Guest Post #7
| Author: | Adam David Collings | Published: | over 6 years ago |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tags: | plot, structure, novella | Category: | Writing tips |
Structuring An Episodic Series of Novellas
Story-telling is an ever-changing art. The eBook revolution has brought new opportunities, along with new forms of story-telling. One new concept that has become popular is the idea of the episodic novella. Structured like a TV season, it is not uncommon to use words like episode and season in relation to these types of books.
My space opera, Jewel of The Stars, is one such example. It’s all about the passengers and crew of a cruise ship, on the run from an alien armada. For this series, I have planned out 4 seasons of 6 episodes each. So how does one plot out a project like this? I’m glad you asked.
Nested Story Structure
Yes, I’m coining a term. Am I important enough to do that? Oh well, I’m doing it anyway. When I say nested story structure, what I mean is that I have taken the principles of story structure and applied them at multiple levels to each episode, each season, and the series as a whole.
In case you’re not familiar with Story Structure, here’s a basic breakdown of the major plot points:
- Hook
- First Plot Point (25% mark)
- Midpoint (50% mark)
- Second Plot Point (75% mark)
- Climax
These plot points divide the story into four equal parts, or three acts. (The second act is twice as long as the first and third acts, and is actually separated into two distinct parts anyway.)
At the micro level, each episode is a story in its own right. A novella. It follows the structure above. It has its own plot points and acts. Moving up a level, I have applied the same structure to the overall season. In this way, the midpoint of episode 2 becomes the first plot point for the entire season. The end of episode three becomes the midpoint of the season, and the midpoint of episode 5 becomes the 3nd plot point of the season. Confused yet? A diagram may help.
Now, let’s take it up the final step, to the macro level. We’re looking at the entire series, which, as I’ve said, will run for 4 seasons. This fits very nicely into the four “acts” of story structure. Season 1 is act 1. Season 2 is the first half of act 2. Season 3 is the second half of act 2, and season 4 is act 3.
In this way, my season finales are the major plot points. The end of season 1 is the first plot point. The end of season 2 is the midpoint. The end of season 3 is the second plot point.
In this way, the plot points in my story are pulling double (sometimes triple) duty. The first episode serves as the hook for the entire series, and the first season, serves to introduce the characters and situations, in preparation for the season finale, which will set up the primary conflict for the overall story.
If you’d like to follow the crew of Jewel of The Stars, you can grab the first episode here or get the prequel story for free at AdamDavidCollings.com/free.
Adam David Collings is an author of speculative fiction. He lives in Tasmania, Australia with his wife Linda and his two children. Adam draws inspiration for his stories from his over-active imagination, his life experiences and his faith.
Adam is a great lover of stories, enjoying them in books, movies, scripted TV and computer games. Adam discusses these, along with his monthly Christian Science Fiction & Fantasy Bulletin on his youTube channel.
Comments read 12 comments
Thanks for having me on The Write Flourish, Nola. It was fun.
My pleasure, Adam. Loved your post. Have just written a longer comment in another thread.
Great post, Adam. This kind of writing is new to me. I know of one other person who was writing stories in episodes, but you're the first person I know who has plotted a whole series. I found it fascinating to learn how you used those plot structure techniques to plot out the whole story in advance.
As I mentioned in my intro, I have a lot of box sets and I've often wondered how they plot a whole series. Some series in particular have an overarching theme that carries through a series even though each episode is a story in itself. Now I'm going to be looking out for the plot points you mention.
It must be hard in a TV series when they never know if the show is going to be cancelled. I wonder how many shows have been cancelled halfway through their storylines? (e.g. the TV series for Firefly and Minority Report). I guess that's the good thing about a novella series -- you can keep going until you're finished. You have a long road ahead of you, but I admire the way you've plotted it out. Looking forward to the next episode. Don't make us wait too long :) And thanks for guest blogging for us today. We really appreciate it.
It's definately a lot harder on TV than it is for us prose writers. When JMS wrote Babylon 5 he had to create back-up plans for all the characters, in case an actor got sick or wanted to leave the show.
I was thinking of Babylon 5 too - which had a 6 season story arc, but much of what was in season 6 ended up in 5 when the network threatened to end it at the end of 5 - then they cut the Crusader (the follow-on) after 6 episodes, much to the disappointment of the fans. B5 was one of the first series (if not the first) to have an overarching story arc, which Star Trek took on board with Deep Space Nine (before that series were often much more episodic.
I've never watched Babylon 5. You've tweaked my interest now Jenny and Adam. I can think of other non sci-fi shows that have had story arcs through an entire season, even though the individual episodes are stand-alone. These are often to do with something in the main protagonist's background (e.g. The Mentalist trying to track down his wife's killer Red John; Phrynne Fisher trying to find out what happened to her missing sister when they were children). Will have to keep an eye out now for those plot points in other shows.
Well done, Adam! I've already learned so much about Sci Fi and writing Spec Fiction from you, but this whole concept blows my mind! And I must add, I love the cover design. I'm looking forward to getting in and reading some more of your work!
Thanks Cate. I'm likewise looking forward to reading Boy in the Hoodie.
Thanks Adam! I've edited things so we can see your diagrams in the post rather than link to them – much clearer. Your season structure explains what I have observed in some of our favourites which have major developments in eps 2 and 5 and a major crisis or two-part ep in the middle.
Thanks, Tim. It's fascinating one you start seeing the patterns. I've been known to watch a movie with my wife, and I'll suddenly say "Ooh, that was the first plot point." She just laughs at me.
Very interesting! I've never thought about it like that before.
Thanks for this Adam and Nola - I loved Earth's Remnant, Adam, and am impressed out the level of planning with the different episodes and seasons of Jewel of the Stars, Adam. With writing my series, I've tried to have stand alone stories withing an over-all trilogy and series arcs. Hard to keep all those threads in mind and it made writing the third book tricky (as different arcs are resolved). Like Nola, I'm looking forward to reading the next episode of Jewel of the Stars.
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