Topic of the Week - It's just a jump to the left

[jer_bear711]

Springing off a question from this past June about how much time passes in our novels, and just having started Book 2 in a series, I came up with a Topic of the Week question on my very own:

How much time passes between novels in your series?  Is there a typical span, or does it vary widely?  Do you write cliffhangers, where the next book picks up

Comments

[shanna_s]

I think it all depends on the story. As a reader, I don't like feeling like I've missed the good stuff that happened between books, but then I also don't want to wade through a lot of "normal" life.

In my writing, I've varied between starting the next book the next day and taking a four-month break. The first three books fell fairly close together because that's how events worked, but the fourth book had more of a break because I felt like these poor people needed a break and some time to rest, and I needed a sense of distance from the previous events to really make the plot and emotions of that book work.

[ext_93350]

Well, I actually don't like cliffhangers, but if the story is good, then I'll overlook it. As for the space between books, I agree with Shanna, it depends on the story and where the author plans for the series to go. There are a lot of variables to consider. :-D

~Tyhitia

[nazarea]

oohh. Good question!! As for what I enjoy reading--I like a book that ends. I hate when I'm reading along and the author stops mid-story. A great cliffhanger is wonderful but finish the damn story. (I think the most recent book to irritate me was Catching Fire--loved the book, hated the ending.) I also love next-gen stories. One of my all time favorite series features a new generation each book and I adore it. I like when time passes between books. Six months to a year to ten, I'm all good.

So how I do it (for the most part). My YA UF series...the first book is about one set of characters and the second is about another--three months between the two. But the third book, which goes back to the original character is just over six months.
For my fantasy trilogy, the series spans about four years, from the prequel short to the end of book three.

Thanks for the great question!! :)

[denisetwin]

Agree that it depends on the story. I do hate Cliffhangers though. I don't mind story arcs that take several books to resolve, but I want the main story resolved in one book and no life or death questions unresolved on the last page! Stopped reading David Eddings because he was way too fond of that... I also like some space between the books if the story allows it, sometimes it seems the poor hero/heroine has one bad thing after another kicking them down, book after book, unrelentingly, until you wonder why the poor soul doesn't just suicide from the weight of it all! Some time between books helps with that. I like nextgen books in fantasy, but I like better those that stay in the same world but move to a different hero/heroine. I'll forgive much though for a good story!

[rj_anderson]

My sequel takes place fourteen years after the first book in my series, so I really went for broke. But I always knew that it had to be a next-generation novel for the sake of realism -- there literally was nobody else who could carry this particular story except one character who was just a baby in the first book.

In my case the consideration was driven by the need to have a teenaged protagonist in a YA novel -- if I'd been writing adult fantasy, it might have been a much more difficult decision to make.

As for what I enjoy reading, if I really love a particular set of characters, I want to know what happens to them next, whether that's the next day or the next year or ten years down the road. I do like to see characters grow up and get married and have kids if that's part of their story, but I still want to see them involved in a dynamic way, even if it's just a small role. It's depressing to see a character you loved grow up and get boring -- I'd rather not meet them again at all than go through that.

[swan_tower]

so I really went for broke

See my response below -- my shortest gap is 49 years. :-)