It continues! On Saturday I jumped back onto a livestream with S.E. Reid to talk all about Crafting serial fiction, and this time the focus was on preparation and all the things you need to do and think about before you start publishing a serial.
Don’t be fooled by my rambling and fluffy intro: there’s some good stuff in here (especially from Sally) once we get into it.
You can catch up on part 1 here:
In part 2 we discuss:
The fundamentals: finish the manuscript first, or publish as you go?
Outlining: plan ahead, or make it up as you go?
Structure: where are the chapter breaks? What is the narrative structure of your story?
Themes: staying on track and using them as your compass
Characters: quick tips for creating compelling character arcs
Scheduling: weekly? Monthly? Daily??
Workload: how to figure out how much time you actually have for the project
Buffers: should you have one?
Presentation: checklist of resources you need before publishing, from a visual identity to an index
Thanks for watching! Hope it was a useful time. Thanks to everyone who showed up live and contributed questions.
Meanwhile.
My new short story appears to have gone down pretty well, which was a relief and a bit of a surprise as it’d an odd one. You can check it out here:
Short story: We Go To The Pit
Today I have a (very) short story that was an experiment in rapid writing. Being an experiment, it may well fail. Let me know in the comments. More thoughts and behind-the-scenes down below, including the real-life inspirations.
I’ve been reading some interesting stuff of late. Here’s a little round-up:
Sam Kriss isn’t someone to mince his words:
Also on AI, it was interesting to see tech firm PR being questioned on a relatively mainstream news show recently:
Elsewhere, Substack CEO Chris Best chatted with the Sources podcast and it’s worth a watch if you’re using Substack for your work (it’s actually only briefly about AI):
Locally to me, James Kinsley wrote about the reality of writer events:
I popped along to the fair James is writing about and it was an unfortunate mix of timing: the main library was closed for refurbishment, which meant no footfall from eager readers passing by. All the signage outside the building was for the upcoming games festival; you’d have no idea as someone walking past that there was a book fair. It was lovely to catch up with James and some other familiar faces, but the odds were frustratingly stacked against them.
There has to be A Better Way. Books, being entirely non-visual, are inherently tricky things to show off at a fair. The delight of a book is in the quiet, probably private reading of the thing, and that’s really difficult to translate into ‘an event’.
Talking of which, Abigail Monti has been thinking about how to liven up author events:
Back when I was working at the National Centre for Writing, my colleague Sam Ruddock was building incredible literature experiences as a reaction against dull author readings. Custom-built sets, weird locations, a mix of literature and theatre…it was good, experimental stuff. Here’s a rough edit of an event from way back in 2017, which is probably unlike any author reading you’ve been to:
OK, that’s it for this week. Thanks for reading.
