About The Lightening Round
The blockbuster SerialTeller serial THE LIGHTENING ROUND is now a novel. In THE LIGHTENING ROUND, Hannah More, a sassy single mom with weight issues, reluctantly enters Ultimate Level, a San Francisco gym which groups its members based on their weight and fitness levels. Much to her shock, Hannah actually finds that this crazy “fitness experience” works well for her. That is, until she falls for another gym member who is on a different level. Ultimate Level’s rigidly enforced policies only allow its members to communicate with members on different levels in person for 15 minutes every two weeks both inside and outside of the gym. Hannah will have to come up with some rather ingenious and comic schemes in order to land the romance of her dreams.
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Bruce Stuart Guest Blog: Transforming Your Serial Fiction Into A Novel
Candidly, not everyone who writes serial fiction wants or should want to turn their work into novels. Now I’m not talking about collecting all of your serial installments and publishing them as an e-book or paperback — for that, you really don’t need my advice. I’m talking about taking a serial of many installments that is either completed or still in progress, and deciding to re-craft that collection of characters and story lines into a standard format novel.
So, how does it all begin? It all starts with an outline. Whether you chose to write that outline down or keep it embedded inside your head, there should be a blueprint that is steering the direction your serials are taking.
TIP 1: Determining where to cut a serial can often times be challenging when working on your novelization. If you have an outline you should be able to see where the natural break in your story occurs and where you may want to take your story next in the event that you chose to write multiple novels from the same serial.
TIP 2: If your serial has a large number of characters, you may want to take this into consideration as you begin transforming from a serial into a novel. Think about how many primary and supporting characters you wish to keep for use in your novel. In many ways, writing serials can serve as your own personal “writing workshop.” It allows you the opportunity to experiment and see which characters belong, which ones really should be cut, and even which characters you thought were bit players should have larger parts in your story.
You have now finished your serial and you are now intimately familiar with your story. Is there enough material for a full length novel? One of the most challenging aspects of writing a novel, of which there are many, is having a story which is as compelling on the last page as it was on the first. Often, what we start with seems like a great idea, but it just doesn’t possess enough substance for it to remain compelling for hundreds of pages. Your outline should trace out your various story lines and key moments that compel the reader to keep turning the page. Are there enough? Too many? Any dead ends or weak threads that should be cut? Be critical. Trim or beef up the story wherever needed.
TIP 3: Many serial installments will end with a “cliffhanger” which will force the reader to tune to the inert installment. This is a good thing and should help you to create that same sense of desire for your reader to turn to your next page. However . . .
See. I got you to jump to the next line, didn’t I? You will probably want to use cliffhangers in your novel as well, but you may want to change your pacing in your novel —meaning using fewer cliffhangers or perhaps adding even more if you want it to pace differently. You will be better able to gauge this pacing as you determine whether you will be using all or just part of your original serial.
Your words matter!
Bruce
About the author:
Bruce Stuart is the author of the weight loss romance novel, THE LIGHTENING ROUND, which debuted as a popular serial on the serial fiction website, SerialTeller.com. This guest blog was adapted from one of Bruce’s blogs on SerialTeller.
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