It can. It’s called a prequel and it’s the dream of every Hollywood blockbuster. Developing worlds that can be explored forwards and backwards is one of the most lucrative storytelling out there. I also do it on my Substack. I’m actually starting by exploring the backstory as a collection of short stories before I’ll publish the main story. It’s a lot of fun and a great way to build a secondary world. Now if only I could manage to finish that first story 😭
Hehe, I just did a mental facepalm. Of course, prequel! Though, I would argue that there needs to be a reference point. It can only be a prequel if there's something that follows.
Of course, the main story story should be published first to call it a prequel. But if you develop your world a lot, you can explore the background as short stories. I don’t know if you read the Hyperion Cantos by Dan Simmons, but it started with a short story that is actually included in the book. And the author went on to explore the world with more short stories.
Hyperion is one of my favourite novels! (The Fall of Hyperion was also brilliant, but I enjoyed the first more, perhaps because of the short story-like nature of the backstories...)
I didn't know it began as just a short story. Which one? (My Googling skills are failing me.)
So a.) I love how you slip little fantasies about where your writing career could go in your images, with merch and graphic novels. They are like tripping over prayer beads, and make me smile.
b.) You just published some unfinished scenes. And you just talked to us about them and about the world you are building like that is a perfectly natural thing to do. 🤯 I would never ever never never think to do this and I love it thank you so much for doing this!!! I've never considered mixing fiction in with metafiction like that before, but the way you've done it is so intriguing and alive. I'm more used to seeing context-less snippets of works in progress, and more behind-the-scenes discussion of the process, not the story. This is making me consider if it would be at all viable to bring the whole enchilada out into the world--the process, the fiction, the metafiction--all put in front of the reader as the story develops and changes. Hmmmmmm!
c.) I would like to get to know Jisa better, in the future! Thank you for sharing her.
Thank you Elnora, such kind and lovely words, every one appreciated and you may have made my weekend :D
a) I'm glad you appreciate the little slips into fantasies of where things could go. I suppose it's a little internal drive for me.
b) Well, you can credit Claudia Befu for this, in part. I love that shes writes about her worldbuilding and so I wanted to try something along those lines. Still being new to Substack and not really sure how best to engage with readers, I was hesitant to just go with a chapter so thought that some context and thoughts behind it might be of interest, so I'm so pleased that you enjoyed. I *love* that idea of wrapping something into having the process, the fiction and the metafiction. Perhaps a setup around what you want to convey in one post, then the chapter in another, and then the breakdown/commentary of it in a third post?
I feel like Substack is still warming up to fiction, honestly. I think mixing in commentary with fiction is right up Substack's alley--I don't know if you follow Elle Griffin, but she came out and asked her audience directly if they kept up with reading serial format fiction on Substack, and the overwhelming majority admitted that they liked the idea of it, but very few followed through with reading it week over week. I read somewhere that essays seem to be the native form of the Internet, and I think there is something to that. I still plan on writing fiction on my Substack (for reals!), and the idea of mixing fiction and essay and commentary altogether sounds kinda fun. For the three stories I did post here, I did "Making Of" commentaries after writing them, which was fun for me, but I don't know that my readers loved that. I think there's something magic about mixing them both in the same post when possible. You made magic!
So great to hear. I really wasn't expecting this piece to spark such conversation, but I'm so glad it has.
I'm sorry I haven't yet gotten to those three stories of yours -- I have one open in my tab right now :)
I've just started following Elle Griffin, but hadn't seen that post. That's really interesting. As Caz says below, you'd think it would be the popular format, but I suppose there's an argument that any new reader joining has to play catch up on the serialisation, but then that's no different to opening a series on e.g. Netflix and starting from episode 1. The difference being of course that reading is active and watching TV can be passive. However, the argument for blending aspects of serialisation together with commentary or some other form of meta narrative is certainly something that only feels possible in this medium. Exciting times!
There's high demand for insights to the process, particularly of an introspective flavour. For me, not so much, there's rapid diminishing returns in hearing about the sausage making. There's no secret sauce, everyone is different. Reading about how other people write takes a lot of time away from writing. And yet, there's that inescapable demand!
I've not been especially bothered by jumping into stories part way through, and the benefit of a lot of prior content is you can binge, just like Netflix!
Funny how this is viewed as problematic. Every TV show used to be serialized. Even now, streaming is often serialized, and people still tune in for a weekly viewing, and sometimes wait 6 months for an ending. On Substack, lots of hand wringing about ideal consumption when all of these modes are familiar everywhere already. Hundreds of years ago, serialization was the norm. Nothing new.
Well, I'm going to stick with the serialisation for Brae and see how that goes. I might add in the odd side post on context, or a preamble with some justification/expository information, but largely keep the format the same as it has been.
You know, this has worried me a lot. I've been *very* introspective about my process lately, and that's been ok, because my process needed to change. But it is easy for me to get caught up in ideas and research and not get back to the writing of the fiction. It also means a lot of my new audience are writers. Which isn't a problem, writers are also readers. I think the assumption is that there are so many more readers who are just readers, and yeah, they won't care how the sausage is made, they want a good story. If one writes too much about the process, is one not reaching the audience of "pure" readers?
Before I explode my brain thinking about this kind of thing too much, I've decided to believe that the rise of the Internet has created an explosion of writers, and maybe they aren't as small a part of the general reading public as we think they are.
Also, the great thing about Substack is, as Nathan mentioned, exploring and changing up what or how you write is easy and fun, so changing tacks to see what happens is valid.
I try not to overly dwell on the Stats page, but it is interesting to see what garners the most reading and engagement. That can at least be useful to help in that exploration of changing tracks.
There's an overabundance of writers, they are everywhere. I think 'pure' readers do have a passing interest in the sausage making, it's why they go to literary readings or events, or watch an interview of their favorite author on YouTube. But the interest doesn't always extend that far; just because they bought the book, doesn't mean they MUST be interested in the author, who might not be an especially interesting person or might not be good at talking about their own writing.
I think going down the rabbit hole of too much research and not enough doing (for me, a form of procrastination), or reviewing one's own processes and realizing they might not be serving us well, and quite different matters, unless that's what you've been spending your time writing about, in lieu of the writing that you want to do! Even so, it might have served you well, and you can start to puttingyour learnings to use.
I'm new as a reader of Substacks, and am still deciding if I will start my own (from what I've found so far, really, it's mostly for people who already have large audiences and already have multiple income streams plying their trade, with Substack being another lucrative outlet for that elite group of people).
There's a LOT of fiction on Substack, and for the ones I've been following, I do read every instalment of serialized stories. I must be the exception. If I want to read a novel, I can pick up a book. I don't come to Substack for that same experience, although if someone has a finished manuscript at the end of their endeavors, that's great.
I've seen heaps of discussion about how or if to use Substack for fiction, and yes, serialization is mostly seen as a negative. This is interesting, given the time and attention economy these days, because I would have thought serialization was ideal for contemporary content consumers, but apparently not.
For what it's worth Caz, I came to Substack with zero audience. I still have a small audience of course, but I'm absolutely loving the fact that there's you along with several others who take the time to read and comment. I also came with zero expectations. I'm grateful that I'm not trying to make it an income stream, but I understand for others that that's a big drive and a decent chunk have found great success.
I think you're spot on about attention economy and how this *should* be perfect for serialisation. There must be those that don't want it, those that do but somehow don't manage to keep up with serialisation, and those who read every piece. It's wonderful if you're in that final category (and again, thank you for reading and commenting on this here small niche).
Part of the problem may be getting overwhelmed. I've tried to be quite selective with the Substacks I subscribe to. I want to read so much, but I'm wary of my inbox becoming overburdened. I think one post a week or every two weeks is probably the sweet spot for me to say "oh, yes, awesome a new post from XYZ", but with serialisation is there a concern of forgetting what the plot was and having to go reread the last post? I'm not sure.
Finally, part of the joy for me here is that it's making me commit to writing daily. I love it. I never expected to find even this many readers so quickly, so thank you all.
Some people give a recap, often too long, when a couple of brief prompts might suffice. I'm not convinced it's needed, but I'm sure many people find that approach useful, to get their bearings.
Btw - I also enjoyed the illustrations, great, lovely, a bonus.
I'm trying to whittle down which Substacks I'm prepared to commit to, it's hard, and that's of a small subset that I've looked at - does anyone know how many Substacks there are currently? Must be tens of thousands, I've probably explored 60 or so. Definitely can't keep up with even a few dozen, there'd be no time left in the day to do anything else.
I'd say yeah there must be tens of thousands of Substacks at least, but I wonder how many are active.
It's definitely a tough thing being subscribed to more than a handful. I think I'm going to make the call that if I don't read any posted emails from a specific Substack within a two week window then it might realistically mean I should unsubscribe. Obviously I'd be disappointed if someone did that to me, but it would ultimeately mean they weren't engaged with anything I was writing, so it's understandable in the end.
OK, I need maps! Of both. 😂 Such rich worlds, they bleed into each other... maybe not. I was missing this morsel prior to reading the latest one. Things are clearer now! 😎
Or use a different banner/theme for each, for dummies like me! Ah, but not possible. That would be nice, though. A visual cue as to where you are... a map of sorts!
Oh yes I've read those, but I appreciated getting a sense of the scope of Siridan - it reminds me of the undercities of Coruscant, and also the divide between upper/lower classes in Altered Carbon. And your most recent "walk" through the neighborhoods gave a beautiful sense of place. :)
Cli-fi as a genre is defined as a combination of science fiction, fantasy and realism. For example, a classic work of cli-fi is Oryx and Crake which was categorized as a sci-fi when it was published in 2005 (the cli-fi genre didn’t exist yet) but not by the author herself. Margaret Atwood categorized her work as speculative fiction because it does not deal with things ‘we can't yet do or begin to do’.
I loved the snippets of prose from your upcoming story. The writing is beautiful and I’m curious to read more. I’d love to do a letter exchange on worldbuilding one day if you’re up for it.
Why can't a backstory simply become the story that is being told?
It can. It’s called a prequel and it’s the dream of every Hollywood blockbuster. Developing worlds that can be explored forwards and backwards is one of the most lucrative storytelling out there. I also do it on my Substack. I’m actually starting by exploring the backstory as a collection of short stories before I’ll publish the main story. It’s a lot of fun and a great way to build a secondary world. Now if only I could manage to finish that first story 😭
Of course! Great comment and thoughts.
Your backstories are incredible.
Please take all the time you need, but know there is one eager reader ready to read that first story!!
Indeed, of course, prequels! 😂👏
Hehe, I just did a mental facepalm. Of course, prequel! Though, I would argue that there needs to be a reference point. It can only be a prequel if there's something that follows.
Yep, true. Think Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul.
Of course, the main story story should be published first to call it a prequel. But if you develop your world a lot, you can explore the background as short stories. I don’t know if you read the Hyperion Cantos by Dan Simmons, but it started with a short story that is actually included in the book. And the author went on to explore the world with more short stories.
Hyperion is one of my favourite novels! (The Fall of Hyperion was also brilliant, but I enjoyed the first more, perhaps because of the short story-like nature of the backstories...)
I didn't know it began as just a short story. Which one? (My Googling skills are failing me.)
2. Yes, I would have been very interested in that dream!!
Noted haha.
There's likely a different one incoming later this week, but I'll consider some weaving of this ;)
So a.) I love how you slip little fantasies about where your writing career could go in your images, with merch and graphic novels. They are like tripping over prayer beads, and make me smile.
b.) You just published some unfinished scenes. And you just talked to us about them and about the world you are building like that is a perfectly natural thing to do. 🤯 I would never ever never never think to do this and I love it thank you so much for doing this!!! I've never considered mixing fiction in with metafiction like that before, but the way you've done it is so intriguing and alive. I'm more used to seeing context-less snippets of works in progress, and more behind-the-scenes discussion of the process, not the story. This is making me consider if it would be at all viable to bring the whole enchilada out into the world--the process, the fiction, the metafiction--all put in front of the reader as the story develops and changes. Hmmmmmm!
c.) I would like to get to know Jisa better, in the future! Thank you for sharing her.
Thank you Elnora, such kind and lovely words, every one appreciated and you may have made my weekend :D
a) I'm glad you appreciate the little slips into fantasies of where things could go. I suppose it's a little internal drive for me.
b) Well, you can credit Claudia Befu for this, in part. I love that shes writes about her worldbuilding and so I wanted to try something along those lines. Still being new to Substack and not really sure how best to engage with readers, I was hesitant to just go with a chapter so thought that some context and thoughts behind it might be of interest, so I'm so pleased that you enjoyed. I *love* that idea of wrapping something into having the process, the fiction and the metafiction. Perhaps a setup around what you want to convey in one post, then the chapter in another, and then the breakdown/commentary of it in a third post?
c) noted and will gladly oblige.
I feel like Substack is still warming up to fiction, honestly. I think mixing in commentary with fiction is right up Substack's alley--I don't know if you follow Elle Griffin, but she came out and asked her audience directly if they kept up with reading serial format fiction on Substack, and the overwhelming majority admitted that they liked the idea of it, but very few followed through with reading it week over week. I read somewhere that essays seem to be the native form of the Internet, and I think there is something to that. I still plan on writing fiction on my Substack (for reals!), and the idea of mixing fiction and essay and commentary altogether sounds kinda fun. For the three stories I did post here, I did "Making Of" commentaries after writing them, which was fun for me, but I don't know that my readers loved that. I think there's something magic about mixing them both in the same post when possible. You made magic!
So great to hear. I really wasn't expecting this piece to spark such conversation, but I'm so glad it has.
I'm sorry I haven't yet gotten to those three stories of yours -- I have one open in my tab right now :)
I've just started following Elle Griffin, but hadn't seen that post. That's really interesting. As Caz says below, you'd think it would be the popular format, but I suppose there's an argument that any new reader joining has to play catch up on the serialisation, but then that's no different to opening a series on e.g. Netflix and starting from episode 1. The difference being of course that reading is active and watching TV can be passive. However, the argument for blending aspects of serialisation together with commentary or some other form of meta narrative is certainly something that only feels possible in this medium. Exciting times!
There's high demand for insights to the process, particularly of an introspective flavour. For me, not so much, there's rapid diminishing returns in hearing about the sausage making. There's no secret sauce, everyone is different. Reading about how other people write takes a lot of time away from writing. And yet, there's that inescapable demand!
I've not been especially bothered by jumping into stories part way through, and the benefit of a lot of prior content is you can binge, just like Netflix!
Funny how this is viewed as problematic. Every TV show used to be serialized. Even now, streaming is often serialized, and people still tune in for a weekly viewing, and sometimes wait 6 months for an ending. On Substack, lots of hand wringing about ideal consumption when all of these modes are familiar everywhere already. Hundreds of years ago, serialization was the norm. Nothing new.
Yeah, great points Caz :)
It was once the norm for books, indeed.
Well, I'm going to stick with the serialisation for Brae and see how that goes. I might add in the odd side post on context, or a preamble with some justification/expository information, but largely keep the format the same as it has been.
For other things, I'll keep exploring.
You know, this has worried me a lot. I've been *very* introspective about my process lately, and that's been ok, because my process needed to change. But it is easy for me to get caught up in ideas and research and not get back to the writing of the fiction. It also means a lot of my new audience are writers. Which isn't a problem, writers are also readers. I think the assumption is that there are so many more readers who are just readers, and yeah, they won't care how the sausage is made, they want a good story. If one writes too much about the process, is one not reaching the audience of "pure" readers?
Before I explode my brain thinking about this kind of thing too much, I've decided to believe that the rise of the Internet has created an explosion of writers, and maybe they aren't as small a part of the general reading public as we think they are.
Also, the great thing about Substack is, as Nathan mentioned, exploring and changing up what or how you write is easy and fun, so changing tacks to see what happens is valid.
I try not to overly dwell on the Stats page, but it is interesting to see what garners the most reading and engagement. That can at least be useful to help in that exploration of changing tracks.
There's an overabundance of writers, they are everywhere. I think 'pure' readers do have a passing interest in the sausage making, it's why they go to literary readings or events, or watch an interview of their favorite author on YouTube. But the interest doesn't always extend that far; just because they bought the book, doesn't mean they MUST be interested in the author, who might not be an especially interesting person or might not be good at talking about their own writing.
I think going down the rabbit hole of too much research and not enough doing (for me, a form of procrastination), or reviewing one's own processes and realizing they might not be serving us well, and quite different matters, unless that's what you've been spending your time writing about, in lieu of the writing that you want to do! Even so, it might have served you well, and you can start to puttingyour learnings to use.
I'm new as a reader of Substacks, and am still deciding if I will start my own (from what I've found so far, really, it's mostly for people who already have large audiences and already have multiple income streams plying their trade, with Substack being another lucrative outlet for that elite group of people).
There's a LOT of fiction on Substack, and for the ones I've been following, I do read every instalment of serialized stories. I must be the exception. If I want to read a novel, I can pick up a book. I don't come to Substack for that same experience, although if someone has a finished manuscript at the end of their endeavors, that's great.
I've seen heaps of discussion about how or if to use Substack for fiction, and yes, serialization is mostly seen as a negative. This is interesting, given the time and attention economy these days, because I would have thought serialization was ideal for contemporary content consumers, but apparently not.
For what it's worth Caz, I came to Substack with zero audience. I still have a small audience of course, but I'm absolutely loving the fact that there's you along with several others who take the time to read and comment. I also came with zero expectations. I'm grateful that I'm not trying to make it an income stream, but I understand for others that that's a big drive and a decent chunk have found great success.
I think you're spot on about attention economy and how this *should* be perfect for serialisation. There must be those that don't want it, those that do but somehow don't manage to keep up with serialisation, and those who read every piece. It's wonderful if you're in that final category (and again, thank you for reading and commenting on this here small niche).
Part of the problem may be getting overwhelmed. I've tried to be quite selective with the Substacks I subscribe to. I want to read so much, but I'm wary of my inbox becoming overburdened. I think one post a week or every two weeks is probably the sweet spot for me to say "oh, yes, awesome a new post from XYZ", but with serialisation is there a concern of forgetting what the plot was and having to go reread the last post? I'm not sure.
Finally, part of the joy for me here is that it's making me commit to writing daily. I love it. I never expected to find even this many readers so quickly, so thank you all.
Some people give a recap, often too long, when a couple of brief prompts might suffice. I'm not convinced it's needed, but I'm sure many people find that approach useful, to get their bearings.
Btw - I also enjoyed the illustrations, great, lovely, a bonus.
I'm trying to whittle down which Substacks I'm prepared to commit to, it's hard, and that's of a small subset that I've looked at - does anyone know how many Substacks there are currently? Must be tens of thousands, I've probably explored 60 or so. Definitely can't keep up with even a few dozen, there'd be no time left in the day to do anything else.
Thanks re: illustrations, good to know!
I'd say yeah there must be tens of thousands of Substacks at least, but I wonder how many are active.
It's definitely a tough thing being subscribed to more than a handful. I think I'm going to make the call that if I don't read any posted emails from a specific Substack within a two week window then it might realistically mean I should unsubscribe. Obviously I'd be disappointed if someone did that to me, but it would ultimeately mean they weren't engaged with anything I was writing, so it's understandable in the end.
OK, I need maps! Of both. 😂 Such rich worlds, they bleed into each other... maybe not. I was missing this morsel prior to reading the latest one. Things are clearer now! 😎
I did wonder whether I should signpost to this article in each drop of Precipice. Might be a good idea.
Glad things are clearer. Maps maps maps. Need to make maps!
Or use a different banner/theme for each, for dummies like me! Ah, but not possible. That would be nice, though. A visual cue as to where you are... a map of sorts!
Ooh now that's an idea.
Shame that's not possible, but I could insert something as an image at the top manually perhaps.
Thanks for linking, I was missing this bit of context re: Jisa :)
No worries. Sorry if that felt a bit like being thrown in the deep end.
There's another couple of associated stories, should you wish to read any further: https://slake.substack.com/p/to-measure-the-clouds
and
https://slake.substack.com/p/nib
Oh yes I've read those, but I appreciated getting a sense of the scope of Siridan - it reminds me of the undercities of Coruscant, and also the divide between upper/lower classes in Altered Carbon. And your most recent "walk" through the neighborhoods gave a beautiful sense of place. :)
Ah, so you have, my apologies (many thanks for having read them 🙏)
Thanks so much, Troy.
Great read. If you end up liking CliFi, then you may like the novel Wind Up Girl
Thanks for taking the time to swing by and read, Taegan.
Hadn't heard of the book, but I've added it to my to-read list. Many thanks!
2. Also yes 😆 always.
*Changes priority for next post* ...
Cli-fi as a genre is defined as a combination of science fiction, fantasy and realism. For example, a classic work of cli-fi is Oryx and Crake which was categorized as a sci-fi when it was published in 2005 (the cli-fi genre didn’t exist yet) but not by the author herself. Margaret Atwood categorized her work as speculative fiction because it does not deal with things ‘we can't yet do or begin to do’.
I loved the snippets of prose from your upcoming story. The writing is beautiful and I’m curious to read more. I’d love to do a letter exchange on worldbuilding one day if you’re up for it.
Thank you, thank you :D
Great insights too. Oryx and Crake is high up my wishlist to read. Perhaps I'll bump it right to the top.
I would *love* to do an exchange, though I would be learning from the master in the process ;)
I love that novel and I plan to read it again soon.
Regarding the worldbuilding, I am still learning myself, no master! 😅