Serials

First I would question how would a reader ever know the series or serial is complete or not? Second, I would say there is a lot of variation to what may be consider "regular and frequent" intervals. Some would say it is a matter of days, or perhaps a week or maybe a month.

Yes it is nice to have it all written and down pat when you submit the first part, but not absolutely necessary. My best serial was written over a period of about 9 months and it still does well today. My series on the family was done over a period of a few weeks and it does not bad. Very few of these stories were written in advance. and I used the comments on I got on the first parts to help in writing the second.

Each to their own style and choice, that is what is so great about this site. Rollin has some good points to consider as do others, but always remember we are here to have fun as well as reading, writing and commenting, so never put yourself in a situation where you feel forced to write the whole series if it means you quit having fun doing it that way.

I think we're all different as readers. Some don't like to or have the time to read a long story all in the one go, so it's more convenient for them to have it broken in to parts. I do two serials (The Spank Shop and PGB, and yes I am writing another of those!), but they're like most of my work fairly longish stories that are related by character and theme.

And that's why I write the whole thing in advance. I have all kinds of fragments of stories that got started and never finished and if I had published a part 1 and part 2, only to grow weary of the thing while readers asked for more, I'd have felt that I had to finish the damn thing without my heart really being in it. In fact, that very thing happened with what eventually became Gwen's Sorority Days. The L'il Red Schoolhouse is another. When reading it, you may ask, where is the schoolhouse? Well, it was supposed to show up in part 3, which was never written (but alluded to in Fox and Hounds).

My only point is, if it is a true serial, not a series, don't make the mistake of starting a project that turns into a chore. Don't pull a GRRM.

When I write serials I send them maybe 2 or 3 at a time. I think it's sort of like a cliffhanger to the readers in my opinion. They kind of like the wait and the mystery of what's next. Well, I think they do. To each his/her own I always say. The LSF staff will surely let us know if it's something they don't like in regards to submitting stories.

B

The author guide http://www.spankinglibrary.tk/index.php?func=about&view=aut states:
complete serials

Please let us know when a serial you have been submitting is completed so we can mark it as such on the site.

So anyone going to someone's author author page will see at a glance which of their serials are complete... assuming they have remembered to tell us of course

Flopsy, aren't we supposed to put The End after the last one? I thought someone told me that or I read it somewhere.

I have found in the past that if I do a story of more than 5000 words, some readers seem to find the prospect of such a long read a little daunting, so I now tend to do stories in either one go, or as a serial.
I always try to make sure that each episode has a beginning a middle and an end (usually a rosy end), though sometimes out of sheer impishness I will do a first part that has no real CP element to it as way of a scene setter fo further episodes.
All of my episodes tend to be in the 3000-4500 word range, which seems to be around most popular word count.

I try to finish a story at least in outline before submitting the first episode. I find myself editing and adding to episodes right up to when I press the button in order to establish links between parts and to prepare the ground for later action. And of course its not until the story is substantially complete that I really know what seeds I need to sow in the earlier episodes. Although I try to make each episode complete in itself, with beginning middle and end, to fully appreciate the plot it is necessary to read through them all. I'm still not sure of the best sequencing to encourage this but I agree too much at one go can be daunting.
With regard to how many episodes should be written, this obviously depends on the story and the writer. Generally I am reluctant to write extra episodes merely to describe additional spankings probably of increasing severity, but enjoy extending the scope of the tale to enhance those aspects that do not depend solely on corporal punishment. While spankings inevitably feature in the stories I post here, after all it's 'The Spanking Library', it is not my intention it should dominate them.

I'd never intended to write a serial, but I wrote a story that rather got out of hand, and at about 19,000 words, is a bit too long to be posted as a single story. So I will have to break it into sections. I'd always considered a 'series' or 'serial' to be a group of related stories, with each one standing alone as a separate story. The sections of my story (except possible the first) do not stand alone.
But I see in the 'Author's Guide' here, serials are defined as: "works consisting of 3 or more parts that represent a continuous narrative much like the chapters in a book."
So, I suppose I've written a serial.

Yes. Although the words seem to be used interchangeably, they are very different conceptually. A serial is an integral narrative broken into parts. And to be somewhat picky, each part advances a significant part of the overall story line. Parts of a serial could be standalone stories, but usually they are not. There is a timing factor too. To be a true serial, parts are released at different times--daily, once a week, once every two weeks---whatever. Stephen King's "The Green Mile" was a serial. "Flash Gordon and the Menace from Mongo" is a serial.

A series is a collection of stand alone stories having common characters, common settings, and a common theme. "Cheers" was a series. Seegee's "Spank Shop" is a series.

When you decide to create a series, you can publish as you write it, episode by episode without worrying about how to tie up all the plot threads at the end. There really is no end until the author wants there to be one.

If you set out to write a serial, it is a bit more complicated. Some folks charge off into the unknown figuring they'll figure it all out by the end. I'm too chicken for such a laugh-in-the-face-of-danger approach. I have to have the end in mind before I start. In fact sometimes I start with what I want to be the last line of the story and work towards that. (In fact I do that with short stories too).

So, yeah, when you write a long story, break it up into parts and release it piece by piece, it's a serial.