Deciding if You're Writing a Series or Standalone Novel (guest post)

C.C. King
Sep 30
6 min read

One of the trickiest questions fiction writers face is: what kind of story do I want to tell? Not just in terms of plot or characters, but in format: do we lean into a series, or do we write a standalone novel?

Photo of author Celeste Fenton — Author Nancy Christie

Both paths (writing a series or standalone novel) come with opportunities and challenges, and both can shape the way readers experience our work.

This week, I’m excited to welcome author Nancy Christie to the blog. Nancy is the award-winning author of the Midlife Moxie novels, as well as multiple short story collections, essay collections, and books for writers.

In her guest post below, she shares her own journey of wrestling with the “series or standalone” decision, the doubts and stubbornness that carried her through, and the lessons she’s learned along the way.

Writers, if you’ve ever stared at your manuscript and wondered whether it’s the first in a bigger arc or a complete world in itself, Nancy’s perspective will resonate.

Let's dive in!

—CC

Series or Standalone—Which Way to Go on the Novel-Writing Road?

by Nancy Christie

This was a question I struggled with and agonized over when I decided to take the off-ramp from the short-story writer highway and head down the novel-writing road.

Actually, it was one of many questions I asked myself in the year or two preceding the publication of Reinventing Rita, my first Midlife Moxie novel.

And I’m sure that some of these are the same questions other writers have asked themselves. For example:

Why on earth did I think I could write an 80K-plus word novel?
I’m a pantser, not a plotter—how will I keep everything straight?
Who cares about middle-aged women anyway: their lives, their losses, their hopes and dreams?
I don’t write romances, crime novels, sci-fi, horror or fantasy—the top reader favorites—so what are the odds that the book will appeal to readers?

And then the series vs. standalone question.

So many book marketing articles talk about how writing a series featuring the same character or group of characters stands a better chance of capturing and keeping fans because they become invested in the people in the stories.

Books with mixed-up titles and numbers stand on a wooden shelf against a plain background. Covers in dark tones create a quirky, puzzling scene.

For example, in this blog post, author and podcaster Joanna Penn writes, “If you get a traditional publishing deal, it's likely that it will be for two or three books, therefore you will have to write more stories to satisfy your readers anyway and this is definitely easier if it is a series. Alternatively, if you self-publish, having a series is the best way to make more money per customer, and it’s much easier to market a series.”

Unfortunately, I didn’t want to write a series. I wanted to write novels that fit under an umbrella, so to speak—the Midlife Moxie umbrella—yet have each one be separate and complete in itself.

(Full disclosure: I’d like to say that my reasoning was based purely on artistic motivation, but the truth is that I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to come up with plots and storylines for subsequent books featuring the same main character, so I opted for standalones.)

At this point, you would think that between my own self-doubting questions and the reality that a series would be more financially lucrative even if less appealing to me, I would be ready to throw in the towel. Or toss the keyboard out the window.

Purple text "Finding Fran," desk with laptop and mug, purple curtain, art on wall. Title: A Midlife Moxie Novel by Nancy Christie.

But I didn’t—in part because I had already drafted (in very rough form) both Reinventing Rita and Finding Fran and didn’t want them to go to waste. And even though I was on the far side of midlife, I was such a late bloomer that I could easily identify with women a decade or more younger than me who were experiencing their own midlife challenges and crises.

But the biggest reason I went ahead with my plan is because I am stubborn. Or bullheaded. Or whatever other term you want to use. Tell me I can’t do something, and I’ll do it anyway, just to show you I can.

And I have to admit, being of that personality is a real attribute when you’re a writer because there are usually more people out there telling you “no” than there are people saying “yes.”

I speak from experience. For years I was a magazine writer, which entailed researching topics and pitching story ideas, only to hear more times than not, “Thanks but it’s not really a good fit.”

Woman in an office writes at a desk full of papers and books. Corkboard covered with pinned REJECTION documents. Vintage clock above. Calm setting.

As a short fiction writer, I mailed more short stories (with the accompanying SASE, for those old enough to remember pre-email submission days!) than I care to count only to find them boomeranging back to my mailbox with more speed than I thought was necessary. Or nice.

That being said, I did have quite a few magazine articles accepted and a fair number of short stories published, but the sting of rejection lasted longer than the joy of acceptance.

Yet I kept doing it, thanks to my aforementioned stubbornness, even though I was 40 before my first short story was accepted and 50 before my first book—a collection of essays—was published.

And during that time, I was also going through life experiences common to middle-aged women: divorce, job loss, intermittent caregiving of my parents and my grandson. And the very real worry that what I had accomplished thus far might be all I would be able to achieve. And unless you belong to a very active writing community (which I didn’t), there was the isolation aspect to factor in.

Woman writing all alone at a desk in a dimly lit library, surrounded by books. Warm lamp light casts a focused, thoughtful atmosphere.

Being a writer of necessity requires a lot of alone time. Time to think. Time to write. Time to rip up what you wrote and start again. Time to revise, edit, rewrite.

And it can be hard to explain to non-writers why you are choosing to do this to yourself not once but over and over again, that the joy of writing one perfect sentence, paragraph, or chapter can outweigh all the less-than-joyful hours at the keyboard.

Heading down the novel road

By the time I made up my mind to write what I called my Midlife Moxie novel series, I had already published five books: an essay collection, two books for writers and two short story collections. If I was going to become a novelist, now was the time.

I looked at the drafts of both novels, decided Reinventing Rita was closer to being ready, and after extensive editing and rewriting, decided to self-publish it—mostly because I was approaching the age of 69 and unwilling to spend my declining years (!) waiting for an agent and then a publisher to take me on.

But even though I already had books to my credit, there was still a learning curve, especially when it came to marketing. My short stories and essays had been traditionally published, but now I was totally in charge of the Midlife Moxie business and needed to ramp up my book promotion skills if I wanted to make a name for myself.

And since I wasn’t writing a traditional series, I had to come up with a way to promote each book while still connecting it to the others in the Midlife Moxie family. I was helped by the great cover designers at BookBaby who gave each book a distinctive look while still keeping the unifying visuals intact.

Book cover titled "Moving Maggie" by Nancy Christie features a cozy bench, plant, and window with blue shutters, evoking warmth and comfort.

I would like to say that, after three novels with a fourth one almost finished, I have it all figured out. I would like to say that, but since this piece is fact, not fiction, that wouldn’t be strictly true.

Being an author means being on a perpetual learning curve. As soon as you figure one thing out, something else comes down the road that you need to do or understand. That’s the challenge of the literary life.

If I was going to give advice—and those who know me know how much I love to do that!—I would say that new authors should have a basic understanding of what sells and what doesn’t, understanding, of course, that today’s hot genre is tomorrow’s cold leftovers.

Then if you decide to buck the trends and write the book you want to write, you are making an educated decision based on your own creative desires and goals. And in the end, that’s what matters.

—Nancy

About the Guest Blogger

Nancy Christie is the award-winning author of three Midlife Moxie novels: Reinventing Rita, Finding Fran, and Moving Maggie; four short story collections; two books for writers; and an essay collection. Transforming Tessa, her fourth Midlife Moxie novel, will be released in 2026.

author nancy christie — Author Nancy Christie

The creator and host of the Living the Writing Life podcast, Christie teaches writing workshops at conferences, libraries, and schools. She is a member of the American Society of Journalists and Authors (ASJA), the Florida Writers Association (FWA) and the Women’s Fiction Writers Association (WFWA).