Franco A. Alvarado

reading time: 2 minute(s)

Now that I am more removed from the serial release project, I wanted to reflect on how effective it was.

Pros

• It was very helpful to get feedback as I wrote. I was able to adjust the way I was writing to incorporate some of the previous feedback I got.
• People who would not have otherwise read my novel felt less pressure when not staring down a 300 page manuscript all at once.
• Having a deadline was very motivating. (But perhaps too motivating. See cons).
• The mere fact that people were actively reading my novel and waiting for it was very motivating. The time between finishing a novel and publishing can last years. Compared to something like posting a YouTube video (my partner posts 2 a week) or photos on Instagram, “posting” your novel can feel like an eternity. (Happy to debate the pros and cons of self-publishing). So, consistently pushing content every week to a real audience (made up of my very gracious friends) was itself motivating and rewarding.

Cons

• It worked for some readers to read week by week, but others felt guilty for falling behind and not being able to keep up. For those people, I ended up sending them a full manuscript once I was done.
• Having a deadline was motivating; however, it also motivated me to get a lot of writing done in larger chunks when I felt like it. It did not help in developing a habit of writing every day because I wanted some padding in the backlog. I even finished four weeks early!
• Readers rarely wanted to read more than 30 pages per week. Which I was able to outpace, so I had a backlog and therefore no feedback.

Conclusion

All-in-all, I am very thankful to my friends who contributed their time to read and give me valuable feedback on my novel. This is probably something I will try again.

I highly recommend this kind of thing. It is helpful for a couple reasons:

1. People are going to read your stuff eventually, so get used to it early and often
2. Sometimes you need a deadline