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I’m currently writing Learning How to be a Hero, which is the final book in the Learning How to be a Hero trilogy. When I decided to start writing and publishing fiction, I made a promise to myself. I promised that I would never write a never ending series of books. I made that promise because I’ve been that reader who reads a never ending series and is always waiting for the next book and wondering when the series will end. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good series of books with amazing characters and strong plots, but at some point I want closure. And I figure you, as my readers, probably want that too.
But I have a couple other reasons I’ll never writing a never ending series of books.
The first reason is that you can tell when an author gets tired of writing about the same characters and the same plot. At that point, each book that comes out isn’t a book in touch with the characters or the stories. Instead its a book that’s all about cashing in on the love of the fan and while I’ll admit I’m writing my books in part to make a living, I never want that to be the main reason I write.
When an author is no longer engaged in writing the series, something essential goes missing. For example, there was a series of books I read that I enjoyed up until about the 12th book. After that the quality of the writing and the characters were stale. It felt like the author was going through the paces, instead of actually enjoying the story he was writing. It was no surprise to me that when he finally ended the series he took a few years off from writing. He’s now writing a new trilogy and the quality of writing and the characters is much better because he wants to write the story! And he’s wisely limited himself to a trilogy, which I hope he’ll stick to.
I would never want to put readers through that experience. It’s why I’ll always end my series while I’m enjoying the writing and characters, so that I can give them and my readers the sendoff that the trilogy deserves. In the case of the Learning How to be a Hero trilogy, that means wrapping up at the end of the trilogy. I will likely write some more superhero/supervillain fiction in the future, but knowing when to end a series means knowing when to let go of the story, instead of holding onto it for dear life.
The second reason I’ll never write a never ending series is that I do have other stories I want to write and share. If I’m only ever working on the one series I’ll never get to those stories. I’ll admit I have a longer series or two in me, but I don’t want a series to get to the point where it encompasses everything I write, leaving no room for other stories. Of course, I can take a break and write other stories, but I also like the idea of giving the reader a promise: This story will end and there will be closure.
So those are my reasons and my promise to you that I will never write a never ending story. I have so many stories to share with you, but I have endings for all of them and I want to write them while I still enjoy the story!
