"I fell into serial fiction almost by accident"
Putting YOUR questions to a Substack serial expert
Serial storytelling has always appealed to me … Even if I managed to wangle a fancy deal with a big publisher, I don’t think I’d stop with the online serials: they’re in my blood.
When I put out a Note related to my newest historical fiction serial (linked HERE, if you’re interested), I didn’t expect it to blow up the way it did.
A whopping number of likes and comments convinced me to turn the Note into a post (or six…): colleagues on Substack clearly wanted to find out more about this genre/style of writing.
was quickly active in the comments, offering advice and developing conversation that drew on his abundance of experience with teaching and writing serial fiction. So when he offered to chat more, I wasn’t going to turn down the offer.With over 6,000 subscribers, Simon knows what he’s talking about. He’s published three novel-length serials and a paperback, has recently started his fourth serial project, and was recently featured on
’s wonderful podcast, .
Thanks for joining us, Simon! Your newsletter, , shares both how-to’s and your own serial, Tales from the Triverse. Why write serialised fiction, as opposed to something like short stories or simply publishing offline?
I fell into serial fiction almost by accident. Back in 2015 I thought I’d have a go at a serial, but it was very much intended as a one-off experiment. I enjoyed it so much that I’ve been doing it ever since.
The stories I like to tell tend to be longer and benefit from the ability to build in long-term references. Those are the stories I grew up loving: Asimov, Straczynski, Kim Stanley Robinson. Before that, comics and Star Wars.
Serial storytelling has always appealed to me.
Going the traditional publishing route absolutely appeals, but it’s a matter of time more than anything else. I love the immediacy of publishing online, reaching readers and getting feedback early in the process.
Even if I managed to wangle a fancy deal with a big publisher, I don’t think I’d stop with the online serials: they’re in my blood.
When I shared this series of interviews with serial experts on Notes earlier this year, I had a lot of questions about the nuts and bolts of serial writing. It seems that there are a lot of us out there trying to do the serial thing better but not really knowing where to start.
So, I have a few quick-fire (ish) questions for you…
Is there a sweetspot in terms of the length of instalments and the frequency with which they’re published?
I aim for about 1,200 words and a single new chapter each week. That works on both ends of the equation: it’s achievable for me as the writer and it’s also very easy for readers to keep up with. Any shorter and the chapters become a bit flimsy and throwaway. Any longer and a chapter starts to compete for time with the likes of Netflix, games, other books, and so on.
1,200 words can be read in a single sitting, over breakfast, or on the bus, and doesn’t require the reader to change their entire schedule.
How does structure and content change when writing a serial, as opposed to an offline novel?
This is something I’m still exploring. It depends a lot on how you approach it. You certainly can write a novel without making any concessions to the format or distribution method and simply serialise the novel chapter-by-chapter. That’s completely valid.
More interesting for me is trying to find the unique quirks of the serial storytelling. How does the chapter length, those 1,200 words, affect the pacing of the story? To what extent do you need to include a ‘hook’ at the start of each chapter and a ‘cliffhanger’ at the end? How does the temporal aspect of publishing slowly over a long period of time affect characters and themes and plot?
A lot of those questions intersect with promotional efforts. Cliffhanger endings might be artistically or narratively inappropriate for your story, even if they’re good for acquiring and keeping readers. Do you lean towards the artistic integrity of the story or the need for audience building? Everyone will have a different approach, but finding those different approaches is endlessly fascinating to me.
Should writers complete the book before serialising or write as they go?
This depends entirely on your writing style.
If you write in a non-linear fashion, compiling your story from lots of separate pieces, requiring lots of editing and rewriting, then you’ll likely need to complete the manuscript before you start publishing.
I tend to write in a linear style, from start to finish. That makes it possible to publish as I write.
It’s not the only consideration. You also need to think about stress levels and what suits your personality. I love writing and publishing at the same time, and find it exciting. Knowing that readers are coming on the journey with me at the same time helps to keep me coming back to the page. For a lot of people, it could end up being a nightmare, increasing stress and anxiety and risking burnout or writer’s block.
I’d suggest starting with a deliberately contained and very small serial. Maybe six chapters total. Use that to experiment with the process and find out what works, before committing to anything longer term.
Should writers plan in advance or go with the flow?
I’d advise doing at least some planning, especially if you’re publishing as you go. Without some planning, it’ll be impossible to foreshadow plot details or create compelling character arcs, because you won’t know what’s coming up later. If writing the manuscript up front, that doesn’t matter because you can go back and layer in references to what comes later.
I tend to work out several key waypoints along the story. Critical points that I know I’m going to hit at some point. That helps me figure out the trajectory of characters, and seed events, or themes, or world building details that I know will be useful six months down the line. That gives me a lot of freedom week-to-week, so I can still experiment and explore unexpected tangents, but I’ll always have a destination in mind.
Should we paywall chapters/instalments or keep them free?
Writers should definitely get paid for their writing. But practically, it’s more complicated than that.
As an unknown writer, if I’d put my fiction up behind a paywall, I wouldn’t have had any readers. Nobody is going to subscribe to read an unknown indie writer who is publishing in a weird way on the internet – not when there’s so much great stuff to read by writers you’ve already heard of.
If you’re not an established name, it’s difficult to convince people to make that jump. I experimented with early access and with paywalling only after, say, chapter 10, but the same problems show up. Paywalling the chapters makes it hard to promote them, and kills the potential to grow a readership.
Since making almost all my stuff free to read, I’ve had more people become paid subscribers. Which sounds counter-intuitive, but I think it’s about shifting the perception of what is actually on offer. If I think of my serial as a ‘product’, like a book on a shelf, then I’m expecting people to pay for access to that product. That’s when all those problems I’ve mentioned show up.
But there’s another way of looking at it, where it’s less about ‘the product’ and much more about me as a writer. Those paying subscribers are not paying to access a specific thing, or to get behind a paywall. They’re subscribing to say ‘thanks’, and to support my ongoing efforts. Maybe they find my fiction entertaining, or my newsletter informative, and they want to ensure its continuation.
In other words, it’s a patronage model. Supporting the artist, rather than the specific end product. Once I started thinking in that context, the model made more sense. And because it’s all free, it means I’m also growing my general readership at a much faster rate. It’s a long, slow game, but long-term it opens up other options: at some point I’ll have enough subscribers to consider myself no longer an ‘unknown writer’, so maybe at some point in the future I could make a fiction project available specifically to the paying audience.
That’s where I’m at with it at the moment. Definitely still learning – ask me again in a year and I’ll likely have a different answer.
And now down to the TLDR section of the interview…
What are your 3 top tips for writing a serial?
First, be consistent. If you’re doing a weekly serial, stick to that schedule. Inconsistency in delivery will erode trust with your readers. Consistency also makes it easier to be noticed by new readers.
Related to that, be realistic about what you can produce. Don’t commit to a daily serial unless you know you can pull it off! If you commit to a schedule you can’t keep, you’ll be stressed and burn out. Find a comfortable pace.
Third tip is to make it easy for readers to jump on board. That might mean including a small ‘Previously…’ blurb at the top of each chapter, or adding navigation buttons so readers can navigate chapters easily, or crafting an index and welcome post. Reading online can be a complicated space, so do everything you can to make it effortless for readers.
And what should we not do when writing a serial?
Don’t think that you’re in competition with other writers. The writing community is an opportunity, not a threat. Connecting with other writers expands your network and will help you to find new readers. There’s no need to be combative: it’s not like we’re fighting over the same half dozen readers.
Social media has trained us to be more antagonistic than is natural. We’re emerging out the other side of that, but we have to all learn how to relate to one another. The online serial scene, and the newsletter scene, is collaborative, if you’re willing.
Are you a pantser or a planner? Write the whole book first or write as you go? Paywaller or non-paywaller?
We’d love to chat further in the comments about your experience with writing (or reading!) serial fiction, as well as any questions you have about serialisation.
The next stop is our final destination. All change.
Tomorrow, the wonderful
will be sharing her experience as an author writing serially on Substack and publishing offline. A ‘how I put all this into practice’, as it were. Make sure to subscribe so that you receive her words straight to your email or Substack inbox.Vicky’s post will mark the end of this month-long series on serialisation and signal the return of
to its true roots. We’re heading back to the world of medieval history (rather than how-to’s on writing medieval history) with a list of last-minute books for your Christmas list, including five written by Substackers themselves. You won’t want to miss this! | A guest post by
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Thank you @hollyabrown and @simonkjones for the opportunity to share my serial journey. I was inspired to serialize my novel, The Summer We Said Goodbye, after finding @sarahfaywritersatwork Substack in July of 2023 (Simon’s, too! His intro to Substack videos are great). Sarah is an expert in serializing, having written about it in her PhD dissertation. Her collection of posts about not only the substance of writing serialized literature but also its rich history made me want to jump right in. So I created a new Substack specifically for my novel and began publishing the nine installments I already had. That gave me about two months, I figured, to stockpile some more. I did have a fair amount of trepidation going in since I am a polish-as-you-go kind of writer, who comes to this from a career in film and video editing. It’s nearly impossible for me not to edit in real time. I am constantly reading my stuff out loud in the same way I listen to my film work because it has to sound right before I can move on. While rewarding creatively, it can be slow going. Inevitably, I lost pace with my weekly posting schedule, which was okay since I only had just under 50 subscribers, many of whom I know, and hadn’t been actively pursuing new ones. There’s also no paid option. So I rationalized it all as some kind of grand experiment that would test my resolve, which ultimately did manifest in a crisis of commitment this past February when I wasn’t sure if this was how the universe wanted me to spend my time. While fiction, my novel comes from my teenage experiences and the writing had veered into aspects of my parents’ divorce I hadn’t planned on revisiting. So I took a step back for a few months to reevaluate. I am happy to say, I am stronger for it. There were a number of factors that contributed to my return, but the most satisfying and surprising were the unsolicited check-ins from subscribers inquiring about future installments. People evidently cared! So I ramped up writing again this past June solstice and haven’t looked back. I was convinced at the time that a major restructuring of the already published installments was in order and wasn’t sure how that would work. But my two go-to beta readers who are both filmmakers disagreed. While I’m still not convinced, I decided to write through whatever murkiness I was encountering, figuring that as long as each installment is heartfelt and moves the story forward, all would be forgiven. I did, however, revamp the last installment I had published, deleting the old and re-publishing the new with a note to my subscribers at the top heralding my return, which I then quickly removed once it was emailed so anyone discovering me via the app wouldn’t be confused. There’s a saying in the film world, films are never finished, only abandoned. I take that to heart and since I am in no way ready to abandon any part of my Substack, I have no problem going back into previously published installments and revising or word-smithing for the benefit of newcomers. It’s been an enriching journey so far. I’ve learned to trust my intuition and place very little stock in data. I still have under 50 subscribers, but that’s okay. As I continue to gain confidence in my progress, I find I’m venturing out beyond the walls of my own Substack and interacting with others in the growing Substack fiction community, like you and @ericadrayton whose Top in Fiction Substack recently featured one of my installments in its weekly roundup. Thrilling! All told, serializing my novel has provided me a platform to show up in a way that transcends the solitary nature of a writer’s life. Having actual readers, we’ll that’s just icing on the cake! @jackfitzgerald
My first serial, "A Broken Woman's True Desire," wasn't planned and suffered from certain drawbacks, including continuity. I've since taken that story and the second, "The Reeve's Tale," and almost rewrote them so they make sense to me.
If you can extemporize, that's great. However, I've discovered that I must complete at least half of a traditional book before posting it on Substack. That way, I'll have the parts that work published and can work on the rest.
My chapters tend to be closer to the 2500-word limit, so I post them in sections.