Desiderius Price

45001
We’ll reach infinity in no time!

“Episodic serial” not sure if it’s exactly the right word.  For example, my Jeff story, which started off as backstory to explain the swimming instructor to the main protagonist, has generally become a series of “episodes”.  So aside from episode one, which is the “inciting incident” to put Jeff into his general living situation, the rest chronicle his development over time with a series of snapshots.  An episode shows the danger that’s generally pressing inward.  Another shows some danger he can bring to himself (hypothermia).  On occasion, two or more parters with a mini-ark when it gets a bit more involved.
There *is* an example on AO3 that I’m aware of, called “The Breeding Ground”, which (according to the summary) is an anthology of Harry Potter sleeping around, with each of the 2,000 chapters featuring a different woman/lady (there’s crossovers to a myriad of other fandoms).  (It’s a tad over 3M words...)  
So, if you’re aiming for the smut circle … you could scatter a common theme at the start of each chapter (a group conversation, part of an orgy) with the BOLD words of “A year earlier...”  I mean, once the audience is used to the format, it might work.

It’s still backstory if it’s “for context.”  Maybe better done as separate oneshots, or an episodic serial?  Out-of-order is going to confuse the reader IMO, (and in my case, myself too.) This is especially true if there’s something where a character dies, and now you’re talking if they’re alive.  Another slight exception here is when I’m doing multiple POVs, so I want to cover character “A” in a dedicated chapter, and “B” in the next (but, the events should be sufficiently disassociated/separate for that to make sense).  To me, the strong “out-of-order” means there’s a structural issue to the story, maybe you’re starting in the wrong spot/incident?  Hope I’m making sense here.

It’s still backstory if it’s “for context.”  Maybe better done as separate oneshots, or an episodic serial?  Out-of-order is going to confuse the reader IMO, (and in my case, myself too.) This is especially true if there’s something where a character dies, and now you’re talking if they’re alive.  Another slight exception here is when I’m doing multiple POVs, so I want to cover character “A” in a dedicated chapter, and “B” in the next (but, the events should be sufficiently disassociated/separate for that to make sense).  To me, the strong “out-of-order” means there’s a structural issue to the story, maybe you’re starting in the wrong spot/incident?  Hope I’m making sense here.

If you’re a time-traveling story… SURE!  Outside of that, you’ll probably confuse the readers if it’s extensive.  (Aside from short flashbacks, or a brief start near the climax along with “two years earlier...”)  This confusion is the main reason I broke up my first story I posted here, I was trying to cram in backstory into chapters as well, and came to realize I basically had multiple stories instead.  (Which, while I’ve yet to really write that first story, I’ve been busy on the others.)

If you’re a time-traveling story… SURE!  Outside of that, you’ll probably confuse the readers if it’s extensive.  (Aside from short flashbacks, or a brief start near the climax along with “two years earlier...”)  This confusion is the main reason I broke up my first story I posted here, I was trying to cram in backstory into chapters as well, and came to realize I basically had multiple stories instead.  (Which, while I’ve yet to really write that first story, I’ve been busy on the others.)

Simple, have a quick conversation chapter one of the sequel.
“Where’s Joe?”
“Six years in prison, because when they say NO PARKING, the really mean NO PARKING.” or
“Got transferred to far, far, away.” or
“He learned why there’s safety bars on woodchippers.  Coroner estimated they recovered 60% of the remains.”
And if you want the villain to be a surprise, have his whereabouts accounted/dismissed for in this conversation too.

Know readers would likely wonder where Jane is, so yeah, a short snippet is good.  Maybe you write a short-short story that covers it?  (Even if you don’t publish, it’d be good to reference.) 
A decent example I’m thinking of, is Star Trek TNG, Gates McFadden got “fired” end of season 1, so they explained her absence as “reassignment to Starfleet Medical”, and once rehired for Season 3, “one year rotation’s over, she’s back”.

I suppose I could add another but that’s not the plan in any sense. At least within the context of the story, Jane would be involved in between the current story I’m writing and the sequel. But I appreciate the insight on how I could mention it.

Me trying to spin a one-line tale with the dialogue…  I figure if it’s nagging on your mind, then it’s likely nagging on the reader’s mind.  Perhaps you’re wanting to sow seeds for a follow-on story (not the direct sequel), so you could drop breadcrumbs, “She’s gone to explore jungles in Colombia haven’t heard from her in ages.”  Anyways, ideas there, hope it helps.

Could be from somebody not wanting to necessarily cross into a love-triangle territory too… or verifying that the other person’s not around.  Because Jane was a part of their character makeup (and still is to some degree), seems relevant to know that the main character might still have thoughts dwelling on Jane, maybe it’s regret, maybe it’s guilt for hiding the body, or maybe they’ve totally moved on with “Who’s Jane?”.

Well, it’s less of a way to get rid of them. It’s for AFF, so it’s more like:

“When is Jane going to join in on the fun?”

But then the sequel doesn’t have Jane in it at all. Even though Jane is mentioned in the last chapter of the story. However in another chapter I do mention Mary and she does appear in the sequel. Since having the idea to mention Jane though, I have considered making her part of the sequel, but that could over complicate the story. Which has been pretty straight forward up until now.
 

Simple, have a quick conversation chapter one of the sequel.
“Where’s Joe?”
“Six years in prison, because when they say NO PARKING, the really mean NO PARKING.” or
“Got transferred to far, far, away.” or
“He learned why there’s safety bars on woodchippers.  Coroner estimated they recovered 60% of the remains.”
And if you want the villain to be a surprise, have his whereabouts accounted/dismissed for in this conversation too.

Apostrophe… it’s ASCII number is 39.

44469
Woo, finally I got me some 69!

Apostrophe… it’s ASCII number is 39.

44444 perfection!

44445 Missed it by that much!

It’s very frustrating.

Without getting too much into the details I’ve had 3 separate platforms all give me grief in one way or another for something that wasn’t a big deal. But in one case, I decided not to be explicit in saying something and people took issue with me holding back.

This is getting annoying.

Hmm, maybe we ought to make AI-generated-reviews a FEATURE?  Author wants such a review, press the button, ask ChatGPT for its opinion on your story?  (Secretly, we’ve hot wired it to troll/flame mode.)

50/50 chance mine’s ready by 2026 Halloween.

It’s a collection of oneshots, right?  You’re allowed a table of contents, so use that, flag the relevant stories as M/F vs F/F vs M/M vs M/Squid.

For Halloween/Holidays, we do the “one-shot” anthologies.  And for some of my back story… they’re so tightly coupled that I consider them “episodic” and thus, keep it as a single title.

Guessing that’s what caused the issues in the first place! 

44245
I always miss those.