The Risks and Rewards of Long Form Storytelling

Good things come to those who wait.

A truly great story doesn’t waste your time. It gets right to the point. No appetizers, it just goes straight to the meat and potatoes. Which is good. Time is the only resource you can never get back, so it shouldn’t be wasted.

But not every story follows this rule. Plenty of stories go on and on for hundreds if not thousands of pages. Often across multiple volumes and real-world years.

Long form storytelling is incredibly difficult. How do you tell a good story over such a long period of time without ever wasting any of it? How do you setup things that won’t be paid off for years while still delivering a satisfying narrative here and now? How the hell are you supposed to plan all that stuff out?

When the process is done well, though, it makes for a truly remarkable experience. It asks for greater investment from the audience with the promise of a greater reward of satisfaction than the average story. Like a gardener watching a seed grow into a beautiful flower.

Or a withered husk, depending on the gardener.

A perfect example of both the strengths and weaknesses of long form storytelling can be found in the ‘Wheel of Time’ series. Seeds planted in book four don’t grow until way down the line in book twelve! It rewards you for paying attention and for sticking with it!

Unfortunately, there are several books that are entirely dedicated to setup rather than pay-off. Three consecutive books that are a total slog to get through. So much so that the fanbase has literally labeled them as ‘The Slog.’ With a capital T and everything!

Long form storytelling also allows you to explore far more of the world and characters than a shorter story. Take ‘A Song of Ice and Fire’; Westeros and all the people in it wouldn’t be half as fleshed out and beloved if it were a shorter trilogy rather than the multiple thousands of pages and books we got.

Granted, it might also have an ending if it were shorter.

Starting a long form story is a gamble. Is it worth the investment? Is it going to have a satisfying conclusion? It’s really easy to fumble something like this.

Yet I just can’t help myself. I love stories like this! When they get done right, it’s immensely satisfying! It feels like climbing a mountain and getting to enjoy the view from the top. Getting there can be exhausting, but god, is it worth it!

Just… don’t do it like Destiny or the DCEU did it. Don’t promise good things in the future without delivering something worthwhile in the here and now.

Would that that weren’t the standard…