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Today on Fable and the Verbivore, we’re continuing our conversation on different types of stories by talking about reading and writing standalone books.

In this episode, we’re digging into the specifics of standalone stories, the type of commitment they require to write and to read, and what authors we tend to see doing original and standalone concepts. We also unpack why it seems that books that are part of a duology, trilogy, or series appear to be more popular or successful and that standalone stories feel like they can have a higher barrier to entry.

Throughout this discussion, we talk about the pros and cons of standalone stories and the labor that it takes to create and connect with their unique and distinctive worlds. But, also, how we as readers sometimes want a story that doesn’t continue on and on — we want to only have to commit to just one book and not two or more. We also mention that often our favorite standalone books have smaller casts and more narrow scope to their story.

Towards the end of our conversation, we discuss how as writers there could be a big benefit to having both series and standalones, so that readers can have multiple entry points into your work. And we feel that ultimately the ending of a standalone should leave you with a feeling of satisfaction that the the loose ends have been resolved and saying “finally.”

We hope you enjoy this episode! We’ll continue this conversation next week talking about duologies.

Keep reading, writing, and putting your voice out there!

Into the woods,

Fable & The Verbivore

Notes:

We open by talking about the pros and cons between writing and reading a series vs. a standalone book. Here’s an article that breaks down the difference:

• The Creative Penn Article “What Are You Writing? (Standalone, Series or Serial) And How Long Should It Be? (Novel, Short Story, Novella)”

Here is our other conversation within this series:

• Episode 218: Writing and Reading Book Series

Books Mentioned:

• The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman

• Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman

• Stardust by Neil Gaiman

• American Gods by Neil Gaiman

• Interworld by Neil Gaiman

• Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett

• The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

• Coraline by Neil Gaiman

• Elevation by Stephen King

• The Beautiful Ones by Sylvia Moreno-Garcia

• Mexican Gothic by Sylvia Moreno-Garcia

• Certain Dark Things by Sylvia Moreno-Garcia

• Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid

• The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

• The Night Circus by Erin Mortgenstern

• Cruel Beauty by Rosamond Hodge

• Uprooted by Naomi Novik

• The Count of Monte Cristo by Akexandre Dumas

• The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien

Music from:https://filmmusic.io
‘Friendly day’ by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)
Licence: CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)