This week: One Shot (Standalone) vs Series Edited by: Dawn Embers  
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Fantasy Newsletter by Dawn
This month we consider the option of needing to divide a really long story into separate ones, also known as a series. A look at the differences between stand alone and series in speculative fiction. |
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Let's start this month's newsletter with a little story. One year, several years ago, I worked on a fantasy story for NaNoWriMo that included a mage character who struggled with remembering spells. That year was a good year writing wise because for that story, I managed to write 160,000 words in November. The first draft ended at about 180,000 words total. That is a very long story. Even not counting the not answered questions in the world, looking just at that first section, I have come to understand that the story is too long for a non-published author as a single book, especially since my rewrites usually make my stories longer. Next comes figuring out how to divide the story so each section (book) stands well on its own.
It's not just newbies, however, that have to worry about a story becoming too long to stand alone. Many years ago, when I attended a writing conference in Denver, Colorado, I was lucky enough to see Connie Willis speak. At the time she had the duology (2 book) series coming out for All Clear. It was initially a single story but even as an established author, she had to divide the story into two books. According to Goodreads, the first book called Blackout is 491 pages and the sequel, All Clear, is 656 pages. For reference, she has a single book Doomsday that is 578 but an older published book that I've read, Bellwether is only 248 pages.
So, that brings us to the topic of the newsletter. When is a story too long? Well, there isn't an exact answer for that question. Instead, let's consider what aspects to think about when deciding to stick to the single story or when to go with the different versions of a series. Speculative fiction is known in particular for the series but there are plenty of single books and flash fiction or short stories.
There are many options to consider. First is how long it will take to show the story. There is the standalone, also known as a one shot in manga or graphic novels. Then there are different numbers of series.
Series quantities include:
Duology = 2 books
Trilogy = 3 books
Tetralogy = 4 books
Pentalogy = 5 books
etc
15+ = Robert Jordan or George RR Martin
Market and genre are something to consider when it comes to making this decision. On the plus side, fantasy and sci-fi are known for a series, even if it's not the easiest to sell as a newer author. It's common stage for stories to take a little longer or to have more pages/words compared to others. Since we already have the genre, consider some other elements when deciding to split a story.
Age Range (middle grade - young adult - adult)
How long a single story/book can be varies a little on the general age range of the audience. Assuming new author status in the publish world, the length for a middle grade story is going to be somewhat shorter than something for teenagers or adults. That doesn't mean it has to be super short. Brandom Mull is a middle grade fantasy author who has a few series published. His earlier published series was on the shorter side with book 1 in his Fablehaven series is 351 pages (number of words per page is a little less compared to adult novels). Book 1 in Beyonders is 457 and each book in that series is long and very epic in scope. Young adult novels can also be single books or multi-book series, depending on the story.
Word Count
This one you probably expect. There are some general guidelines for novel length that are often recommended to consider but they aren't an exact must follow rule. Thanks to NaNoWriMo, it's known that a short novel can be 50,000 words. For the speculative fiction genres, we tend to get a little more leeway for the longer side. It's not unusual to see novel lengths in standard listings to range from 80,000 to 120,000. And there are authors who even for their first novel when they get published who make it with longer stories. However, the exceptions aren't going to be a guarantee either. It still might be really hard to sell a single story that is 500 pages long though not completely impossible.
Plot
Story is important for anything and it's something to consider when thinking about the overall length. This will also be a key element when dividing the story if you go that route. You have to consider if it's a story that needs to be long. Will something get lost if you need to divide the story into multiple sections? Are there plot elements that will be strong as a focus for each section/book? You have to take the plot into consideration when trying to decide whether the story is a standalone or belongs as a series.
That is a good starting point. So, take some of these aspects into consideration if you find a story starting to get rather long. Next time, we'll discuss what to do once you've made the decision to divide into more than one book. Also, don't worry about this at all if you're in first draft land. This is more of a topic for rewrites and maybe the very beginning of edit stage. Write first, make these decisions later.
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Is your story a single one (stand alone) or are you writing a series? How do you divide a story?
Authors I recommend checking out this week: Brandon Mull and Connie Willis
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Fantasy: February 22, 2023 Issue [#11825]
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