Microcosm Challenge: Become a Serial Writer

It’s a simple challenge with a twist — you don’t know the future

This is one of Microcosm's Greater Challenges

As the image above, your Serial is a collection of stories that fit together. Tiny moments that together illuminate the world they inhabit. Each story stands on its own as a complete episode, a flash fiction sized tale. But when connected, they tell a larger, more sweeping tale.

This Serial Challenge is the upper limit of what you can do at Microcosm. After you achieve this, you’ll have to join another venture when it launches in November.

Flash Fiction helps build your storytelling instincts.

Burning in the understanding of what makes a good story with repeated rapid practice. You start with smaller stories, then larger, and once you reach our upper limit (1000 words), the next step is chaining them together.

But where’s the challenge?

The challenge is doing this with weekly prompts as your guide. Writing a serial based on four prompts and making them all work within your longer story. Like the picture above, you don’t know exactly what direction they will take.

The Serial Challenge

Write four or five stories using the theme and all prompts for that month as the spine that connects them.

It’s like a Choc 99 Surprise, the soft-serve ice cream with the hidden chocolate flake inside. This is exciting for me because I’m a pantser (Note from Paul: a pantser is someone who flies by the seat of their pants — the story is waiting to be told, and the author is only the conduit) at heart. Knowing the plot or a detailed outline bores me to tears.

So I encourage you, even if you’re a plotter, to try to let go of the reins a little and let someone else guide your story and push it or you into corners you might not have expected. Then, write yourself out those corners with a stronger hero or more dastardly villain or tragic catastrophe.

Why should I care about Serials?

Serials are growing in popularity. If you haven’t heard that the 800-pound orange gorilla named after the longest river has invested heavily in Serials, then you should probably check out Kindle Vella. Never mind Wattpad’s success.

Serials are also the next logical step once you get the hang of Flash Fiction; once you know your stuff and can write a good story that grabs people, then write more of them and link them together.

Those Serial parts could become chapters with a little more effort, and then you’re on your way to a Novel. Which, let's be honest, is the most lucrative form of writing. Well, linking novels together into a series is. (Note from Paul: selling an unfinished series of novels to HBO and then never finishing is probably even more lucrative)

Microfiction and Flash Fiction are fun, great for practice and, like other forms of short fiction, a great place to experiment. But if you’re like me and want a career in writing fiction, novels are the way to go. And serials are the stepping stones to get there.

Benefits of Serial Format

• Consistent output and deadline helps you build momentum
• Your audience grows over time because anticipation is a major dopamine driver
• The schedule gives you breathing room between pieces to come at your story with fresh eyes.

How is this different from a Mini-Novella in Flash?

Admittedly, they’re pretty similar, but with a key difference in that your point of view character is likely the same with a Serial. This is because you’re moving through events in a logical (or if you’re Fox Kerry or Smillew Rahcuef semi-logical) order. (Note from Paul: only time Smillew Rahcuef has been mentioned in the same sentence as logical. Oh, the burn! Do you need some ointment?).

But a Novella in Flash is different in that it shows the same event through the eyes of multiple people. So your point of view character changes.

This example below was written as part of Microcosm’s April Theme: Sensate, focusing on description through a single sense every week, starting with Taste.

A Serial is also typically released in pieces. In contrast, a Novella is usually already a collection when you happen upon it.

How do you write Serial Fiction?

Serial Fiction isn’t a novel chopped up into pieces and released slowly. Each episode has to have its own satisfying conclusion, and the narratives between them can be more loosely coupled.

This is why it makes sense to start with Flash Fiction and then move into Serial Fiction. You’ve trained yourself to write small stories that are self-contained masterpieces. Now just write more that end with the hint of something more.

Think Episodes Not Chapters

You can write self-contained and satisfying stories and then connect them with an overarching narrative. Each episode should stand on its own, much like if you caught an episode of a TV show. You can drop in and understand, but it would be better to view the whole series to get the full picture and all the narrative value.

How do you take part in this Challenge?

Write a longer story making use of a monthly theme and each prompt as it comes.

1. You must consider the theme.
2. You must use all prompts.
3. You must stick to the min and max word limits.
4. You must link your stories together.

With Sprinkles

For the courageous and community-focused, use any combination of Empty Worlds, Heroes for Hire and Villains to Vanquish.

How do I link my stories?

There are a few ways to join your stories together. Pick the method that best suits your Serial, and you find easiest to do.

The Simplest Method for Four or Fewer Parts:

The easiest method is to simply add Medium’s Preview links at the bottom of your story:

Before longer episodes, Paul’s Code Block method:

Note from Paul: I like to use the code block notation of ``` before the text and then list the episodes (you can’t use Medium lists inside a code block). To hyperlink the current episode, use the hashtag (#), and it’ll reload the current page.

Example Title
1. current episode
2. next episode

At the end of longer episodes, use Links and a List

Add your links after your bio, as in the example below. Feel free to copy the model below and modify it with your links. Optionally use a List to give readers access to all the chapters. They can also clap for your list or bookmark it for later.

This structure is better than Part 1, Part 2, etc., because you don’t need to know how many parts there is upfront. And if you break the “Next” link, readers can use your List link as a fallback. For example, you can replace “Next” with “Coming next week” for the most recent episode.

Zane Dickens writes Sci-Fi Flash Fiction and fiddles with paint on canvas too. I hope you enjoyed this introduction to The Dying of the Light.

This story is part of a larger serial fiction.

👈 Previous | View the List of Chapters| Next 👉

To make these work:

You need to paste your previous/next chapters URLs or links over the Previous or Next text.

1. Copy the URL from the story you want to link from the address bar
2. Select the Previous or Next text
3. Paste (Ctrl+V or Cmd + V)
4. This should make the text a link.
5. Repeat for Previous and Next at the bottom of each story.

Another option for smaller episodes

Karen Traub recently collected her Sven and the Fire Djinni into a single post. This is an excellent option for a small collection of shorter pieces.

Linking through to 100 or 50 words stories could be a frustrating reading experience, so putting them all together with an intro like Karen did is a great idea.

The Top of the Microcosm Mountain

So, if you’ve got flash fiction down, you can tell longer stories up to 1000 words with ease. Maybe it’s time you tried our Serial Challenge and graduated to the highest level at Microcosm?

This is another of Micrcosm’s Greater Challenges, for when the weekly prompt becomes humdrum and your writerly talents need a good stretch:

If you thought this was helpful, awesome, inspiring or helped you as a writer, consider supporting Microcosm directly. 

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