Going on for too long

Do you sometimes think that there are book series that go on for too long? I do. I’ve been wanting to write a post about it for some time, and since I’ve realised that I’m a little behind schedule and need an article for my blog, I’ve decided this could be a good subject – and I’m short of ideas, and it’s 11 pm, and I’m writing this in bed, and I want to put the article on the blog tomorrow morning (which will be today for you, and no, I’m not going to reflect on this time distortion thing or I’ll get a headache – now I’m starting to write utter nonsense – I really need to be more focussed on what I was meaning to write... what was it?... ah, yes...), so...

I’ve also been reflecting on this recently, because I’ve just finished the fifth book in a very popular series (which will remain unnamed for now) and… Well, I found it so disappointing I’ll probably give up on this series: I had already noticed the quality of the books was irregular, but this one really was quite awful.

No, awful is too strong a word… It was well written and quite enjoyable. A bit on the long side (well over 1000 pages), but the author seems to have the knack to keep you reading, even when nothing happens… That, actually, was one of the biggest problems. Nothing happened. Now, if people who beta-read my own novel read this, they’ll probably shake their head and think: “what! She’s criticising someone for having written a book that’s too long and where nothing happens? When she’s done exactly the same thing?”

Yes, maybe, but the problem is that things were meant to happen in this series! It was meant to be about action and adventure and romance! That’s what the first books were about: love and war and fighting and... and I’ll say no more or you’ll guess which series I’m talking of, and that’s not my point. So I was expecting this volume to be in the same vein. About people being torn by love and war and the weight of time and history, not about people wandering aimlessly from one place to another and back, gathering herbs, and breastfeeding babies, and having babies poo on them, and wanting to have sex with each other. For...more...than...one...thousand...pages... Ugh...

So I finished the book thinking, this series has been going on for too long, and I’ve been reading it for too long. This volume lacked the freshness and originality of the first, which, in a way, is inevitable. Some of the interesting aspects, because they were repeated too many times, became formulaic and boring. New characters, introduced in the course of the series, did not necessarily excite my sympathy as much as the original cast had. And these original characters... Well, I have to admit I do not like them as much as I did before. Partly because, in spite of the series having gone on and on, they have not matured, they have not really evolved and they keep doing and thinking the same things all over again.

This leads me to wonder: does the author of this series go on churning book after book because she actually has something to say about those characters? Or because the series is successful and she wants to make the most of it? Or because there is a demand for sequels on the part of devoted readers? Or is it a mix of all those reasons? Is there anything that justifies the story going on and on? Is the evolution of the characters meant to span decades? Does the story legitimately need a dozen books to unfold? Or can it stop earlier?

Good things have to come to an end. There is a moment when both the reader and the author have to say goodbye to the characters of a novel. Not necessarily because their story has come go an end, but because it has to stop being told. Because they have to live their lives beyond the pages of a book.

A satisfactory ending is important. A conclusion. A farewell to the world of a story. I sometimes feel that series that go on for ever cheat you out of that ending, out of those goodbyes, which can be sad, but are also necessary. You read on, book after book, longing for that conclusion, not wanting to give up, because you know something else has been written about those characters you love, defining their fate, making if real in a way. And you have to know.

And for an author, I guess it is easier to go on writing about those characters you know and love and are used, to rather than give them an ending. It’s easy to go on for too long, and the good thing, for me, about writing this article, is that it’ll remind me, when I pick up my pen to begin writing Book 187 in the As Winter Came and Went saga, how annoyed I am as reader when series go on for too long. And maybe I’ll think twice, or maybe I’ll just shrug and say: “who cares? I’m the author and I make the decisions!”