The Novel vs The Serial: exploring the structural differences
A serial does not have to be a slow-release novel
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.
For all the excellent shows that have been produced as a result, there’s also been a collection of oddly-paced shows that manage to feel simultaneously too slow and too fast. Where characters never quite click, and plots feel convoluted, and pacing is simply…off. The Star Wars Disney+ shows are especially prone to this, and my personal theory is that a lot of the creative teams think of the format as a ‘long movie’ rather than as an episodic television show.
Eric Kripke, showrunner on The Boys, addressed this back in 2022:
“As a network guy who had to get you people interested for 22 fucking hours a year, I didn’t get the benefit of, ‘Oh, just hang in there and don’t worry. The critics will tell you that by episode eight, shit really hits the fan.’ Or anyone who says, ‘Well, what I’m really making is a 10-hour movie.’ Fuck you! No, you’re not! Make a TV show. You’re in the entertainment business.” Erik Kripe, Variety interview
Anyway, I’ve written about TV in more detail before, so I won’t rehash that.
Today I’m more interested in how a similar debate exists for serial fiction, and how it relates to other forms such as the novel.
Quick preface before we continue: none of this is intended as a diatribe on what you should or shouldn’t do. Publish whatever you want! That’s the beauty of controlling your own publishing route. A good story is a good story.
The Serial Vs The Novel
OK, ‘vs’ is perhaps a little hyperbolic. It’s not a zero-sum game.
First, let’s think about the fundamental differences in how they function. Not so much in terms of storytelling, but in practical terms for the reader and how they encounter the story.
A novel is:
A singular object
Complete at the moment of release
Self-paced, in that the reader controls when and how quickly they read it
Immutable, in that it isn’t going to change after publication
A serial is:
Comprised of multiple objects
Incomplete until it finishes its run
Pace-controlled by the writer, who determines the release schedule
Fluid, in that previous and upcoming chapters can be edited even while the serial is already being published
Where this gets interesting is that once a serial completes its run, it then takes on many of the attributes of a novel. So does that mean that a serial is simply a slow-release, chunked-up novel? A novel-in-waiting?
Sometimes, that’s exactly what it is.
Publishing a novel in serial form
A common approach is to take the manuscript for a novel and publish it in serial form. One chapter of the novel = one serial instalment.
If your primary goal is to write a novel, this makes a lot of sense. The manuscript is written as a novel, and the serial publishing is essentially a promotional act prior to the release of the book itself.
The most common approach is to complete the manuscript prior to beginning the serialisation. It’s not impossible to write live to the page, but that does run the risk of missing out on the traditional benefits of writing a novel: redrafting, structural editing and so on.
This is loosely the approach I took with my 2016 serial The Mechanical Crown. It was the second complete rewrite of an earlier manuscript, designed with the pacing of a (large) novel. Chapter length was influenced by the serial form, but otherwise I considered it a ‘novel released in parts’.
The Mechanical Crown is currently only available on Wattpad, but I’m hoping to rescue it from there and publish it more widely later this year.
Designing a story as a serial
The alternative is to embrace the publishing mode and allow it to directly influence the story. Rather than simply chunking up a novel into serial instalments, a project that is serial-first is designed to fit the form.
What does this mean, practically?
Instalments are designed with the serial format in mind, in terms of pacing and structure. The aim is still to deliver a good story, but also to bring people back week-to-week. Not a consideration a novel has to have, because the reader already has the book.
A closer comparison is to episodic television, instead of the novel. Pacing and structure is more like that of a TV show, with the audience returning each week.
The idea of ‘a chapter’ is deprioritised. The story chunks are designed around individual posts, paying close attention to word count. Individual instalments are self-contained and satisfying to a degree, while also building the main narrative — the same way an individual episode of a TV show should be a satisfying viewing experience by itself, as well as when considered part of the whole.
Structurally, the overall narrative is looser. It is designed to make it easier for readers to hop on board at any point, rather than always reading from the beginning as with a novel.
The pacing is designed to work with the weekly release schedule. Instalments begin and end in a way that makes sense of the built-in release pattern. This can potentially be more satisfying for readers, compared to a chunked-up novel that may start and stop in a less ‘designed’ manner.
This is the approach I’ve taken with my current serial Tales from the Triverse, which I’ve been publishing via this newsletter. The serial is defined by individual, mostly standalone stories. It’s a police procedural for the most part, with each story a new ‘case’ being investigated by the detectives.
A single storyline might be made of half a dozen individual posts. There’s also a macro narrative layered on top of the individual stories, building a larger story in the background.
Stories have their own beginning, middle and end. The point of view character shifts frequently: one storyline might focus on Zoltan Kaminski, but the following story will move the POV to Lola Styles. It’s an ensemble cast, more in the tradition of large television casts rather than the tighter focus of a novel.
Serials that are designed to be serials also have a flexibility in how long they run. I could have kept Triverse spinning for another five years if I’d wanted, adding more cases for the detectives to investigate without ever advancing the main plot. It wouldn’t necessarily need a main plot. Think of how sparse The X-Files was in terms of its larger conspiracy storyline in the early years. Or consider a traditional cop drama, which lasts for 10+ years and simply keeps going for as long as the creators and audiences remain engaged.
I’m also writing live to the page, creating it as a I go and publishing new chapters once they’re completed. This is also much closer to the process of writing television. Ordinarily, season two episodes will not have been written at the point when season one episodes are being produced. Back in the 90s, when seasons consisted of 22 episodes, the season would be on air while latter episodes were still in production.
Point being that there’s a ‘live’ element to the writing process. The story is still forming in real time, and can still be influenced by new ideas, new events, or even reader feedback. There’s inherent risk, much more so than publishing an already-complete novel manuscript, but also a huge opportunity to keep the story current and relevant. The project can keep evolving and explore a huge range of themes and subjects, without feeling aimless or tangential. For readers, when done right, they have the added excitement of experiencing a story still hot from the forge.
This kind of serial is custom-built to fit the form, whether it’s being published via a newsletter or on a dedicated serial platform or in a magazine. Once the serial is complete, you then have the option of reworking it into paperback and ebook form. That won’t necessarily be a 1-to-1 compilation process: it might need further adapting to make sense.
Tales from the Triverse leans heavily into being an anthology of stories, which works well as a serial but could seem fragmented as a novel. I may well cut out stories which don’t contribute to the main thrust of the story for a future novel-shaped version. Any cut material could be repurposed into a separate ‘other tales’ collection.
Choosing which way to go
Ultimately it is always about the story. Some stories will better suit a particular structure and style. Tales from the Triverse, as written, would make for a weird novel, but fits neatly into a serial form.
I do think it’s important to make a conscious decision about this before you start writing and publishing. If you’re writing a novel, with the serial publishing being a bonus or a promotional aspect, that’s fine. If you want to experiment more closely with the serial form, you need to know that up front and construct the story and cast of characters accordingly.
When deciding, consider these questions:
Do you have a main protagonist, or an ensemble cast?
Are you telling a tight, singular story, or a series of episodic stories?
Are you writing the entire manuscript ahead of time?
Is your pacing and structure defined more by the chapters of a novel, or the instalments of a regular serial?
Can readers hop on at any point (theoretically) or do they have to read from the beginning?
Your answers should help direct you one way or the other.
As always, there’s no wrong way of doing it, as long as you’re writing.
Thanks for reading.
While writing today’s newsletter I poked my nose into a related discussion over on Bluesky, to do with pacing in modern streaming shows compared to the 22-episode runs of the 90s. Writer and showrunner J. Michael Straczynski, who is probably the biggest single influence on me as a writer, quickly shut me down:
And followed that with:
I hadn’t intended to define a rule, but I think JMS’ point here is a useful reminder to not overly generalise. Also a reminder to me that I’m not used to the artificial character limitation of Bluesky — I’ve been spoiled by the longer form emphasis on Substack.
And also a reminder that everyone should watch Sense8.
Anyway, so that was my morning. Having my writing hero deliver a little bit of a reality check. 🙄
Reader, I deserved it.
In other news:
There was a live chat with
and a couple of days ago. As mentioned, the scene around here is ripe for a Proper Lit Fest:I finished reading Eleanor’s Fallout fairly recently. It’s on hiatus at the moment, but keep an eye out for it once it pops up in print. Meanwhile I’m diving into her latest novel, In Judgement of Others. I imagine it will be very good.
Elsewhere, I posted some silly (or not so silly) predictions for 2025:
Right, I’m off to take some 12 years olds to play badminton. Wish me luck.
Yes, this difference really came home to me when I published my novel The Wistful and the Good in serial form. To me, the heart of the difference lies in opening and closing. In a novel, each scene has an opening and a closing, but this is a minor feature. More importantly, each scene participates in the overall opening or closing of the novel. It is the grand opening and closing of the whole that is important. In a serial, there may or may not be an overall opening and closing of the whole thing, but what matters is the opening and closing of the individual episodes.
I think this is why the finales of so many beloved TV shows are so disappointing. They try to do a grand closing of an overall arc that has been neglected for years, or they realize the impossibility of doing so and kind of just hack it off raggedly. By the time they get to the end, it is far too late to pay the kind of attention to the grand arc that would be required to set up a satisfying closing of the whole series.
I would also add that the serial format aligns better to screenplays for episodic television. The emotional beats transfer well between those mediums.