Excellent advice, Simone ... serializing a story is much different than writing a series of standalones or a whole novel (I've published 6 novels) ... and yes you have 2 wonderful commenters. What happens to me is I write an initial story and THEN I think, "Hey, this could be serialized." I've got to try to write at least 5 chapters before pubbing ...
Same here. My Goldilocks series started as a rather long story in Redemption Magazine on Medium. Then I published it as a two parts on my website. After that, I just kept writing and it grew into seven parts here on Substack. Now it looks like the character is demanding a sequel.
Thanks for bigging me up as a beta reader - I’m happy to help where I can and am loving the series.
With this & my other pen name I write serialised fiction and I pants it - writing a new chapter a few days ahead of its publishing date- that works for me as motivation.
I have a loose idea of the story arc & some events en route- but much of the time my characters have an influence on the action.
I consider the online version of these series as my first draft & I benefit from absorbing reader feedback.
Your wise advice makes me think I might be missing out the personal development of my MC. If so, Hopefully I can fix that with revisions.
Thanks for all your help Posy. As I say in the post, it's whatever works for you. I am a great one for getting to a certain point and then thinking, Aah, and sitting back and thinking about it for a week or two - not great for a serial. I'm going to write another article on character motivations and backstory (when I get a chance) although I did write this one a while ago https://simonefrancis.substack.com/p/does-my-character-need-a-backstory
Excellent advice, Simone ... serializing a story is much different than writing a series of standalones or a whole novel (I've published 6 novels) ... and yes you have 2 wonderful commenters. What happens to me is I write an initial story and THEN I think, "Hey, this could be serialized." I've got to try to write at least 5 chapters before pubbing ...
Same here. My Goldilocks series started as a rather long story in Redemption Magazine on Medium. Then I published it as a two parts on my website. After that, I just kept writing and it grew into seven parts here on Substack. Now it looks like the character is demanding a sequel.
I definitely agree pre-planning is best. Shows that writing well is a journey.
Thanks for bigging me up as a beta reader - I’m happy to help where I can and am loving the series.
With this & my other pen name I write serialised fiction and I pants it - writing a new chapter a few days ahead of its publishing date- that works for me as motivation.
I have a loose idea of the story arc & some events en route- but much of the time my characters have an influence on the action.
I consider the online version of these series as my first draft & I benefit from absorbing reader feedback.
Your wise advice makes me think I might be missing out the personal development of my MC. If so, Hopefully I can fix that with revisions.
Thanks for all your help Posy. As I say in the post, it's whatever works for you. I am a great one for getting to a certain point and then thinking, Aah, and sitting back and thinking about it for a week or two - not great for a serial. I'm going to write another article on character motivations and backstory (when I get a chance) although I did write this one a while ago https://simonefrancis.substack.com/p/does-my-character-need-a-backstory
I shall read it avidly!
Having written a 20+ episode cosy romance, I’m now writing the origin story of 1 of its side characters (as a fantasy adventure).