Series or Standalones?

Firstly, I just want to apologize for the sometimes lack of posts. Last Monday my internet connection went funny on me and well, the last couple of weeks I have been a complete airhead and forgot to give Dianna questions or topics to post about. So, it is totally my fault, and I am very sorry.

Dianna's question for me today: For reading and writing: do you prefer series books or standalones?

As refreshing as a good standalone story can be as both a reader and a writer I find a prefer series. To be honest, it applies with films as well. I always find that I am curious to know what happens next. Although, I am happy that - in most occasions - the hero and heroine get their happily ever after, or the world is saved or whatever good ending takes place in these particular books/films, I want to know what the next challenge is, because naturally, there will be more to the characters lives than that one event.

Perhaps it's greed. Or perhaps it is the simple fact that I fall for a lot of characters and want to know and read more about them.

Looking at my bookshelf it is actually full of series. Ignore encyclopaedias, poetry books, and autobiographies, I think I actually own three fiction books that are standalones, and two of them I haven't read yet. Give me an ongoing series with complex characters, a thrilling world, and a mind-blowing story plot and I am so there.

So yes, as a writer I prefer series also. I mean, I do enjoy the simplicity of a standalone. A single plot which doesn't need to twist and turn in more complex directions and therefore can be extended. It's nice to concentrate on one solid idea. It breaks up the careful planning and rules of a series.

But then again, as I said earlier I always want more, and I find that sometimes my characters have far too much going on; too much to tell and before I have finished planning a book I'm figuring out the next one and the next one, and it's blowing up into a series. This was certainly the case with The Blood Series, which I will be continuing with in 2014.

So, the short answer is, I prefer series. I like bigger story arcs. I like cliffhangers. I like seeing characters progression and their struggles to find their happily ever after.

What about you, do you prefer a solid standalone, or an ongoing series?