Write in Installments

I've recently learned that the Green Mile was written episodically and that made me curious to try it myself. I love the idea to write a story to the end without knowing how it's gonna turn out and I was wondering if anyone here has any experience in doing so?

As you do with any story, you make the some notes, a draft, of a couple of pages, to get started and form a general idea what the story is about. Then I would make another draft and try to follow the character's every step until it becomes a cohesive plot and I suppose you'd do the same in instalments, only in shorter burst, a draft per episode. Or maybe, if you feel particularly inspired, it comes out more or less fully formed right away.

What do you think?

 

IDK, not King fan.

Installments and episodic suggest something like a
bunch of short stories that all tie together, similar to
a series, but all in one book instead of several.
Though as for not knowing how things will end, that
is what pantsing is, making it all up as you go along.

This seems like a good bit of info on how to craft such a story: http://davidmarkbrownwrites.com/how-to-write-episodic-fiction-episode-arc/

Good luck.

 

If you analyse GREEN MILE you'll see that it is a gradual process of emotional journey, change and underlining theme. Watch http://kalbashir.com/Oscars-2019-Winner-And-Nominees.html

 

One of my WIPs is episodic. I dont have an outline for it really. I just know what i want to happen at the end and a general plot. But other than that, each chapter doesnt really "follow" the one before it. Each chapter can honestly stand alone.

I like writing this story like this; it works for THIS story, but i cant see myself continuing it for another story/WIP or making a habit of writing like that. it just kind of happened for this one.
One thing about it, though, is that its a bit of a challenge to keep the "episodes" going. Wrapping each chapter up somewhat neatly and whatnot before moving on to another one.

 

Thank you! Does it have to be like that, though? Even short stories has a beginning middle and end, implying that all questions raised must be answered before the end. I guess what I'm looking for is the way I write already, as a pantser, but without writing ahead, so to speak. I find it much more liberating if I could write without knowing what's going to happen, which is always never the case because you jump ahead, having written the draft already. That would be the true essence of a panster, wouldn't it? To commit to the story wherever it takes you, even if it could be considered conventionally bad. That's probably why SK's stories are so crazy.

Question is, how much do you write before you stop and commit to the so called 'episode.'

 

The idea of episodic stuff interests, at least from a reader level. I've read a lot of horror that is done that way and also a few Wattpad stories. There's a few subreddits dedicated to short story writing that tends to collect episodic stuff (for example, "nosleep").

There's also Radish, which is a publishing site based on episodic writing. So, like Wattpad I guess but primarily paid content. I've never looked at it though.

Anyway, mostthe stuff I've read commits to a full short story for each episode but slowly includes a larger story it works up to. I know not everyone does it that way. I've read romances where the writer committed to a chapter instead of a story.

 

I am writing episodic.

This part of my story started as writing for myself to familiarise myself with my characters. It wasn't supposed to be a story in its own right. Just happened when I realised that I have an overarching plot indeed, and that this plot has to be told (was too dense to find another way).

Positives:

1. I can pull out any moment in my storyline I want to read about and enjoy a full, rich, and cohesive plot, complete with character arc; without being bogged down for hours, reading the full book.
   
2. Any of my episodes can stand alone; but—if you read them all, preferably in the proper order, you get an overarching plot and theme.
3. You get lots of experience writing short stories and/or novelettes.
4. You get lots of experience writing beginning/endings.

Drawbacks:

1. It's a pain in the ass to keep track of the big storyline and boil it down into a specific moment you want to write about.
2. Any small change in anyone episode changes all other episodes later on.
3. You can't just write a self-contained short story and forget about the big timeline—you need cross-connections and plan for them to happen.
   
4. An outline only works with a very basic storyboard (read post-it and a very big piece of paper), because each episode is also a complete story.
5. Sometimes it's difficult to find the plot or character-arc for a specific episode (I know what must happen within the larger frame but I've only a hazy idea how to make it happen).

Bottom line: I don't see that writing episodic is more or less difficult than writing 'traditional style'. It feels at times like shifting perspective from a hawk to a mouse and back, but I don't know if I'd not feel that way with traditional style as well. You always have to make sure that the plot hangs together. Each chapter always has to serve multiple purposes. Each chapter has to advance the plot. Not so difficult after all.