(Music) LOGO.
Hellooo, everybody! Today is my birthday, bitches! I'm 33 years old! I'm
lovin’ life! I'm here for it! I'm ready to celebrate! In honor of this special day,
I am launching a HUGE giveaway, because that's how birthdays go! The birthday person is
supposed to give gifts to other people. Wait a second... One lucky winner is walking away with
a prize worth $799 from 99designs. 99designs is the world's largest creative platform for
connecting writers with other graphic designers, including book cover designers! See where this
is going? 99designs lets writers host contests that allows various designers to submit book
cover concepts. The writers and the designers get to go back and forth until the writer chooses the
person they want to work with. If you want to learn more about 99designs and their process,
I have ‘em linked below! I also have their newsletter linked below. Definitely check it
out! For this giveaway, one lucky winner is going to walk away with $799 worth of credits toward
the 99designs platform! That is the equivalent of a Gold Level book design contest! Basically,
you're getting yourself a book cover. It's as simple as that! If you want to learn how to enter,
stick around until the end of this video. And just a heads up, I am NOT sponsored
by 99designs. They are not paying me to host this giveaway. I just like giveaways. On to
the meat and potatoes! Today we are discussing another one of your highly requested topics,
and that is book series! You guys have so many questions about series, how to plan ‘em, how to
write ‘em. But today we're talking about whether or not you SHOULD write one. We’ll cover the other
stuff another time. This video in particular is dedicated to one of my patrons over on Patreon,
Lorena! A lot of writers aren't sure if their story requires a series. It can be difficult
to tell at times. And similarly, Lorena wants to know if her premise is strong enough to support
an entire series of books. Thus, I am breaking down how to tell whether or not you should write
a series starting with the top 5 reasons why you should DEFINITELY write a series. Number One (1):
The plot is multi-leveled. Every plot centers around a goal, and in order to achieve that goal,
you need an inciting incident, rising action, climax, and resolution. However, sometimes goals
are so massive you need several plots consisting of several mini goals in order to reach the finish
line. In situations like this, you are perfectly set up to write a series. Say, for example, you're
writing a war. War is complicated and typically not won through a single battle. Because of this,
it's likely that winning a fictional war would take a series, and it would probably include
various goals and plots. Maybe the plot of book one revolves around rescuing the former king. This
story alone could easily have its own inciting incident, rising action, climax, and resolution.
But the overall goal of winning the war has still not been achieved. Thus, we move on to book two,
where the king reunites his army. Each book revolves around a smaller goal until the last
book, which will end in winning the war. Number Two (2): Your work is episodic. Sometimes series
don't follow one overarching goal. Sometimes each book within the series has its own story
to tell. These are called episodic series, where each book is its own episode or story. Usually,
episodic series revolve around a main character whose job or life path is very specific. For
example, a detective series where each book is a brand new case for the detective to solve,
or a supernatural series where each book is a brand new supernatural creature for the hunter
to kill. Plots that revolve around the whole whodunit angle or catching a bad guy tend to lend
themselves to the episodic series format. Number Three (3): You've got a large cast. Usually,
the larger the cast, the more stories you're telling. And the more stories you're telling, the
longer it's gonna take to tell them. It's a lot of work to keep up with 20 different characters,
and the odds are slim that they're all going to achieve their individual goals in the same
novel. Additionally, lots of series flip flop between points of view. Maybe one book is told
from the werewolf’s perspective. Maybe another is told from the Mothman's point of view. Look at
your cast and be honest with yourself regarding whether or not their stories can be resolved in
one book. Number Four (4): A bazillion subplots. On a similar note, the more subplots you write,
the longer it's going to take to tell your story. That's not to say you should write a series where
the last four books revolve exclusively around subplots. But at the end of the day,
subplots do take up a chunk of your story, which means your character’s main goal - also known as
the main plot of the story - is probably not going to get resolved in a single book. Because of this,
it may take multiple books to resolve both your main plot as well as your subplots. Now,
keep in mind if your main plot is too simple to support your subplots, you might want to go back
to the drawing board. Sounds like you put the emphasis of the story in the wrong place. And
Number Five (5): You left the readers hanging. Sometimes you write a book with every intention
of it being a standalone, but there's one little thread left hanging. Yank on that thread,
and everything comes crashing down. You can leave the thread hanging, and let people speculate. Or,
if the book was well-received and you're still excited about the story, you can yank on it.
Fuck shit up! I support you! The situation allows you with wiggle room to continue with the series,
or end things. It's totally up to you! You could also choose to end things now, and maybe revisit
at a later date. Basically, if you're not sure if you want to end a series, leave a thread hanging.
Give yourself the option. Now that we've covered the five reasons to consider writing a series,
it's time to talk about the five reasons you should NOT write a series. These points are
often cited as reasons that writers wrote series when they shouldn't have. If you're listing these
as points for writing your series, maybe don't. Number One (1): Your book is long. This is the
number one reason that writers give to me when they're considering turning their standalone into
a series. “My book is a hundred thousand words. Maybe I should split it in half!” This is a dumb
idea! As we already covered, the standard plot consists of an inciting incident, a rising action,
a climax, and a resolution. If you split that into two separate books, what you have is half a plot
per book. No one wants to read that shit. By the end of book one, people are gonna feel ripped off
because you didn't deliver on your promise. And yes, books within a series tend to leave certain
things a mystery, but there's a difference between leaving a few stones unturned versus missing 50%
of the plot. Number Two (2): This ain't the right genre. The more complex a plot is,
the more it lends itself to a series, but not all genres thrive on complexity. Sci-fi, fantasy,
and paranormal can be complex because there's futuristic technology and magical creatures.
There's battle and drama! But if you're looking at a contemporary novel all about a
son's relationship with his father, or a ghost story all about a haunted house, you probably
don't need multiple plot lines in order to get your point across. Of course, there are always
exceptions to the rule. For example, contemporary romance is not really a genre that fits into the
series mold. However, some contemporary romance authors create episodic series where each book
within the series follows a different couple. But it's still smart to learn the norms of your genre
and understand where your story fits within the spectrum. Number Three (3): The first book was
a bust. Sometimes writers release the first book of their series and it tanks. If this is the case,
it's probably a good idea to ask yourself whether or not the series is worth continuing. Because if
no one read the first book, chances are no one's gonna read the second. It's possible you'll pull
the greatest marketing scheme ever and make the second book a massive hit, but nine times out
of ten, the success of a series largely depends on the success of the first book. If you're extremely
passionate about a series and creating it solely for the joy of writing, have at it! Otherwise, it
might be time to consider plan B. Number Four (4): Readers asked for it. “But Jenna, I'm writing a
series because my readers want it!” Okay, but do YOU want it? Would it make sense for your story?
Would it work for the world you've created at all? If your answer is no to any of these questions,
then it doesn't matter what your readers asked for. You know the story better than anyone, and
if a sequel wouldn't work, it wouldn't work. Plus, writing a story you have absolutely no desire to
write fucking sucks. Don't do it! It's fantastic if readers love your book, but don't let that
pressure you into creating unnecessary garbage. If they loved your first book, they'll likely love
your second, even if it's not a sequel. And Number Five (5): The story is over. This goes without
saying, right? Wrong! Creators love to beat a dead horse. We see this all the time with TV shows,
movies, and of course, book series. This is common if a series is making a writer tons of money and
they want to cash in for all it's worth, or if a writer is too attached to their characters
and they can't see that there is no more story left to tell. Let it go! Sometimes newer writers
will write a book of their character’s happily ever after. There's absolutely no plot, it's
just their characters being happy...ever after. I'm all for self-indulgence, but you gotta give
people a story. That's literally the entire point of a book. So that's all I got for you today!
A huge thank you to Lorena for requesting this topic! If you'd like the chance to have a video
dedicated to you, or if you want access to TONS of other awards, check me out on Patreon! We've got
an exclusive writing group, we have a monthly live stream, you get access to videos early,
we've got signed merch! The link is listed below! And don't forget to enter my birthday giveaway!
One lucky winner is going to receive $799 worth of credits at 99designs to use toward their very
own book cover! All you have to do to enter this giveaway is subscribe to my channel and comment
on this video with a gift emoji! If you don't have access to emojis, that's no problem - you can just
type in the words ‘BIRTHDAY GIFT’ somewhere in your comment, and you will be entered! Subscribe,
comment with a gift, and boom! You're entered! It's that easy! And while you're there,
you might as well ring that bell so you can be alerted as SOON as I upload new content!
The Savior's Champion is available in eBook, paperback, hardback, signed hardback, as well
as audiobook! If you are new to audiobooks, you can listen to TSC on Audible for free! I have
all the information listed below! And be sure to follow me on social media! I'm on Instagram,
Tumblr, Facebook - and of course, you can Tweet me @JennaMoreci! Bye! (Older Male Voice) This
is Wembleton. If you haven't subscribed to Jenna's channel, then by all means,
go for it! The people will love you for it! Go on! Press the button, ding that bell! See you soon!