I've been trying to write the next episode of my serial, "Stephanie's Deal," and I'm having trouble making it interesting. My attempts so far have just felt like filler, merely describing Stephanie's day to day life. She's starting a new school, so for her there's a lot of nervous tension and wonder at meeting new people and learning new things, but I can't seem to get that emotion across to a grownup reader that knows those things aren't that serious. I could introduce some danger of getting found out or romantic entanglements but I don't want to be mean to my character and throw some conflict at her just to make the story exciting.
How do other authors deal with the problem of keeping things worth reading?
Remember, to Stephanie ...
... those things aren't just serious, they're vital. To a child, even a teen, school and the people in their lives are their world. I suggest putting yourself in her place and seeing things from her point of view. And once she gets past the social bumps in the road that lay ahead, bring her story to a close. Unless you want to follow her through the day-to-day, let her rest for a while.
Maybe someday, you might feel the need to look in on her again at a different point in her life, with new challenges. She's a sweet kid, after all, and i think she'll make a great grown-up someday. *smile*
Randalynn
Day to Day stuff
is amazingly dramatic at that age. A single negative look or comment can bring the world crashing down around you, and a single smile or compliment can make you feel like you're walking on air, and both can happen on the same day. Teens are struggling with trying to belong, to be accepted. They are beginning to take on some of the freedoms and responsibilities of adulthood while still trying to enjoy being a kid. They are facing all those wonderful hormones and dealing with crushes and first loves. Their bodies are doing all these strange things making them feel like aliens in their own skins. You add gender issues to all this, and you have enough stuff to write novels about.
Dorothycolleen
The Beauty of Historical Fiction and the Real World
I find using either real world situations, such as I did in ‘Dance of the Baccha,’ history as I am now doing in ‘Caitlin’ or revisiting an old classic such as Persephone and I are doing at the moment supplies all the drama a writer needs. All you are required to do as a writer is to conjure up an interesting cast of characters and plop them into the thick of it.
Nancy Cole
"You may be what you resolve to be."
T.J. Jackson
Serial blocked
Why not look at the other author's stories whose man character is a child? Susan Brown, Jennifer Sue have preteen characters. And I am sure that there are others.
May Your Light Forever Shine
May Your Light Forever Shine
Well, here's my idea!
To write the sequel to "Unexpected Attractions", I'm working on goals. I figure out what I want to happen, what stagers I need to do it, then I start filling in the dewtails. I'm still creating goals at this stage, trying to decide how evil I want to be. I'd love to be more comedic, but I'm just not funny enough! We'll see what happens. Once I have a plan, then I make an outline, and I'm planning 10 chapters. So far, this is fairly simple. Last time, I got to my eighth chapter and it started getting boring, so I had to make major changes. I'm trying to avoid that this time.
What do you see as the conflicts for Stephanie? I plan a couple of major conflicts for my characters, with an underlying conflict behind everything. ou can sprinkle small problems throughout the story, perhaps drop a few clues as to how you might reach a resolution without actually saying that.
I hope this helps! I really like the "Stephanie's Deal" story!
Wren
There's been a few times
as I've seen here in a few stories and sequels that the need for stuff to happen actually seems to over-ride just a few basic things in a good story. People are lovely and complex with dreams and wants and needs plus like Dorothy said there's tons of stuff going on in school or just normal teenaged life. The everyday can be stuff we want to read, even if you slide by a few days and stuff until there's an event that you dreamed up.
Personally if I like the everyday. I hate the stories that keep having things happen for the sake of having something happen.
Keep up with the great work.
Bailey Summers
Writer's block
Or, often in my case, writer's blockhead. I sideline the story, work on something else and wait for the muse to awake again.
Thank you, Bailey. Para. 2 of your comment was so useful. I've a story stuck at the moment. I have two crises to insert, but I don't know where to put them. I had an idea of allowing a period of stability so that something nice could happen. Mind you, my editor could turn all my ideas on their heads!
In addition, I've taken on board other comments regarding teenage characters. As has been said, what the rest of us see as perhaps mundane can be of great importance to a child. I don't tend to write such characters into my stories (I have nothing but admiration for those who can make stories about children so believable) but many of the ideas could work for adults too.
Thank you all; your comments may well have unblocked this writer.
S.
The challenges....
The challenges are different when you're talking serial vs. chapters in a closed end story.
For a serial to keep interest, you need to periodically introduce new "elements"... They can be new people to interact with, new "problems" for existing people, Health issues, world issues,the list goes on... The key is to not have them come out of nowhere - with no hints that they could happen (even if others don't recognize the hints). Should there be filler, or low energy, episodes? Yes. A serial that's always at peak energy or has a cliff hanger every episode actually begins to pall and interest wains. A good example is Angharad's Bike... Anything that can keep going for over 1,300 episodes (and still keep interest) has to be doing something right. (I don't suggest perfection, and I've never heard her claim such - Bonzi perhaps...) Other examples can be found all over... A look at comic books will help you find quite a number of very long running titles. Star Trek is another example... And the list goes on, and on, further than the Energizer Bunny could take it.
To your story... Perhaps you should ask yourself several questions. Are YOU bored with it? Is there something you want to achieve with it? (Or is it just some bit of fun between you and your readers?) Is there somewhere you're trying to get your protagonist? If so, have you gotten there? (If so, maybe wrapping it up IS the right thing. But, perhaps you need to set a NEW somewhere.) But, if not, perhaps you need to step back and look at where you're trying to go, and think about what you may need to do to help your story GET there.
If you're approaching the "conclusion" of the current story arc - and you want to keep the story going (it sounds like you do)... I'd suggest that you think about what you'd like to see your characters do/experience next, and start laying the groundwork while you wrap up things in the previous arc and/or pass time with peaceful existence... Episodes of Peacefulness are to be treasured in long running serials.
Good Luck,
Anne