I am losttrying to write a serial ...

A question to authors:

How do you manage to keep going without leaving the plannned story line ?

I started a story planned as a one shot.

Then I realized it will exceed 3000 words which I deem the limit (max, length easily readable within the library. Then I got the bright idea to split it into two parts.
part 1 - the crime (misbehavior)
part 2 - the penance(punishment).

By now I think about doing a serial ...
part 1.5 intermediate adding a new character
part 2.5 payback

I don't consider myself an expert by any means. When I write a serial, I don't always start out to, sometimes it morphs into one. Sometimes I introduce the main character(s) in the opening installment, and bring in more characters throughout the series that are somehow related to the main characters, and I'll bring the main characters in and out through the series, and will end up ending the series with the main characters wrapping up the whole story. I do that in the series, "The Principal Needs Help." A serial can go as far as your imagination takes you. But it is a lot of work, you have to keep characters and their characteristics and personalities straight from installment to installment. I'm working on one now that takes a husband and wife with kids through 20 years of their careers in education. I've had some that I wrote in a little as a month, and another that took me two years to finish.

Good luck, I look forward to seeing the finished product.

Steven has said a lot of what my experience is. The Spank Shop began its life as a one off. I’ve just completed the 78th episode. When I do a more traditional serial I write the whole thing, then break it up into chapters. Admittedly my writing style is what Stephen King refers to as a ‘pantser’ (writes by the seat of the pants) and what George R R Martin calls a ‘gardener’ (the story grows organically). Continuity is tough the longer you go, though.

SeegeeAdmittedly my writing style is what Stephen King refers to as a ‘panther’ (writes by the seat of the pants) and what George R R Martin calls a ‘gardener’ (the story grows organically).

Seegee, at least you have a writing style, mine is a more, "Throw stuff at the wall and see what sticks, " approach. I would not dignify the way i write stories as a, "Writing Style."

Actually, most of my serials started off as a one off story, and somewhere in there I realized, "hey, dumb ass, there's a whole lot more you can do with this idea." One of the series that started as a series, that took two years to write, only two people thought enough of it to write comments. Oh well, I still enjoyed writing it, and it stretched me some into places I'd not gone before.

Not that I'm comparing myself to him as I'm not even in his universe as a writer, but Larry McMurtry, the man who wrote my favorite novel, "Lonesome Dove, " wrote some absolute stinkers, yet I consider him one of the great novelists of my lifetime. so, even the best of them have things they've written that not all readers enjoy.

Most successful novelists have what they call ‘drawer books’ something they realise is awful, so they put it in a drawer never to see the light of day.

One of the first problems I encountered was American English of British English or:
principal or headmaster
student or pupil
paddle or cane OK, since it is about a school trip to England that answers itself and since the weapon of choice was English I went for British over American
But I then decided that before any punishment there needs to be a reason that warrants it
Then I thought that there need to be a happy end that was when I decided to add a small pay back chapter, which suggested that I should introduce the headmaster of the English school.

Now I fear that it turns into an endless cycle. Thats why I asked for advice. A romance author once told me a romance needs 3 action scenes between the female and male lead.
Because I encountered spanking stories this year and in the summer I saw that England banned CP in 1986 and remembered that oiur teachers offered us to visit an English school and my fantasy asked what that was about and what was possible back then.
To ease my mind I decided to try my luck trying to write a story of what might have been.

My serials tend to start as stories--that get longer and longer. So, I need to break them into chapters. Sometimes a chapter break is obvious, whilst writing--stick it in and tidy the format later. I also spend a lot of time reading what I have written earlier--before continuing. i tend to highlight anything that I think needs changing/improving and can go back later, sometimes much later, to actually correct. All that re-reading helps with continuity.

There are those, I have been guilty myself, who say that the story "writes itself". It doesn't, of course, but if you know your characters then it will become obvious how they will behave in any given circumstances--so, you just need to come up with the circumstances.

When writing for here, I have a golden rule, every chapter, and particularly the first one, has to have some spanking, or reference to spanking or something that has the reader thinking, "oh ho, I know where this is going, and would like to find out more".

English english, v American english. Easy, who is talking or thinking? They will use their natural tongue, unless for effect upon the person they are talking to. Of course the narrator, if you have one will also have a voice and will choose the appropriate language--see, it's not you deciding, it is the character.

Geoffrey Stirling.

Most of my serials started as single episode stand-alone stories, but then I was tempted to write a follow up in response to 'what happened next' comments, followed by more follow-ups. Whilst I enjoyed writing the follow ups, allowing the story to evolve in ways I had not anticipated at the outset, I often found myself wondering how to bring the serial to an end. So I am probably the last person who should offer advice.

If doing things properly (as opposed to writing simply for your own personal enjoyment like I do), my main piece of advice would be to write the entire story as a single entity before worrying about how to break it into episodes. Once you have a complete draft to work with, you can then worry about continuity, character development, how many chapters to break it into, etc. etc. I think it is much easier to fine-tune a completed draft than to meticulously plan everything in advance. Once you think it is finished, let it sit for a bit, then come back to it again when it is not fresh in your memory. You will probably find things you missed previously. Repeat as many times as necessary. Try to avoid rushing into print too soon.

Having said all that, I don't think I have ever followed my own advice, but I think there is a case for 'do what I say, not what I do'.

We are all different. I like to write organically, allowing the story to take its own course after I have a basic idea, but others like to have a meticulous plan before beginning. Do what you feel comfortable with.

Absolutely. Since I'm British, the majority of my stories are written in English English. But I've written quite a few in American English - 'First Date', 'Sixteenth Birthday Blues', 'The Domestic Pacifier', etc - and it always seems to come quite easily. And so far, I'm glad to say, I've not been told that any of these stories don't feel authentically Stateside.

I think it's partly because I enjoy writing pastiche, adopting someone else's voice - not only when I'm pastiching specific writers, such as Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte, Wilde, Huxley and so on, but writing first-person as a specific character, say a bratty teenage girl ('Not Her Best Day') or, if it's a period story, modifying the style and vocabulary to fit the period. It's a challenge, and for me that's always fun.

@ Mr. Stirling and Mr. PhilK
I am aware that an English pupil would use British English (I use British English because it looks weird if you write English English it looks as if I stutter ;)
and an American student would use American English
But what does a German Schüler use ?
Nowadays they would most likely use American English but in 1980 we learned British English and since the playground is the channel coast I decided on British English and nowadays its slighly more exotic ;)
And my apologies for showing a bad English headmaster caning German smokers in jeans, sneaker and T-shirt and yes we wore such a get up to school in 1981
Most likely your mother woul make sure your clothes were clean and undamaged. CP at school was a no go, but getting you behand massaged at home could happen.