We are very pleased to welcome back a special guest to Tuesday Serial. Claudia Hall Christian is the coordinator for #bookmarket chat every Thursday afternoon at 4pm EST. Be sure to stop by for excellent marketing conversation. But the reason she’s here with us today is that she also writes serials and she’s sharing some excellent tips. This is the third guest post in a series from Claudia. If you missed her posts “5 Tips for Writing Kick-Ass Serial Fiction,” and “Why Your Serial Fiction Is Likely to Fail and What To Do About It” now’s your chance.
Here at Tuesday Serial, we welcome BOTH Serial Fiction and Serialized Fiction, but we’ve never really distinguished between the two. Today, Claudia is throwing down the gauntlet with her discussion about Serial Fiction vs Serialized Fiction and challenging us to consider the differences between the two. Perhaps you’ll agree or perhaps you’ll disagree, but regardless, welcome back, Claudia!
Serial fiction (def) : Serial fiction is the practice of publishing a portion of a work of fiction close to the time the fiction was written. Serial fiction has no designated middle or ending, only a beginning.
Serialized (def) : Serialize fiction is work of completed fiction that is published in small segments. While it’s most common to serialize a novel or longer works of fiction, short stories can also be serialized. The entire work of fiction – beginning, middle and end – is complete prior to release of any segments.
Ta da! That was easy. I guess I’ll see you next month…
…Oh… That’s not it? You sure?
sigh… grumble…
Ok, you were right. I was being lazy and a little flip. The difference between serial fiction and serialized fiction is a major, and absolutely absurd, division†in the serial community. Both methods of publication and writing are valid. They are simply different.
Writing style
While technically, serial fiction vs. serialize fiction is about when a work is published, serial fiction and serialized fiction are two very different writing styles.
Serial fiction is written one chapter or section at a time and published one chapter or section at a time. This means that each chapter needs to carry the larger story arch as well as lure the reader to return the next week. It is a genre known for intense cliffhangers. The ‘Who shot JR?‘ situation in summer of 1980 is a great example of this classic serial fiction style. Charles Dickens, the grand master of serial fiction, was best known for his cliffhanger endings to chapters. He had the capacity to bring the reader to a razor’s edge and then break the chapter. The reader was compelled to buy the magazine to read the next chapter. If you’re not quite sure of what I mean, check the audio version of Scarlet Pimpernel out of the library. Just don’t listen in your car. You’ll find yourself sitting outside your house of work for hours at a time as one cliffhanger leads to another adventure.
Serialized fiction publication usually falls along the chapter lines. Chapters carry the story but don’t necessarily have the cliffhangers and zingers to lure the reader to read the next chapter. Unless the work is specifically designed and written to be read quickly (which is its own art form), the chapters can fall on something as banal as the number of words in a chapter. Because serialized fiction has more to do with novel writing, I will trust that you have your own stack of ‘How to write a novel’ books. If you need some references, let me know in the comments and I’ll share my favorites.
Beginning, middle, end
Talented serial fiction authors write each chapter so that someone can enter the fictional world at any chapter. This means that characters, the location of the story, and situations are reintroduced over and over again. Each chapter should also have a beginning, middle, and end. In classic serial fiction, a chapter begins with remnant tension from the last chapter, moves to calmer water then ends on a suspenseful cliffhanger.
And yeah, I know. Our high school and college professors told us that every chapter of a novel or long story, and every paragraph for that matter, should have a beginning, middle and end. But you know what? Most chapters don’t have a beginning, middle and end. They don’t. They just don’t. Some chapters are split in the middle of the action. Some chapters are long continuations of a dramatic or emotional sequence. This is the beauty and charm of a novel. The author has the luxury and challenge of laying out the entire book in beginning, middle, and end format. Serial fiction authors don’t have to deal with this particular challenge.
Why is this a big deal?
The truth is that calling a serialized novel or longer work of fiction serial fiction is simply rude.
Novels and longer fiction are wonderful. They are hard work and require a tremendous amount of attention and love. They demand a ton of content editing, proof editing, and agonizing days and nights of this work vs. that word. I personally think it’s delightful if an author or publisher wants to share the book in a serialized manner. But the novels and longer fiction aren’t serial fiction. Serialized fiction isn’t serial fiction.
Serial fiction authors slave day in and day out to make sure their fiction continues week after week. Sure, most authors write ahead a little bit. But at some point or another, there’s a moment in time when they are up in the middle of the night attempting to get their chapter done. Serial fiction is the A-game. It takes all the writer has to give and then some. It’s consistent, hard work year in and year out.
I’m not being elitist here. I think both art forms are valid, hard work, and beautiful in their own right.
By using the term serial fiction to describe a serialized fiction, you diminish the power, hard work, and beauty of serial fiction. In diminishing serial fiction, you diminish another beautiful art form, serialized fiction. There’s nothing easy about writing a novel or longer fiction. When you confuse the two art forms, you cast a shadow over both.
Don’t be embarrassed. Just stop doing it.
Thoughts and questions are always welcome. Please feel free to leave them in the comments. Also, if you have a burning desire to know about some particular topic, let me know! Next month, ‘Crap, my serial fiction is stuck! 5 unsticking tricks.’
Until next month….
This is an ongoing series about writing serial fiction. The series continues on the last Thursday of every month.
Claudia Hall Christian is an author and a beekeeper. She writes the Alex the Fey thriller series, as well as the crunchy and sweet serial fiction, Denver Cereal. In April, 2011, she’s started a serial about a young widow who loses every thing to find herself, The Queen of Cool, set in Fort Worth, TX, for She is Dallas.
From P.J. & Tony: Clearly this is a subject that can lead to some strong opinions. Let’s talk about it! What do you think?
The strongest disputes are over the most minor things.
So… on my blog, there are two completed long-form stories. FAR Future was written as a series of blog posts spanning 25+ years. White Pickups was a novel posted scene-by-scene. Is it safe to call FAR Future a serial and White Pickups serialized?
I think so @farfetched58. I serialize my Alex the Fey thriller novels by chapter – how do you post by scene?
But… but… I'm writing what probably qualifies as 'serialized fiction' since it has a middle and an end anticipated… but I started publishing it well before I was done writing the whole! And each post has a beginning, middle and end, with designated hooks to the next scene! It's like… serialized fiction designed to be read in a serial manner! Oh, categorization, you crazy thing.
Great point Chrysoula! Oh… I wish you were hanging around my brain when I wrote the post!
I would call your work a 'serial fiction' because it's published as it is written. Again, serial fiction is first defined by it's publication style – then by the rest of it.
Let's take a look at Dickens. If he had a contract for a year w a publication? He wrote as you describe. When he was publishing his own work, it was more open, less structured. You can also see in books like Bleak House, how some work had what I call 'serial interuptus'. (Bleak House has a fast wrap up.)
Again, I think you bring up a great point. I wonder what everyone else thinks? PJ? Tony?
I'm learning right along with everybody else on this
I think the difference between serial fiction and serialized fiction is a very interesting and important one for both readers and writers, but as Claudia has said, there are many shades of gray on the spectrum between serial and serialized. Chrysoula – my thought would be it's probably serial fiction but you're putting perhaps a bit more thought up front into the structure – i.e., beginning, middle, end – and you're operating in a bit less of a "seat of the pants" mentality. The distinction between the two is only useful in helping you consider what's working for you, rather than implying you should change anything. Not sure if I've helped at all 
– PJ
Excellent article. I've been wondering how to define my work and this is really helpful.
And…. ImageChaos – don't leave us in suspense!! What did you decide???
[...] Serial vs Serialized Fiction – What?? by Claudia Hall Christian Interested in submitting a guest post to Tuesday Serial? Please check our guidelines. Search Tuesday Serial [...]
Interesting distinction. Thanks for sharing it with us.
I think my series falls most closely into the "Serial Fiction" camp. However, I've been writing so far ahead that I actually have 14 weeks worth up my sleeve ready to post.
I think I'm in my own unique little world because I have episodes (20 weekly chapters) which are like novellas in their own right, and have their own beginning, middle and end. However, each of these are part of a much larger ongoing story arc.
Truth be told Adam, all of these categories are fairly arbitrary. Certainly Sir Arthur Conan Doyle published Sherlock Holmes as serial fiction which in turn were more like novellas than anything else. There are a million shades in between as well. To my mind, if you're doing what you love, and the story makes sense, you're doing just fine.
[...] need more clarification? Here’s a great article to read that will help you. Rate this: Share [...]
Thanks for the clarity on a subject that has been twisting my mind, especially with Amazon's release of Kindle Serials.
I'm 4 episodes into my 13 part Urban Hunters series. I wrote the lot and found it unpublishable via traditional publishing methods because it wouldn't have met any of their criteria. Then I realised what the real problem was – that traditional publishers had dropped the ball and were being left behind by technology. So I considered self-publishing and behold, a world of wonder opened up to me. I played around with the idea of breaking up my story into parts and serialising it(no need to write an article on my use of an "s" rather than a "z", I am an Australian, that should be excuse enough!). I found it broke into parts beautifully which I then broke again into the 13, 10 to 20 thousand word episodes. I found I had to rewrite it to suite the episodic format so each had a beginning, a middle and an end, more or less. But I didn't want to be re-introducing each character over and over again because I am hoping to be able to bring out one big omnibus without having to rewrite it again. So I began a cast of past characters at the beginning of each episode. It is working beautifully. Each episode is fulfilling and leads readers onto the next episode. Also, the story pace has picked up which has made it a lot more fun. Though I wonder if it will be too much as an omnibus. But who cares, for now, it's great.
I have been wondering if I should jump into the Kindle Serials. But my series just didn't seem to fit the format, and your explanation has helped to confirm that. Thanks. Besides, I am now a devout self-publisher enjoying huge royalties and Amazon are only offering this, for now, as a traditional publishing deal with them. I'm not interested. My series is taking off without them. Yee hah! Go the serials. I believe they're going to launch writing and reading into a whole new stratosphere.
[...] That’s not serial fiction. While Mr. Bezos says readers will be able to influence the nature of the stories through interaction with the author on Amazon forums( i.e, they will publish true serial fiction), Amazon is not doing it right now. (Confused about serial fiction vs. serialized fiction? Here’s my take.) [...]