I’m a glutton for punishment. I want to give Vella one more try. I like the IDEA of a serialized story. I had fun loading one or two chapters on my weebly website when I had it, and my followers seemed to enjoy it, too. Vella is sort of the same concept, and this time, I’m going to write the story as I go. And I plan to enjoy myself.
My maybe not-so-brilliant idea is to work on Jazzi and Ansel during the week and to play with my Vella story on the weekend to post at least one chapter a week. If I can write a few chapters ahead, I should be fine. And if you’re shaking your head at me, I don’t blame you. But I have a story idea I like. Here’s a tiny tease.
BLOOD AND BONES
Chapter 1
Sylwan rubbed sweat off her brow with her wrist. She’d pulled her wavy, dark hair into a knot, to keep it off her neck. It was early in the day and already hot. She’d milked the goat and was getting ready to make cheese while Gudwif pickled vegetables from the garden. Coblyr was adding more thatch to the hut’s roof when he called down, “Someone’s coming out of the woods. He’s heading toward us.”
The two women stopped their work and stepped past the animal shed to see who was coming. Someone young, not very tall, and he was swaying and stumbling as he neared them.
“It’s Bronson!” Coblyr scrambled down to them and rushed to his nephew before he fell. The boy threw himself into his arms. Sobs shook his body.
Sylwan and Gudwif ran behind Coblyr and stared at the smears of dirt and streaks of blood that covered him.
“What happened?” Sylwan stared at his bare feet and pajamas.
“A monster. It came from the water. We ran outside to see who was screaming.” His teeth chattered and he buried his face in Coblyr’s tunic.
Voice gentle, Gudwif asked, “What kind of monster?”
“As tall as Sylwan, and three times as long, with a long tail. Big jaws. It snapped up people and ate them.” He shivered.
“My brother? Your family?” Coblyr’s voice shook, but he held the boy close, trying to comfort him.
A tear made a trail down his cheek. “Everyone was running, but no one was fast enough. Mom made it inside the house.”
Gudwif’s expression looked hopeful.
“It broke down the door.”
Judi Lynn 
Serialization is a great idea. I’ve never read any but I would love to.
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Have you looked on Vella? There’s a wide variety there, and some of them are already finished, so you don’t have to wait to read the next chapter.
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Wow, I will take a look.
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When Amazon sent me a small bonus (just like $10) for my not-read-at-all stuff, I knew Vella had to be suffering and people were pulling in big numbers.
One thing I’ve been toying around with (but haven’t done) is the idea of starting a serialized story via Substack. I’ve seen a few people doing that over there in different ways (including ficiton authors). Though it’s definitely a platform slanted toward non-fiction/news/punditry, and getting fiction traction, especially in terms of enough to charge for chapters is a long play.
Bascially, Substack offers the same avenue as serializing it on a website, but at least with a built-in method to later monetize it without going through a lot of extra hoops.
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You sound like me. I like the idea, but I’m not sure it will work.
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Hope it works better for you. I like the idea, but reports haven’t been great.
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That’s why I’m not posting something every other day this time. I’ll post once or twice a week and see if there’s a slow build. If not, I’ll finish the story and then unpublish it.
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I haven’t attempted Vella. But I have too many other WIPs going at the moment to take on another. I hope this works for you.
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