I watched “How to Write a Viral Serial using AI in 2025” by The Nerdy Novelist (Jason Hamilton).
His videos are great.
A serial sounds fun:
- episodes and seasons with each episode about 2k to 5k words
- cast of characters, some which might come and go
- story arcs across episodes and seasons
- cliffhanger at the end of each episode
- end of season finale or climax
What are platforms where you can read/write serials?
- wattpad (ya/fanfic)
- radish (romance)
- royalroad (scifi/fantasy)
- webnovel (fantasy)
- kindle vella (dead)
And on.
If I was going to write scifi/horror then perhaps wattpad or royalroad would be the best fit.
In the video, Jason recommends using novelcrafter to write serialized fiction.
Based on the pricing page, it would cost maybe $13/$23 per month for a Hobbyist/Artisan plan on top of whatever LLM models you plan to use.
It sounds fun.
I have no idea how to structure serialized fiction.
Some guides to read:
- How To Write Serialised Fiction, Simon K Jones.
- Almost everything you need to know about writing online serial fiction, Simon K Jones.
- Complete Guide to Writing & Publishing Serial Fiction, LuLu/Paul.
- The Complete Guide to Writing Serial Fiction, Cat Webling.
- How to Write a Serialized Story: 4 Reasons to Write Serial Fiction, MasterClass.
And on.
The guides are short and thin. I really need a big fat book or video series, ideally one written yesterday that covers all of the latest AI tools.
What I really need is ideas on how to structure episodes and seasons. I have to read some and get ideas.
I guess each season is about a key event or transformation, the episodes make progress toward that and also have their own mini transformation or event. All seasons together might also show some progression or transformation. Arcs within arcs within arcs on down to the scene and beat I guess.