One's Gotta Go: A Game

[Melani]

OMG LONG SERIES. This is so easy. I like long series, but good grief it gets ridiculous sometimes. Does the story you're telling really need to be drawn out over 20 billion books? PROBABLY NOT.

[DivaDiane]

No question: Long series. Although I did love the Realms of the Elderlings, but that felt like several short series.

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

Harry Potter, Wizard of Earthsea, Foundation and Dune, gone! Poof!

[Tyler]

What would you consider the Commonwealth books? Disparate books in the same universe is a good way to keep the world building and be able to change the plot if the series gets long winded. Best of both worlds?

[colleen the convivial curmudgeon]

Anthologies and collections. I'm not a huge short story fan to begin with, with rare exception.

[Anna]

If it was just anthologies, I'd be very tempted to pick that, since I have a very complicated way of tracking them, and that means I tend to avoid starting them. But I do enjoy reading them, so I can't pick that.

I prefer standalones to series, so I'm going to drop long series. The author can always choose to chop the longer series into smaller, connected series, so that I can still read all the books! ;)

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

Tyler wrote: "What would you consider the Commonwealth books? Disparate books in the same universe is a good way to keep the world building and be able to change the plot if the series gets long winded. Best of ..."

The Hamilton books? You may choose either standalone or short series for that :)

[CBRetriever]

I love all of them, but I guess the anthologies would have to go

[Tyler]

I'll have to go with dropping anthologies. I do like them, and they bring something important to the table, but ultimately I get invested in the story and characters, and that makes it tougher for me to enjoy the anthologies.

[Amanda]

I'd have to go with anthologies as well. It's unfortunate, but unlike the others I can't think of any examples that I couldn't bear to live without. I have to agree with Tyler about short fiction not having the same 'investment' value as the others as well.

[Gabi]

Standalones would eliminate all the good authors who are capable to tell their story in a sensible amount of pages.
Anthologies would kill the very reason why I became a SF fan.
Short series would nullify the Hyperion Cantos and Children of Time.
Long series would eradicate the Stormlight Archives.

.... I'm outside, playing with other kids ... ;-)

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

Gabi wrote: ".... I'm outside, playing with other kids ... ;-)"

XD That's right, Gabi, you don't have to play with bullies like me hahahaa

[Sarah]

A tough one but I'll have to go for anthologies and short stories.

[Tyler]

Gabi wrote: "Standalones would eliminate all the good authors who are capable to tell their story in a sensible amount of pages. ..."

Pfftt... "Sensible"

[YouKneeK]

Yeah, “anthologies/collections” are my pick too.

For one thing, Allison’s wording doesn’t eliminate short stories released by themselves, and maybe it doesn’t eliminate them if they’re published in magazines either, so the world can still have its short stories. Not publishing anthologies and collections might reduce how many short stories get written, but maybe the industry can find a new pricing model for single short stories that would be acceptable to both readers and writers.

I’m also not a big fan of the format, so it would be my pick even if she had said “short stories”. While I acknowledge that authors can do impressive things with the format, they rarely last long enough for me to feel any investment in the story or the characters and very few stick with me past the moment I finish them. It also seems to me like short stories are the least likely format to have satisfying endings.

[Beth]

colleen the convivial curmudgeon wrote: "Anthologies and collections. I'm not a huge short story fan to begin with, with rare exception."

Same here. I prefer getting sunk in, whether a piece of fiction is in genre or not, and little wisps like short stories, no matter how impactful in the short term, just never stick with me.

[Sera]

Anthologies. I don't really read them, so I wouldn't miss it.

[Phillip]

Long series. They imply authors didn't know the end of their stories or are on a greedy cash grab. Stop printing money and write something new.

[Bookish]

Gabi wrote: "Standalones would eliminate all the good authors who are capable to tell their story in a sensible amount of pages.
Anthologies would kill the very reason why I became a SF fan.
Short series would ..."

I’m with you on this one!

[Leticia]

Of all four Anthologies are the ones I take longer to read or hear. It's like if due to the stories being shorter I need a longer time to think about each story, like if a novel would be a no alcohol cocktail and a short story a tequila shot. It's crazy, but I often can read a page turner series up to ten books much faster than an anthology. That said, I also give up when a series looses its drive or when it goes around way too much without reason.

[Melani]

Allison wrote: "Harry Potter, Wizard of Earthsea, Foundation and Dune, gone! Poof!"

Loosing Harry Potter would be sad. Earthsea books is one trilogy, two follow ups that don't really do much with the original story, and an anthology, I don't think it counts as a long series. I've never read the Foundation series and Dune would be better if it were just one book. So far, I'm mostly ok with my decision.

Loosing Narnia would hurt though. And Anne of Green Gables. And there are one or two Urban Fantasy series it would be hard to see go.

[Phillip]

Not only does one go, but the sacrifice will be thrown into a volcano with blue lava:

1. Pikachu
2. Wall-E
3. Baby Groot
4. Baby Yoda (aka Merch)

[Anna]

I guess I'm a monster, they can all go?

[Tyler]

Anna wrote: "I guess I'm a monster, they can all go?"

High five!

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

Pikachu! A mouse family just moved into my attic and now we are at war.

[DivaDiane]

Oh, hmmm. I don’t know this Baby Yoda, but I’d say it’s safe to toss him to the sharks.

And Pikachu is supposed to be based on a squirrel!

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

Diane wrote: "Oh, hmmm. I don’t know this Baby Yoda, but I’d say it’s safe to toss him to the sharks.

And Pikachu is supposed to be based on a squirrel!"

Oh, I thought he was a mouse one. Well, goes to show you how much personal investment I have in Pokemon haha

[DivaDiane]

😂 The only reason I know is because I have a 10year old. We went to see Detective Pikachu when it came out. He has a big lightning like tail!

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

Diane wrote: "😂 The only reason I know is because I have a 10year old. We went to see Detective Pikachu when it came out. He has a big lightning like tail!"

Haha having a small human is a good way to stay in tune with pop culture!

I know he had a lightning tail, I just thought, idk, it's like how the mouse got its powers or something. Listen, Diane, I only just figured out Minecraft okay? The small humans in my orbit are now too cool to tell me about their Hero Academies or whatever.

[Bookish]

Phillip wrote: "Not only does one go, but the sacrifice will be thrown into a volcano with blue lava:

1. Pikachu
2. Wall-E
3. Baby Groot
4. Baby Yoda (aka Merch)"

Umm who did Yoda? I didn’t know there were baby Yoda’s running around ...

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

Mandalorian on Disney+

[Raucous]

I'm a strong believer in not persecuting babies regardless of their heritage (although "Umm who did Yoda?" leaves an image that's not going to fade soon) and Wall-E worked so hard with so little appreciation. So it's going to have to be Pikachu for me. Sorry little guy. If only your mobile game hadn't insisted on tracking every step I took...

[Bookish]

Allison wrote: "Mandalorian on Disney+

"

Awwwwww he’s adorable !! Save Baby Yoda campaign is now in effect ha.

[Bookish]

Raucous wrote: "I'm a strong believer in not persecuting babies regardless of their heritage (although "Umm who did Yoda?" leaves an image that's not going to fade soon) and Wall-E worked so hard with so little ap..."

Haha thanks Raucous, I couldn’t resist :)

[CBRetriever]

Baby Groot? He or she can go

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

Baby Groot! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAciZ...

[CBRetriever]

ok, the Wall-E can go

[John]

Allison wrote: "Baby Groot! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAciZ..."

Picachu for the volcano. Groot cannot go. He will return even from a volcano: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEPbX...

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

I just want to say, Pikachu for the Pit would be an EPIC nerdcore band name.

[Sarah]

Of all those options, Pikachu is the only one I actually like. All the other Pokémon and the rest of that list can go into the volcano.

[colleen the convivial curmudgeon]

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

😂😂

[Sandy]

Definitely Pikachu - have not seen the movie with Groot but that little guy could come to be a fav.

Thanks for the links!

[colleen the convivial curmudgeon]

Sandy wrote: "Definitely Pikachu - have not seen the movie with Groot but that little guy could come to be a fav.

Thanks for the links!"

(view spoiler)[ (hide spoiler)]

[Phillip]

Flashbacks
Time jumps forward
Dream Sequences
Non-linear narrative

I despise dream sequences and would gladly drop them. How about you?

[DivaDiane]

I could probably live without Dream sequences as well.

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

I'm going to be different and say time jumps. I think most of the time they aren't well delineated and it confuses me for the first page or two.

[Gabi]

I go for Dream Sequences as well.

Flashback was my first thought, cause I just read through boring as hell ones in one of my last books - but in Rosewater they were done so well.

Non-linear narrative with time jumps is the kind of structure I live for!

[Lowell]

dream sequences are usually completely meaningless, so I think they can be dropped like a bad penny.

[Jordan]

Definitely dream sequences. I can't think of a time that I've actually seen them done well.