I’m guest posting over on Beth Fred’s blog today On Writing Serials! (NOW LIVE!)
Hop over to see which serials are successful, what makes them so, and how writing serials is not the easy way out. After I wrote that post, I came across this fascinating post about serialized fiction in TV: Episodic Appeal. It talks about the different narrative arcs in serialized storytelling and how it is changing with the ways that television is consumed – it’s worth the read.
Storytelling is hard, no matter how you do it.
I enjoy reading them, but I'm not sure I could write them.
I will say they're some of the hardest writing I've done. And I wouldn't be able to do this now, if I hadn't been playing with the novella/short form last summer. But I was saying the same thing, while I was watching RaShelle Workman put out her serial: "Wow that's cool. And yeah, I totally couldn't ever do that." What's changed? The right story at the right time in the right format, demanding to be written.
Sometimes I truly think we're not completely in control of this creative process. 🙂
Heading over to check it out, Susan! As someone who writes an ongoing short fiction series, I'm curious to see what your thoughts are. Judging by your comment above, I'm guessing you find them difficult but rewarding–just like me. 🙂
Absolutely – toughest writing I’ve ever loved! 🙂
Fantastic article! My series falls into the Law and Order type series where there's a familiar pattern, each story ends on it's own but there is a prevailing connection and characters which span from one episode to the next. The serials that really frustrate me and the ones that end in a cliffhanger. I'm seeing more and more of those. I think we grew out of them with the Lone Ranger and Batman.
I'm not generally a fan of classic cliffhangers either – but stories that have a strong continuing arc, that aren't completely self-contained like Law and Order, I do enjoy. I think there's a range of readers (and writers) for all story types – thank goodness!
Hopping over to Beth's place…
Sounds interesting! On my way:)