It's Like TV For Books!

Charles Dickens practically invented it with The Pickwick Papers, amongst other stories, including Great Expectations. Stephen King championed it with The Green Mile. Andy Weir employed it with great success in the original publication of The Martian. And it doesn’t stop there - Conan Doyle, Louis Stevenson, H.G. Wells, Jules Verne. They all did it!

Now, you might be wondering why I’m babbling on about these literary giants, but they all have one thing in common (other than being fantastic writers) - I’m talking about serialised storytelling. The serial novel.

Yes, the “It’s like TV for Books” post title makes a little more sense now. The serial novel, a story that’s published in instalments, is something that, as a huge fan of TV, I absolutely love. I experimented with this technique on the site late last year/early this year, with my short story Rocket Man. And people read it, each week (I think). And it’s something I’m going to use the website and blog for a lot more of.

As a writer, you’re constantly writing. Either your thinking of ideas, or scribbling down notes (or typing in your phone notes) or you’re hunkering down over the keyboard and working on a project. I like to write as much as possible and make my writing available to be read by everyone and anyone. What’s the point in letting it gather dust in a drawer or lie dormant on a desktop?

I’ve also been keen to kick on with this idea of Pocket Fiction, stories that you can read in your pocket and on your phone. And, if you’re so inclined, can pay for with whatever change you have in your pocket (see my recent post on joining Ko-FI!). So with these ideas in mind, plus the fact that I have a website that I don’t probably use for the original purpose it was intended (to post stories and other forms of writing), I’m going to start using it to publish serialised stories.

The first one out of the gate, my novel The Quest For Perfection (Is A Damn Fine Thing). You can buy the complete story either here on the website or on Amazon in both paperback or digital, if you can’t wait to read the story chapter by chapter, each week.

Obviously, I’d prefer if you were so excited by the story that you bought a copy, or even donated to the Ko-Fi page. But either way, I’d just be grateful for people to read the story, and let me know what you think.

I’m a writer, first and foremost. And writers need to write, but they also want to be read. So I’m going to stand on the shoulders of giants (Dickens, King, Weir - to name but a few) and join the great tradition of serialised storytelling and serial novels.

If you read, then thank you. And I hope you come back week in, and week out. The prologue is now available to read here.

Enjoy

C x