Web Serial Fiction discussion

So, I'm fairly new to the world of web serial blogs. I've been writing for quite awhile, and I've been published in a few scientific journals, and I have my own blog, but I've had a fiction idea tickling the back of my mind for some time now. The more I analyzed it, the more I felt that a serial blog was the right medium for it. Therefore, I was extremely happy when I finally found this group. Now, I have a starting off point to find other blog fiction and try to get a feel for what works.

As I work my way through the various threads, I'll definitely be checking out everyone's work. In the mean time, if there's any advice you could give that would be helpful before I start putting finger to keyboard, it would be greatly appreciated. I think that this is a great medium, and I really think that it's one of the purest forms of writing right now. While I haven't necessarily started yet, I'm looking forward to the journey. Any information would be incredibly helpful. Thank you very much.

I've actually wrote a few articles, not only for my own blog but on EzineArticles and Broowaha about my process of writing, not only in general but serial fiction specifically.

I agree with it being a pure form of writing, mainly because its not really pushed through an editor, or edited so many times its crazy. As its written weekly, it has to stay organic, and evolve as you go, instead of write a bunch, then reedit it all. I enjoy the idea of knowing that once I post it, its more or less set in stone (sure you can go back and edit it on the blog, but people have already read it...). I think it keeps you from second guessing earlier points in the story, and keeps you moving forward.

Inbox me if you want my specific links to those articles of mine I mentioned, don't know if they'll help you, so I didn't want to just link them all here.

Go ahead and linke them, Dan. I think we'd be interested, in particular the about the ones concerning serial fiction.

Thanks!

Hi Max, I've been writing an on-line serial for about 2 years. If there were a single piece of advice I could offer it would to place your character(s) in a situation or set of circumstances that has no easy solution. Instead of one great challenge have them needing to overcome several of them. This gives you several different directions in which you can take your story if in fact you begin running out of episode ideas's. You know just little campfires burning in the background that each in themselves could erupt into a massive uncontrollable fire. The other is character arch. Where is your character now in relation to others, circumstances, attitudes, disappointments etc. and where do you want to see them lets say 50 episodes from now. Please do yourself a favor and visit the website Tuesday serial. There you will see many different serials being added to each week including mine @ cardinalmeadows.com Good luck with your writing. Noel

Hm. This probably would make a great topic for a blog. (I have been off a few weeks so am neither blogging or caught up here, so welcome!)

I think one of the things that is important to do is to devise a list/outline of points you want to drive across - whether it be plot points down the road or character issues you want to develop. I've seen a few people run into a problem after the first month or two of posting whereby they don't know where to go next or write themselves into a corner. Knowing your "ends" or "goals" can help you avoid that kind of situation.

I also recommend writing with a big buffer when starting out and trying to keep to a schedule as you develop that buffer so you have a good idea of what your posting frequency will be. It's better to try to keep to a schedule, not only for your own accountability, but to cultivate a relationship with readers.

Frances wrote: "Go ahead and linke them, Dan. I think we'd be interested, in particular the about the ones concerning serial fiction.

Thanks!"

Hey Frances, here are 3 links:

Broowaha published this one called "Blogging, Serial Fiction, and My Process" where I break down my own process when it comes to Serial Fiction coming from the standpoint of enjoying to write novel length fiction:
http://www.broowaha.com/articles/1500...

On my own blog, I wrote two posts entitled An Essay on Writing, where I went into my thought process on writing in general, but touched specifically on Serial Fiction in both posts, including my very first steps into the genre:

http://abrainlessnod.blogspot.com/201...
http://abrainlessnod.blogspot.com/201...

Anyways, not sure if they'll be of help to anyone, but I wrote them to be of help to anyone who wanted to write, whether it be serial fiction or anything else. No matter how it works, I always enjoy reading about other people's styles and processes just to see how others do it, even if I never get close to adopting their ideas.

Also, this one was just published on Broowaha. Entitled "A True Story of Writing Serial Fiction." Not really hints or tips, but kind of a memoir about my experiences so far writing serial webfiction.

http://www.broowaha.com/articles/1525...

Ah - I'm glad to see more posts in this forum. I'll take a look at these links and maybe poking some of you later . Currently I'm keeping a blog on the whole webfiction thing and my thoughts/concerns about the content delivery platform. You can get to it directly at

http://online-novel-blog.blogspot.com/

(Or if you forget, use online-novel.com)

Josh: I hate to say it, but unless Amazon serials does some serious work to get writers who understand serials (and not rely on chopping up novels) I don't know that the perception would improve. I have read a few of the experiments and hate to say it -- the only serial I like that I have would be the Vonnegut short story collection. I'll have to look deeper into their catalog but honestly am bored with what I see so far.

Malissa - Wattpad is free and makes no claim or request to be exclusive. Webfiction Guide and Muses Success are simply directories you can point to you work. Some of the others though are exclusive based on what others have said (or at least for a certain time). Like you, I don't want to lose control of my own identity/brand at all so I won't publish anywhere that requires exclusivity.

Josh - Yeah, I'm aware of Jukepop and have been looking at the app on the iPhone. I'll be interested to see if they can expand their platform reach in the next year. EatYourSerial and SerialTeller attempted paid serial fic the last few years and Teller looks dead. EatYourSerial looks like they're still trying to publish, but I don't think either market effectively.

Their numbers are pretty abysmal in terms of reach:

http://online-novel-blog.blogspot.com...


Jukepop has some very nice features, but expanding visits is important both for authors and long-term sustainability of the platform.

Amazon picked up Collective Inkwell to write "Z2132" and "Monstrous" as Kindle Serials.

Those two guys already had 5 ongoing serial titles out on Amazon, before they were signed by 47North (Amazon).

Most of their serials were already popular, including Yesterdays Gone. I expect Amazon may start looking at indie authors more closely for future signings.

Okay, so I'm a newbie to writing groups outside of my past college experience with classmates. I have a personal blog that is not popular because I didn't update often and had no direction. It was kind of a hodgepodge of writing examples. I don't want to publish novels for free for everyone to read and lost inspiration. I've recently stumbled upon serial fiction as being a source for writers to express themselves. I plan to create one shortly and I'm looking for any pointers about how to get foot traffic outside of the reposting on links in a previous post on here. What hashtags are the most relevant that bring people in? How do you reach out to people who aren't writers looking for a read, but readers looking to read? Also, I'm tempted to go zombpocalypse because it would be easy to make a cliffhanger every week, but is this overdone and tasteless these days? If it is, I'd probably lean toward historical fiction based on roman time period. I was thinking that may be boring to most people. Most of my current inspiration is based on those two topics for a short while now, but I don't want to write something if nobody will care to read it. Any thoughts?

Thomas,
There are many ways to reach readers, and I'm hoping others will chime in here because they are way better at it than I am. For one thing, you can post your serial at a number of great sites, webfiction guide, epiguide, textnovel, wattpad etc. I'm not very current on which ones are most frequented now, but all you successful serials out there, help me out and chime in. :)
As to genre, I'd say write what you will love to write and don't worry about trends or what is hot or not. You will have to enjoy it enough to keep it going, and the writing will be better if you love the story.
So that's my best two cents. Let's hope the others have more advice too.

Glad you're here,
Frances

S.G. wrote: "Josh - Yeah, I'm aware of Jukepop and have been looking at the app on the iPhone. I'll be interested to see if they can expand their platform reach in the next year. EatYourSerial and SerialTelle..."

There are big things coming up from Jukepop (which I am not allowed to talk about). It's one of the reasons I started up ""Watchmage" again. As soon as I get the ok to talk about it, I'll message you :)

I've been lurking for a little while. I know someone who is trying out the serial format but has really just gotten started. He says he's not ready yet to post his work to any of the sites mentioned above -- still honing his writing craft. I'm encouraging him to start participating here. It has already been helpful to see what others are doing.

Thanks for any advice you can give to a young author.
Cyndy