One Piece at a Time

I've been thinking about serials. Not killers, not at the moment, anyway. I'm talking about old school serial novels published in magazines or newspapers. If you were anyone in the Victorian era, you published your book in serial form first, and then in a single volume. Everyone did it. Arthur Conan Doyle. Alexandre Dumas. Harriet Beecher Stowe.

Now, obviously, this has something to do with only offering Part One of my story last week (it still doesn't have a name). I have realized that I can release this thing, and future… things, piece by piece.

This brings up a new can of worms regarding formatting. Or structure, I guess. Each piece needs to have its own story arc. Like a TV episode. There's an big arc for the whole season, but there's also an arc for each episode. I am intrigued by this.

Nothing much happens in Part One. Maybe it's just a teaser trailer. Each subsequent piece can be like its own self-contained plot, while still working toward the overall goal. To be honest, this would be good practice for me. I'm not great at plot arcs. Doing them over and over would seem to be the solution.

What do you think? Would you like some serialized fiction, where you get a new "episode" every week? I'm not sure how long each story would last. It would probably depend on the story. Some might only take 3-4 episodes, some might be longer.

You know, over in the fan fiction world (which we don't talk about, shhh), it's pretty common to publish one chapter at a time. Then you get reader feedback as you go, and that can change the direction of the story. A story that was supposed to be five chapters long might end up being 50 if there is demand for its continuation.

That has something to do with why Victorian era novels were so long. They were published in magazines and newspapers, and they were paid by the word or the line. It was like they were doing NaNoWriMo and padding the hell out of their word count. So if you're reading a novel from that era, and it seems like the author just likes to hear themselves talk, this might be why. I mean, if the readership is enjoying it, and you’re getting paid, why wouldn't you stretch the hell out of that story.

So, unless there are any objections, I'm going to try this out. For the moment, I think I'll publish each part of the story on Fridays, though if I ever manage to get my shit together, I might try to change up the format, with each post containing a ramble about whatever, and a piece of a story. We'll see.

And I’ll see you Friday.