Writing a serial novel
Sep. 14th, 2009 03:25 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
skyringI'm actually having a lot of fun with this.
A thousand words a day is doable. A thousand good words is harder, but I'm finding that if I write the chapter and massage it to get to exactly a thousand words, it seems to improve with the process.
Rereading the first post invariably reveals some weak points, typoes, missed or duplicated words, which I can fix.
And I'm always checking back to keep things consistent. Names of characters and whether Harley actually lives on Monash Drive (he doesn't, as Quint indirectly noted on the first page).
Now, this sort of massaging is okay when I've only got a few readers, but if I grow my audience to hundreds or thousands, I'd better be sure it's right before I post it up. Which probably means that I should write myself a "buffer" so that I can keep the quality up.
That's easy enough. What I (and every other writer, I suppose) worries about most is the quality of the writing itself. And the plot and characters.
My own rather quirky writing style shines out, I think. I like to think it's gently humorous, distinctive, easy to read. Characters have their own worries and desires, and really all I need do is write a thousand words a day, just by watching what they do off their own bat. Easy.
The overall plot is more or less straight in my head. I know where the story is supposed to go, and I'll see if it goes that way. I may not have enough space for everything, even in the 120 000 words I'm planning.
Kerri suggested that I just keep on writing a soap opera, but I think I'll aim for some sort of novelistic tying the loose ends up. Maybe a thread or two hanging to start the next book. Besides, after four months of writing every day (or six days a week, rather) I might want a break. Let the characters have a holiday too.
One thing i'm finding is that keeping time going in anything like real time is going to be imposible. I've barely gotten into the first day and already a week has passted with one, maybe two, chapters to go.
I might go for something like a day in Monash Drive equals a week of chapters. That gives most of the characters something to do, and makes for a narrative flow.
Anyway. I'm always looking for comments and criticism. Main message is to read the chapters as I post them, click on anything that looks like it could be clicked, keep returning each day, and tell your friends.
http://www.skyring.com.au/Skyring/Monash_Drive/Monash_Drive.html
A thousand words a day is doable. A thousand good words is harder, but I'm finding that if I write the chapter and massage it to get to exactly a thousand words, it seems to improve with the process.
Rereading the first post invariably reveals some weak points, typoes, missed or duplicated words, which I can fix.
And I'm always checking back to keep things consistent. Names of characters and whether Harley actually lives on Monash Drive (he doesn't, as Quint indirectly noted on the first page).
Now, this sort of massaging is okay when I've only got a few readers, but if I grow my audience to hundreds or thousands, I'd better be sure it's right before I post it up. Which probably means that I should write myself a "buffer" so that I can keep the quality up.
That's easy enough. What I (and every other writer, I suppose) worries about most is the quality of the writing itself. And the plot and characters.
My own rather quirky writing style shines out, I think. I like to think it's gently humorous, distinctive, easy to read. Characters have their own worries and desires, and really all I need do is write a thousand words a day, just by watching what they do off their own bat. Easy.
The overall plot is more or less straight in my head. I know where the story is supposed to go, and I'll see if it goes that way. I may not have enough space for everything, even in the 120 000 words I'm planning.
Kerri suggested that I just keep on writing a soap opera, but I think I'll aim for some sort of novelistic tying the loose ends up. Maybe a thread or two hanging to start the next book. Besides, after four months of writing every day (or six days a week, rather) I might want a break. Let the characters have a holiday too.
One thing i'm finding is that keeping time going in anything like real time is going to be imposible. I've barely gotten into the first day and already a week has passted with one, maybe two, chapters to go.
I might go for something like a day in Monash Drive equals a week of chapters. That gives most of the characters something to do, and makes for a narrative flow.
Anyway. I'm always looking for comments and criticism. Main message is to read the chapters as I post them, click on anything that looks like it could be clicked, keep returning each day, and tell your friends.
http://www.skyring.com.au/Skyring/Monash_Drive/Monash_Drive.html
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no subject
Date: 2009-09-13 05:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-13 10:59 pm (UTC)I'm also finding that serial novels are popping up in other places, so there's a desire to read and write them. http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/news/story.html?id=e309d18b-0ea0-4664-9412-38a8ba9dbe91&k=77480
Good point about character introductions, though. There's really only four main point-of-view characters in this story (unless something goes dreadfully askew) and we've met them all already. All the rest have supporting roles. Or unsupporting, in the case of some. And some will be just names.
Again, not to say that my writing is anywhere as good as AMS's - he really knows how to tell a great story and he does it with such ridiculous easy - but I'm just trying out the form, like a limerick or a sonnet or a ballade. I don't have to be Shakespeare to write a sonnet, but I can use the same form.