they’re engaged with the story.

However, one drawback is that you might spend many books developing a series only to find it doesn’t resonate with the market. Or, if the series is successful, you may feel trapped by the reader expectation to write more in that world.

Serial

Serial fiction is nothing new. Charles Dickens published most of his novels as serials, selling individual parts or including them in the magazines he edited, which accounts for the length of his books and also the memorable characters that kept readers coming back for more each time.

Serial reading has become much more popular in the digital age, offered through apps like Wattpad, Radish, Kindle Vella, and other services. These micro-reading experiences keep a reader hooked and ready for the next installment — one major benefit of this form. Some of the best serial writers, particularly in Asia, write long-running serials that continue far beyond the word count of most book series.

However, serial writing is a particular skill with a focus on cliff-hangers and open loops. Read a lot of it if you want to write it.

Which is the best option?

Only you can decide for your story, but consider what you like to read as a good starting point.

I don’t read serial fiction, so I don’t write it, regardless of its popularity. I love reading long-running episodic thriller series, so most of my writing takes that form. I also read a lot of stand-alone horror and speculative fiction books, as well as short stories, so those formats shape other aspects of what I write.

If you’re thinking ahead to publication, and you want to consider the more commercial aspects of writing, it is definitely easier to market a series, and if you get a traditional publishing deal, they may want more than one book. So even if you write a stand-alone, consider how some characters might continue beyond this story.

Questions:

•   What kind of stories do you read? Revisit your favorite books and also those that are like what you’re writing. Are they stand-alone, series, or serial?

•   What kind of story are you writing? How would it be different as a stand-alone, a series, or a serial. Why are you choosing one format over another? (And if you don’t know yet, don’t worry, you can figure it out along the way).

Resources:

•   How to Write a Series: A Guide to Series Types and Structure plus Troubleshooting Tips and Marketing Tactics — Sara Rosett

•   Romance Your Brand: Building a Marketable Genre Fiction Series — Zoe York

•   Interview on how to write a series, with seven-figure fantasy author Lindsay Buroker — www.TheCreativePenn.com/writeseries