Lessons from a serial
My take-aways from writing Grim Khonsu
This coming Thursday sees the release of the final instalment in the first season of my sci-fi/noir serial Grim Khonsu, so this seems a good time to take stock.
When I began this project, I had three reasons in mind.
To rekindle my enjoyment of writing. I’d been in a slump, mired in editing, and hadn’t first-drafted much of anything in far too long. I needed something to give me a boost
To put new fiction out there. I was very conscious that I hadn’t produced anything new for a couple of years, with my only book releases being collections of previously released material. I needed to bring out something new, not only to feel more positive about my productivity, but also because I felt I owed it to my readers.
To explore a different way of storytelling and releasing material. I’d never written serialised fiction before, and I’m always keen to learn more. When I became aware of the opportunities in Substack I decided this would be an interesting venture.
So, results. Yes, writing Grim Khonsu got me out of that writing slump and reinvigorated me. I also feel better for putting out new work. At 45,000 words, it’s equivalent to a short novel.
And what of the experiment? I learnt a lot from the experience, both regarding serialised fiction and my preferred way of writing. My main takeaways are as follows:
Work on the whole story
I like to plan my stories before I begin the first draft. Occasionally I’ll discovery-write a short story, but for anything longer I like to have an outline. So writing week-by-week isn’t for me.
In writing this season of Grim Khonsu, I started from a rough outline, planned the first bunch of chapters in more detail, then wrote them. I re-read them, then planned and wrote the middle section, and repeated this process for the ending. It was an attempt at a hybrid, something between full planning and full pantsing.
And it’s not for me. I prefer planning the whole story before writing.
Serialised fiction is not a bunch of chapters from a novel
This is something I was conscious of as I wrote Grim Khonsu. In a novel, the overall story is the main focus. But with a serial, readers get short sections spread over weeks and months. Those sections need to work as part of a whole but also provide some kind of satisfying arc in themselves. Yes, every scene/chapter in a novel should have an arc, but it’s more important in a serial. I didn’t want readers to feel like they only got disjointed fragments.
In short, while the overall story is a journey, so too is each episode.
That isn’t to say I couldn’t have cliff-hangers. They’re a useful tool in stories of any type, but those end-of-instalment cliffhangers had to come about after a problem had been solved — or, better yet, to be the result of that solution.
Readers need reminders
Take too long reading a novel, and it’s easy to lose track of things. Reading what is effectively a novel over a few months of weekly episodes can become fragmentary. I was very conscious that my readers would forget things week-on-week.
I introduced each chapter with a brief recap, but I also added reminders in the text. I tried to be subtle about this — a line of dialogue, or an external thought. Reading the whole story over a few days, these reminders would tend towards repetition, but I felt they were necessary in a serial.
Consistency and expectations are important
I set, and kept to, a release schedule. New chapters came out on Thursdays, 1:06 pm UK time, with a post on my website exactly 24 hours later.
I also aimed for roughly 1500 words each chapter. Some went shorter, some longer, but they were all (I think) between 1000 and 2000. That’s a 5-10 minute read — grab a drink, take a break, read a chapter. Not so long it becomes a chore, not so short there’s no space for a satisfying mini-story.
In both cases — release schedule and chapter length — the consistency primed the expectations.
Content does not equal readers
Producing this serial has confirmed a lesson I’ve slowly been learning — the whole ‘put it out there and readers will come’ is a load of nonsense. There is so much content available for readers, so much noise. Content is important, but so is promotion. If I want readers, I need to find them. I can’t expect them to find me.
I struggle to find those readers. It’s an on-going problem for me. I can’t get on with social media. I’ve yet to find a way of running ads that works for me. My mailing list is slowly growing, but I’m not sure how many people are on it because of the free books I offer, how many are actively interested in what I write.
I’m working on it. And, while I struggle through different possibilities, I’ll keep on producing content. I’ll continue writing stories. That way, when I do find a suitable reader, I’ll be able to offer them a whole host of stories.
How has Grim Khonsu fared for readers? Reads have grown over time, and I’ve had a few likes. No comments yet. With no promotion behind the serial, I’m fine with this. Slow progress is better than none.
So, what next?
I’ve enjoyed working on this story, and I’ll write more Grim Khonsu. I have plans for a shorter story (that’ll run over two or three weeks), as well as ideas for a couple of longer ones (aiming for short novel length). I’m also considering audio. It’ll be too expensive to hire a narrator, and I’m not up to the job myself, but I’m looking into a multi-voice AI narration service that will turn the stories into something close to audio plays. Nothing definite yet, but watch this space.
I’ll also be releasing this first Grim Khonsu story as a book at some point. It’ll need work — as I’ve mentioned above, a serial and a novel are different beasts. I’ll also need to see about a cover and all the other aspects of producing books, so don’t expect this any time soon. But it makes sense to make the story more widely-available.
But for readers, there’s going to be a break now, possibly a couple of months. I’d like to get that shorter story available by the end of March, and follow up with a longer story from May.
Overall, I’m chalking Grim Khonsu up as a success.