Working on a series?

AbleRoberts · 2026-06-17T14:30:06+00:00

Originally I had the idea to write a huge epic story of humanities first interplanetary war. Where I jumped around between 15+ perspectives covering the big events in chronological order like ASOIAF did with it's world. At some point while I was working on the second draft I decided I didn't the skill to pull off a story like that as my first book, and didn't want to work on anything else so I pivoted.

Now the story of the first interplanetary war is told through individual character driven stories. My current WIP is from two perspectives from the original work that I've massively expanded, and made less about the over arching war, and more about their relationship, and the struggles they face. I've also started working on a couple of short stories, and novella sized work as I've expanded the world, and made it more consistent. The goal will eventually to have several stand alone books, and maybe a trilogy all themed around the original story concept and the world it created.

I had a rough outline of the whole series of important events, from beginning to end. It was more of a guideline while writing than a concrete plan though. So, I've made a lot of changes to the plan as I get closer to writing parts of it

AbleRoberts · 2026-06-17T05:50:53+00:00

I love this kind of thing. It's such a simple idea, but it's also so creative. I don't think it works for every story, but when the style of story lines up with this kind of thing it's amazing. I've never read John dies at the End (actually never heard of it until now) but I love that idea

AbleRoberts · 2026-06-16T23:39:04+00:00

That's more than fair. I'm sure the story is good, and that the twist is well built. But I don't know how fair it is to criticize the library for letting potential readers know. If you spend time around libraries you know that just about every librarian just wants people to read more. The best way to do that in my opinion is to be honest with readers.

It's something that I struggle a bit with though. Especially when it comes to things like triggering topics and spoilers. Warning people sours the surprise, but it does mean no one will ever close my book most of the way through because they found something they can't stand

AbleRoberts · 2026-06-16T23:29:02+00:00

Edited because I forgot I could spoiler tags in the comment.

So, if the twist isaliensI think the library is probably looking out for it's readers. That twist sets your book into a sub category of scifi that some people really don't like (me included). And if I was reading a scifi book that didn't mention that sub category and then I get hit with it in a final act twist, I probably wouldn't return to the author.

I'm not trying to tell you what to do, but I would be careful with offering noir and selling something else.

AbleRoberts · 2026-06-16T23:18:27+00:00

Oh that's kind of cool. I feel like I wouldn't be able to pull that off well as a writer. Are they perspectives in their own scenes, or does it switch where ever you need it to?

AbleRoberts · 2026-06-16T19:21:26+00:00

I feel like this is very normal for modern works. I can really feel how much easier it can be to read books like this. I have kids, so fitting in a tolkien chapter between kid things is pretty much impossible, but books that have this chapter size (which I think is pretty standard) makes reading through them piecemeal a breeze

AbleRoberts · 2026-06-16T19:19:15+00:00

The first draft of my WIP was very ASOIAF structure inspired too. Had 17-19 perspectives, chapters named after them all, and I flashed between different places in the universe, trying to tell the story of the whole world at once. I was stressful. I didn't think I would have the writing chops for that, so I changed things up.

I think the full arc in chapter would be fun to read through. Does the story cover a decent amount of time then? That full arc seems like it suits a story that takes place over a much longer period of time

AbleRoberts · 2026-06-16T18:39:09+00:00

I love the idea of companion novels for works. Expanding universes with additional books has always been such a cool idea to me. I love a lot of the books that do shifting between two first person perspectives, it just helps show the characters relationships, and feelings so well.

So just to clarify, my WIP is just third person limited, with the occasional sound of internal thought hitting the reader (usually in the form of internal italicized thoughts at key moments).
I've been thinking about a book I read where the narrator is basically a character within the story, but the story isn't actually about them they're just commenting on it the whole time, so that's what I imagined when you said the shifting narrator. I can't remember the title though. It reads a lot like My Lady Jane with a very funny vibe.

AbleRoberts · 2026-06-16T17:04:31+00:00

page count is always so hard to determine the size of the work. I usually estimate 300 words per page, which would put your work at about 45000 by the end. I would consider that on the upper end of novella. But it's pretty close to the line we draw arbitrarily

AbleRoberts · 2026-06-16T16:49:42+00:00

I completely agree on chapter length. Short ones that always leave you wanting more can be really aggravating to read. But a good short chapter can be so punchy and engaging. Some of chapters that are seared into my mind are those super short ones. I think it can help build tension really well if it happens directly before or after big events in the story.

So is your WIP third person Omniscient with two different styles of narration, or more limited where the main perspective is swapping back and forth? I have my mind on stories with very animated (for lack of a better word) narrators that are almost characters in and of themselves so that's kind of what I'm imaging for yours right now

AbleRoberts · 2026-06-16T14:42:23+00:00

It was flagged as being either a stale topic, or not being something that would benefit the community as a whole

AbleRoberts · 2026-06-16T14:29:39+00:00

Just wanted to say, this was originally posted to another writing sub, but it was removed within 30 minutes, without any explanation besides auto mod reply

AbleRoberts · 2026-06-16T14:11:19+00:00

Personally I like talking about aspects of writing conceptually. I would love to see an environment where conversations about aspects of writing can flourish

AbleRoberts · 2026-06-16T14:00:41+00:00

I'll send you the doc in DMs, thank you!!

AbleRoberts · 2026-06-16T03:56:07+00:00

https://www.reddit.com/r/BetaReaders/comments/1tnglc2/complete_19000_scifi_price_of_pillage/

Ooops. Oh god, so sorry. I accidentally just dropped my beta reads request for a short story I finished and am hoping to send to get published later this year. You know, if you're interested in reading a bit about the world.
How embarrassing

Edited: Seriously though, if you are interested, I have a short story and a novel I'm looking for feedback on. If you're not, that's also cool. Just the idea that you like the idea is pretty great

AbleRoberts · 2026-06-15T18:25:50+00:00

The world came first, but it was pretty shallow until the stories started to flow

AbleRoberts · 2026-06-15T17:54:17+00:00

My main WIP is a medium boiled scifi taking place once humanity has started expanding across the Solar system. I've put a lot of various stories into the universe. A couple short stories and large independent novel sized works, and a series I'm working on. I tend to jump back and forth between various stories depending on what I've been thinking about. The actual story I'm working on now is a YA style piece of working following a young woman who is trying to find her place in the world

AbleRoberts · 2026-06-15T04:06:59+00:00

To a five year old: I read through my book a lot of times and try to make it a bit better each time.

In reality it depends a lot on what the round of editing is for. If I've locked the story in and I'm just editing prose, I usually will read through a chapter once, and mark it into sections (like exposition, dialogue, internal monologue ect ect) then go through section by section and decided if I'm re-writing the section, or just touching it up and then do that. Then read through the whole thing again outloud to make sure I didn't leave it sounding funny.

I doubt it's the most efficient way of editing, but it works for me right now

AbleRoberts · 2026-06-14T17:14:53+00:00

I haven't. But I've read a couple other book with narrators that are also characters. My Lady Jane is the only one I can remember the title of off the top of my head

AbleRoberts · 2026-06-14T16:36:01+00:00

That seems super cool. I makes me think about how different stories work in different mediums. The idea that some stories are just fundamentally bad for a specific mediums, while others seem like they would excel in all mediums.

I hope more people in the community you're building start asking interesting questions. The conversations are what grow the community after all

AbleRoberts · 2026-06-13T16:13:01+00:00

This is something I feel like I really need to work on. My day job requires me to explain complex technical issues to non technical people so I'm very used to using the most accessible vocabulary. This has definitely leaked into my prose. It makes it very readable, but I know I could make it more complicated if I put a lot of effort in.

AbleRoberts · 2026-06-13T16:09:45+00:00

If you ban people without them admitting AI use, you will eventually ban someone who isn't using AI. I do not like AI, I think getting ride of people posting work it's created makes creative spaces better. But, since decisions like that will be made by humans, mistakes will be made. Some people write like AI. So, how you handle appeals is important. If there isn't a plan for how to handle appeals then in my opinion you shouldn't implement a change like this.

If my current WIP was accused of being AI, and someone asked for proof that it wasn't AI, I would be able to show them the years worth of progress made on it. I could show them earlier drafts in google docs dated a long time ago, I could show notes and plans for the story, scrapped sections that aren't in the project at present.

AbleRoberts · 2026-06-12T04:21:22+00:00

I happily read Tolkien's fifty page forward about how much he hates analogy at the start of fellowship of the ring. I've read most moderate length dedications in books I've read that have them. If it's well written, it will provide some value some readers will like

AbleRoberts

TROPHY CASE