Everyday Canvas

Spinoffs

Prompt: In your writing experiences have you considered spin-offs. A spinoff is not a re-write or a reprint but simply a window or an element in every article that can open into a different idea. One story often leads entirely to another, both are different and yet intricately linked.

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In the last issue of Writing Digest, there is a good article on spinoffs. That made me think about this. At least two or more of my NaNo novels can have a spinoff involving one or two of the secondary characters. One of those can have a spinoff even with the main character because she was a child who grew into her later teens and in the last chapter, she learned something shocking about her background. I figure I can give her a few good flashbacks of that scene and that scene could decide the hang-ups and decisions in her later life.

In fact, I think most any novel can have a spinoff because there are those situations, different secondary and supporting characters (they = are already developed, which is a bonus), and the setting. Using the setting would be fun because I develop the settings with care with maps and house plans.

Having said all that, I think each novel that is a spin-off should be able to stand up on its own with all its loose ends tied at the end. An installment doesn’t mean series, but the writers and publishers just call any installment, a book in series, which I assume is for financial reasons.

Case in point: Stephanie Bond is a writer whose books I enjoy reading just for the fun of it—nothing literary, but clean prose and good storytelling. Yet, a few months ago, I got a free Kindle book of hers from Amazon. It was a continuing series; however, there was no indication of it in Amazon’s intro or in the writer’s offering. The story finished at the end of the sixth book with each following book costing $2.99. But the story was written well with excellent hooks, and I bit the bait. I’d rather pay $15. for a good story rather than getting misled. Besides, it is a pain to go back and get another installment each time the story takes a turn.

Such a practice is not writing a spinoff, it is something else. If the first book does not finish on its own, the reader should be warned before making a commitment.

I have to repeat. Every spinoff should be able to stand on its own in a series.