To series or not to series?
That’s a question I some ask myself. Well, the question actually is should I run a series on this blog? I’ve never come up with a satisfactory answer. Sometimes, I say yes and sometimes I say no.
I’ve run two series on my company’s blog and they seemed to have gone over very well — the posts are still getting a considerable number of hits over a year after they were posted. But in this space … I don’t know. Same goes for the articles that I write.
It’s not that I don’t have any ideas for series; I do. But I’m a bit wary of them. Why? I’ve read series which were more or less long-winded rehashes of the previous installments of those series. The ideas could have been encapsulated into one or two posts or articles; or the same number of shorter posts and articles. While I don’t think that will happen with me, you never know.
Still, I can see the allure of writing a series. With a blog, you have the opportunity to drive more traffic to your site. With articles, it’s a way of making a little more money and maybe laying the groundwork for a book. The same could be applied to a series of blog posts, too.
Themes, not series
Something that I find myself doing quite a bit is writing a number of posts or articles that follow a certain theme. They aren’t explicitly connected, but those pieces do cover different aspects of a topic. Often, I do that without realizing it.
Strangely enough, I’m more comfortable writing thematically similar posts and articles rather than working on a series. There’s less conscious thought involved, and I’m under no pressure to wrap up the series within a certain amount of time. On top of that, writing on a theme (with me, anyway) tends to develop organically. I’ll write one piece and then at sometime see a logical or interesting offshoot. I’m actually working on a couple of articles like that now, which were inspired by pieces that I’ve written over the last month or so.
What’s your take on writing a series, both as a writer and as a reader? Feel free to leave a comment.
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