Thoughts Revisited: Serialization
Highlighting helpful comments from the community
I sometimes host threads called “Storyletter Thoughts.” Whenever I do, I respond to everyone and try to ask questions. It’s been less enticing due to time constraints (and Notes), so I’ve been prompting fewer discussions, but past comments from the community are still incredibly insightful.
Revisiting these threads is my way of looping in new readers, highlighting valuable comments, and inviting further discussion. I want to start with one applicable to many writers on Substack, and that is serializing fiction online. In this thread from April 2022, members explained their experiences with serialized stories based on the below premise:
I’ve only written two novels in my life and both have been serialized online over the span of a year. Both were relatively bad overall, but had die-hard readers that followed each chapter along the way. At what point does the novelty outweigh the quality? And do readers really care? Let me know what your experience with reading and writing serial fiction has been like. Can’t wait to hear your thoughts!
Community Thoughts
- said that she was serializing her first novel, “Of Wind and Wolves.” Publishing one chapter a week for 50 chapters (and weeks) kept her motivated to revise her chapters as she went for almost a full year. She was looking forward to feedback from readers and hoped to eventually self-publish her novel at the end of it. Based on her comment, I now realize this was the first rumbling of The Library.
Winston’s follow-up: I’m curious to hear from J.M. Elliott after completing the first book in the series and now prepping the sequel. Are there any lessons learned? Successes to be implemented once more, or things to be improved upon?
- stated that he was new to reading and writing serial fiction but that it was fun and convenient. Thomas pondered the commitment it might take to release an entire novel this way. However, he was hopeful to try it in the future.
Winston’s follow-up: Tom, you’ve published more adventures since this discussion. Were you able to tackle this goal in the way you wanted? Have you experienced success with shorter serials as opposed to extended works?
- explained that reading serial fiction is more difficult than writing it. T had completed 2+ books by posting almost daily, focusing on concise chapters, and the interaction helped with motivation to keep going.
Winston’s follow-up: T, you stated that one novel was written ahead versus the other that was “real-time.” Which did you prefer? Do you think chapter length is vital to keeping readers engaged and wanting more?
- expressed that reading a wall of text on the phone is not ideal but that writing serially was an insightful process nonetheless. Victor said publishing a serial novel as a first draft wouldn’t work for him due to the number of errors and inconsistencies that could potentially push new readers away.
Winston’s follow-up: Victor, are you still publishing short stories and writing in the Mega Universe? How many rounds of edits are the sweet spot for you before you’re comfortable posting a chapter or story online for others to read?
- highlighted that people enjoy the novelty of serialized fiction narratives instead of the formulaic structure of some stories (most notably the remakes in Hollywood). Matthew stated that quality is not always the most significant factor for genre fiction readers as long as it’s legible and can be followed easily. Episodic fiction aligned with Matthew’s style, and it helped push him toward completing his goals.
Winston’s follow-up: Matthew, do you have any updates with your podcast that you’d like to share? How has writing scripts and serial stories for the Arthadian Anthologies podcast informed your process for engaging listeners and new audiences? Do you utilize cliffhangers, or are your episodes wrapped up neatly each time?
Additional Discussion
Of course, I’d love to hear from everyone on this, especially those that have written extensively about serialization. If you already have posts on the subject, feel free to link them in the comments to help out those who may not be familiar with your work.
As for me, I’ve started my third serialized novel over on From the Tales of Havek. I know I’ll have to commit to it until the end. It’s the only way to finish novels as my motivation wanes rapidly unless I have external psychological pressure. I just wish that I could stay ahead of the deadlines.
What has been your experience reading and writing serial fiction? Let us know in the comments. Thanks for joining the discussion! ~ WM
Novelty, tone, feel, and, what I can only describe as, 'otherworldliness' I think are more important for genre fiction than the quality. But writing quality feeds back into how well those things come across. On SubStack I've read Scoot's 'Sandbox Earth', the start of his, on hiatus, 'Adventures of Tylus Worran', began Sujan's 'Project Fable', and am planning on starting M. Marpaung's 'Inquisitor's Promise' soon. All very different in style, genre, and tone, all bright gems of novelty. I could deep dive into the writing but there's little point because when reading, I have two broad categories - The Story and The Writing. In The Story is the plot, worldbuilding, characterisations, etc. While The Writing is all about the style, quality of said style, voice, etc. If The Story is top notch then The Writing becomes less important in the overall review. If, however, The Writing impedes the story then there's no novelty that can save it. The Writing impeding the story, however, may not be a quality issue but rather that I'm not jelling with it (which is how I am with many, many new release tradpub books in speculative fiction).
My number 1 measure of quality in writing is rhythm. When writing advice is saying to vary sentence length, word length, and such, this is what it is meaning. Rhythm is crucial for keeping the reader reading. If the fiction comes across like a text book or a Terms and Conditions then I'm out and many other readers will be too. It's boring and no amount of novelty will save a writer from this. Fiction requires musicality to the prose, highs lows, loud quiet, fast slow, discords cords, to flow at its best. Do it in whatever style you want, so long as it's rhythmic.
I've written a few serialised stories. A novel, a few novellas (mostly 10 chapters long), and have a new one coming this week (though the 1st chapter was a One Shot). I didn't have much of a readership before but gained traction with Notes and short stories over the last 2 months, so this is both an experiment and return to form for me. The idea is One Shots on Tuesday and serial chapters on Thursday. Hopefully readers come along for the ride.
I just started a story that ended up serializing itself. I thought it was going to be a one-shot short story, but apparently it had other ideas. I've never successfully serialized something before, and the response has been quiet, but it's been a good exercise in writing discipline so far!