Elliot Kessler

Today, I thought I would talk about serialized novels. Those who follow news of what’s coming to Disney Plus super closely have probably heard the term “serialized” before since Disney has been making a lot of serialized shows for their streaming platform. But what does that mean? What makes a show serialized? What makes a novel serialized? Why should I care about any of this? Well, I’ll start with what a serialized novel is.

Serialized novels are an interesting way to both read and write a story. The writer breaks their larger narrative into multiple, smaller stories, making them more easily digestible. Think of the new “Obi-wan Kenobi” show. It’s a show that lasts for six episodes. Each episode tells its own story, but they also fit into the show’s larger narrative.

So, now that you know what a serialized novel is let’s get into why you should care about them.

As a reader, you should care because serial novels give you a way to read a short, satisfying narrative that plays a part in a larger story. It’s as if every chapter of the novel you were reading was its own short story with the same characters going on a new adventure. Think of shows like “Avatar: The Last Airbender,” “Gravity Falls,” or even “The Mandalorian.” You could watch one of the episodes of any of those shows and have a complete (if short) narrative arc. But, if you watch all the episodes in order, you have a longer and typically more dramatic narrative. Same with serial novels. Suppose you’re pressed for time or simply don’t have the attention span to sit down and read a long novel. In that case, you have the option to enjoy a short story that contributes to the longer story of the novel rather than reading a part of a really long narrative with no conclusion (aka a chapter of almost any other novel).

As a writer, you should be interested, especially if you’re new to writing. Writing a serial novel was the first time I dove into writing a larger work, and it was super fun. Splitting the story up into smaller chunks made it much easier to work with, and I had a great time writing each story and working on the character arcs throughout the episodes and whatnot. It was a blast! Sure, it’s not my best work ever, but it was my first time working on a novel-length project, I learned from the experience, and I can move on to better, bigger projects now. I highly recommend writing a serial novel to anyone who wants to become a novelist but is intimidated by writing something so large. You can publish each chapter on any of the big websites that host thousands of serial novels (mine is on Amazon’s new program called Kindle Vella), or you can even publish your chapters on a personal blog like this one. It’s completely up to you.

Writing a serial novel is fun, but you must first understand how to write it. You can’t simply dive in and expect to finish with a great story. You have to plan and prepare ahead of time. For my serial novel, I wrote out all the characters and fleshed them out as best I could, I wrote what the larger narrative was going to be, and I outlined each of the chapters (called “episodes” on Kindle Vella, and honestly, that makes sense). That way, when I began writing the episodes, I had something I could use as a reference. I could use the outlines, so I didn’t have to come up with a brand new story every time I sat down to write, look at the bigger plan and foreshadow a little bit, and check out the character profiles and make sure each of them was consistent with who I wanted them to be. I could have done a better job with the character arcs and planned them better ahead of time. But I wanted to try and be one of the first stories on Kindle Vella when it launched, so I had a better chance of getting more reads (it didn’t work. I was too late), and the ending of my story was still in flux by the time I began writing the episodes. I had a general idea of what I wanted to happen, but nothing concrete. Fortunately, I was able to work it out by the end. But that’s another thing with serial novels. You don’t have to have it all planned out.

Another way of writing serial novels is to make it all up as you go. You write the characters, understand the larger narrative you want to tell, and know the beginning and the end, but that’s it. You work out the middle as you write. I haven’t tried that, but I would like to sometime. It sounds fun and adventurous. Maybe I’ll write a fantasy series. I already have a character, and a world set up with its own narrative.

What do you guys think? Should I write another serial novel and post the episodes here? I think that would be fun. Let me know if that’s something you would want.

Thank you so much for reading! Have a fantastic day.