It's crazy how much 2020 changed my perspective on so many things. Family priorities and flexibility. Time management and health management. But one big thing that happened was, my creative life completely shifted.
Writing wasn't possible in the madness that was the Year-of-Years. And Even as we began 2021 and things seemed to settle, my writing life consisted mostly of me sitting with my laptop and staring out the window. Not much got accomplished. Anything begun was left unfinished. Everything spilling from my fingers was stiff and stilted. Nothing felt right.
This went on for so long I was beginning to wonder if I was even capable of writing anymore.
Until about three months ago when I had a friend mention something about a new platform popping up through Amazon Kindle. It's called Vella and the focus is on feeding serials into your Kindle apps and devices.
Many serial apps have become very popular of late; Radish, Wattpad, Kiss, and Galatea, just to name a couple. And I could go on. There are quite a few. However, most are already saturated with content and packed with established writers. This makes it difficult to rise to the top of the pack at this point. Not to mention the content on the majority of these apps seems to focus 95% on romance, with very little else in the sea of "seasons". Which keeps an author limited.
But now, with Amazon joining in the mix, it has the potential to bring the serialization market into the mainstream of fiction once more.
And I just happened to have a novel sitting in my drawer that had garnished huge buzz a decade ago, but life and illness had gotten in the way.
I decided to try my hat at reworking the manuscript into a serial.
Needless to say, it has been intriguing. And soaking in knowledge, learning this new (to me, old as Dickens to others) way of presenting a story, has invigorated my writing.
I am, once more, alive! I'm excited about a project!
This week Kindle Vella opened its digital "doors" to the larger reading community of Kindle.
It's still getting the engines revving but now the first ten "episodes" of my ancient drawer novel (which twelve years ago had won two novel contests, gotten three competing agent offers, and had editors asking if they could call me to talk) is now clawing its way out of the grave, into the light. It will be in the hands of readers. At long last. For better or worse.
And this form of storytelling has given me something else; a fresh way of looking at my creative life.
For the first time in a long while I feel the spark.
If you're in the US, and interested in delving into serial reading, you can check out the first three episodes of
REMNANTS OF THE FALL for
FREE on Amazon online or on your Kindle app.
For those without the ability to use Vella, you can read my serial, REMNANTS, on my brand new
PATREON ACCOUNT. I love this option because it'll allow readers to participate more in the process and give creative feedback, if they'd like. Plus, the reader saves money in the end.
All-in-all, I'm really excited to begin this adventure into the world of creating episodic fiction.
I hope more creators and readers join me!
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