Serial fiction toolkit
If you want to write serial fiction, you’ve come to the right place. I’ve been writing and publishing online since 2015. Serial storytelling is an absolute joy and I will happily talk about it endlessly. As you’re about to find out.
How to write serial fiction index
This is a 22 chapter guide to writing serial fiction, taking you from understanding the core form of serial storytelling, through plotting and themes, character creation, plot twists and much more, all the way through to hitting the ‘publish’ button.
The Novel vs The Serial: exploring the structural differences
There’s been an odd thing in television in the last decade. The injection of vast amounts of streaming money, combined with HBO raising the production value expectations of TV with Game of Thrones (2011-2019), prompted a shift in the types of stories being told.
The temporal aspect of serials
In last week’s Tales from the Triverse chapter I revisited a character from the prologue and continued her story. Due to writing my books in serial form, chapter-by-chapter, week-by-week, this takes on a peculiar and slightly magical resonance, at least for some readers.
Almost everything you need to know about writing online serial fiction
A curious quirk of writing a newsletter is that a lot of you reading now weren’t around a month ago, or a year ago, or two years ago. Today, I’m taking a moment to pull together a handy List of Useful Things that I’ve published since 2021.
Want to talk about writing serial fiction?
A huge, somewhat unexpected benefit of writing a regular newsletter and seeing it grow over the last three years has been watching this community flourish. Not just on Write More, but across the newsletter space generally: there are so many more writers of serial fiction working on projects now than when I started my newsletter in 2021.
How to publish a serial story in a newsletter
I’ve been writing serial fiction for nine years. Prior to discovering the joys of serial storytelling I’d never really found a way to be consistently productive. Serialising my stories has entirely obliterated my writer’s block.
Does publishing online ruin your chances of finding a traditional publisher?
A question that I’ve seen crop up repeatedly over the last ten years is whether putting your work online is a bad idea for your long-term writing career. The worry, quite reasonably, is that once the work has been released there’s no longer a chance to publish it in other forms; especially through a traditional publisher.
Types of serialisation: your thoughts!
Last week I published an article about different forms of serialisation. I also asked in Chat for your thoughts, which produced so many good responses I’ve decided to spin them out into this follow-up post.
Different types of serial storytelling
Let’s talk about modes of serial storytelling. I mean, to be fair, I’m always banging on about serial storytelling, but today I’m going to attempt to deconstruct different approaches across various mediums.
Deadlines are vital
My son was born in 2012, triggering an abrupt realisation that I was going to die.
Accountability & writing in public
Couple of bits in the newsletter today. An update on sales figures for No Adults Allowed (spoiler: don’t get excited), a preview of my first attempt at a comic, and thoughts on accountability and announcing your creative intentions in public.
The problem with long form serials
Last week I published chapter 51 of Tales from the Triverse, the weekly serial I’m putting out through this newsletter. It’s free to read, I’m pretty pleased with how it’s turning out so far and I’ve had good feedback from readers.
Publish your first drafts!
I was listening to a recent episode of the excellent podcast Ctrl Alt Delete, featuring guest author Matt Bell talking about his novel writing guide book Refuse to be Done. It’s a very good listen:
The magic of long-form storytelling
A single, self-contained story can be a beautiful thing. Today I’m going to muse on the other end of the spectrum, though: the long-running, on-going serial. This can take many forms: corporate mega-franchises, television series, multi-book series, comics.
Dispatches from the serial frontier
I posted my first Substack newsletter on July 12 2021. Those first half dozen newsletters were fumbles in the dark, as I tried to figure out what format best suited Substack.