Serialized Fiction, and Effective Dialect, Part 5
In Today's Journal
* On Serialized Fiction
* A Book of One's Own
* For Anyone Who Missed It
* Writing Effective Dialect, Part 5
* Of Interest
* The Numbers
On Serialized Fiction
In Of Interest below, Vin Zandri talks about a new platform where you can serialize your fiction.
I've always been interested in serializing my novels. If you are too, be sure to also check out this Laterpress article:
The Complete Guide to Writing Serial Fiction
In the article, the author explains serial fiction and also lists several platforms (but note that Kindle Vella is no longer available.)
The author also recommends that you "plan your whole story first."
Obviously, as an advocate for writing into the dark, I do not recommend that, but to each his or her own.
I strongly recommend reading this article. I especially recommend the section titled "Keep your readers engaged."
I'll explore Laterpress. (You can explore it here.)
Note that this is as close as you can come these days to what Harlan Ellison called "writing in public," meaning writing as the readers watched in real time.
I intend to write and publish at least one chapter per day, and probably two or three chapters per day.
This will both motivate me to write more and to cycle and publish 'clean' copy before I publish each serialized segment. That can only make for a cleaner whole book at the end.
Through the serialization process, I also expect to learn more about keeping the story moving (and the reader engaged).
Finally, note that you can also do this with a Substack. If Laterpress doesn't work out right for me, I might go with Substack instead.
In the Substack format, readers would get one week free, then be required to subscribe for $5 per month to continue.
(With my current level of output, my readers would receive two full serialized novels per month, so $5 per month is quite a value.)
I might also go back and serialize some of my previous novels. Hmm.
Just some things to consider.
A Book of One's Own
TNJD subscriber Rex Schultz has published his first novel, Homecoming, on Amazon in paper. No word yet on whether Rex will also offer it in ebook.
For Anyone Who Missed It
Writing sales copy (cover blurb, description) isn't the same as writing fiction.
I most highly recommend a book by Dean Wesley Smith titled How to Write Fiction Sales Copy.
I also recommend you buy the paper edition. Mine is dogeared.
Writing Effective Dialect, Part 5
Using Phonetic Spellings and Truncations to Convey Emotion Through Dialogue
Because even native English speakers use phonetic spellings (gonna) and truncations (see the discussion of "going," "gonna," and "goin'" in yesterday's post) when conveying emotion, this belongs in any discussion of dialect:
In the excerpt below from my current novel, both the dialogue and the narrative conveys that the POV character is nervous. (As before, each bullet point indicates a new paragraph.)
As you will see, I used halting speech (with interruptions indicated with em dashes) as well as sentence fragments and descriptive narrative that conveys the POV character's opinions of the other character.
Of course, there's also a large dose of dialect indicated with phonetic spellings, truncations, and emphasized words.
But in this case you're the reader. Do you feel like you're in the room with the characters? Does the fact that the POV character is nervous come through?
When I pulled the door open, a trim, slight woman was standing there. She was maybe 5’3” and 120 pounds, with short black hair, blue eyes, and a smile that would defrost your freezer. She was wearing white sneakers, jeans, and a dark blue turtleneck sweater. Not at all how I expected a Russian woman to look. Very enticing.
I stepped back and gestured. “Please, come in. Sit anywhere.”
“Thahnk you.” She came through, swung past the arm of the couch, and sat on the cushion at the near end. She looked past her right shoulder at me.
After I closed the door and threw the deadbolt, I smiled at her on my way to the chair.
She bent forward slightly and rested her elbows just above her knees. She lightly clasped her hands together and waited.
I settled in, sitting forward in the chair, my forearms on my knees. “Thank you for coming over so quickly. You speak English very well.”
She beamed. “You are wahl-cahm, ahn’ thahnk you!” She wrinkled her brow slightly. It was cute. “You hahf eat sinz you came? You are hahngry?”
“No, I haven’t eaten, but I’m all right.”
“Oh yayss, the bizniss firs’.” She shrugged. “Thaht iss okay too.”
“Are you hungry? Is it your lunch time? Certainly you could go downstairs and eat.” I gestured. “This could wait a little while.”
“Baht you woul’ naht go too?”
I shrugged. “We can’t really speak about anything important in public, so—”
“Sahm ahther things are ahs importan’ ahs work.” She shrugged. “Baht I cahn eat aht any time.” She chuckled. “I can alwayss eat ahn’ then I cahn eat more.”
Even her chuckle was enticing. Kind of a half-laugh and half-flirty giggle. “Okay. Well good.” I sat back in the chair, crossed my left leg over the right at the knee. Then I uncrossed them and sat forward again. “Or I could order something for you from room service if you want.” I gestured. “Well, or you could order something. I mean, if you want.” I grinned. “They probably wouldn’t understand me.”
“No iss okay. If you are naht hahngry, iss okay.”
“Very well.” I sat back again and crossed one leg over the other. My left sneaker wiggled a little next to my knee. I forced myself to look up from her jeans and then her sweater to her eyes. Her eyes were almost as bad. I cleared my throat. “Tatiana, I found my the address of my target in the phone book. It was even in English, but with the street signs—” I spread my hands. “I’ll need you to tell me where I am.”
A Final Caution
If I failed to mention it earlier, indicating dialect with the use of contractions or truncations, atypical foreign words, and phonetic spellings will cause havoc with your spell checker.
If your spell checker offers the option of Add to Dictionary (Word's spell checker does), I recommend clicking that option for any words your spell checker highlights (vs. simply hitting "ignore" or "ignore all).
If you add those words to the dictionary, the spell checker won't 'ding' them in future works.
This ends the series on Writing Effective Dialect. Any questions, leave a comment or email me at harveystanbrough@gmail.com.
I'll be back tomorrow with a related topic, "The Value of Humor and Interruptions." Talk with you then.
Of Interest
Exploring REAM Serialized Fiction
Click ReamStories to visit the site for yourself.
Resources on the craft of writing books and web serials
The Numbers
The Journal…………………………… 1150
Writing of Blackwell Ops 40: John Staple
Day 1…… 3397 words. To date…… 3397
Day 2…… 1651 words. To date…… 5048
Day 3…… 1960 words. To date…… 7008
Day 4…… 1777 words. To date…… 8785
Day 5…… 1310 words. To date…… 10095
Day 6…… 3346 words. To date…… 13441
Day 7…… 3322 words. To date…… 16763
Day 8…… 1062 words. To date…… 17824
Day 9…… 1452 words. To date…… 19276
Fiction for March…………………….. 67049
Fiction for 2025………………………. 252880
Nonfiction for March……………........ 23120
Nonfiction for 2025…………………… 77050
2025 consumable words…………….. 323420
Average Fiction WPD (March)……... 2682
2025 Novels to Date…………………….. 6
2025 Novellas to Date…………………… 0
2025 Short Stories to Date……………… 11
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………..... 110
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)…………… 10
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……… 281
Short story collections……………………. 29
Disclaimer: Whatever you believe, unreasoning fear and the myths that outlining, revising, and rewriting will make your work better are lies. They will always slow your progress as a writer or stop you cold. I will never teach the myths on this blog.
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Thanks UH, and good luck with the serializing.
Thanks for the mention. "Homecoming" is now available as an Ebook.