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The Difficulties of Story Continuity in Episodic Works

6/30/2014

Writing presents a lot of difficulties. Character development, a balance of action, dialogue, and narrative, pacing, and the one element that either breezes in or has to be dragged like a horse to water that you really, really hope will drink--plot!

Plot. It's magical. Mysterious. Necessary. And occasionally elusive.

Last Thursday, I went though a list of all of my works, past and present. One of my current WIP is From the Sky, and I truly believe that the possibilities are endless. I plan for it to be a serial novel, although I want to get the first few episodes--maybe even most of the first season--written before I start releasing it.

But I'm having problems with story continuity.

I know my characters, and I'm good at character development. The balance of action, dialogue, and narrative can be tricky, but I can usually patch it together in the rewrites and editing if not the first time around. But it's plot that is giving me the problems.

I have the first episode--it's rough and needs a serious rewrite, but it's there. And I have ideas for future episodes that I think will be exciting and move the plot forward. But I have no idea what to put between those episodes. I don't know how to continue the story when it is purposely being written as separate episodes, and I don't know how to pace it.

Releasing The Bodyguard as a serialized novel is easy. I just cut it at one of the break points, release it, and voila! But writing an actual serial novel is tying me up in knots.

How do I take the story from that first episode to the episode with the party? What episodes go between the guy meeting the girl and the climactic camping trip? What should the overarching plot of the first season be?

I try to think of TV shows--what happens in each episode there? But even that is making me panic. How much excitement does each episode need? Can this truly be episodic, with the episodes somewhat loosely connected but working toward the overarching plot of the season, or do the episodes need to be more closely entwined than that, more like a book?

And how fast should it all move? How do you pace a story that is meant to be released week by week rather than as a whole?

I guess I'm getting cold feet about the serial, but I like the plot too much to give the story up, and I don't think that it would make a good book. I think that it needs to be episodic, even if I am having trouble writing that way.

If anyone has any advice on how to pace this darn story, I would love to hear it. If anyone else has had similar problems, I would love to commiserate.

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TBT--Works in Progress past and present

6/26/2014

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It's Throwback Thursday once again, as evidenced by all of the profile picture updates on Facebook, and I thought that I would do a version of TBT here on my blog by looking at my past and present works, most of which are still in, or permanently at, the WIP status.

Children of the Stars- Written in middle school, it had a passable plot but was severely limited by the fact that my writing abilities were that of a middle schooler. Craft is something that is learned over time, and there is only so much "time" you can put in before the age of 12. I finished this one, although it is lost approximately four computers ago.
Children of the Starts 2- This was basically the fanfic sequel of the original story, following the children of the original stories main characters. It was never finished, and had no real plot or conflict.
Callum (No real title)-Written my freshman year of college, this was a big mess of awful. No real plot, with secondary characters who wanted to take over, it was basically a rip-off of the Wheel of Time series. I like to pretend that this one never happened.
The Dark Time pre-The Talented- This is a conglomeration of several different works, most of which didn't get past the 5 page mark. It was a time of discovery, and eventually lead up to The Talented.
The Talented-My first real finished work, this is the project that I funded with Kickstarter and will be publishing later this year. It goes off to editors in just over three weeks, and I am giving it the final once-over now. It's a thing of beauty (imo) which a solid plot, great characters, and writing skills much improved since the days of Children of the Stars.
The Talented 2 (real name forthcoming)- Still solidly in the WIP category, I plan on this being another great book and following The Talented into the published market in the fall of 2015.
The Bodyguard- A strange mix of finished and WIP, I am releasing this as a serialized novel with a new part going out every Monday. You can read the first two parts on my site under Book List or over on Wattpad. It has a great FMC, an intriguing plot, and goes through a careful crit process and edit before each addition is released. It was born out of the 2012 NaNoWriMo.
"Kingdom of the Light"- My one and only short story. I really do like it, but it sort of confirms for me that I am not cut out for short stories. Anything more in depth than "Kingdom" would make me want to follow the characters more, which goes against the entire idea of the short story.
Children of the Sky- A WIP that is an attempt at something more in the paranormal, space-alien, fantasy in the real world game. It is still highly debatable whether I will be able to make this work or if this is just a long writing exercise and diversion from all of the editing I am otherwise doing this summer.

Looking at this, I am a little impressed with myself for how much writing I have done in a relatively short time and the fact that, on reflection, I do have more variety in my stories than I feared. Looking at this, I know that Callum is a dead loss, but if I wanted to try my hand at High Fantasy I might revisit some of the elements of Children of the Stars. It would need some significant changes, but there are real problems to explore there.

At the same time, maybe it is better to enjoy my TBT but continue moving forward. After all, isn't that what the Facebook pictures symbolize?

So what are your TBT works? Anything that brings back great memories or reminds you of great ideas/characters? Anything that you wish you could erase from your writing past the way you want to erase that one horrible and embarrassing boyfriend or girlfriend?

I would love to hear more of the author's version of TBT.

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Summer Goal--25 hours/week

6/18/2014

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I am a teacher, which means I have summers off. Typically, my summers off include sleeping in, watching TV, reading books, and the occasional hour or two spent doing something productive like gardening.

I reluctantly cook and clean, often eating cereal rather than putting on "real" clothes and going out just to buy groceries.

It's a great life, but it doesn't exactly further my goals.

One of my goals is to be a writer, but since my usual summer mode only involves touching a pen to paper maybe once a week (sometimes I don't even use my computer for days!) I usually don't get much writing done, despite having so much free time.

So this summer I have set myself a goal. I am going to write (or edit or blog) 25 hours/week. I even use the stopwatch function on my phone so that I don't get into the habit of estimating or rounding up. And 25 hours a week is definitely doable. After all, now that I'm not working 40 hours/week (plus grading at night) I have the time. It shouldn't even be that hard, in theory. I don't have to write new words every day. I have three WIP that I can be editing as well as one project that is still in the first draft stage, so it's not like I don't have material to work with. And editing doesn't take too much creativity, so I can't claim "writer's block" to get out of doing my work.

But man, do I want to. I'm going the Monday-Sunday route (because I think of weeks that way, and also because I did no writing last Sunday and this is my first week), so I still have four more days to go. The problem is, I still have 17 hours of writing to fit into those four days, and I already feel like I am going crazy.

Just today I wrote some new material for From the Sky, I did some editing on The Talented as well as the sequel to that (which is as yet unnamed). And now I am blogging. And I honestly feel like I am going to crawl out of my skin.

And I don't know why. I really don't.

Is it because I am forcing myself to do this, making it a hard-and-fast goal as opposed to "I should try this?" Is it because I really want to be watching Teen Wolf right now and see this as an evil roadblock in the way of mindless entertainment?

Am I just going crazy?

If you made the transition from occasional writer to part- or full-time writer who actually has a weekly quota, please let me know how you did it. I don't know if I can spend another four hours total working on my WIPs, let alone four hours a day.

Help!

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The love/hate relationship with deadlines

6/2/2014

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Let's be honest: we all have a love/hate relationship with deadlines.

On one hand, deadlines are big, awful, scary things. Like running late for an interview, deadlines can cause untold amounts of stress and anxiety. I have to get this done! I'm falling behind! I'm not going to make it!

Deadlines are the reason college students pull all-nighters and 8 hour days turn into 12 hour days. They cause stress.

They also "cause" focus.

When you have a deadline, you don't forget about that project. You don't sit down and watch three hours of Antiques Roadshow. You don't go on a leisurely Sunday drive. You work.

And that can be exciting. My latest (and greatest) version of my book The Talented was finished on the deadline for this year's ABNA. My work on The Bodyguard is on a deadline so that I can start releasing it as a serialized novel June 16th.

My recent surge of job applications forced me to focus on my goals and philosophies as a teacher.

Deadlines are big, awful, scary things that result in focus and hard work.

I don't know that there is any single thing more important than that. Not if you want to be a serious writer. Or really, a serious anything.

Deadlines provide an impetus for action. That impetus is especially important when the action is for something secondary in your life. If you write for a living, you are going to keep working on that next novel because that's your job. When you write for a hobby or a sideline, there needs to be something more. Something that makes you work.

And that is what deadlines do.

So find a way to give yourself a deadline. Find a writing buddy or critique partner who expects 5,000 new words a week, and if you don't deliver you owe them $5 (or a beer). Enter a contest. Set yourself a goal that, if reached, will result in some sort of reward. If I finish this draft by July 1st, I get to buy a new pair of shoes.

Trust me, a deadline can make all the difference.

And since I only have hours left on my Kickstarter campaign, that is giving me a strict deadline on asking for last minute donations. As I write this I am sitting at 91%. I invite everyone to throw me a couple bucks or share the following on Twitter or Facebook: Only hours left to raise funds for The Talented by J.R. McGinnity via Kickstarter. http://buff.ly/1jMpIOT

Donations go through your Amazon account, making it a quick and painless process through a trusted company.

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Welcome to my blog

The Difficulties of Story Continuity in Episodic Works

TBT--Works in Progress past and present

Summer Goal--25 hours/week

The love/hate relationship with deadlines

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