Dev Soap Opera/Serial - Interest?

[Ximena]

OK, so I know that I've talked about my soap before (In/Exhale) and a few of you have even read some of it.

I have been thinking lately of attempting to actually publish a dev soap opera/serial, and with Ruth possibly starting a dev-centric publishing company, it might make that easier for me to do.

What I wanted to ask is would this be the kind of thing you girls/guys would be interested in?

Although a "soap opera" is technically a tv series, this would be written in prose, obviously. But, like the definition of a soap, it would be an continuous narrative, allowing you to follow the characters through years of their lives as they grow and change, etc.

Of course I'd have to talk to Ruth lol but I'm just trying to gauge interest...

Basically, I'd probably go for posting parts of the stories as singles; you could think of them kind of like a chapter of a book or an episode of a TV series. They'd be self-contained to a certain extent but wouldn't necessarily have a clean character/plot arch, as they are part of a whole, if that makes sense.

Anyway, if this is the type of thing you'd be at all interested in, let me know!

If you want to learn more about my current soap (that I've written for years for my own personal enjoyment) you can check out these threads:

paradevo.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=devs&action=display&thread=3741

paradevo.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=writing&action=display&thread=3735

paradevo.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=devs&action=display&thread=3752

Thanks!!

Hope that wasn't too rambly!

[Ximena]

To clarify, this wouldn't be like a "daytime" soap but more like a "nighttime" soap - so think more along the lines of Brothers & Sisters, One Tree Hill, that type of thing and less "Days of Our Lives."

Hope that makes sense in case I wasn't clear.

[Deleted]

That would be very nice. You can break the story into 'seasons', as they have on tv shows, to be easier to follow. Or life chapters...

To specifically answer your question...yes, I'd like to follow certain characters, even after the main intrigue/crisis is resolved. That means the set up for these characters has to be very interesting. What I mean...if I'm drawn to a story - usually, my favourite scenario is boy meets girl, they dance around each other for a while, they hook up, then because of some external factors they break up only to become stronger individually and get back together in the end - I'd still stick even after the final chapter/the credits are rolled and even full knowing that they're still together and no major drama can happen between them (drama, yes; BIG drama, no ).

Does this makes sense?

[Ximena]

Thanks, crista!

Yeah, what I'm thinking would probably be devided kind of like seaons by "year" and then each "episode" would be a day or so in that year.

There would be a nice-sized cast of main characters. The primary main character would be a wheeler, but there'd be other main characters as well. Probably around five or so, plus some secondary primary (lol I know that sounds like an oxymoron) characters, then obviously a ton of secondary characters.

Each episode would tell the stories of the main characters, usually focused on THE main character but occasionally giving us insight into the other characters. The life/love story of THE main character would be the primary plotline but there'd be other complications as well, as well as how all the characters interact with each other.

Like I said in my clarification post, think of your fave nighttime drama - that's the kind of thing I'm thinking of.

[Deleted]

My favourite nighttime drama was ER (nothing, no other show will ever change that, lol) and that was as soap-y as daytime tv gets. And I loved it.

I did like what I've read so far and I do think you should continue. Just out of curiosity...do you take your time to develop/create biographies for your secondary characters too, or just go with the flow with them?

[Ximena]

Pretty much my rule in writing--if you can call it a "rule"--is that I let the characters come to life. I know that sounds really odd, but it's something that just kind of happens.

I start writing and a lot of times the characters just kind of direct the story. So I might start writing something, and then something about the character will be revealed that I never "knew"--but that makes perfect sense.

For example, Kai, the main character in my soap, has a bit of a sweet tooth. It wasn't something I really consciously thought about it, it just kind of happened in the course of the story, and it makes sense because his diet is kind of limted, but sweets are one thing he really can have "as much" of as he wants, and they're also not really something he had when he was growing up. He's a "dessert first" type of guy if he can get away with it.

So a lot of the secondary characters are kind of like that, too. For example, the character of Izzy (Isabel Flores) is one who kind of just came to life. Initially, all I knew is that she was someone who grew up with Jesús and who was very beautiful, who worked for a medical supply company. Everything else, especially her personality, really came out later as I wrote about her, she just kind of came to life. For example, she seems kind of shallow and selfish on the surface (and she can be) but there's also a part of her that really does care about Jesús and wish they could be together, really together, even if she knows it probably can never (and could never) work between them.

My characters are always teaching me new things about them, is what I'm trying to say, I guess. I recently "learned" a lot about Jesús's background that makes his personality/behavior make a lot more sense. And it wasn't even something I had sat down and planned, it just kind of happened. LOL.

The character bios are something I've done recently, since I got Scrivner, especially to help me with some of the secondary characters. Because the story is so complicated, it makes it really easy to go back and refresh my memory if necessary.

[Ximena]

By the way, I also used to love ER although I stopped watching after the first few seasons when I moved. I keep hoping they'll put it on netflix streaming so I can watch it again.

I'd consider ER to be a "nighttime soap" when it comes down to it. I think most nighttime dramas really are (although not all).

It's actually funny you mentioned it because I was thinking of mentioning it as an example but didn't want to confuse it since it's a doctor show.

[Deleted]

Jun 17, 2012 9:23:37 GMT -5 Ximena said:

Pretty much my rule in writing--if you can call it a "rule"--is that I let the characters come to life. I know that sounds really odd, but it's something that just kind of happens.

I don't think that's very odd. Rarely have I written anything where I knew from the start how the characters will be.( Btw, I loved what you said about Kai having a sweet tooth, that kind of thing gives singularity). Maybe that's why I'm so stuck now, with some original piece I keep trying to write (in my mother tongue this time, no English or dev theme involved ) - I think I have the characters all figure out so they're not really moving forward at this point...

Would be cool to see how your story turns into a series of books - I think that's what you can do under the Dev press

[janewheeler]

This is interesting -- I've never really thought about how a "soap" would translate to book form, because books are finite and soaps are, to use the title of a book about them, "worlds without end." Soaps definitely have finite arcs, but there are so many overlapping arcs that it just keeps going on.

Would you maybe do something like those romance novels in which every brother in a family (usually all cowboys ) gets his own story, with backstory for other books woven into whatever the current book is? Or something like the Gossip Girl books (I don't know what they're like, but they seem to fit the tone you're going for)?

I suppose it's not weird to just think of them existing in a sort of series universe, like Sweet Valley High *giggle* There's always that opening page of "The Wakefield twins shared perfect size-six figures [recently downsized to a four, grr] and had an older brother named Steven."

[Ximena]

Jane, I'm definitely thinking something a little less conventional, more like a soap in prose in the sense that it wouldn't be like a series of books it would be more like "Short stories" that are part of a whole. Kind of like how episodes of a tv soap fit in. You have mini arcs within each episode but you always have that "to be continued" feeling at the end of each episode.

So there would be all these characters, and like a tv soap they would each get a certain amount of "page time" - for example, we might start off an "episode" with one character and his arc, then cut to another character, etc.

If that makes sense?

So while you'd definitely get to see different characters' POV it wouldn't necessarily be like a series of books in which you have one character tell his story and then switch or something like that.

I'm not familiar with Gossip Girls, though.

@crista - good luck with your current project. Getting stuck is the worst thing. I had that problem at the beginning of my novel b/c I felt like I "knew" all the characters except the main one, who wasn't speaking to me yet, so-to-speak, not fully.

I'm glad you like Kai being a sweet tooth. LOL. As I said, it just kind of happened and I think it's cute.

[Ximena]

Wanted to resurrect this thread. I know the M/M romance group on Good Reads has a prose soap written by several published M/M romance writers...

Was thinking of maybe posting some of In/Exhale on the fiction blog.... do you think people would want to read it?

[ej]

I honestly think people would be interested in reading whatever you have Ximena!

I know I would

[janewheeler]

For sure.

[ruthmadison]

I like the sound of that!

And I agree with EJ, I think people are looking for good stories in whatever form they take and we know and trust your writing!

[Ximena]

Thanks, guys for your support! I think the biggest hurdle for me would be deciding when to start since it goes back so far, lol...