Serialized Stories

[wws_wws]

My serialized story was written purely for my own amusement. Taking an old genre and seeing if I can't "discover" a new way to tell it. I've received modest, but mostly positive feedback. It's not lighting up the world, but I feel encouraged to complete it. I think if I didn't have the encouragement from reader feedback, knowing people check back regularly for updates, I may not force myself to continue after playing with this story after more than a year. And perhaps I'm committing a major faux pas, but I regularly revisit what I posted before and post REPLACEMENTS to clean the story up a bit.

 

[NakedDan]

One of the issues I've having now is that Chapter One ended at what seemed to be a natural stopping point. Chapter Two is already longer than Chapter One was, and I'm not even half way to where I envisioned it stopping. And I don't want to just put a chapter break in the middle of a scene. So Two is just going to be way longer than One...

 

[Hypoxia]

One of the issues I've having now is that Chapter One ended at what seemed to be a natural stopping point. Chapter Two is already longer than Chapter One was, and I'm not even half way to where I envisioned it stopping. And I don't want to just put a chapter break in the middle of a scene. So Two is just going to be way longer than One...

A long-long chapter may get fewer views and votes. I think the conventional wisdom is that chapters should not be TOO different in length. If your ch.02 is 2X your ch.01, you can find or insert a teasing point to break at - a cliffhanger. Submit those so they post just one day apart - and let readers know the next part will come tomorrow. If you want to emphasize their close connexion, name them ch.02a and ch.02b.

 

[Fatwa_Morgana]

I started a serialized story, and I was sure I would finish it all within a month or so. Silly me! So I started posting chapters as I finished them. But then - uh oh! - life got in the way And I never got back to it. Nobody has had the poor taste to complain, but I feel bad for leaving the readers hanging. Someday I'll finish it, I hope, and then I'll probably pull it and resubmit as one long item. Morgana

PS - it's the first item in my signature. Don't read it if you don't want to be left hanging!

 

[49greg]

Very thoughtful reply, thanks.[/QUOTE

Yes.

 

[49greg]

I just scanned the thread and saw no mention of the page-count factor. Basically, longer stories get fewer views but higher vote scores than shorties. A couple of my short series would probably get a better reception if stitched together. Later chapters in a series also tend towards fewer views and higher scores. In both cases, it's because only stalwarts and fans stick around for the end and vote.

And series stories can't be entered in contests -- contest entries tend to get more views. Roz intended her PURELY SINFUL to be ten short chapters which, in the EH world, *might* have been read by a couple hundred viewers. By packing them together into a 19-LIT-page novella and submitting it to the Hallowe'en contest, she became a star here.

Huh. Hadn't thought about or realized that longer stories scored higher. I've tried to keep to a max of 3 or 4 pages for any story or chapter with just one 6 and one 5 pager out of 21 or so stories total. I'm not bragging, my scores aren't good over all. When I get back into writing mode I might have to experiment with doing something all in one and see what happens. While I haven't worked on or posted anything for a few months, most of my postings this year have been for contests.

For reading I don't really have a preference. When I read here I know I can just come back and finish a story later. There are times when I just want a quick story that has a conclusion, and other times I get caught up in a plot and the characters and never want them to end. As for long stories ... I am generally reading a full sized (non erotica) book all the time.

 

[patdown]

I might write a long story but more often than not I take the same characters from the original story and use some or all of them in a different situation adding to or substituting some of the characters. A husband and wife have a threesome then meet another couple. A couple with a man then a woman. In any case I try to write the subsequent stories so they aren't just Part 2, 3 etc but can stand alone with or without having read the previous stories and trying to avoid repetition.

 

[oggbashan]

I have written some multipart stories but I am not good at finishing them.

I have posted some incomplete stories as an incentive for me to get the last part written. That doesn't work. Bad Og!

Eventually I get around to them.

Brobdingnag was finished. First part was 2004, completion posted 2009.

Harold Saves Her Husband - the first part was posted 2006, the second 2013 and the last 2014.

Miranda The Witch needs a sequel and has done since 2004.

Scarf Collectors? First part 2006, second 2007, and I've left the protagonist tied up since then...

Christmas Fairy? Parts 1 and 2 posted, Part 3 and final still needed.

Fiona? 2009, 2010 and while I have an outline of the third and final part it still has to be written.

If reading my part stories - check if I've finished them.

With my Shelacta series I found a way round the problem. Most of the stories stand-alone and the premise is that I only get snippets from that world. So I can go backward or forward in time without having to 'finish' the series.

 

[Hypoxia]

Yes indeed, ogg, serials can be wretched beasts. I mentioned somewhere that I'm weaning myself off series. I still need to finish some (BLACK & WHITE, THE BOOK OF RUTH) and maybe add mini-series (LEFT BEHIND, SUBSTITUTE PUSSY, DEXTEROUS DEXTER, A MATTER OF TIME) but my future non-one-shots should all be standalone pieces, or episodes in story cycles with shared elements (A TASTE OF INCEST). I have instructed myself to *COMPLETE* any mini-series before submitting portions. Now, if only the voices in my head would agree to this...

 

[oggbashan]

Yes indeed, ogg, serials can be wretched beasts. I mentioned somewhere that I'm weaning myself off series. I still need to finish some (BLACK & WHITE, THE BOOK OF RUTH) and maybe add mini-series (LEFT BEHIND, SUBSTITUTE PUSSY, DEXTEROUS DEXTER, A MATTER OF TIME) but my future non-one-shots should all be standalone pieces, or episodes in story cycles with shared elements (A TASTE OF INCEST). I have instructed myself to *COMPLETE* any mini-series before submitting portions. Now, if only the voices in my head would agree to this...

It's the voices! Or in my case, the Muses. I have all nine and sometimes they get me to write poetry, or rhetoric, and even consider music and choreography.

They appear and disappear randomly. They can inspire a long story to be written in a few days, or refuse to consider completing a series. Several of my 2014 posted stories were originally started a decade ago, and I have only just managed to complete them.

My resolution for 2015 is to finish one older story (whether already part posted or not) for every new story I submit. But I have many more incomplete stories than I could possibly post in a year.

 

[robertreams]

I never intended to serialize any of my work. I began to do so at the request of my readers, who enjoyed my characters so much, they asked for more. Having the sort of ego that loves stroking, I obliged.

 

[Hypoxia]

I never intended to serialize any of my work. I began to do so at the request of my readers, who enjoyed my characters so much, they asked for more. Having the sort of ego that loves stroking, I obliged.

Damn those readers! Response to AS SIMPLE AS BLACK AND WHITE, written as a 1-shot, provoked a rewrite+sequel BLACK & WHITE & RED ALL OVER 1+2 which demands a threqual - and maybe a sequel to the original. The rewrite got a better score than the original, so I did something right there. I have requests for continuations of other pieces, too.

My problem: Making the characters tell me what they're going to do next. I don't know where Rosa in LEFT BEHIND can go storywise. I have many ideas where Elle in SUBSTITUTE PUSSY can go but I don't know how she'll behave in each scenario.

I'm now 1/3+ through writing a mini-series; I won't post any chapter till it's all done. And that piece has a definite end-point. But I'll write other episodes in that story cycle that won't depend on the previous sequence. Yes, endings are important.

 

[Bramblethorn]

This question has probably been asked before, but I'm new here (in fact, this is my first post in any of the forums), so I'll ask it anyway. I just submitted the first part of an ongoing story (that will hopefully be live in the Exhibitionism and Voyeurism section before the end of the week). I have yet to write a single word on the next part, although I know where the story is going. I see a lot of authors here posting multi-part stories, and I was wondering how many wait until all the parts are written, polished, and edited before posting that first part. I would think that would be advantageous since stories and characters sometimes go where writers hadn't originally intended. In my case, I wanted to get another story on the site after posting my first one late last month, and I didn't have anything else to post. (Actually that's not true; I do have an erotic story that I wrote years ago, but it's not very good.)

My first story here was a "write as you go" piece. Chapter 1 was originally intended as a stand-alone, readers encouraged me to take it further, so I sketched out an outline and continued from what I'd already posted.

It worked out for me. If I'd been trying to write the whole 100k story before posting anything, I'd probably have gotten discouraged/sidetracked and left it unfinished. Putting the first couple of chapters out gave me the encouragement and confidence to continue, along with a guilt motivation (can't let people down now I've promised a story!) But in general, I'd recommend finishing the story first. Definitely don't start unless you have a good outline; it really shows when an author doesn't know where the story's going.

My experience was that readers can deal with a wait between chapters as long as they know when to expect the next one. I told them to expect about 5 weeks between chapters, and I had plenty of people waiting eagerly for the next update, but one time when the update got delayed for technical reasons I started getting polite "hurry up" messages at 6 weeks...

 

[bbtp41]

doing it both ways

This question has probably been asked before, but I'm new here (in fact, this is my first post in any of the forums), so I'll ask it anyway. I just submitted the first part of an ongoing story (that will hopefully be live in the Exhibitionism and Voyeurism section before the end of the week). I have yet to write a single word on the next part, although I know where the story is going. I see a lot of authors here posting multi-part stories, and I was wondering how many wait until all the parts are written, polished, and edited before posting that first part. I would think that would be advantageous since stories and characters sometimes go where writers hadn't originally intended. In my case, I wanted to get another story on the site after posting my first one late last month, and I didn't have anything else to post. (Actually that's not true; I do have an erotic story that I wrote years ago, but it's not very good.)

The title says it all.

I started writing at another site that wasn't very good. When I found Lit I re-released the first parts of a serial story that I had re-written and edited. I try to write several instalements in advance so that I can keep all the sub-plots organized.

I have also released stand alone stories and one that I have since decided to continue. I have a serialized piece in the works that I am withholding until I have it mostly written and will post each part as the editing is complete.

At first, though, I was simply eager to get a story out.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

If you wanna be Einstein study Einstein, do what Einstein did best.

Its called the EMPRINT METHOD.

If serials are your groove Donald Westlake's PARKER novels are the best examples of the category I know of. Each book stands on its own legs, and each is connected to the others. He published 20-something of them under the name RICHARD STARK.

 

[JKendallDane]

Using the term "serialized stories" probably isn't being completely accurate for what most of us tend to call "series" here on Lit. What we usually see when we use that wording are "chaptered stories" that run in widely varying lengths from expanded short story to novella and all the way up to full-blown novels and beyond.

My understanding of the pure literary definition of "serial" is where a sequel or multiple sequels get created as a continuation or connected offshoot of a single original chaptered story. James Patterson utilized the technique successfully with his Alex Cross detective stories, as did Tony Hillerman with his eighteen book Navajo tribal police series that revolved around the same two or three recurring characters. Another perfect example would be Ian Fleming's James Bond series.

As far as whether an author should have the chaptered story (or series also) fully written before beginning to submit them for publishing here is a flip of the coin. Certainly that is the ideal situation, but so many times the Muse and the characters take the decision making process away from us and take us down a path in the woods we didn't even know was there!

When I first wrote and submitted "Pizza Boy at the Door" way back in August of 2009, it was intended to be nothing more than a one shot, 8,000 word, stroke story. Five and half years later though, it is a twenty chapter, 158,000+ word, double novel. And with the first chapters of the sequel posting now. AND with the announcement already made to the fans to expect a third book that will complete the story as a trilogy. I could no more have foreseen all that coming if someone had handed me a full outline laying it all out, much less visualized it in my head. But the damn Muse saw it and forced me to keep writing!

Like so many other "rules" we try to establish and follow here, I believe you just have to do what YOU think is best. For the large part, the readers are forgiving so long as you are satisfying them...or at least keeping them informed.