That’s why I never bother with the patreon nonsense.
Why would I want to pay 5 to 20 dollars per month for content in the demo and short stories that doesn’t really matter that much that I could just buy for around 5.99 only once when it does get released? I respect the fact it helps writers make a living but…
I’m new to writing IF, but I think at least from my perspective a single large installment might be a more satisfying experience than a drawn out series of smaller chunks, depending on what project a writer is working on at least. Of course if you have plot threads that can’t be realistically resolved in a single book, even a large one, it makes sense to make the split.
On a more practical note, setting out a series from the onset makes it feel more daunting than a single book outline. My outlining feels more realistic when I have a single set of “Act 1, Act 2, Act 3” to sketch out and then write instead of an entire series, each with their own beginnings, middles, and ends.
Personally, I believe conciseness and brevity to a reasonable point makes a story easier to digest, if you drag out plot threads and character development over a longer series, it makes the experience more frustrating for the reader. This is sometimes the case in writing non-interactive fiction, where an author might potentially end up stretching out a series to meet a planned number of installments, or in say television where showrunners end up beating the dead horse and kill the spirit of the show. At least in COG/HG, there’s no need to split books for ease of publishing, as far as I’m aware anyway.
Also from what I’ve observed of playing both standalone and series IF, creating a series means accounting for past variables in the previous installment in a way that might bottleneck the writing unnecessarily, perhaps forcing a writer to cut down the number and depth of branches. Whereas in a single installment, everything flows towards the conclusion, which may make accounting for those branches less of a chore.
That’s just poor planning, and can happen in a single book as well. Series is not automatically this just by virtue of being series.
Not automatically yeah, I think I worded that without enough nuance. I think there are very legitimate reasons to make a series as well, of course. These are just my personal musings on it all.
There are extreme few that I support via Patreon. I follow several though outside of here. I keep thinking of following my favs here.
Writers that know PTSD are winners to me. Those specifically, doesnt matter how long the series is. I will keep up. It tends to help myself from my own. Another two Im watching very closely pertains to 7 and Ryder. If know them, then know.
ZESH is an interesting one i have yet lost interest.
Wayhaven, I havent waned yet. Im curious about the over arc of the story and its outcome. We been dealing with ‘minor’ arcs.
Tree is liked, not favored. I can skip over.
I will have to say this.
Regardless of fav/liked list.
When the book has a m/f/nb MC option with various LIs of not opposites only (edit: hetero is opposites only, i avoid those), I’m buying. Regardless if I end up reading it or not.
I do plan to read all, gotta few still unread. Certain ones, like that latest go to new planet colonize one. I only did one chapter yet. I will read it when I desire to, havent liked it well yet. I know why. The RO intro rubbed me wrong. Imma demi, it feels off. I dont like it that much.
Need to know the personality to know if I force that upon myself. Uly themselves won me over too quickly. Its way its delivered that matters on preknown vs unknown and those were examples. Because im bad with getting my thoughts out properly.
Sorry what does of various LIs of not opposites only mean?
Hey, I think it means “Love interests.”
Not opposites I think means “something other than a male and a female”
Love interests of not just opposites. Hetero only I will edit the word to be more specific. I seek not opposites, otherwords not hetero LIs.
I’m not sure about the author statements.
Yeah sure, if you’re a new author with no experience, if what you’re making is too long, there is a quite high chance it remains unfinished…
But sometimes it ended at a wonderfull story.
For the RO, personnally i can enjoy both. I think i come to prefer slow burn RO as it’s a little more realistic. I’m tired of books where you have to tell if it’s friend only or RO two pages after first sight.
Authors can do what’s they prefer. Some long series like SOH or ZESH are very very good. Some oneshots too.
Meanwhile, in India, when I was a kid, you only ever got the whole series in one book (a paperback with very tiny print), and I didn’t even realise it was a series until the movies came out. It was cheaper that way, but a book that size also tends to tear up if you like to lie down and read.
I feel it lol,ill wait for a good series but it does get daunting when you dealing with a ambitious series lol. Nascent Necromancer not to pick out the author,popped in my mind. That could be a stand alone story, of course the rest of the series could be great so i keep my mind open.
I do this as a hobby, I work 12 hours a day and am blessed to get at least 1 hour of writing time. So I wholeheartedly agree. For me, I wouldn’t even dream saying what I’m working on will even be finished lol. So I couldn’t imagine saying it will be a series.
I wouldn’t say SOH or ZESH really pace their romances despite being a long series. All the ro’s in SOH pretty much throw themselves at you past a point and the games don’t really take no for much of an answer so you can’t slow them down yourself. In ZESH the romances are more mechanical for a lack of the better word at the moment. They start and end without much fanfare. Anyways my point is just because it’s a series doesn’t mean that the romances are paced slowly (Might be confused about what you are saying so if it’s looks like nonsense just ignore it).
Ha, so true, the pages are bound to fall out regrettably.
I keep thinking about this thread, and the idea of having a duology or trilogy in which there’s more room to evolve relationships over a longer period - the ability to have characters and relationships responding to larger-scale storyline shifts…
Ultimately it’s quite a leap of faith, when writing. There’s not much way of knowing whether players will keep their interest between instalments (or even whether the first one will gain an audience - I hate to think of planning a series, only for the first one not to do well, and being locked into it rather than having freedom to try something else).
But I do still rather like the idea…
I mean if anyone could do it, its probably you.
Aw that’s lovely, thank you! I need to do some more thinking about it. It’s definitely not something to do lightly, as it’s such a big commitment…
I do not. Like, I can understand the appeal on the intellectual level, and writing a series clearly went great for some authors, but it’s not for me. Even in my daydreams where I have infinite time and do not suffer from writer fatigue, I cannot see myself writing a sequel to any of my projects, let alone a full-on series.
If anything, I find your way of connecting stories far more appealing. I have a setting to explore, and so I like the idea of jumping from one MC to another in an attempt to present it from different perspectives, all while allowing for each story to have a definitive and player-chosen ending. But that’s just me entering the aforementioned daydreams—I’ll consider myself very lucky if I can finish, let alone publish my current project.
I am hoping I guess to do this with the wip I’m finally putting into motion. And I agree with wondering if readers will want to remain engaged enough. It is my main fear that the “relationships” won’t matter much if they don’t focus on wholly “romance” if that makes sense. Yet I am having a lot of fun envisioning how the main character can interact with the characters in the universe and my idea was to have the sequel play out through a “second generation’s eyes” dependent on what decisions were made in the prequel.
@Omeg I get what you mean. I think for me it would need to be something where it was planned from the start, so the ending branches aren’t so wide that it would be possible to go onwards (which isn’t usually how I do things: often I allow the PC to alienate people or factions so much that on some branches it wouldn’t make sense for said alienated people to be in the same room as the PC, or for a more violent game like Blood Money, the PC might have killed a decent chunk of the cast so again it would be a lot of work to fill out the cast while keeping optionally-alive characters doing interesting stuff).
The thing I do like is having room to see characters’ and PCs’ responses to more storylines, but I’d have to be really careful to make sure I wasn’t fed up with the NPCs by the time I reached the end, as well as keeping them fresh and interesting for players rather than rehashing what’s come before. That’s one of my big concerns - I’m not sure if I’d have the perseverance to stick with the same cast for more than one game unless I was really smart about planning out the character developments.
@Ezralia_Vali That sounds fun - like Omeg says, it can be great to explore the setting through other perspectives, and I’ve enjoyed doing that a lot in my games.