Thread: Serial Fiction

I have a project which could possibly be written as a novel, but I'm thinking about writing it as a series of short stories instead and releasing it as a serial (and possibly an anthology later on). I'm imagining that the plot structure would resemble a comic book style storyline rather than the three or four act novel structure, but since I've never tried it, how does this type of writing differ from novel writing?

I would LOVE to be able to release my novel in serialization! Problem is, I've looked around! People don't seem to be interested in serialization anymore. That was more of an "old school" type of phenomenon! Serialization is just another way of saying "installments"!

There really is no difference.I wish there was!

Serial fiction is like your favorite TV show - it has the main character and plot, but in every story/episode/installment there is a subplot, or some twist that affects the outcome of the main plot. That's how I think of it, at any rate.

It seems to me that you really wanted to publish this as a comic. You should try and improve you drawing further but still write to improve your general script writing. A good story is a basis for a good comic.

I'm actually in process of serialising a sci-fi novel via Kindle, so I've got a bit of experience in the matter. With mine, I've made sure that each part is distinct, but can work as a whole when put together as a novel. As such, each part has its own story to follow, and though you need to read the prior parts to make head or tail of it all, they are able to stand alone - nothing really overlaps between each section. Each has its own logical 'end' point where whatever mission is at hand comes to completion, leading the way for the next thing.

It's also quite cool because you can force cliffhangers partway through, with the promise of more to come shortly. Episodic fiction is quite fun like that.