Serialized Fears

Posted on by LittleFears

It was a fear I had myself back at the start of the year. I’d done serials before. 30 posts for each of the Lost Leads crime stories. I was concerned about doing anything longer than 30 stories as it felt like an attention span limit. My current story is about 53 tales into an 88 tale long story. So yeah, the ongoing, serialized fear story that is Brass, just ain’t working for me.

There are a few reasons for it. I thought I’d run through them in a post. Do something, learn from the experience and then explain.

The internet has a short attention span.

100% including myself there. I cannot tell you how many blog/fiction serials have hooked me in the first few chapters. Then I forget to visit. I delay catching up and fall further behind. Then I skip a few chapters and miss something important. It doesn’t apply so much with the Brass series. But psychologically, it matters. For both readers and myself.

Some folks hate serials.

Like, straight up. There’s some real hate for web-serials. I’ve had a few comments from older Fears followers that said they stopped reading on the Brass serial. They check in to see whether it’s over. Although I always say, don’t write for other people, serialized fiction is rather polarizing.

People who join halfway, walk away.

A combination of both of the above. Folk that have been following Brass since the start, are not put off by the episode numbers in each post. Readers that first see the Little Fears, on chapter 40, will often read, laugh, then leave and not come back. They feel they’ve already missed out on a huge chunk of the story and can’t catch up.

The Fears are far less nimble.

I’m always miles ahead of where I need to be for content. I’ve pre-written years worth of stories. But, I mentioned all the big plans I have several times before, and I can’t seem to get them going. When I post too frequently outside of the ongoing Brass story, it seems to mentally disrupt my flow. It’s another psychological thing. The background story of Brass is vague. But it still feels disruptive when my feed bounces between the ongoing story and random “fear of ink,” stories. I think that’s the killer for me. Not being able to enact all my great plans. A story is now holding me back.

Going forward

As there are only 35’ish tales left in this serial, I’ll continue it to the end. I think in future I’ll avoid writing singular serials such as Brass. Instead, writing more one off’s that might have a theme and character progression. Seeking Hydra and Grey Moon style. As for different projects, one thing that is apparent to me from people coming to the Fears mid serial is that I need to have a home page, footer or header that can take you to a complete story/category of the website. Even a single post with links to all single tales within a particular storyline would help. I think I’ll get to work on that this weekend.

I’ll end by saying I’m happy with Copper and Iron, and that I started publishing Brass online. I’m a firm believer, that no matter how many “ten great ways you can write a story,” articles that exist out there, a lot of the time you’ve got to try things and see how they turn out. Sometimes you’ll hit, sometimes you’ll miss. But you’ll often never know until you take a swing.

Cheers, Fears!

Shout out to my new Patron Sue of Connects.live and to Devina of Hot Chocolate & Books for a cuppa Ko-Fi yesterday. As always, thanks to Warren for the continued $10 Patronage. 

Ko-Fi | Patreon | Etsy | Books | Skillshare | Threadless

26 thoughts on “Serialized Fears”

  2. I just want to say I love the story of Brass, and don’t get discouraged of what people think. Keep doing what you do! You make me laugh every day and you will always have my support. I’m looking forward to what lies ahead!

    Like

    1. Cheers, Wandering. I shall continue Brass to it’s intended end. I’m not too worried about what people think, but I am frustrated at the way I view and follow it myself. That’s the issue with it for me.

      Like

  3. The internet does have a short attention span, which I feel i’m just figuring out and it really affects my work as a writer cause people don’t want to read past 100 words now-a-days.

    I assumed people liked serials but you bring up good points. I’m actually writing a series right now and I do notice that people that caught the first few tend to keep going. Maybe its all about how you organize it

    Like

    1. We all know the internet moves quickly. I guess sometimes we need to experience that as a reminder every so often.

      I think my main take away would be a lot of planning, forward thinking and accessibility to prior chapters are key to running an ongoing serial.

      Like

  4. I can relate. I’m guilty of short attention span. I have this weird thing against making my own series’ and my dedication to it wavers, so I’ve found a work-around.

    I admire your dedication and determination to complete it despite these things. I’m sure lots of your readers will appreciate it greatly and since a lot of people(myself included) tend to binge completed things to the very end, it’ll be nice for a lot more people.

    Best of luck to you, man.

    Like

    1. Thanks, Danial. I do believe the series is certainly worth finishing. I have faith in my own work, haha. I just think the format doesn’t work, you know?

      Cheers!

      Like

  5. I really enjoy Brass, as well as Copper and Iron. You can definitely “feel” the backstory, even if it isn’t fully detailed. It’s great!

    Like

  6. Love the series, love the one offs. Everything you write is great, even polishing brass daily. I know I’m guilty of reading and walking and haven’t been commenting regularly but take solace I’ve been doing that a lot lately. Trust though that you do you better than anybody else.

    Like

    1. I have faith in my writing and still enjoy eliciting groan daily. It’s just the format of this story that doesn’t work for me. 🙂

      Like

  11. This is my problem. I keep seeing your posts and thinking, oh, that looks interesting. I should go back and read from the beginning. . . and then I just kind of don’t. . . Because it is hard to just start in the middle, even if not strictly necessary to get the individual stories. Might be an OCD thing. Netflix has spoiled me. No more starting a series of anything in the middle.

    But if you want to start from the beginning, the WordPress format does not help. If you are a late-comer there is too much scrolling and it is easy to lose motivation.

    I definitely agree a homepage, or some kind of table of contents page with links would be a big help.

    Like

    1. Yep! Cheers for the feedback. I know it’s an issue, so much so, I’ll never serialize like this again. Still, haven’t sorted out the homepage though. Doh!

      Like

  12. I love serials, but I’m looking forward to the book version! Busy schedule, don’t always have extra time, might miss an episode or two… But I’m hooked enough to buy the book and read it all in one chunk, for sure!

    Like

    1. Aww, cheers man. I think I could do a serial, but not like this. One continuous story, daily, for 4 months is too much.

      Like

Leave a comment