The new writers cannot escape from watching your videos for this simple reason " your videos are very informative and extremely helpful" Af ❤ I'm a kind of new writer but I'm still under the null level necessary!
I did discovery writing for my series. I drafted over 20 books. I’m actually at about 23 done, another one started, and 3 more planned. That’s 27 total. I’m hoping to finish and publish all of them. But, not all of them are about the same characters and have different universes. So they’re all different.
If they are in different universes, how are they the same series? Because it's the same characters in different universes? The captain of the starship in one book, is leading a team of mages and swordsmen to confront the dark overlord of another book? I want to give my characters different origin stories in different books.
@Chloe Zarate But he said they're in different universes. When people say that about books, it means more than "different places". Like 'Twilight' is in a different universe from 'The Host' so that's why the vampires don't fight off the aliens.
Wow way to go Ben! You must actually be a professional writer? I'm still working on my first book as a business owner and father of 2. What I wouldn't do for 8 days in the week ;) Good writing!
@@Mecharnie_Dobbs I imagine it’s something like the Goosebumps series, the books rarely if ever follow the same characters more than once but the theme follows throughout the entire series
I tried discovery writing and I never finished ANY book for four years. Tried outlining and I did finished two but they were both garbage, they were both so inconsistent because I delved into writing without getting to know my characters or my world, they were so messy. I'll be making another novel but with the stuff I learned from writing the other two, hopefully it will be worth editing. God... I wish I'm you 😢
When I wrote my first fantasy novel, I planned it to be a 4 book series. Here I am still editing my first book, but I've realized I don't want to publish anything until the whole series is written... Maybe this will be different when I'm a more experienced writer, but I keep discovering new things about my world, new ways to convey my themes, new opportunities for character growth etc. Right now, my books... 1) Introduce the characters and run them through trials where they discover the world is not what they thought it was. Much mystery. 2) Explore the greater world and MCs discover a deeper level of magic. Ends with defeating the main antagonist of book I. 3) The Ancestors/entrenched power that created the twisted world they live in come back, and the original antagonist dies defending the MCs. 4) One of the ancient powers (that has been present throughout the entire series) must be battled, requiring a full evolution of the MCs. I'll let you know how it's going in 7 years ;)
Im writing a sci-fi fantasy series. I'm on book number 3 so far. I kept some details in the first one not so much explained so I could have room in the other books to expand. I definitely made the story relatable and put them into some situations but I'm not sure yet how many books I can get out of the series. Great video!
Started a trilogy about a dozen years ago but spent so much time working on the screenplays I never finished them. Now I'm going back at it and it's a lot of fun. Surprising how much I love it and of course, hate the crappy writing from all those years ago.
Read twilight and rejoice my friend...No but seriously, pple wrongly assume that the most popular series are the most well written but it's not the case, there are many books that are technically superior to the harry potter series for example but not nearly as successful, it's just a matter of connecting with your audience...And a bit of luck, of course not making it unreadable helps but again many pple complain about twilight/50 shades and these series sold more than a couple of books...much more, so good luck!
You can think of it this way - there’s no need for your writing to be “good”, especially because it very impressive for someone so young to be writing so much, let alone writing fantastically. You’re doing amazing!
I'm 14 too and I'm planning my book but I think if you think it fits then you don't have to change it but you could always edit it and learn how to write better.It's part of the experience but just don't lose motivation!
I'm trying to write a book series too, finished the first chapter of the first book last month, and am planning on starting the second chapter soon. So far the feedback is that it's really good and my friends are already falling in love with the main character. I'm 15
Love your video. I recently wrote stand-alone books and this will be my first series. I see it forming, but I was not sure how to go into it. Your video clarified much for me. Thank you very much.
Excellent as always! For anyone looking for mentor texts for a good Serialized series, check out Pendragon by D.J. MacHale (series of 10 books!) it is a really good example of good back and forth wins/losses and changing the status quo to keep things interesting. A good example of Interlinked Standalones is the Redwall series by Brian Jacques. 22 books! All the books take place in the same fantasy world and each book follows basically the same structure (good guy vs bad guy, then have a feast). These aren't recent series, but I believe still excellent examples when it comes to series structure. :)
I'm discovery-writing a serial fiction which I expect to be about ten books, published as each was finished, though the first four all split and grew from the original MS. I've enjoyed how book 5 has developed, and have a rough idea of what might happen, but I won't know how it all ends until I get there. I do lean heavily though on Unconscious Thought Theory for my creative process.
As a 13 year old who loves writing fantasy stories, I agree. Though, I don't plan to make a book series. I plan on making a CGI animated series and holy hell, I have a long way to go..
I have a writing craft notebook that I put the good advice in. When I watch other people's videos, I sum up the video in a separate notebook before transferring it. When I am taking notes from Shaelin, I just write em right in :P
I love your videos. Recently my computer audio stopped working and I've been watching videos with the Closed Captioning on. I thought I could do the same with yours because I really wanted to hear what you had to say. But after a few minutes I had to stop. I was laughing so hard at the ridiculous auto-generated words that I could hardly breathe. I guess this is incentive for me to fix my computer now. :D
great information! Thanks for producing it. Is there any way that I could get a copy of your last powerpoint screen please? It beautifully captures all of the information you've presented!
I have a lot of ideas that I don't quite want to put in the current book because I feel like it would be out of the blue and it could set the setting and tone for the next book
I'm 14 years old and I'm going to start writing a story, but I was considering writing it as a series cause I feel like it has too many details that wouldn't be enough in one, I'm considering of writing it on two-three books because there are going to be new characters and details presented after the first.
Planning a serialized romance series, this was very helpful! Everything I read/watched up till now has insisted tying all loose ends and leaving the reader content at the end of each book. How to move the story from one book to the next given that rule has had me worried. And now everything just clicked :)
At first I thought this might be full of crap. But as I listened further I realized you were doing an excellent analytical analysis of how series are developed. Although I am fairly certain you haven't created a series, I know you have written and thought about writing to an extent where you recognize where the problems may lie. I, too, have thought extensively about my own series and have come to the same conclusions you present here. Well done.
What if you are very wordy? I know a lot people would hate that, but some poeple don't mind at all, I also not plan my story out because I tried to plan out a series or a book then dump it. Tips?
I like the thought of such format. Will you follow 1 or more characters? And for episodic format, would it be best in your opinion to follow in limited or omniscient POV?
I’m not finished, but my story ends with a character that may or may not be dead. The main characters leave to go out on more adventures. That was my way of leaving a little something in case I continue. If I don’t, then I hope the reader is satisfied with the current conclusion. Is this a decent way to do it or should I try something else?
Sounds like a clever way to do it. That could be a satisfying ending even if there is a lot of wonder around what they'll do next. Imo though, just write it how you want it. Worrying too much about if it will get published will mess with your story. If you earn your living publishing books, then I get it, but otherwise, just decide what story you want to tell. Good writing!
@@PhoenixCrown In the end I decided to show the character still alive as I felt it was needed to drive the protagonist to his inevitable conclusion. When I finish this I plan for my next book to be more contemporary and unrelated. Thanks for your input
Unless I have missed it somewhere I cannot find the answer to my question .If you are an independent author how long should you wait to release each book.I am getting the first part of my trilogy edited now. I am shooting for November for the first one.
... Possibly. It depends mostly on how the overall story of the series is structured. If your story is building up to an Avengers style climax, you might be working more in the realm of "serialized" books, with each book contributing a piece of the plot that all comes together for the finale. But if each book is not contributing to a grand overarching plot, and your characters simply cross paths for an installment, you might be more in the "interlinked standalones" territory. My rule of thumb would be: Does the entire series have an arc that progresses from book to book, and comes to a conclusion in the last installment? Then it's a serial. Are the stories connected, but not dependent on each other to achieve a series-spanning goal? Can you conceivably keep writing books forever without getting to the "end" of the whole story? Then they're linked standalones.
My situation is that I've already written a 230,000 word doorstop, I mean, novel, and decided that it might be best to split it into three books. So I'm guessing that this is a serialized series. I'm looking for good places to stop and start the books. I'm hoping changing this to a series won't increase my first-time writing, editing, publishing, marketing, n item are. Any tips will be appreciated.
*thinks about all 16 pretty little liars books* however she did set it up to where you could read the first 4 and you would have got a full mystery out of it same with books 5-8 unlike books 9-16 where it takes 8 books to get though the last mystery.
I’ve seen this girl more than I’ve seen my family
Brooo my little sister gets annoyed at her voice I've watched her so much over the years 😆
Same here ❤️❤️❤️🦋🥰🥺
The new writers cannot escape from watching your videos for this simple reason " your videos are very informative and extremely helpful" Af ❤
I'm a kind of new writer but I'm still under the null level necessary!
I desperately needed this video, thank you
Happy it helped!
@@Reedsy I can't I need..j... I can't figure it outH HELP!
I'm not even a writer but I do love watching these 😜 and it helps my reading skills.
I did discovery writing for my series. I drafted over 20 books. I’m actually at about 23 done, another one started, and 3 more planned. That’s 27 total. I’m hoping to finish and publish all of them. But, not all of them are about the same characters and have different universes. So they’re all different.
If they are in different universes, how are they the same series? Because it's the same characters in different universes? The captain of the starship in one book, is leading a team of mages and swordsmen to confront the dark overlord of another book?
I want to give my characters different origin stories in different books.
@Chloe Zarate But he said they're in different universes. When people say that about books, it means more than "different places". Like 'Twilight' is in a different universe from 'The Host' so that's why the vampires don't fight off the aliens.
Wow way to go Ben! You must actually be a professional writer? I'm still working on my first book as a business owner and father of 2. What I wouldn't do for 8 days in the week ;)
Good writing!
@@Mecharnie_Dobbs I imagine it’s something like the Goosebumps series, the books rarely if ever follow the same characters more than once but the theme follows throughout the entire series
I tried discovery writing and I never finished ANY book for four years. Tried outlining and I did finished two but they were both garbage, they were both so inconsistent because I delved into writing without getting to know my characters or my world, they were so messy. I'll be making another novel but with the stuff I learned from writing the other two, hopefully it will be worth editing. God... I wish I'm you 😢
When I wrote my first fantasy novel, I planned it to be a 4 book series. Here I am still editing my first book, but I've realized I don't want to publish anything until the whole series is written... Maybe this will be different when I'm a more experienced writer, but I keep discovering new things about my world, new ways to convey my themes, new opportunities for character growth etc. Right now, my books...
1) Introduce the characters and run them through trials where they discover the world is not what they thought it was. Much mystery.
2) Explore the greater world and MCs discover a deeper level of magic. Ends with defeating the main antagonist of book I.
3) The Ancestors/entrenched power that created the twisted world they live in come back, and the original antagonist dies defending the MCs.
4) One of the ancient powers (that has been present throughout the entire series) must be battled, requiring a full evolution of the MCs.
I'll let you know how it's going in 7 years ;)
This was an ad on my recommendation page 😦
Im writing a sci-fi fantasy series. I'm on book number 3 so far. I kept some details in the first one not so much explained so I could have room in the other books to expand. I definitely made the story relatable and put them into some situations but I'm not sure yet how many books I can get out of the series. Great video!
Thank you! I have been trying to develop my story book series for so long but this definitely helped me. I appreciate it!
Started a trilogy about a dozen years ago but spent so much time working on the screenplays I never finished them. Now I'm going back at it and it's a lot of fun. Surprising how much I love it and of course, hate the crappy writing from all those years ago.
I love the way you craft and present your videos. Thank's again.
I'm 14, and I just began my 3rd book in about a year. Sure, my writing is pretty good for my age, but I don't think I'm writing my series good enough.
Read twilight and rejoice my friend...No but seriously, pple wrongly assume that the most popular series are the most well written but it's not the case, there are many books that are technically superior to the harry potter series for example but not nearly as successful, it's just a matter of connecting with your audience...And a bit of luck, of course not making it unreadable helps but again many pple complain about twilight/50 shades and these series sold more than a couple of books...much more, so good luck!
You can think of it this way - there’s no need for your writing to be “good”, especially because it very impressive for someone so young to be writing so much, let alone writing fantastically. You’re doing amazing!
I'm 14 too and I'm planning my book but I think if you think it fits then you don't have to change it but you could always edit it and learn how to write better.It's part of the experience but just don't lose motivation!
I'm trying to write a book series too, finished the first chapter of the first book last month, and am planning on starting the second chapter soon. So far the feedback is that it's really good and my friends are already falling in love with the main character. I'm 15
it's just school is messing up my writing plus i have nobody to talk to it about so I'm close to giving up
Thanks for this
Thanks, this was super helpful!! 😊
Love your video. I recently wrote stand-alone books and this will be my first series. I see it forming, but I was not sure how to go into it. Your video clarified much for me. Thank you very much.
Excellent as always! For anyone looking for mentor texts for a good Serialized series, check out Pendragon by D.J. MacHale (series of 10 books!) it is a really good example of good back and forth wins/losses and changing the status quo to keep things interesting. A good example of Interlinked Standalones is the Redwall series by Brian Jacques. 22 books! All the books take place in the same fantasy world and each book follows basically the same structure (good guy vs bad guy, then have a feast). These aren't recent series, but I believe still excellent examples when it comes to series structure. :)
That book series defined my adolescence more than Harry Potter or LOTR ever did.
I always have different prompts flying through my head, thanks for this video, it's definitely gonna help me on getting my webcomic started!
Great video and straight to the point thanks!
I'm discovery-writing a serial fiction which I expect to be about ten books, published as each was finished, though the first four all split and grew from the original MS. I've enjoyed how book 5 has developed, and have a rough idea of what might happen, but I won't know how it all ends until I get there.
I do lean heavily though on Unconscious Thought Theory for my creative process.
I've really been digging your style lately! Keep it up ;)
Thank you. As always, a big hug.
I really needed this video Thank you
Thanks for this, hair looks good!
Excellent info.
Great video, subbed!
It never occurred to me to write a series Bible… I usually write tidbits and reminders in comments as I go, since they’re easily reference-able.
This was a really helpful, concise video. Thank you very much
Thank you so much. I am trying to write my own book series, but I couldn't tell how to call it an episodic series.
Helpful thank you, planning a fantasy trilogy, looking at a cliffhanger/stalemate at end of book one
As a 13 year old who loves writing fantasy stories, I agree. Though, I don't plan to make a book series. I plan on making a CGI animated series and holy hell, I have a long way to go..
I have a writing craft notebook that I put the good advice in. When I watch other people's videos, I sum up the video in a separate notebook before transferring it. When I am taking notes from Shaelin, I just write em right in :P
OMG thank you for this vid😁😁😁😁😁
I love your videos. Recently my computer audio stopped working and I've been watching videos with the Closed Captioning on. I thought I could do the same with yours because I really wanted to hear what you had to say. But after a few minutes I had to stop. I was laughing so hard at the ridiculous auto-generated words that I could hardly breathe. I guess this is incentive for me to fix my computer now. :D
And today I learned I am a discovery writer lol
Thank you
great information! Thanks for producing it. Is there any way that I could get a copy of your last powerpoint screen please? It beautifully captures all of the information you've presented!
Learn all this by reading. Keep reading people.
Great video! For a series bible I recommend using World Anvil
Why?
I have a lot of ideas that I don't quite want to put in the current book because I feel like it would be out of the blue and it could set the setting and tone for the next book
I have several series bibles in my notebooks
Mine is the third type but they will all wrap up together, so I think it’s also a little of the second one...
I'm 14 years old and I'm going to start writing a story, but I was considering writing it as a series cause I feel like it has too many details that wouldn't be enough in one, I'm considering of writing it on two-three books because there are going to be new characters and details presented after the first.
2:38 ill save for later!
Planning a serialized romance series, this was very helpful! Everything I read/watched up till now has insisted tying all loose ends and leaving the reader content at the end of each book. How to move the story from one book to the next given that rule has had me worried. And now everything just clicked :)
What about short stories Do you have advice for that? 🤔
At first I thought this might be full of crap. But as I listened further I realized you were doing an excellent analytical analysis of how series are developed. Although I am fairly certain you haven't created a series, I know you have written and thought about writing to an extent where you recognize where the problems may lie. I, too, have thought extensively about my own series and have come to the same conclusions you present here. Well done.
Thanks 👌
For my series I'm thinking it's gonna be about 2 books but that might become 3 😂
Ye I’m still on my first book and I already know my antagonist for book 2 and 3 😅😂
What if you are very wordy? I know a lot people would hate that, but some poeple don't mind at all, I also not plan my story out because I tried to plan out a series or a book then dump it. Tips?
I am planning to write my stories as serial novellas. Some will be episodic too.
I like the thought of such format. Will you follow 1 or more characters? And for episodic format, would it be best in your opinion to follow in limited or omniscient POV?
Great video
She is wisening me up
I’m not finished, but my story ends with a character that may or may not be dead. The main characters leave to go out on more adventures. That was my way of leaving a little something in case I continue. If I don’t, then I hope the reader is satisfied with the current conclusion. Is this a decent way to do it or should I try something else?
Sounds like a clever way to do it. That could be a satisfying ending even if there is a lot of wonder around what they'll do next.
Imo though, just write it how you want it. Worrying too much about if it will get published will mess with your story. If you earn your living publishing books, then I get it, but otherwise, just decide what story you want to tell. Good writing!
@@PhoenixCrown In the end I decided to show the character still alive as I felt it was needed to drive the protagonist to his inevitable conclusion. When I finish this I plan for my next book to be more contemporary and unrelated. Thanks for your input
Ooh how many scfi series that you recommend are good?
Unless I have missed it somewhere I cannot find the answer to my question .If you are an independent author how long should you wait to release each book.I am getting the first part of my trilogy edited now. I am shooting for November for the first one.
If interlinked stand-alone is so different, you should do a vid about that. Got me curious.
It's very similar to just writing a standalone novel! You just tie them together through one aspect (such as setting them all in the same place).
So then would it still be considered an interlinked stand-alone if all my characters meet up avengers-style close to the ending?
... Possibly. It depends mostly on how the overall story of the series is structured. If your story is building up to an Avengers style climax, you might be working more in the realm of "serialized" books, with each book contributing a piece of the plot that all comes together for the finale. But if each book is not contributing to a grand overarching plot, and your characters simply cross paths for an installment, you might be more in the "interlinked standalones" territory.
My rule of thumb would be: Does the entire series have an arc that progresses from book to book, and comes to a conclusion in the last installment? Then it's a serial. Are the stories connected, but not dependent on each other to achieve a series-spanning goal? Can you conceivably keep writing books forever without getting to the "end" of the whole story? Then they're linked standalones.
My situation is that I've already written a 230,000 word doorstop, I mean, novel, and decided that it might be best to split it into three books. So I'm guessing that this is a serialized series. I'm looking for good places to stop and start the books. I'm hoping changing this to a series won't increase my first-time writing, editing, publishing, marketing, n item are. Any tips will be appreciated.
*thinks about all 16 pretty little liars books* however she did set it up to where you could read the first 4 and you would have got a full mystery out of it same with books 5-8 unlike books 9-16 where it takes 8 books to get though the last mystery.
I'm not even gonna write a book lol but this seemed interesting so I clicked
There's series, and than there's Trilogies.
Nice voice
I click on these because i want to stop writing but i also think she's mad cute
Discuss with the girls, whatever you want done.