Comments on: Serial Writing

By: Natasha Fondren » The Unexpected Angle

Natasha Fondren » The Unexpected Angle — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 21:14:20 +0000

[...] other day I talked about the challenges of serial writing. Neil Gaiman once mentioned how educational comic book writing was in terms of readers. The letters [...]

By: Natasha Fondren

Natasha Fondren — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 02:52:37 +0000

“Box”? What does that mean? That’s neat, Robin! You crack me up. You randomly throw out a tidbit that surprises me about you, LOL.

And so true about the stuck in the corner thing! I like that, LOL!

By: Natasha Fondren

Natasha Fondren — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 02:51:35 +0000

Gosh, honestly, I have no idea, Aimless. There’s my two kinky places, but I don’t know of any other place, aside from magazines, that do it.

By: Robin Altman

Robin Altman — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 00:42:32 +0000

I’m a comic book reader from way back. I had my own “box” at the local comic book store until about 5 years ago. They’ve started to have tons of alternate reality spin offs, that I don’t really like.

But the great thing for a comic book writer, is that you can never get stuck in a corner. If you kill off a character, and then need them back for the storyline – you resurrect them. No problem. No need to make sense. It’s perfect for just this sort of thing.

By: Aimlesswriter

Aimlesswriter — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 00:21:18 +0000

Where do you find serial jobs? Sounds like fun.

By: Natasha Fondren

Natasha Fondren — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 23:37:48 +0000

Charles, I’ve written 6 or 7 this way. 1 was a disaster. A few were great; I have no idea how they worked out as well as they did. This one, I’m least sure about. They all get their beginning chapters fixed a bit as we go along, though, so that when it’s released in ebook/book, it’s more coherent. Not the first one, though. It’s an unsalvageable mess!

By: Natasha Fondren

Natasha Fondren — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 23:35:36 +0000

You never know, Edie. Erica just put out Freudian Slip, which was a little wacky in that respect. Never hurts to throw it out there while you work on the next, you know!

Yeah, I usually write the thing ahead of time, or at least have it written in my head. I just got off this time.

By: Charles Gramlich

Charles Gramlich — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 21:40:38 +0000

I’ve done two serial stories before but only one was being written as it was published. THat was Wings Over Talera and it underwent quite a bit of revising before it’s first book publication for just that reason.

By: Edie

Edie — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 21:04:59 +0000

Natasha, it sounds more like a puzzle. I don’t know if I could do that. I’d probably have to write the whole thing ahead of time, because I learn so much about my characters and plot as I write the book.

I messed up with my last book. I wrote it based on my beliefs about God and religion, thinking I could keep religion out of it. (My main characters are part demon.) But I couldn’t. I should have figured that out ahead of time. If my beliefs were like most people, it would’ve been okay. But they aren’t. The book isn’t marketable, and I’m on to something else.

By: Natasha Fondren

Natasha Fondren — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 20:54:42 +0000

Yeah, I really want to do that, Aimless! Serial writing is like magazine writing. Installments. Kind of like what Dickens did. You write a bit of the story, publish it. Then you write a bit more, then publish that.