I will be writing a serial. Over the course of the wheel turn, I will be working on a serial.
I’ve thought about starting a serial before but misunderstood what it was. That can account for a lot of my late starting projects … me simply misunderstanding that not everything has to be the first way it’s described to me.
I started wanting to write a serial after watching a few Heart Breathings videos and the thought process became:
- it will make me practice single scene writing
- could improve my ability to write short stories
- would give me a project that I could make solely for sharing so perhaps I won’t feel so anxious doing so
- it would help exhibit my writing, editing and proofreading skills
- it would be a project for fun and learning, no real pressure
- it gives me room to actively explore my writing whilst providing an opportunity for people to comment on it—make my writing more vulnerable than it’s ever been so I can properly grow as a writer
Then what came next was: well … what is a serial? I basically got two answers:
- a series of short stories
- a series of short scenes following a particular character world
- when I liken this to a sitcom I understand it a little better
- bite sized stories that don’t necessarily need to be read in order
I don’t know if I’m certain that I know what a “serial” is but I’m planning on finding a compromise between the two, treating it like a sitcom serial where every installment should be a complete scene—bonus points if I can make it read like a separate episode—that all joins together like a Webtoon where the work is made up of a bunch of small chapters. The reason for that is also because this work is my love/hate letter to one of the Webtoon genres I have a love-hate relationship with: isekais (ง•̀o•́)ง
So it’ll be more of a small series rather than a “true serial” but the older and wiser I get the more I’m constantly asking “what’s a true “X” anyway?”.
Note: I’ve actually completely overhauled this by the time it goes live but I just wanted to show what I was starting with.
As I work on the series with the planner, I’ll take notes and give updates on how well it works out in practice. I’ve been working on my ability to set realistic goals but until I put something into practice, I really won’t know how to improve it’s viability and so this will be the first trial of the serial plan.
I have been doing some work with the expectations of the planner and already know a few things I’ll need to adjust:
- the wording for clarity
- I’m also going to adjust it to resemble more of a serial/Webtoon structure (volumes, seasons etc.) to better separate this from being a “standard novel” as I keep crossing the threads there
- the word count itself
- I’ve been looking at the structure a lot despite the project not starting until May and think I’ve got a way to improve on it with more realistic expectations of structuring and writing the stories
- publishing structure
- redoing so that each volume actually releases in gradual installments whilst I’m working on the other volumes
For this project, I will be using a writing project that I have already done some work on, as it will give me something to help me start and the way I started writing it should fit my idea of what my serial will look like.
So, join me on my serial journey as I bring Say Nope to the Trope to the eyes of the public. It will either be a blessing or a curse (〃￣ω￣〃ゞ
