Hey, so my last two posts have been more stuff that's been rattling around in my brain, that I've been thinking about a lot. They weren't so much about writing, so I thought today I would talk about something that has come to my recent attention. When I was younger, I was introduced to storytelling through books. I devoured books and read more books than I do now. Back then I did watch some TV too, but my favorite stories and characters came from books. I'm twenty now and most of my favorite stories and characters now come from TV shows. When I was fifteen-sixteen I started watching more TV. I think my obsession with TV really started with The Vampire Diaries and Teen Wolf, both of which are excellently written. I devoured the stories and the characters and I still rewatch them at least twice a year. After getting into them, I couldn't get enough of TV shows. There's something so addicting about getting one episode of amazing writing every week and waiting eagerly for more the next week. TV shows honestly give me so much happiness and they've influenced my writing in a huge way. I've wanted to recreate that feeling, to make others feel that way through my own writing. To create worlds big enough for spin-offs and side-characters that can keep a story going when the main character dies. You know you're side characters are amazing when you can cut the main character and your viewers/readers keep coming back for more, beg for more. In other words, I've wanted to write a TV show for a long time.
I've tried my hand at script-writing, but I don't think that's my format. That isn't my storytelling medium despite the fact that I've realized I'm a very visual person. I love analyzing character's expressions, their little quirks and ticks on the screen. I love that I can now appreciate different camera angles and how an episode of a TV show is made visually. But script-writing is hard and I have big respect for those who can write in that format because I would love to. My writerly love, what I have been honing and growing in over the years has been novel format and I'm not ready to put all the hard work of learning the rules (and breaking those rules) of the novel to the side. But I was also feeling sort of disenchanted by my writing. Since the beginning of 2017, I've mainly been working on two projects. Project Hellion and my Golden series. Those have been the two big ones I've been balancing and working on for almost all of 2017 and all of 2018 so far. I have a feeling my Golden trilogy is going to bleed into 2019 as well. Which is great, and I can see the growth I've had over the years. A few years ago I wouldn't have had the patience and the motivation to keep at a project for more than a few months. I would (hopefully) finish the first draft and then be ready to move onto something else. But since Weapon Icean, since 2016-2017 I've learned the art of being patient and how important it is to take your time. Project Hellion taught me that. Take your time, be patient and your book, your story, will be even better than you could have imagined. Patience pays off.
But working on two different stories and two different casts of characters for so long has sort of started to burn me out. I love Renee and Zayde and Delphi and Riley and all of them. But soon Project Hellion will be completely finished and published, leaving me with just Renee. My brain needs some fresh ideas. I need to get out of the rut I'm starting to feel stuck in. Last year I challenged myself with short story writing and published Of Magic and Mayhem. This year, I've decided to challenge myself with serialised fiction. Serialised fiction combines my two loves: episodic TV show format and writing fit for a novel.
It's been a fun new challenge for me. Over the past two weeks I've been researching serialised fiction and reading everything I can find on it. How to write it, the rules or guidelines and tips and tricks. I have novel writing down to a science, but this? Episodic writing? It's a whole other game. I've sat and watched several of my favorite TV shows (best research homework ever). I've picked apart all of my favorite episodes of those shows, finding what makes them tick, how to have a season arc along with individual episode arcs. How to make a ten episode season story with a bunch of smaller episode stories. It's a lot harder than I thought it would be and I'm definitely in the middle of a learning curb, but it's been fun. Not only am I trying a completely different format than I'm used to, but I'm also writing fantasy. For the past, well looong time, like 2014, I've pretty much exclusively been writing science fiction. Different sub-genres of science fiction, but still, they've all been sci-fi. When I was younger I used to write only fantasy. I loved fantasy, immersed myself in the magical and mythical, but then steampunk introduced itself and from there superheroes were born and now aliens have been invited to the party inside my head.
Now though, fantasy is back in the ring. I've got Faeries, and magic and curses and creatures and lots of whimsical, dark fantastical ideas. I finally get to use the many Pinterest boards full of fantasy prompts and magical creatures and whimsical clothes and outfits fit for princesses and warriors that I've been amassing for years. Combine that with an episodic format and it's been fun challenge. I have no idea what I'm going to do with this project, or how you're even supposed to release ten 8,000 word episodes, but I'll figure it out once I get there.
So yeah, this is exciting. I'm still working on revisions for Golden and edits for Project Hellion, they come first, but this new project is exciting too. I can't wait to see what happens or where this might take me.
Have a great week everyone! What do you guys think of serialised fiction? Have you ever read an episodic book before?
I've tried my hand at script-writing, but I don't think that's my format. That isn't my storytelling medium despite the fact that I've realized I'm a very visual person. I love analyzing character's expressions, their little quirks and ticks on the screen. I love that I can now appreciate different camera angles and how an episode of a TV show is made visually. But script-writing is hard and I have big respect for those who can write in that format because I would love to. My writerly love, what I have been honing and growing in over the years has been novel format and I'm not ready to put all the hard work of learning the rules (and breaking those rules) of the novel to the side. But I was also feeling sort of disenchanted by my writing. Since the beginning of 2017, I've mainly been working on two projects. Project Hellion and my Golden series. Those have been the two big ones I've been balancing and working on for almost all of 2017 and all of 2018 so far. I have a feeling my Golden trilogy is going to bleed into 2019 as well. Which is great, and I can see the growth I've had over the years. A few years ago I wouldn't have had the patience and the motivation to keep at a project for more than a few months. I would (hopefully) finish the first draft and then be ready to move onto something else. But since Weapon Icean, since 2016-2017 I've learned the art of being patient and how important it is to take your time. Project Hellion taught me that. Take your time, be patient and your book, your story, will be even better than you could have imagined. Patience pays off.
But working on two different stories and two different casts of characters for so long has sort of started to burn me out. I love Renee and Zayde and Delphi and Riley and all of them. But soon Project Hellion will be completely finished and published, leaving me with just Renee. My brain needs some fresh ideas. I need to get out of the rut I'm starting to feel stuck in. Last year I challenged myself with short story writing and published Of Magic and Mayhem. This year, I've decided to challenge myself with serialised fiction. Serialised fiction combines my two loves: episodic TV show format and writing fit for a novel.
It's been a fun new challenge for me. Over the past two weeks I've been researching serialised fiction and reading everything I can find on it. How to write it, the rules or guidelines and tips and tricks. I have novel writing down to a science, but this? Episodic writing? It's a whole other game. I've sat and watched several of my favorite TV shows (best research homework ever). I've picked apart all of my favorite episodes of those shows, finding what makes them tick, how to have a season arc along with individual episode arcs. How to make a ten episode season story with a bunch of smaller episode stories. It's a lot harder than I thought it would be and I'm definitely in the middle of a learning curb, but it's been fun. Not only am I trying a completely different format than I'm used to, but I'm also writing fantasy. For the past, well looong time, like 2014, I've pretty much exclusively been writing science fiction. Different sub-genres of science fiction, but still, they've all been sci-fi. When I was younger I used to write only fantasy. I loved fantasy, immersed myself in the magical and mythical, but then steampunk introduced itself and from there superheroes were born and now aliens have been invited to the party inside my head.
Now though, fantasy is back in the ring. I've got Faeries, and magic and curses and creatures and lots of whimsical, dark fantastical ideas. I finally get to use the many Pinterest boards full of fantasy prompts and magical creatures and whimsical clothes and outfits fit for princesses and warriors that I've been amassing for years. Combine that with an episodic format and it's been fun challenge. I have no idea what I'm going to do with this project, or how you're even supposed to release ten 8,000 word episodes, but I'll figure it out once I get there.
So yeah, this is exciting. I'm still working on revisions for Golden and edits for Project Hellion, they come first, but this new project is exciting too. I can't wait to see what happens or where this might take me.
Have a great week everyone! What do you guys think of serialised fiction? Have you ever read an episodic book before?
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