The Importance of Story Length and Series Structure

After reading the Harley Merlin series, I noticed that I had the same feeling that a lot of other people had as well. The series really didn’t have to be as long as it was. It was something I started to think about for my own book series after some thought. My book series is also currently planned to be eight books long and I’m close to publishing the third book and going to start writing book four. But something I started to wonder for my own series was if books five and six were truly necessary. Would the stories I have planned for books five and six add to the overall story for The Legend of Nariko as a series?

Something I realized when reflecting back on the Harley Merlin series was that, while the author might have written all the books with the intention of them having importance to the overall story, it doesn’t quite translate well to the reader. It’s hard not to view a large chunk of the middle of the series as more or less filler rather than adding to the stakes of the series. It also certainly doesn’t help that the last two books easily could have been one book. That’s what it feels like from the reader’s perspective but from a writer’s perspective, it’s hard not to feel like everything is important. But why the disconnect? Why does it feel as though the author’s intention might not translate well to how the readers react to the story?

A major part of it is that the longer a series goes on, the easier it is to have the overarching series goal not feel as urgent as it should be. This can happen in various ways, but the easiest way to ask yourself if the end of the book progresses the overall situation of the series in some meaningful way. But that needs to be something planned out in advance and, depending on the situation, it can be quite difficult to do so. An odyssey style adventure is typically one of the easier ways to do this, having the main character(s) travelling towards the end goal of the series. There’s always a feeling of constant momentum that the story is progressing in some way. Most of Rick Riordan’s books, from what I’ve read, tend to follow the odyssey style format that keeps constant progression and allows for additional stories that help build the world or develop the characters. That continuous feeling of progression keeps the story feeling meaningful in terms of plot progression and character development.

It’s not exclusive to just books but all forms of storytelling (the exception being video games but that’s due to gameplay reasons). Shows, movies, comics, anything with a developed story tends to still require that constant progression. It’s why most people tend to not like an over abundance of “filler” as it tends to ruin the pacing of the story. But using other mediums as a reference, we can look at a concept that could be applied to books in a series as well. One concept in particular that could help is the idea of having arcs within a long running series. It would help to break up the series in an easier to digest format and still retain the overall series feel. The Chronicles of the Avatar series is a great example as the duology for each incarnation of the Avatar could be considered their own arcs. Almost all book series do this with each book being it’s on story arc essentially, but for a longer running series it may help to have that arc encompass more books within the series. It also makes it a lot easier from the writing side of things as well. I’m formatting my own series with arcs in mind and currently debating if one arc is necessary for the overall story or if it may just be filler.

Writing a series is always risky as, depending on how it’s presented, the ultimate payoff is being pushed off until the very end of the series. The longer it goes on, the harder it is for the reader to feel like it’s worth it unless there’s a worthwhile payoff within each book and each story arc that keeps them invested. Considering these as milestones for readers to reach that move the story forward in terms of plot progression and character development will ultimately help the reader to stay invested in the overall story. I imagine that’s why most book series tend to be around three, four or sometimes five books long. It’s harder to keep a long running story engaging, but it can be done if there are moments of payoff interspersed inbetween.

– Raphael