Tag: series

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On a Writing Kick

Last Tuesday, just as my scheduled post was ready to go, I received an email saying that someone had recommended my blog. So a big shout-out to to The Threaded Shillelaugeh for doing so.

I must confess that I rarely venture onto my Reading feed, although I do receive email notifications when certain accounts create a new post. I’ve now saved my Reading and Subscriptions pages prominently on my Favourites bar. I first need to weed out the inactive profiles, and I”ve already jettisoned an overactive account that posted every few hours and dominated the feed.

But there’s another reason I haven’t been reading as much lately, and that’s because I’m currently going through the most productive period of writing I’ve experienced in a long time. I’ve reached the point where I’ve been writing deep into the night, which is highly unusual for me. Thursday was my longest session; I was up until 3am, and I only canned it because I was exhausted and needed to work the following morning. I was nowhere near finished the text.

To find the last time the words flowed so freely, I need to go back to my earlier attempts at the now-defunct National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo, where the challenge was to write 50,000 words in a month. That said, I’ve discovered I write best when I do it episodically because my natural concluding point is in the region of 2,000 words.

I was already penning my fourth story in a nine-part series, and then an idea struck for an extra chapter of an existing 25-part series. The first in the series was intended as a one-off, then I thought it wouldn’t have more than four parts, and then I declared it would wrap up around 20 parts, and I’ve shot past that.

Because it features an ensemble cast, it’s proving easy to think of new plot points related to the central premise. So easy, in fact, that I’ve around 3,500 words, which is already double my normal stopping point – and there’s much more to follow. Fortunately, there’s a natural cliffhanger in the plot to keep readers gripped until the 27th chapter, which I fully expect to contain another 3,500 words.

With that series, I’ve had to make up a retrospective notes document to keep the main action consistent.

A few days ago, for instance, I thought one character was four years older than another, when she’s actually six years older. In another case, I forgot whether two other characters had been given a surname. This is published on a writing website, so I’ve now asked my fellow writers whether they recall one being given.

With the newer series, I’ve made a point of creating that notes document early, which has been a terrific move.

I don’t know exactly how I’ll feel once this writing kick is over, but I expect I’ll start going to bed at a reasonable hour again.

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A New Impetus for Writing

I found myself with more time than expected at the weekend because two seperate plans were cancelled. I used the time to catch up with some overdue writing. I’ll address that later in the entry, but we firstly need a little background.

I’ve occasionally mentioned that I write fantasy stories under a pseudonym on a well-known website. For the avoidance of doubt, I’m not at a stage where I wish to claim ownership of these, so references to the plot will be vague.

Since my last update about the matter on 27 August 2024, the situation has progressed a little.

After writing 24 parts of my first story, which we’ll call Series A, I then posted an unrelated Series B. That comprised seven parts, drip-fed from April 2024 to February 2025.

In September 2025, I then added a surprise 25th part to A. I consider B to be complete, but I also thought A was complete at 24 parts, so there’s always the possibility of another.

If you’re still following that, good work.

With that unexpected time available at the weekend, I cracked on with two new pieces.

The first is a one-off story that isn’t intended to be a series. It’s also set in a different universe from the other stories, where genetic modification is almost as easy as laser eye surgery is in our world. I’ve been working on this for months to reduce the worldbuilding and exposition in favour of story. I’ve now struck a suitable balance, so that’s been submitted.

The website has decent standards of quality control, so there’s always a wait for approval, but I hope to see that online over the next day or two.

The second is a new series, which we’ll call Series C, and is unrelated to the aforementioned two series. The difference here is that I know where the end-point will be, whereas I kept writing A and B until running out of ideas.

The main character in Series C is travelling a specific circuit so the reader knows from the outset how many parts there are expected to be. This also more easily allows me to introduce recurring characters at specific points without resorting to retcon techniques. What the readers won’t know until the final part is that the character is not quite who she claims to be.

All I need to do now is keep up the motivation to write those parts without too many other distractions.

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Back Into Short Story Writing

I’ve been unwell for the last five days or so. It’s been frustrating in many ways, having to stay in the house most of the time. On the other hand, it’s given me the impetus to work on some writing.

The work referenced in this entry was published under a pseudonym on a well-known website. For the avoidance of doubt, I’m still not at a stage where I wish to claim ownership of this, so the references to the plot will be vague.

A year ago this month, I finished writing a series that was supposed to be a one-off but ended up as 24 parts. I was partially spurred on by the positive reaction to the previous parts, plus I was able to take the existing characters to different locations where they met new characters, which generated new plot points.

In the intervening time, I’d had another promising central idea plus a few unused plot points that couldn’t be put into the first series. I then spent some time figuring out how to differentiate the two universes.

In April, the elements fell into place and I published a new story on the same website. I made it clear this was not related to the previous series, but I did believe there would be a second part, so I left the ending open enough to allow for that.

And that’s what I’ve been working on while I’ve been in the house. I think this series will be five parts long, so significantly shorter than the first series, but I don’t yet know where this will take me next.

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How to End a Series That Was Never Meant to Be a Series

For the last three years, I’ve been writing a fantasy series under a pseudonym on a well-known website.

To set your expectations, this has been purely a passion project. I’m not at a stage where I wish to claim public ownership – and I might never be. As such, there will be no links to the series in this entry and only vague references to the plot. However, I feel now is the time to bring the series to an end, so I’ll be discussing the mechanics of this.

Back in September 2020, I published the first part, intended as a one-off story. It received a positive reaction, plus I found there was more I could do with the characters. I went on to write a sequel, then a third instalment, then a fourth. All the while, I’d been peppering my introductions with hints that the next story might be the final one.

In the early days of the series, my greatest hurdle was adding characters and moving them to new locations once the plot was exhausted in the first location. I was able to do this by taking unnamed side-characters from the first two stories and applying some retroactive continuity, known as retconning. Around the fifth story, the series had grown enough legs that it could stand up as its own self-contained universe.

Three months ago, I posted my 23rd part, and the 24th will definitely be where it ends. It’s taken so long because I wanted to tie up the loose ends while taking all the necessary space to explore that ending. So while most parts of the series have ended up between 1,500 and 2,500 words, the finale is likely to touch 5,000. There is even a circle back to the early days with the surprise return of two characters.

After that, I’m considering compiling the parts into a single volume and giving it some more editing, but that’s a long way off at this stage.