Episodes

Thinking Aloud On a Sunday

~ beetleypete ~ 40 Comments

Waking up late, and writing.

I woke up late today, nine fifty-six, to be precise. Unlike last week, I didn’t lie in bed thinking random thoughts, but got up with something specific on my mind.

I was busy doing stuff yesterday, so didn’t write an episode of the latest serial. And that also meant that I didn’t write today’s episode in advance, something I generally do, especially at weekends.

Later this afternoon, I also didn’t write tomorrow’s episode, let alone writing and posting the one that should have gone out today. So by tomorrow, I will techically be two episodes behind. Hopefully, this is just a blip, and not a case of writer’s block.

We will all find out tomorrow.

( On the plus side, Ollie met new friends on his walk today. Bambi, a dog rescued from a life on the streets in Croatia, having to stay on her lead in case she runs away. At least until she is used to the area, and her new home. Then Misty, a Collie pup with pale grey and white fur. Twenty weeks old, and excitable. Both of those new arrivals were a little bit ‘in your face’ for Ollie’s liking. But he will get used to them in time. )

Fiction Serial Overview: The River

~ beetleypete ~ 28 Comments

I have just published my most recent serial in one complete story. As usual, I am looking at how it was received, and explaining something about the process for those of you who may be interested.

This was my first attempt at writing something from an American perspective. Using my experience of watching many American films over almost sixty years, as well as my memories of books like ‘The Catcher In The Rye’, I tried to capture the feel of life in small town America over a period from the early 1970s to the turn of the century.

Looking back, I was only partially successful. I notice that I varied spelling between the English and American versions, failing to be consistent in either. I received encouragement from many American readers who assured me that I was getting most of it right, as well as valuable help from David Miller, who kindly pointed out differences such as ‘Filling out’ a form, rather than the English ‘Filling in’ a form. Although I looked up the policing structure in most American states, I made an error with ‘County Police’, but decided to leave that in the story to add to the fictional element.

I tried for shorter episodes this time too, as some of my previous serial parts ran close to 2,000 words. In terms of readers, each episode exceeded 80 views, with a total of more than 1800 views for the whole serial, and more still coming in. Comments were up on some other serials too, so that was very rewarding for me.

As I normally do, I thought of the ending, and worked back. I had to use notes to remember the various characters, and I did some research into two genuine American locations too. For the names of the characters, I looked up some common American surnames, many derived from the European original names of course, and tried to place the first names in some historical context of when such names would have been popular.

My thanks to everyone who stuck with every episode of the serial, and to those of you who reblogged any part, or shared on social media.

I hope you will enjoy the next one, when it arrives in my head!

Best wishes, Pete. 🙂

Fictional musings

~ beetleypete ~ 55 Comments

I have never made a secret of the fact that I enjoy writing short stories, and publishing them on this blog. I get the most satisfaction from writing fiction, approaching it in something of a style, and going from idea to published story very quickly, without too much time for research and construction.

That many of you read them and comment is always a source of delight to me. Whether or not you have enjoyed them, the fact that people take time to read them is very much appreciated. When I have received praise for them, or criticism, both are equally valuable to me.

As you may know, I have occasionally written some in the form of a serial. One of the first, ‘Travelodge’, was in three parts, later followed by ‘Tubby’s Toe’, a gangster saga, in six long episodes. The most recent attempt, ‘Gary’s hot date’ ran to four parts, and concluded last week. That was my first attempt at a real ‘happy ending’ too, and felt a little strange to me.

Today’s musings concern the idea of such serialisations, and one fact in particular. Easily able to estimate from the viewing stats provided by WordPress, I came across something that I found quite surprising. Although most die-hard followers and readers stuck with all the episodes of those serials, often commenting all the way through, most readers read only some, or part of them. If they read the first parts and decided it wasn’t for them, that’s easy to understand. But in most cases, it was the later episodes that received the most views, often twice as many as previous posts, including the beginning to each story, which in many cases received the least views.

I am now thinking about all those people that read parts five and six of a story that had four previous episodes. What did they think was happening? It would have made no sense as a stand-alone piece, and I always publish warnings about serials at the start of each post. The most recent four-parter enjoyed more views of the last episode, that the three preceding it. How did they ever manage to work out the whats and whys? I confess that does intrigue me.

But it’s not the end of the world. Just musings.