OK, so I have been asked about additions to my story and...

I have 2, maybe three sagas, plus some others. for you in my position, do you just run with one storyline or publish more than one as you go? my initil reaction is publish in the order i write, but i have a backlog of stuff written

Personally, I always have several things brewing at once, and work on whichever inspires me at the moment. Sometimes my Midlife Renewal series goes on hiatus for several months while I work on other things, but I always come back to it. Most of my series are not officially “concluded,” and sometimes they come up with ideas much later to extend things.

I thought I had nearly concluded Contagion after writing the first four chapters in 2020, but then added another after a nearly five-year hiatus, and intend to add one or two more more this year. I originally thought I had concluded Becoming A Man with Thanksgiving Stuffing, but after several years realized I had other stories that fit into that same canonical timeline, reassigned them to that series and am now writing more stories to fill in gaps in that timeline. And so on.

I write mostly 'one-shot' stories, albeit longer ones (I'll make use of the 10K limit if I think the story warrants it). I sometimes get comments asking for 'sequels' and 'next chapters,' but once the story is done, it's usually done for me, and I tend to move on to the next thing. If I do write longer pieces that can't be published in a single submission, requiring a follow-up, I prefer to write the entire story to completion and then publish the parts in quick succession so readers don't have to wait too long for the conclusion to arrive. I'm not George RR Martin.

One exception is my "Won't you be my neighbor" series, which has been written in fits and starts and has been neglected for almost 2 years - But I've been thinking about it recently and will probably get back to it soon, though I doubt I'll have anything ready to publish in the near future.

I sometimes do a combo; I might be really into a series and write 6, 8, 10 chapters/parts/stories in a row, then take a break from that series (as joe 71 said) and focus on a different series for a while. Then I'll come back to the first series a few months later and crank out 4 more chapters. (I have very few one-shot stories, but even those I envision as being tenuously related to my main series, giving the barest whisper of a hint that, say, Woman X in a modern-day one-shot is the niece of Woman Y in a series set in decades past.) One danger with hopping from series to series is that you might get interested in a new series you're writing and grow tired of an older series and lose motivation to finish it.

For myself, I currently have two longish series I want to finish soon; if I'm feeling a 1920's vibe, I'll work on that one, and if I'm feeling a 1980's vibe, I'll work on the other. It's nice to have two options for what I choose to work on, but I do need to wrap them up so they don't drag on with multi-month gaps IRL between chapters. [Just_A_Guy_You_Know slowly shakes his head]

But everyone works differently. I personally never have more than two or three stories in draft status or in my head at one time. People who say they have dozens of unfinished stories on their hard drive? That boggles my mind. 😵‍💫

I have all 10 chapters of my series completed and ready to be submitted. 5 is current in Que. I did slip s new story that was unrelated in between chapters. Have several others in the works.

Quote by Just_A_Guy_You_Know

. I'm not George RR Martin.

Ok i laughed. it's one reason i have never picked up his books. and he is every bit as good at world building as Tolkien.