How to prevent your novel from becoming a series and stay a true standalone book?

Wow, I am starting to see that my stories are more likely plot-driven than character-driven. I mean I am interested in my characters but the plot and the world is really more intriguing to me.

I think that is why I might gravitate towards more plot-driven media than character-driven ones instead.

Now I wonder if there’s some writer (famous or not) that can create a good story that focuses on both plot and characters equally.

I might have figure myself out a bit more.

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You do know what plot-driven means, right?

Just to make sure…

Plot-driven is not that it’s focusing on the plot, but that the plot is what drives the characters. Like say, a war happens and the character is just one of the soldiers, while their story is interesting in terms of character development, they are swayed by the events happening. You can replace that character with any other character and it would still be more or less the same plot of going through the war.

Character-driven stories, you can’t switch to a different character. That character’s decisions and actions all change the plot in some way, so if you change the character, it changes the plot.

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Plot and characters go hand in hand. I think any story that is a great story has great characters and great plot. That doesn’t mean it’s a story that is both plot-driven and character-driven. Those are different things. In my understanding, anyway.

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Thanks for making me better understand. I get it better now.
Still, my stories tend to fall into the plot-driven category more than character-driven. Not to forget that I still enjoy plot driven stories as well.

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True and thanks for explaining.

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You’re welcome :blush:

Once you know which you write, I think it can give you a better understanding of your story and of yourself as a writer.

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Thanks so much for answering and the help again.

I know which path to follow with my fiction.

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I have character-driven stories that demand to become series because there’s always a loose end here and there. My business model is to always leave the reader wanting more, so that they won’t easily forget and move on.

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A bit late to this conversation, but I hope it’s not too late.

So, I’m currently writing two fantasy series—one is a trilogy while the other will have at least five books. Before that, though, I’ve been writing standalones, whether they be standalone short stories or standalone novellas and novelettes. Here’s what I’ll say: make your ending as conclusive as it can be.

Okay that probably wasn’t worded in the best way, so I’ll try my best to explain it. The thing about series books is that while they can have a conclusive ending, their endings usually leave a lot of room to explore. Think about the Harry Potter books. The first book was wrapped up nicely, the main characters triumphed over evil, the end of the book coincided with the end of the school year—while the start of the book happened just before the start of the school year—and all that jazz. But is that where you want the whole story to really end? No. The characters still have to deal with Voldemort after he got ejected from the back of someone’s head. The characters have only covered their first school year, so you’d want to know more about what they did in the following years as well. There’s so much more to explore and really you have to make it a series.

On the flipside, let’s take a standalone book. I’ll be using one of mine as an example because it’s the first thing that I can think of. So, my first ever Wattpad book, Be At My Side, is a standalone paranormal novella. It’s about a character who lost his father at a young age and has been followed by a ghostly father figure ever since. The story starts with the main character as a little boy, and ends with the main character all grown up and dead. You can make a series out of this, like say write the book from the ghost’s POV and make it a duology, or write a sequel involving one of the main character’s children. The real question is: do you have to, is there really more that you want to explore? The ending of the book also feels like the ending to the entire story proper, instead of leaving enough room for a second book to follow.

It’s late at night and I doubt I’ve worded it well, but I tried. But yeah. Just keep your plots and character arcs “small enough” so that when the end of the book comes, the story really feels wrapped up that you can not touch that universe again and still feel satisfied.

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You’ve got some good advice and recommendations for books here to help you with structure. Good to see. I think it comes down to keeping it simple. Don’t add a lot of secondary storylines to create rabbit holes down which you can jump because for me, personally, that’s how mine end up becoming series.

It must have a lot to do with mindset, too. I tend to think in series because it’s all I’ve ever written. It would take a lot to change my brain to focus on a standalone, though I’d love to try the challenge. Maybe if you focus on the fact the main storyline and the secondary plots have to end at the book’s end, with satisfactory conclusions, you can prevent your creative muse from running away with a zillion ideas for a series.:rofl:

I do second the “Save a Cat! Writes a Novel” book recommendation. It truly helped me cut a lot of extra stuff I had in my books to truly focus on what I wanted them to be. And Brody only has a small section of the book about series, so it shouldn’t send you off into an abyss about series writing.

Good luck!

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I think it’s human nature to want to know “what comes after.” And that may be where the drive to write a follow up comes from.

If you can wrap up the story within the confines of one book, then that’s awesome. I’m not sure what your page count is right at this moment, but I’ll remind you Stephen King published The Stand at 1,400 pages. The later Harry Potter books clocked in at 700+ pages. If the story is good, a reader will not really care about a high page count.

Just don’t kick yourself if the “What comes after?” question pushes you to continue the character/world’s stories.

(Says the lady with one book series headed into its eleventh book)

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