From a thing I scribbled down in a hurry...

[megwrites]

I think there are a lot more "series" in fiction, especially in genre fiction like mystery, sci-fi/fantasy, etc - and my perception is that it's actually increasing over time. I could be wrong, and someone could come to me with statistics that show that the amount of series is the same or even less than it used to be 20 or 30 years ago.

I also think that there are more trilogies than there used to be (this could be a perception).

The place I notice it most, though, is in YA and children's books. Even in my own childhood, I remember how there was a seemingly never ending selection of Goosebumps and Babysitter's Club (I loved both equally, thanks) and other things. It seemed like all books inherently bred more books in the same universe.

I wonder if the same was true for my mother and my grandmother.

And if indeed there is an increase in series, I wonder if this is due to television, if we're shaping our fiction to fit minds that have been molded since early, early childhood by television formats. We think of the world in series, in terms of ongoing adventures because that's how we're being shaped.

But that made me think about old serialized formats of novels, especially those that got printed in newspapers in the 19th century.

I always wonder if that would work again.

Comments

[madwriter.livejournal.com]

>>I wonder if the same was true for my mother and my grandmother.<<

A few older recurring series come to mind: Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys, Red Randall, and Lassie. Not to mention series based on radio and early TV shows, like the Lone Ranger.

[ccfinlay.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I think we just tend to forget most series -- the Bobsey Twins and Trixie Belden jump to mind along with your list instantly -- but I think they've always been present and popular, ever since the pulp age of fiction.

[sarah-prineas.livejournal.com]

Well, Stephen King tried it, didn't he? And didn't it not do very well? (can't remember).

At the library today with my seven-year-old, he wouldn't even consider a book unless it was part of a series. He falls in love with characters and wants to read about them for a long time (he's on book 14 of this one series about owls...).

[fiction-theory.livejournal.com]

At the library today with my seven-year-old, he wouldn't even consider a book unless it was part of a series. He falls in love with characters and wants to read about them for a long time (he's on book 14 of this one series about owls..

Wow. That's sorta awesome.

But Book 14? Holy granola, batman. I guess I'm just trying to think of any project I've ever worked on and whether I'd be able to come up with 14 books worth (even at the usual length of children's books, although those seem to be getting longer, too).

[sarah-prineas.livejournal.com]

Well, it's owls, but it's epic, so plenty of room for world expansion, prequels, development of peripheral characters, that kind of thing.

The books are short, probably under 30K.

It's the Guardians of Ga'Hoole series by Kathryn Lasky.