Some readers love them, but I’ve never been a huge fan of serial stories, (or cliffhanger endings in general.) I waited to buy some of the excellent serials in the genre— like Amy Lane’s Beneath the Stain or Leta Blake and Alice Griffiths’ Will & Patrick Wake Up Married— until all the pieces were in place. I’ll hoard books in a series that has cliffies rather than HFN endings, until I know there’s a resolution. I didn’t quite wait to the end of Cecelia Tan’s Daron’s Guitar Chronicles, but there were 12 novels’ worth of episodes out when I started reading it.

So I was a bit disconcerted to find myself writing a serial story for my Facebook group— Kaje’s Conversation Corner.

Like much of my writing, it wasn’t exactly planned out. I thought I was writing a piece of flash fiction for my regular Sunday writing post. Except Darien and Silas didn’t quite fit into a flash fiction length. So I figured I’d post half, and finish it the next week. But the guys and the cat had other ideas, and even the third installment hasn’t brought their story to a close. (This is not a new problem for me; I started out writing a short story for the MM Romance Group and ended up with 103,000 free words of Nor Iron Bars a Cage).

On the plus side, I don’t have to figure out what to post on Sunday for at least a couple more weeks. On the minus side, I’m asking group readers for patience I don’t generally have myself. Especially when the answer to “How many episodes will there be?” is “I’m pantsing it.” And unlike most authors who put a lot of time and effort into a polished product, this one’s pretty rough— just playing with writing.

On the other hand, it’s free. That covers a multitude of sins, right?

I’m having fun with it, though. At the moment I’m heavily in edit mode with my paid books— having just sent Tracefinder: Choices to formatting for its July 30 release, reedited Fair Isn’t Life to get it out again, working on edits for It’s About Time (or whatever the damned time stasis story ends up being called), and editing Undeniable Bonds, the fifth Hidden Wolves book.

I wanted to write. And, like the YA stuff I post on my GR group, there’s a relaxation in the pure fun of not editing and polishing, just sharing the story that appears. I’m grateful to have a group of people who— whatever they think about serials— are willing to go along with the game, and forgive the unpolished edges.

My first professional story submission was accepted in 2010 (though it appeared in 2011) so I’ve been at this publishing game for almost ten years. It’s cool to realize that I can still find new ways to have fun with it.

What about you? Are you a fan of serials, and their regular release of a piece of an emerging story? Or do you prefer to immerse into a tale and not be interrupted till it’s done? Did you like Game of Thrones, with its ongoing storyline and suspense, or did you hate the cliffhangering and wait and binge it? Have you been burned by a serial or TV show that was dropped before it reached a resolution?

Writing this thing is not actually making me more likely to read a serial story before it’s complete. Just really grateful for those who do. 🙂

– Kaje Harper

July 2020