I don’t want one of my two novels to become a series. I think it might work as a standalone instead a novel series, personally.
I am talking about my anthology novel The House of Naivin. If I wanna do something else pertaining to the novel, I’ll do a little spin-off novella instead.
However, Red Reign will be a novel series unless something different happens, but I am certain that will be a novel series.
I think The House of Naivin is going to be a bit of a lengthy for a standalone.
I know that some of you going to say a bunch of different things like “If the story calls for it to become a novel series, then go for it” or something else entirely, but this is something for me.
The only way, THN (The House of Naivin) can become a novel series is if I might it a duology. That is another possibility too.
I am weighing my options, but a standalone is what I am leaning towards.
Thinking about it, I don’t think anthology novel is the right word.
It either 5 or 6 chapters broken into 6 parts leading up to over 70k words. Each chapter focuses on a different character, but the chapters gradually connect with each other over the course of the story.
A collection of short stories or short novels written by different authors form together for one publication.
They way, I did it was focus on 5 or 6 characters who are all related to each other but tells their version of the same story that slowly starts to connect.
The thing I did wasn’t even an anthology, I just wrote a wonky ass novel. LOL!
I don’t want to give any sort of advice as I don’t want to hinder your creativity, nor am I an expert. But I do want to recommend these books on plot and structure:
John Truby’s The Anatomy of Story
James Scott Bell’s Plot and Structure
Black Snyder’s Save the Cat
Jessica Brody’s Save the Cat Writes a Novel
Sol Stein’s On Writing
I don’t want to insinuate that plotting is the end-all-be-all for keeping a novel from becoming a series. But checking out these methods and applying the one that speaks to you the most–with some creative variations of your own–might be a good solution to this problem. Whether or not you are an architect or a gardener, plotting and outlining can benefit any writer. Even if in the end you do something completely different from your outline, it still forces you to think about your plot as it relates to your character’s development, and that’s the largest determining factor when it comes to the length of your story.
I am not concerned about the word count too much. I am just wondering if having it as a standalone is doable. If not and if I see that it isn’t doable, then I can move onto doing a duology.
