Reply To: Stand Alone vs Episodic

[f35h]

A lot of what I’ve published here is split into chapters. I agree that these tend to get fewer views that the standalone short stories. I think this is pretty much inevitable for chapter 2 onwards; there will always be people who read chapter 1 and didn’t like it, but I think even putting ‘chapter 1’ in the title is enough to put people off, for whatever reason.

I feel I should add that I don’t publish here for views or likes; it’s nice when people appreciate my stories, but I write what I want to read, and apparently find it very difficult to stop wondering (and then writing) ‘what happens next?’. The answer, of course, is usually another haircut 🙂

There’s certainly an interesting challenge in writing a new story, with existing characters, which doesn’t rely on the reader remembering everything you’ve written before. I recall an interview with a successful author who said he was aware when writing the second book of a trilogy, that some readers would have finished reading the first book a day ago, some a year ago, and some might not have read it at all. You have to make sure that all of them still enjoy the second book.