The Serialized Novel: Part 4 - The Formula

by Deb McLeod

(To read part three of this series, click here.) 

In the final episode of my exploration of serials and serialization, I want to look at what makes a good serial and how two different serial authors work.

No matter what kind of serial you decide to write, the key formula seems to be: A strong franchise + an overarching season/series arc + a strong A story = a popular series.

Let’s look at the pieces of that formula.

A franchise is the container that holds the story. The Walking Dead franchise is the aftermath of the collapse of civilization after a virus spreads hungry zombies across the land. The characters work within that franchise framework and their stories come out of fighting the zombies and fighting one another for survival in a new and hostile world.

If you look at television franchises, you’ll see a lot of cop shows and hospital shows. Both of those types of shows have a built-in mechanism for dramatic stories to unfold week after week. Shows like “Law and Order” rely almost solely on their franchise with little delving into the characters and rarely a storyline that crosses episodes. In the later years they began to focus more on storylines but for the most part you can watch a “Law and Order” out of order and it doesn’t matter at all.

This is brilliant TV marketing as syndication is the thing; and doesn’t it make your product more attractive if you don’t have to buy and air programs in order? And don’t viewers love the fact that if they like the franchise, they know exactly what to expect each time the show airs? It’s a show that’s always the same and always different.

When you combine a strong franchise with an interesting series arc, you will pull the reader through, episode to episode. Again, looking at The Walking Dead, the series arc is all about whether or not these particular characters will survive. We watch to see them triumph over the adversity they face. And we die a little when one of the beloved characters dies too.

There is generally a season arc under the umbrella of the series arc and we watch a particular set of characters battle it out or play out a love story. The arc provides the throughline.

Then there’s the A-story that undulates throughout the series – another pull to bring the reader to the table over and over again. In The Walking Dead, the A-story is Rick. Reluctant leader, father, husband, friend, upon occasion he battles with his sanity, his guilt and the ramifications of his decisions. While there are other stories and strong character storylines that weave throughout the series, it’s this A-story that is the backbone of the series.

Serials:  An A-game Author
The first author who is successfully writing serials is Claudia Hall Christian, the author of Denver Cereal (serial fiction set in Denver), an online venue for her daily serialized fiction. Hall Christian has been writing serial fiction online since 2008. Her goal is 25,000 words per month. She publishes six days a week, a chapter a week and you can get a daily dose or wait for the whole chapter or a few times a year she collects the pieces and publishes a book.

She writes true serial fiction and not the serialization of a novel. She creates chapters and submits them to her editor on Monday and they are returned back to her on Friday. She has some idea of what will happen in the books, but in the true pantser sense, she lets the characters guide the work. She says she “simply creates a playground for them to play in".

Hall Christian says true serial writing is not for the faint-hearted. I guess if you’ve been putting out 25,000 publishable words per month since 2008, you can state that it’s not for the faint-hearted. Impressive and gutsy. She calls this brand of serial writing the “A-game of writing.”

A Serial like TV
Saul Tanpepper has a different take. He wrote Gameland. Season One of Gameland has eight episodes and can now be bought in a bundle. Here’s what the author says in the intro to the series:

“GAMELAND was the brainchild of discussions between myself and my publisher, Brinestone Press, back in 2011. Together, we fleshed out an overarching storyline to be told over the course of several books. Each action-packed ‘episode’ features a group of recurring characters, has its own theme, and works out its own particular issues. Structurally, the series is modeled after popular television shows (think Fringe, Bones, The Walking Dead), with each episode roughly the equivalent of a two-hour commercial-free program. At the story level, however, GAMELAND is wholly unique, a mix of cyberpunk, horror, suspense and mystery.”

The first book of Season Two was released in January, 2014:  Signs of Life (Jessie’s Game). This is a novel-length (120,000 word) book. The description says it follows Season One. I read in an interview that Tanpepper responded to reader comments and decided to publish it all at once in novel form.

I found that an interesting comment – though I’ll be darned if I can find it again. When you research serials and see what other authors are doing, you can’t help but come across reader dissatisfaction with having to wait for the next episode to come out.

If you’re considering a serial or a serialization, with the increasing popularity of TV series marathons and book bundles, it makes an author wonder which is the right way to go. My husband and I are saving up the new 24 episodes so we can watch them marathon style. They just aren’t as exciting waiting week to week.

While I can appreciate and admire Hall Christian’s model, I’m not ready to set up a website and have at it like she does. I will likely gravitate toward Tanpepper’s model. Episodic and collected into a bundle or a novel but with a strong franchise and an overall story and series arc that is plotted like episodic television.

Any last questions on serials? Any recommendations for me?

About the Author: Deb McLeod, is a writer, creative writing coach and founder of The Writing Ranch. She has both an MFA and a BA in creative writing. She has been teaching and coaching for over ten years. Deb has published short fiction in anthologies and journals. She has written articles and creative nonfiction. Deb has been a professional blogger, tech writer, graphic artist and Internet marketing specialist.  

The Serialized Novel - Part 3 - Vertical Story Arc

By Deb McLeod

(To read the second part of this series, click here.)

One of the greatest things I learned in my time as a corporate internet marketer is that with the advent of the internet, the audience now drives the boat. Marketing has shifted from message driven to audience driven. Who your audience is and what they want to hear or how they want to hear it should dictate the form of the content you create for them.

This is true in marketing. Could it have a place in entertainment, too?

Let me be clear, I’m not saying you write your book to the widest audience and lowest common denominator. I am saying you might look at the changing times and realize that it is the audience that’s driving the change. The rise in eReading, the rise in book bundles, the rise in more content out faster. It’s all happening because that’s what readers want. The novel series or serial has a growing place in the industry.

TV drama series are changing the way people want their stories. Television series offer a lot to novel writers these days. If you’re looking at creating a hybrid novel series that borrows from television, as I am, here are some things to consider.

I first heard the term Vertical Plotting when I read Pamela Douglas’ book Writing the TV Drama Series, a book I highly recommend.

In her book, Douglas talks about the vertical arc (you can substitute novel writing and series novel writing for her analogy of film and TV):

In feature writing [think novels] you were probably told to create an arc for your protagonist that takes him from one state to its opposite; the character struggles toward a goal, and once that is attained, your story ends.

So, how do you progress a narrative without an arc? Well, you create a different kind of arc… You’re interested in the process, not just the outcome.

But watch out -- this does not mean characters are flat. Your continuity cast should never be mere witnesses to the challenge of the week. On the contrary, characters who are not transformed by the plot need something instead: dimension. Think of it like this: instead of developing horizontally toward a goal, the character develops vertically, exploring internal conflicts that create tension. The character may be revealed incrementally within each episode and throughout the series.

So, depth revealed vertically, but horizontally as well, over the course of the series in a long narrative arc.

Let’s look at the TV show Breaking Bad (BB). BB chronicles Walter White’s transformation from protagonist to antagonist throughout the life of the series. He changes over time on the horizontal as the plot plays out in each episode. His vertical is the depth of revelation within each episode and season.

Most TV series are written open-ended. If they can, they will air forever. The characters don’t change much and if they do, it’s over the course of a long narrative. BB is more like a series novel in TV form. That’s the format I’m going for in my novel series: The Julia Set.

My method

To try to incorporate both the horizontal and vertical narrative, as a starting point, I used Blake Snyder’s Beat Sheets to map the emotional change and journey of each of my main characters. Each major character gets their own beat sheet for each book and for the series. I have a giant spreadsheet where I track their change and assemble the plot.

I use the beat sheets for each character because each one is the star of their own story. Every character wants something and grows and changes, much like we all do in real life. We’re all chasing our own goals and facing our own particular growth periods as we are forever in one act or another of becoming. Unless we’re zombies moving through life, and I guess every good story needs some of those. Minor characters who don’t change but serve the plot and die squishy deaths.

Some of my characters’ stories play out their fifteen beats within the time span of one book in the series. Some play out their transformation over the course of the whole series, like Walter White does in BB. But each book reveals another piece in the depth of their story.

The vertical depth creates the relationship between the reader and the characters that will bring them back to the next book to see how the character changes and the plot unfolds.

That’s the hope anyway.

So how do you sustain this over a number of books? Create multiple characters and subplots. Aside from that you need Excel, beat sheets, index cards, white boards and an understanding spouse who you can wake up, interrupt, or drag to Starbucks to talk about the plot.

But beware the complex threshold. You have to be able to not overwhelm your reader with story lines, subplots and points of view.

That’s my major question with my beta readers these days. Where were you confused? So far, I think I’m doing okay, despite the editor at Pikes Peak Writer’s Conference who said readers won’t manage more than about three storylines or points of view. I disagree. And cross my fingers.

But just in case, I already know the two characters I will combine into other characters to simplify the story. But is that really what readers want? What do you say, Game of Thrones fans? Would you prefer a simpler storyline?

Now the question becomes: Can I pull this off? Time will tell. But I’ll tell you this—I am having a blast.

To read Part 4, click here.

About the Author: Deb McLeod, is a writer, creative writing coach and founder of The Writing Ranch. She has both an MFA and a BA in creative writing. She has been teaching and coaching for over ten years. Deb has published short fiction in anthologies and journals. She has written articles and creative nonfiction. Deb has been a professional blogger, tech writer, graphic artist and Internet marketing specialist.  

The Serialized Novel – Part 2 – Manipulation is a Virtue

By Deb McLeod

(To read the first part of this series, click here.)

When I think of writing a serial novel the first craft challenge that presents itself is the cliffhanger. Cliffhangers are a story device designed to make readers come back. “Who Shot JR?” the “Dallas” TV show’s most well-known cliffhanger was a summertime question of my youth. In my favorite soap, “All My Children,” each Friday brought some sort of cliffhanger for one of the plot lines.

Some authors use mini-cliffhangers at the end of each chapter of their standalone books. During an analysis of Stephanie Meyer’s “The Host,” for an unrelated craft investigation, I noticed how often she would split a scene across a chapter right at the climax point in order to create a cliffhanger from chapter to chapter.

Emily Naussbaum reports in the New Yorker: “Cliffhangers are sensational... (they are) primal and unashamedly manipulative.” Here, here, I say, bring ‘em on. Manipulate me.

There is nothing more juicy than a cliffhanger. If I can get a reader on the edge of their seat just dying to turn the page or wait for the next installment – well that would be alright with me!

Episode endings in a serial or serialized novel should have more impact than chapter endings. Each episode should drive toward its ending in the same way a standalone book drives toward its climactic ending. So how do you write the end of an episode well? What constitutes a good cliffhanger ending?

When I need to learn something I turn to a book, or a model, as I prefer to call it when I'm in research mode. I've been reading serials and decided to dig into the cliffhangers of Stephen King’s “The Green Mile” and Margaret Atwood’s “Positron” to see if I could see what the big authors do with their end of episode cliffhangers.

I’m going to rate the cliffhangers on a 1-5 scale, with 5 being that you absolutely have to turn the page to find out what happens next.

SPOILER ALERT – STOP READING IF YOU DON’T WANT TO KNOW THE PLOT OF “THE GREEN MILE” OR “POSITRON”

First let me say that “The Green Mile” was written in 1996 and was an experiment to see how Stephen King’s fans would react to serial fiction. This was before ebooks and before the resurrection of the serial. I found his book to be more of a traditional book than a serialized one.

The Green Mile
I had seen the movie, “The Green Mile,” so I already knew the plot but I wanted to read the book to see how King wrote it in episodic fashion. Here is a summary of the cliffhangers by episode:

Episode 1: 54 pages long. Toward the end of Episode One, Paul, the protagonist, and Brutal, one of the prison guards, have found a hole where a mouse, Mr. Jingles, had hidden some peppermint candies and some colored splinters of wood from a spool. Mr. Jingles was the pet of the now-executed prisoner Delacroix, who gave the mouse the candies and had him fetch the spool. Apparently, Delacroix was badly executed by the villain and both Brutal and Paul decide they can’t be guards of the Green Mile any longer. They can't watch any more prisoners be executed. The last line of the episode is: “John Coffey will be the last.” We've already gotten a bit of Coffey’s story and a bit of Delacroix’s story. Episode One serves to set up a frame for us to find out in detail what happened to both of those prisoners. In a straight novel, this is a great setup. As far as cliffhangers go, I’d rate this with a one. (See below for what might have worked better.)

Episode 2: 60 pages long. The end of this episode shows a violent prisoner who has one of the guards in a stranglehold and is dying in front of Paul’s eyes. The prisoner sees that Paul has a gun and turns the guard toward it, “so that I’d almost certainly have to hit one to hit the other. From over Dean’s shoulder, one blazing blue eye dared me to shoot.” This one gets a four and a half rating from me. Does he shoot? Does the guard die? I want to know.

Episode 3: 62 pages long. The prisoner Delacroix is to be executed the next day and is worried about what will happen to his mouse, Mr. Jingles. The guards lie and tell him they’ll take Mr. Jingles to a fictional place called Mouseville in Florida, where he’ll spend his time entertaining people with his tricks. Delacroix throws the spool for Mr. Jingles to fetch and it takes a bad bounce and ends up on The Green Mile, the corridor running between the cells. The villain, another guard, who has been trying to kill the mouse, finally gets his chance and he stomps on it. The last line: “He turned and walked back up the Green Mile, not hurrying, leaving Mr. Jingles lying on the linoleum in a spreading pool of his own blood.” That’s a solid five. We love Mr. Jingles. He can’t be dead. You have to fix this!

Episode 4: 57 pages long. Paul has come up with an idea to smuggle John Coffey out of prison to help the warden’s wife. The guards are debating whether it’s a good idea or not. They are afraid Coffey might make a run for it. He's a giant of a man and in jail because of a violent crime. But Paul assures the other guards Coffey's not going to try to escape. They want to know how Paul can be so sure. We know that Paul has discovered something about Coffey. Paul begins to tell the guards how he knows with the promise of the rest of the information to come in the next episode. Meh. This gets a two from me.

Episode 5: 63 pages. The guards are bringing Coffey back from the warden’s house where he has helped the warden’s wife. Coffey is weak and almost falls off the truck. He’s coughing and the guards are afraid they are going to get caught sneaking the prisoner back into jail. The last line is: “As it turned out, our evening was far from over.” A promise for what’s to come. Manufactured to tantalize me into wanting to know. Another mediocre cliffhanger – a three from me. I care about Coffey and I know he gets executed so I would read the last episode but the episode ending didn't leave me dying to read it. 

Maximize the Structure
So what’s the difference between these episode endings? The end of episode two and episode three contain the possibility of irreversible change, whereas the other episode endings, while interesting, don’t have the same zip. They don’t end on an action scene and they’re promises that more information will be revealed in the next segment. They appeal to my curiosity, not my need to know.

I also see there's a “care about the character factor” at work in episode endings. By the end of the first episode, the care factor isn't that high. In a classic King move, during the episode, he writes a violent prisoner introduced to the death row jail. Sets up the reader for what the guards face bringing a prisoner into the Green Mile. A bit later King brings in John Coffey, who, while he is a giant of a man who could easily overpower the guards, is gentle. His eyes are different. And the only question he has for Paul is: do they leave the lights on at night? Because he doesn't like the dark.

We care about Coffey right away (King is so good at that). So it would have been an excellent build toward the last line of “John Coffey would be the last.” End of episode. Boom. The gentle giant will be put to death and our protagonist is going to have to do it. And then he'll never do another execution again. You'd have to turn the page, right? Why does Coffey have to die? Why can't you save him? You have to save him.

However, that's not how episode one is written. There's a whole segment between Coffey's question about the dark and the last line. That segment, while good, interesting and necessary, dissipates the build toward the last line. It does set up the suspense about Mr. Jingles, about Delacroix's bad execution and that the story to come will show why Paul and Brutal have to get out of this game. Great standalone writing to be sure. But maybe serial episodes require a bit of a different structure.

Positron
Next we’ll look at the first three episodes of “Positron,” Margaret Atwood’s serial. (Episode 4 has been released but I haven’t had time to buy it yet. I guess that says something, right?)

Episode 1: 31% of the 3-episode ebook. Stan has become obsessed by a note he found in a home which he and his wife, Charmaine, inhabit every other month with another couple they've never met. In a dystopian future, many people live in jail for a month and then live out in the world for a month to save on resources. Great concept. It’s a good book. The note Stan finds has a lipstick print on it and is signed Jasmine. Clearly a love note. Clearly, Jasmine is everything Charmaine is not. So Stan decides he is going to get a glimpse of Jasmine the next time they change places with the other couple. At the end of the episode he finds out Jasmine is really Charmaine who is having an affair with Phil, the man who takes Stan’s place every other month. She left the note for him. Stan has been caught snooping by Phil’s wife, Jocelyn. Jocelyn is security for the new order, a muckety-muck who can easily eliminate Stan if she wants. But she wants revenge. So she takes Stan as her new mate. There’s no way out for him. Irreversible change; I’ll give it a four.

Episode 2: 32% of the book. By the end of episode two, Jocelyn has tired of Stan, who has been keeping up a good front. Jocelyn says it’s time for him to go. She has arranged for Stan's wife, Charmaine, who’s been in jail these few months, to get her old job back. Charmaine puts unwanted or misbehaving people to sleep. For good. The next procedure she will perform, Jocelyn tells Stan, will be on him. Stan is convinced Charmaine will never do it. But Jocelyn tells Stan that it will really be fake; they want him on the outside of the system so he can do a job for them. He’s stuck again. Jocelyn sticks Stan with a needle and he passes out. Pretty good cliffhanger. I’ll give it a four. But wouldn’t it have been better if it ended with Stan on the table and Charmaine standing above him with the reader asking the question of whether she would actually do it or not? I'm just saying.

Episode 3: 33% of the book. Charmaine does kill her husband, as far as she knows. Remember they fake all this. Afterwards, Stan gets smuggled out and Charmaine is "asked" to go to the the medical facility. She can't say no. She gets into a car they send for her, and Phil (Jocelyn's husband) is driving, but he pretends not to remember her. Now she believes they are trying to erase her. Now she will have to keep her wits about her if she wants to lead any kind of life in this system. The last line here is: “She’s on her own.” Not a great cliffhanger, as cliffhanger’s go. It’s a mirror of Stan’s ending in episode one. It gets a three from me.

When I compare these two books with some of my favorite TV shows that make good use of cliffhangers, they come up a little short. Ever watch “24?” Or “Breaking Bad?” Or “The Walking Dead?” Some episode endings are better than others, to be sure, but most fall into the “irreversible change” category rather than the “stay tuned for more info” category. Many are jaw-dropping surprise twists. Clearly manipulating me and that's why I love them.

So in your serial, should you shoot for all episode endings to have an irreversible change? End in action? Be a surprise? Would that be too much? Too predictable? Too far into the realm of Snidely Whiplash standing over Nell Fenwick, who's tied to the tracks with the train coming? But if you don't, how do you get the reader to come back?

Any advice on episode endings you'd like to share while I'm rewriting?

To read Part 3, click here.

About the Author: Deb McLeod, is a writer, creative writing coach and founder of The Writing Ranch. She has both an MFA and a BA in creative writing. She has been teaching and coaching for over ten years. Deb has published short fiction in anthologies and journals. She has written articles and creative nonfiction. Deb has been a professional blogger, tech writer, graphic artist and Internet marketing specialist.  

The Serialized Novel – Part 1

By Deb McLeod

My venture into the land of the serial and serialized novel started with the death of my favorite soap opera. Yes, I was one of the two million loyal fans of All My Children (and I mean LOYAL) who mourned the passing of their lunchtime dose of melodrama. I watched when I could, sometimes going years without seeing the show. But, of course, was able to catch up within a week whenever I came back. As a writer, I loved watching the twists and turns, and marveled at the content churned out every week day about the same characters for over forty years.

Around that same time I began to notice nighttime television was changing. They still scheduled those horrid reality shows and inane sitcoms, but there was an added element to the nighttime drama schedule that was intriguing.

Revenge was a new show and season one was pretty good. My husband and I discovered Breaking Bad, which is a fabulous piece of writing (acting too, but that’s not my focus). The Walking Dead, Orange is the New Black, The Americans, The Newsroom and Boss to name a few. Have you noticed that TV drama written more like a novel these days? Great story lines and in some cases, great writing. TV is coming into its own.

At the same time I was observing television in a new way, I was looking into epublishing. One of the observations I came across was about satisfying ebook fans with quick content. Big-name writers were starting to put out novellas and short stories and extras for their books to keep the interest high while they prepped the next title for release. Amanda Hocking put words out. And out. And out. Like a book every two weeks!

I remembered a conversation I had with Francine Matthews years ago. At that time she had two mystery series going and was able to write a first draft of one of her series in eight weeks. NaNoWriMo showed me what I could do in a month if I made a plan.

So I began to look at television writing as perhaps a model for cranking out content. I know how to do the ‘book in two years’ thing, but I wanted to see how I could do it faster. Of course television writing rooms have more than one writer, but I thought I might be able to find some interesting ways they broke a story and if I could learn anything from the process.

I read a few books, the best of them being:

• “Writing for the Soaps” by Jean Rouveral
• “Writing the TV Drama Series” by Pamela Douglas
• “Small Screen, Big Picture” by Chad Gervich 
• “Crafty TV Writing” by Alex Epstein.

Add into the mix of television research, one of my book club buddies introduced me to Blake Snyder – another life-changing experience – and I began to get my process down. Having been a die-hard pantser, I am now a die-hard plotter.

I am writing a series of novels called The Julia Set: An Angel Thriller. It’s about the angels in and around our world and their attempt to contain a secret that will have far-reaching and long-lasting consequences should it get out. I envision eight books, high tension, with philosophical and spiritual questions, as well as a driving plot. So far it’s coming along well. The first book is done and in edits. However it took me over a year to write.

But the second book was plotted in the two or three days before 2013 NaNo and written in the first thirteen days of the contest. Hoo-rah!

So what does all this have to do with serials and serialization? Well, I’m going to serialize the series.

A true serial is one where the book is being released as the author is writing it. A serialization is a novel that’s already complete but is released in increments.When I build an audience for my thriller, I may join the ranks of ebook authors who are writing true serials. But for now I’m just trying to master the craft of serialization which has to fulfill the serial requirements.

And there is a craft to it: the cliff hanger, the catch-up, the openings of every new section. Each episode should stand on its own but also draw the reader through to the cliff hanger that sets up the next episode or book. There’s the dreaded third episode I’ve been reading about where writers often flail and fans drop away. There’s pricing issues to consider. And publishers who are stepping into the serial market.

Join me in these next few blogs while I attempt to become a serial novelist and explore the serialized novel and the market. I'll be writing about the how-to's, the history, the craft elements and the publishing. Stay tuned...

(To read Part II, click here.)

About the Author: Deb McLeod, is a writer, creative writing coach and founder of The Writing Ranch. She has both an MFA and a BA in creative writing. She has been teaching and coaching for over ten years. Deb has published short fiction in anthologies and journals. She has written articles and creative nonfiction. Deb has been a professional blogger, tech writer, graphic artist and Internet marketing specialist.