Post #214 May 18 2020

“Update on Downloads and More Thoughts About Series Writing”

I recently uploaded a new title in my Quantum Troopers Return series to Smashwords.com.  It’s entitled Episode 4: Deep Encounter and has been doing pretty well.  Below, I’ve tabulated the total, cumulative downloads for all my ebook titles, roughly by series and category.

Tales of the Quantum Corps:  9842

The Farpool Stories: 6387

Quantum Troopers:  20,648

Time Jumpers: 2482

All Others*:  6068

*This catch-all category includes 3 horror stories, 3 alternate-history novels, two collections of short science fiction and early downloads from 2020 for Quantum Troopers Return.

Total cumulative downloads as of 8 May 2020 are at 45,427.

Those are the hard numbers.  As you can see, much of my sf is in series form.  Although I’ve posted on the challenges of series writing before, I’d like to add a few more thoughts on this topic. 

Many science fiction writers do series stories.  There are some definite advantages.  One is that you can ‘amortize’ your research and development of fictional worlds (very important in sf) across many titles.  It takes time and hard work to develop an alien world set in a galaxy far, far away and be consistent and somewhat scientifically accurate.  Series writing in sf enables you to have a ready-made setting to drop your story into…all you need is a plot line.  Usually, series also have continuing characters.  You don’t have to re-describe Flash Whizbang each time, since presumably the readers already know a lot about him.  Think Tom Swift, Nancy Drew or even better, Sherlock Holmes. 

But there are definitely challenges and pitfalls in writing a series too.  You’re constrained (to some degree) by what you’ve written before.  The longer a series goes, the more detailed your notes had better be, since nobody can keep all those myriad details in their head…except your readers, who will surely let you know that in story #1, Flash was blond with two heads and in Story #5, you describe Flash as brown haired with tentacles.  Take notes.  Consistency is vital in series writing.

That said, you’d like to have a character who can meet challenges and grow and change in resolving them, as real people do.  Which means, you can either plot this growth out ahead of time or just write the stories and be surprised by what Flash develops into as he evolves in your mind and on paper.  Actually, I do a little of both and I suspect many authors of series do as well.  Ideally, your main characters have enough imaginary room to evolve as the series goes on.  We see this in TV as well, which lends itself well to series stories and characters.  When developing and writing series fiction, know your main characters well.

Another issue in writing series fiction is coming up with ideas for plots.  This really should be pretty well thought out ahead of time.  There should be an overall story arc for the series, into which your individual stories will fit, perhaps chronologically or in some way thematically.  The story arc should be something that can be stated in a single sentence. Here’s what I said at the beginning of each episode of my new Quantum Troopers Return series:

1. Quantum Troopers Return is a series of 25,000-30,000-word episodes detailing the adventures of Johnny Winger and his experiences as a quantum trooper with the United Nations Quantum Corps.  This series continues the original serial stories of Quantum Troopers, Episodes 1-22 (formerly Nanotroopers).
2. Each episode will be about 40-60 pages, approximately 30,000 words in length.
3. A new episode will be available and uploaded every 4 weeks.
4. There will be 10 episodes.  The story will be completely serialized in about 12 months.
5. Each episode is a stand-alone story but will advance the greater theme and plot of the story arc. 
6. The main plotline: U.N. Quantum Corps must defeat the criminal cartel Red Harmony’s efforts to use their nanorobotic ANAD systems for the cartel’s own nefarious and illegal purposes.
    
   Does this work?  Apparently, 20,671 readers think so (Quantum Troopers and Quantum Troopers Return).
    
   Sometimes series just develop without authorial intention.  That’s what happened to my series The Farpool Stories.  Originally, there was only The Farpool.  But the reader response was sufficient for me to consider writing another story with the same characters and same setting, with some expansions and adjustments.  After the second book, I decided to make the Farpool stories a formal series and plot out a story trajectory that would make sense.  Now five books have been uploaded and I’m planning three more.  And, through the wonders of wormholes and time travel, the series will come back to the place it originally started, albeit in a different time stream.  You gotta love science fiction.
    
   The next post to The Word Shed comes on May 25, 2020.
    
   See you then.
    
   Phil B.