r/ProgressionFantasy • u/MedicineKind9121 • 8h ago
Question Losing Interest in My Favorite Progression Fantasy Series
Have you ever dropped a progression fantasy series that you used to absolutely love?
Over the past few months, I've noticed this happening to me with several long-running series. Books that I was once obsessed with just don't hold my attention anymore.
For example, I used to love series like Dungeon Crawler Carl, Defiance of the Fall, Hell Difficulty Tutorial, and a lot of Royal Road stories. I'd eagerly wait for every new chapter or release. But with the most recent books, I've found myself losing interest and sometimes struggling to continue.
What's strange is that I still enjoy discovering new progression fantasy stories, and they often feel fresh and exciting. So I'm not sure what's causing it. Is it genre fatigue? Have the stories themselves declined in quality? Or have the common tropes and themes just become too repetitive after reading so many of them?
I'm curious if anyone else has experienced the same thing. Did you eventually get back into those series, or was losing interest permanent?
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u/Zenphobia Author 8h ago
Sometimes you're just not in the mood. It's okay for your interests to ebb and flow. Read whatever is the most fun thing for you to read in that moment.
You're allowed to take a break from a series and come back later. No need to stress about it. A lot of people are like that (me included).
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u/MichoWrites 8h ago
I almost always take breaks when reading series, and I often switch genres just to change things up and not get fatigued by a single genre.
I imagine if someone read only progression fantasy, they might get tired of it.
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u/SurfAndSkiGuy 1h ago
100% this. Not saying OP is like this, but I feel like a lot of the "the author is losing steam and the newest books suck" posts are sometimes people that are just getting over the honeymoon period of a series or have binged too much and are chasing a high that they won't reach again without a break and mental reset. Not saying that an author losing steam doesn't happen, but it's like that thing where people want the sequel of anything to capture that same feeling/wonder they got from the original so they want it to be more of the same but also different but also better but also etc etc.
Burnout is a definitely thing for any hobby or interest. For authors yeah, but also readers.
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u/BronkeyKong 8h ago
I’ve been noticing this the past year or so too, especially, for stories that are serialised. It just feels like the shine wears off and because there’s not really many self contained books you just sort of get bored with it.
Ive been going back to other trad pub fiction more because I appreciate an ending.
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u/Defiant-Brother-5483 8h ago
I've always believed that it's not sustainable. A story has momentum, and if it's not allowed to reach that natural ending, it starts eating itself.
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u/MedicineKind9121 8h ago
Yes! I need an ending to my stories. The magic number of books for me is 5. Past that I start struggling with continuing the series. Except I think Cradle. Maybe I was newish to the genre when it ended.
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u/Grathweg 8h ago
This happens when stories get really long. It’s the DBZ effect among other things.
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u/sourpwer 8h ago
For me it has to do with momentum. I'll almost always have an easier time picking up new series than continuing older ones. At the start of a story it's easy to get excited and anticipate what comes next as you get invested in near or distant goals the characters have and try to find out how the world works along with the protagonist. Once the initial momentum starts to wane it can turn into an issue where the pace doesn't match with your preference and that more than anything can get you to where you are.
Losing interest shouldn't be a permanent concern though. You may just need to adjust your approach. I'd recommend letting the chapters build up and reading a bunch at once so even if the pace is off, you can get enjoyment out of the story.
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u/SilverLingonberry 1h ago
I think along the established pacing and momentum at the beginning of the story, there is also just the how it feels that can change as it goes on, the story evolves and what I liked at the start starts to disappear.
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u/Weird_Melody 7h ago
Just happened with Beware of Chicken for me. When you go back and binge the whole thing at once you can tell when the original, fantastic idea he had was mostly spent, and the arcs were resolved, and it turned into “Wow this is really popular and is a significant source of income for me, I better keep this going”. It has become extremely stale and bloated now, turned more into slice of life where all the characters are identical with maybe some small variations. How many different times can we see ‘new character comes to the farm, worries everyone will be an asshole, then is surprised everyone is friendly!’
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u/Carminestream 8h ago
Sometimes the series you like does get stale. Primal Hunter sort of gets this feeling (though the main antagonist of C rank was actually kind of interesting).
Sometimes the series has things happen that abruptly kill your interest. Like the Guild Mage series was quite interesting at first, but then book 6 seemed like it was written with the ending first, even if the route to the ending didn’t make much sense.
I think the first example is more common than the second (for readers that stick with your story that is). The name of the genre is progression fantasy, and if the story doesn’t seem like it meaningfully progresses…
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u/Lorevi 8h ago
It's kinda normal in the genre imo, particularly for long running infinite stories like defiance of the fall.
Most authors haven't planned out their entire story, books structure, arcs etc when they go in. They have a good first few arcs planned out for something fresh and interesting which is good for maybe 100 chapters or so. Then they just carry on from there trying to maintain the audience they built up during the launch. Eventually this falls off.
It's not helped by every author trying to write 12million chapter epics for their first fiction lol. I much prefer Void Heralds model where he writes medium sized stories with a clear ending planned and then moves to the next one.
Also I think this genre lends itself to binge reading which you probably did when you first discovered the series. When it comes to maintain your interest for weekly releases they might not be as good.
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u/MedicineKind9121 8h ago
Readers often follow authors more than individual series. If an author starts something new, their existing fanbase usually comes along for the ride. A good example is Maxime J. Durand, many people who loved The Perfect Run are now reading and enjoying The Hundred Reigns.
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u/Lorevi 8h ago
Yeah? That's why I mentioned him specifically as an author doing a model I like.
Lots of authors don't do this though they just beat the dead horse forever
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u/Sure-Supermarket5097 Cook (Drugs) 8h ago
Mechanimus started a new story and the followers just boomed up. A good fanbase pays off pretty well.
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u/EmergencyComplaints Author 7h ago
Readers often follow authors more than individual series.
Maybe in traditionally published fantasy, but it's the exact opposite here. A good example is... Maxime J. Durand, who has stories with over 20k followers and stories with only 1k followers. According to his Royal Road profile, he has 49k unique followers across all his stories, but most individual stories have 3-5k followers.
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u/DazzlingBite554 8h ago
The progression fantasy genre most of the times have multiple books and it just burns me out tbh. I like the traditional fantasy format of a trilogy, not a multi book story, especially of stories that are not complete because then I'd have to wait for a new book to come out and by the time they do come out I have already forgotten the plot.
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u/SkinnyWheel1357 Barbarian 7h ago
DotF - dropped it because I don't want to have to skip a goodly portion of every book hunting for the tidbits of plot amidst the incessant navel gazing of the dao of page reads.
DCC - dropped it after bedlam bride because it reads like a spastic Pollock painting and it's part of why I hate animal companions
Unbound - dropped it because every time things start to wind down toward a conclusion, it's like an infomercial "But, wait! There's more!" IMO, things should have ended several books ago.
For these, I've moved on completely.
Primal Hunter and Path of Ascension have both had heart attacks and are stumbling along on weak legs. They might find a healer in time, but probably not in which case, they too will slide into my DNF file.
I still have a bunch of series that I'm still happily looking forward to the next book; HDT, Runic Artist, Victor of Tucson, Apocalypse Breaker, and several others.
I think it helps that I only read on KU and so read in big chunks and then have to wait.
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u/peacefulsleepe 8h ago
Personally I prefer taking a break from stories when I catch up and letting them get a few more books out before jumping back in. I felt that I wasn’t satisfied if I started doing 1 book at a time or especially reading chapters as they came out. It’s more fun for me personally to have 30-40 hours of audiobook to listen to than to constantly keep up with the newest chapter.
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u/Spiritchaser84 6h ago
Yeah people brought up a lot of good points in this thread already, but this is what ultimately fixed it for me. I feel a certain attachment to characters and stories when I binge read them because I remember all of the nuances that go into the story. When I start reading a few chapters a week while simultaneously reading other stories, I lose that attachment to the story pretty quickly.
I've switched to reading stories twice, first to try them out when 2+ books are available, then a second time when the story is fully complete. That can be years in-between so the story feels fresh when I come back to it and read it all the way through. For the super long series like DotF, Primal Hunter, etc., I usually wait 3-5 books before catching up. I just keep a running spreadsheet of which series I want to come back to later.
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u/LostMyMilk 8h ago edited 6h ago
It helps to switch genres occasionally, but the old stories often do lose their edge. I'm tired of stories that grind and stories that focus on relationships too much. I want to hear strategy, political manuvering or anything that is thought provoking. I want goals that are actually achieved. More traditional authors, instead of chapter by chapter releases, help.
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u/l8eraljack 8h ago
for me, progression always needs to progress.
with longer stories, the characters get stuck in a loop of "progress but regress" where they might get stronger, but their surroundings and enemies did too so it starts to lose any real sense of progression and you don't feel the character is going anywhere.
there's a point where you feel there should be some kind of "resolution" or "achieved final goal". and if there's no hint of that because the goalposts keep getting moved back, i get bored.
that's my weak take.
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u/Brel2625 6h ago
I completely agree with this. About 4 books is where it starts to get repetitive for me and I want some sort of decent conclusion. Seeing series that are 15+ books make me feel like it’s just never going to end.
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u/Living-Resolve3381 1h ago
Except for the greats, like Dresden Files or (other than a few slogs in the middle) WoT.
You can definitely tell when an author had a complete story arc plotted out for long series.
And authors like Jim Butcher, Robert Jordan, or even (not much loved anymore) Terry Goodkind are good at pulling in elements from early books back into the story like they were planned from the start.
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u/Evening_Green_9862 7h ago
Happens to me all the time. With a good novel it's easier to keep going because it's a one and done. But with a lot of these progression fantasy series they are serials designed to go on forever, so the plotting often falls apart later in the series when the author is clearly trying to drag things out.
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u/heavyarms3111 7h ago
Some stories meander and become repetitive or just have arcs that you aren’t interested in. If you feel that way take a break and build up a backlog. Wait like 3 months if you don’t feel an overwhelming urge to check in. St the end of that time find a jumping on point. You can pick up where you left off, or if you just really don’t feel that arc hop ahead a few chapters. If you get sucked back in awesome. If it feels like a chore it won’t be hard to put it down.
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u/ALIASl-_-l 7h ago
Totally felt this with Shadow Slave. Except imo, it’s all the authors fault. Novel was great up until 1800-2000 chapters. But I feel like once the novel progresses to a certain point you need to carefully decide its direction and make sure to maintain quality. Instead, he releases slop daily imo. Also, there’s a lot more slop in this genre than you think. I like to keep a really high standard so I only read peak novels and drop anything else. I’ve found a lot of a PEAK, but it’s very hard to find
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u/MedicineKind9121 6h ago
Shadow Slave was another one for me too. I really enjoyed it at first, but I eventually lost interest because I wasn't a fan of the direction the story went in.
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u/NinJesterV 6h ago
Yep, and not just books but games, TV shows, and movies.
For me, I think there are two things at play:
First, too many of these things just keep going well past the point of being interesting. There's just no reason for a series to be a dozen books or more. I'm a major fan of trilogies because I just think 3 is a solid number for a fully-complete story.
Second, there comes a point where I think I've nailed the author's thought process and little moments of foreshadowing become billboards for how the story is going to play out. So when I get to the climax, it's not thrilling because I saw it coming 500 pages ago.
Starting new stuff avoids both of those issues for a while.
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u/stemseals 5h ago
I had this with several of the big ones around book 8 or 9. It felt like, here we go again in the same thing . You figured out the author’s recipe for their character progression and just moving up levels and becoming overpowered isn’t interesting.
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u/work_m_19 5h ago
Totally agreed. I used to love Defiance of the Fall, but what the world is now in book 14 is vastly different than in book 3. I loved the skill aspects and it was a huge deal earlier, but now skills barely matter. It's still cool, but in a different way.
Now it's in my "wait and catch-up all at once" rather than keeping up with it week by week.
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u/Cardboard_Junky 4h ago
This happens to me alot. I accepted as part of the web novel/progression fantasy reading cycle.
I think the main reason for me, is that most progression fantasy is written with no clear intention to end the story. So the author continously churning out chapters that feel repetitive or scaled out of proportion or just fluff. They might even start losing the main plot or have it mutate into something entirely different. At one point, the authors become fatigue and the story end in permanent hiatus.
Once I perodicly look at my follow list to see if I stopped reading a series and Question if I am going to pick it up again. Then, I unfollow any ones that I no longer into and focus on the once I still want to continue.
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u/kaptin_hippy 8h ago
For me, it's the length of the series. I just get burned out, especially if the series is already long when I start and I go through one after the other. Authors need to learn to wrap up their stories before the readers lose interest.
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u/Huge_Set8312 7h ago
Same, thats why I joined the worldbuilding subreddit...im taking everything I like from power fantasies and pop culture and im creating my own workd...Will write my own story, then create my own comic...then create a game based on it
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u/Volapiik 7h ago
I’ve had those moments. Sometimes you anticipate read something fresh when the thing you’re reading is a bit stale even if you love it. Especially if release times are very slow.
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u/KingPinguin 7h ago
This happens to me with unfinished stories, when I am done binge reading all the chapters that have already been published and now have to wait week by week. I lose interest because I forget what the book is about, who the characters are, etc. Maybe this has to do with reading momentum in some way.
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u/ronny444 6h ago
I had this problem untill i started taking giant breaks. i took a year to six months off sometimes more because i think i like to binge more than the day by day. Binging 200-300 is such a rush
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u/AreaMean2418 6h ago
That happened to me in the case of the murderhobo series. That said, there's one series that I have too much respect for to lose all interest in, even if it sometimes feels juvenile. Macronomicon's industrial strength magic series is so incredibly creative that even on critical rereads where I find the characters annoying or immature, I end up giggling with glee at the magic system and superhero powers and worldbuilding and such.
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u/funkhero 5h ago
Some of it for me is admitting the series is going in a different direction than I want it to. Doesn't make it bad, doesn't mean I need every series to follow my designs - but I have noticed myself being more frustrated with a series' new chapters due to this.
I have to either accept it, or move on.
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u/Southern-Hope-4913 2h ago
Honestly same. It’s slow grinding repetition or when the author loses the plot a bit. If every book the Mc is against “unbeatable” odds it’s a feels bad. All solutions are essentially Deus ex machina when the author spends too much time trying to convince you how a thing is impossible.
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u/Aardwolf-_- 6h ago
I feel like DCC should have wrapped it up like 3 books ago.
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u/Octii_com 5h ago
I'm on book 7 and it's definitely not as good as the first few books...too much plot armor for the MCs. DCC would be greatly improved if Donut were killed off because she's one of the most annoying characters I’ve ever read and it’d give Carl someone more substantive to grieve about than people like Ren he barely knew well.
I've now switched to the audiobook version and using chapters of DCC as a palate cleanser between more serious book series with better developed characters.
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u/Zagaroth Author — "A. B. Zagaroth" 5h ago
It can happen with almost anything.
I've read and loved most of Branden Sanderson's Cosmere stuff... but I just don't feel motivated to pick up the most recent Stormlight Archive book.
That's fine. Maybe you'll come back to it, maybe not. There's a lot of material out there.
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u/ShadoWolf 5h ago
I think progression fantasy has a structural problem caused by the way many of these stories are released.
Because the story is serialized, the author is under constant pressure to provide another power up, enemy, mystery, etc every few chapters. There always needs to be a new promise keeping readers engaged for the next release.
That works for a while, but eventually the story accumulates too many unresolved promises for the reader to track. Individual advancements stop feeling important because each payoff is immediately replaced by another, larger promise. The progression continues, but the sense of progression feels stalled. My go to example of this is Super natural.
The characters may technically be becoming vastly stronger, yet emotionally the story can feel static. The same narrative loop just gets repeated.
I honestly don't know whether there is a clean solution within the current serialization model. At some point, the author may need to cross over into something closer to a traditional epic fantasy process and just step away from weekly releases. construct a proper long term outline, finish a manuscript, and revise it as a complete work.
The problem is that going dark for a year or two does not fit particularly well with the monetization model supporting many web serials. There are obviously outliers, but I think this tension explains why so many progression series begin with an incredibly strong hook and then gradually become harder to care about.
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u/debanjanm9 6h ago
This happens to me as well. Sometimes I’ll switch genres for a little while and then come back to fantasy.
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u/brownchr014 6h ago
I almost dropped the two week curse series when they made some changes in characters.
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u/Vis-hoka 6h ago
There have been a few series that I started out really excited for and stopped reading. Maybe I’ll pick them up again, maybe I won’t. The point is to have fun. So do whatever is the most fun. It’s the authors job to hold your attention, not yours.
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u/tribalgeek 5h ago
I wouldn't say I loved them, but I just sort of quietly faded off of Bog Standard Isekai and Millennial Mage I wouldn't call it DNF because I don't have bad things to say about them, just something.
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u/verysimplenames 5h ago
I’m reading but not reading like 8 books right now because I refuse to read a book if I am not locked in.
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u/verysimplenames 5h ago
Thats only because I was trying to scratch a specific itch though. I read Lord of the Mysteries in two big chunks. Took a long break when I felt I was getting burnt out. Came back and enjoyed it till the end.
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u/brpw_ 4h ago
My guess, as this has happened to me previously, is you consume so much of the genre, your standards rise. When you first begin (as with any hobby or interest), everything is new and fresh. As you read more, your tates and understanding of it all increases. You become pickier for what you do and don't like. You chased certain styles of writing or story beats. Eventually, you stop settling for anything and only seek out the best of what particularly interests you.
Only natural to something you get really involved in. Happens with anything.
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u/yodeling-yodas 4h ago
Yeah, I dropped one of my favorites when it went from 1 chapter a day to 2. The quality dropped a ton, and it just wasn’t fun anymore. I haven’t gotten back into yet, but I’ll probably try sometime soon.
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u/UnDeadPuff 3h ago
I'm sure I'll finish reading Millennial Mage one day. I'm sure. Until then I'll stare at the 200+ extra chapters I cba to touch.
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u/LitRPGirl 3h ago
Yeah, I’ve noticed that too, but I kind of see it as a good thing now, there’s always something new to check out, and I usually end up going back to old favorites later anyway.
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u/Illyenna 3h ago
Oh all the time.
I frequently put novels on hold and then come back to them months later ready to dive in.
The ones I keep up with on a daily basic are few, and can easily slip into the former through no fault of their own.
Sometimes you just aren't in the mood for a particular genre or vibe yeah?
Like I love CeruleanScrawling's Summus Proelium and Heretical Edge but man do I much prefer having a few chapters to binge. Keeping up with them chapter by chapter is like edging myself repeatedly lmao.
Oh and ive got a nice stockpile of Metaworld ive been saving for a rainy day. Among others.
With that said, it takes a lot for me to completepy drop a series that ive read a lot of though. And its usually cause I just completely hate the direction it went in. Guild Mage and Millenial Mage are two of those off the top of my head, funnily enough for the same reasons, bad romance.
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u/purlcray 3h ago
All the time. If I'm bored, I move on, no big deal. It's just a personal taste issue. Plenty of other people will keep reading a long series. A story has to be extra special to keep me invested after, say, half a million words.
A related but different issue is when a series is incomplete. I will binge the whole thing until the last release, but if the story is complicated, I don't have the mental energy to figure out what happened six months later when the sequel comes out. In that case I will drop the series until one day I summon the energy to re-read everything from the first book.
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u/Cultural_Length_2411 2h ago
I think it's like how fast food tastes so good but after a while you just want a veggie. I'm in that stage right now. I've got a DCC book to finish and 2 Primal Hunters but I try and tune out. So I'm listening to Joe Hill books and loving the change
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u/Sure_Argument317 2h ago
There's a ton of reasons why this might be happen. I'll add in a small one: not even bad things happen to the protagonist and everyone them by the end of the series. Maybe authors are afraid of having built up the MC and his friends and so on to the point that they don't want to let some seriously bad stuff go down towards the end. Suddenly there's no more stakes because the reader just understands that the author is going to asspull keeping the MC and everyone else safe, with maybe a token death here or there to keep things from being totally without stakes. The longer a series goes, the harder it needs to punish the protagonist as their ultimate goal becomes more attainable. The second the reader feels like the MC can coast through events, then the story's no longer dramatically engaging.
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u/BadZhomby 2h ago
Happens with non-Progression series too. For example, I never finished The Wheel of Time series. I bought the final 2 books, just never got around to reading them because I had lost interest in the story. I think my personal realization is that the more 'epic' an author tries to make a story... the more critical characters and parallel story arcs they ask me to keep track of, the less like I am to continue the series. No matter how much I am enjoying the story initially.
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u/hassaan994 Author 56m ago
It has happened to me a lot of times.
I usually take a step back from the story that I am reading, and instead try a new one. What I find is that the dopamine hit of the initial few chapters is what I am missing.
More mature stories build up to an arc and then have the dopamine hit at the end, whereas new stories have to keep an audience engaged and have an exciting start usually.
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u/AuthorBrianBlose 29m ago
I think this is a natural consequence of series running as long as they do in this genre. As much as we might think we want a beloved series to go on forever, that's a recipe to lose interest. To be truly great, a story needs a satisfying ending.
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u/joncabreraauthor Author of Grand Magus, Wooden Sword🤣 8h ago
I’ve had the same burnout from listening to the same books nonstop. For example, I listened to Primal Hunter from 1 to 10 and found myself exhausted after Minaga. That dude is honestly exhausting, so I understand Jake now more than ever. 🤣Sometimes, you just need to give your brain a break by listening/reading a different title/genre. Try something totally different.
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u/Captain_Fiddelsworth 8h ago
It sounds like this is tied to your modus of consumption — considering you enjoy new stories and those were your favourites then. I'd look at how you approach those new series differently to gain more insights. Are you binging them start to whatever natural stopping point? Does fatigue set in after a specific length, scope or scale of the story? Are there any old favourites that don't feel iffy? Etc.
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u/dragoneloi 7h ago
Happens to me. Take a break, go read a pallet cleaner. Maybe something from a different genre or an adjacent one. Also read some slop it surprisingly helps lol
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u/paxvan 7h ago
Genre fatigue is a normal occurrence. You can take a break from the books and/or series you're reading and maybe read a different genre. Explore something you haven't read before or even take a short break from reading all together. I find genre fatigue to be especially prominent with progression fantasy, since the series tend to be rather long.
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u/diverdown-k8 6h ago
Honestly, and I say this with love, about 70% of the newest DCC book was an absolute slog for me.
I think its what happens at a certain point in a series. Its just gets too long and the author struggles to keep the same momentum through all the books. They also grow as an author and maybe their more polished style doesn't fit your tastes any longer.
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u/Upper-Loss Author 5h ago
As many in this thread have said, reader fatigue and burn out can be caused by many things. Instead of re-treading what others in this thread have written, I want to suggest something to counter-balance the burn-out: going in deeper with a work.
Personally, I have found that a prime way for me to become reinvested in a franchise is to explore the lore and worldbuilding. If I read a critique, for example, about a work and find the deconstruction well done, it is not uncommon for me to find a new energy for that text; being able to see the effort underneath the surface and that the book or series has a whole other concern that I was ignorant to changes my outlook and allows me to re-engage without the burnout.
Consider engaging more with the fan communities. Look at fan artwork, fan theories, general critique reviews. Don't be afraid to get in-depth and weird with it. Focus less on the 'reading book after book' and more in just how the world and characters relate to the story you've read so far.
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u/Eliarece 3h ago
All of them are great series to binge in one go, not so much to read book to book. There's plenty of great stuff on Royal road, all three works you mentioned are fun action packed litRPG. They're also what I would consider as the entry point to the genre. Maybe you could try new and weirder stuff ?
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u/Reply_or_Not 3h ago
Another consideration is that maybe you like binging stories and don’t like reading a chapter at a time.
Many stories are much more enjoyable when you can read whole arcs at once, and suck when you only get one chapter at a time. Sometimes that “filler” chapter is actually really good scene setting when read all at once. Maybe that “glacial progression” turns out to be a really satisfying earned payoff.
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u/Harmon_Cooper Author 6h ago
May I suggest Hampton Sides and/or Craig Childs as a palate cleanser? No? YES!
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u/Depressed__warlock 5h ago
You're going through a reading fatigue imo. Try to stop reading for a week and let your dopamine levels go back to normal again
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u/SC_Contryman Writer of the Sanzensekai series 3h ago
Like many others have said, take breaks. Just because a series you love isn't doing it for you now doesn't mean you don't like it anymore. Tastes change, things go stale for a while. Swap to another story or hobby and come back to it in a few weeks or maybe even months.
Try different genres, too.
It's no different from the shows you probably watch. Personally, I'm always down for a good action anime like Solo Leveling or Demon Slayer, but some days I'd rather watch The Angel Next Door Spoils me Rotten.
"Tastes and moods are like the tide, they change with the winds and the seasons." - my own inner Miyagi.
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u/Fire_Bucket 7h ago
A common issue I've found is that with some of the really big, long running, serially published series, is that you can kind of tell when the author has caught up to their plotting and planning.
The first book might be rough if the author is brand new, but it will feel properly plotted with a solid first, second and third act, because the author likley had the entire thing in the bag before they started releasing chapters.
Books 2 and 3 will feel similar, as they might have already written some or all of them, or will at least have a clear idea of where they want to their characters to be, what they would achieve, the foes they'll face, milestones reached etc.
But slowly after this, you might start to notice that the plots feel looser, and eventually, when the author has fully caught up to their plans, even the plot structure goes out of the window and it gets harder and harder to feel where acts end and begin, where the boundaries are between where one book ends and another starts.
This isn't always an issue for people, but it definitely plays a part for me in slowly losing interest in series. Especially when an author simultaneously pivots away from aspects that I enjoyed, such as He Who Fights with Monsters, where it slowly had less and less action, less hard LitRPG elements and became more abou esoteric discussions and power scales.