Feedback wanted: Pilot Episodes

[Venia Silente]

Hello everyone.

I've been wondering, as a writer in the last time I've been strongly focused on oneshots, in the best case something like miniseries-style two-parters. Not that that's bad, I mean it seems to work.

*But*. At some point, you just need to tell a bigger story, right? The thing is, while I'd love to do that... it's been far too long, like before the 2015s since I last attempted a multichapter project. Long enough that contractually speaking I won't be able to crosspost it here before next year!. Heck, my *original* multichapter project is from 2015 and I still haven't been able to kick Ch.1 off the press!

While getting some practice with oneshots and in general short stories is fine, at the moment I have nothing to show / back up the idea me working on a longer-term project like that.

So one avenue I was eyeing was doing it like how it's done to lift TV series off the ground: with a Pilot Episode. Basically, preparing a very reduced, introductory version of the story, focused solely or mostly on the narrative beginning or on presenting the world / characters, and featuring no frills but still following my usual working signature elements.

There are a number of technical advantages I can see to working this way. Feels like a good way of potentially testing the waters with the story and see if developing it further would even garner any interest. I've heard on some grapevines that more readers won't pick up WIP stories, only finished ones, as of late, so that cuts off some potential feedback issues. Pushing a pilot means if anything I do get the story to show and exist in some form that can be understood as "finished" already — even if it's decided that further developing it is a no-no. And finally, if it *does* pick up enough attention and feedback, most likely much of that feedback is in usable form to edit and produce the final story, which can also be a positive feedback loop with the readers who stay.

All in all however, I've mostly thought of the good parts; not so much the technical or social parts that can come with this kind of idea. So, I wanted to ask about opinions and recommendations here from people who have other kinds of experiences writing. Do you feel producing a pilot for a longer story is a good idea? Is it something *you* would do / do not, and why? Any caveats you can see in designing a pilot that don't apply when designing a normal oneshot? Feedback on the general plan is welcome.

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While this thread is intended mostly for me evaluating "Pilot Episodes" as a general schema for working in the future, I'm gonna leave some more specifics for my particular case here that brings this discussion in here, in case it is useful.

I intend to write what would be a 6-to-8 chapters long story modelled on the classic plot of "walk into a forgotten temple and solve the mysteries and mechanics inside to solve a problem that affects the outside". Think Lost in Shadow, Golden Sun, Legend of Zelda, really any of a number of media that has a small arc or the entire thing be about that. I already know who the characters will be, who the antagonists will be, who will die and when (provided my characters don't start fighting me over their screentime rights), I already have a well defined ending, a conceptual epilogue and a "shawarma stinger" (I unofficially blame Marvel). Heck I know exactly how this story connects with two separate oneshots I plan on writing in the future.

But (but) actually writing all of the thing is a whole different beast, it's something I have not done in quite a while, and I'm not fully sure it's something I'd want to commit to if it's not the kind of story that would draw attention to how I write and build and connect things. Hence I'm trying to figure out what things make a good test ground.

Anyway, thanks in advance for opinions. (Migjht be a bit slow to answer due to ongoing illness but answers on my end there will be)

 

[K_S]

Meh, not really, if you're happy doing one shots back to back... you could scale up to larger works by making them link together, umbrellaed under a common theme, or tell an overarching tale of a region, place, or timeframe with them without going full-on novel.

Or pilot... that's an option... Unfortunately, it takes a certain type of reader to read a WIP, too many abandoned have left some souls burned I suppose... However, here at least, cat nips are a regular thing. Granted you have to sink the time in for a review of your own... but there are other avenues as well. (mainly PM, review tag, though there is an upcoming holiday blitz as well you could gamble on)

In my notes, certainly, I'll use a PE.. as a touch base to keep a certain theme, and tone in mind as I work. But publish to drum up interest? Not so much. I'll post spin-offs and short stories in a setting that has enough notes to hold up to the extra material... and sometimes that draws traffic to the original tale if it's done well... but I'd say per personal experience in seeing others do a pilot set up... that if progress on the main piece isn't taken up quickly and isn't held up to the same quality/tone of the original entry it can be as ignored as a multichapter partial work.

As for getting support/interest, to make writing more interactive perhaps a partnership with someone who has written well in the themes that you with to explore might work better than hoping for audience participation. My experience in the audience aspects... so-so so I'm probably not the best judge here but there are resources and writers here you can tap as your health permits to get something like what you're looking for.

Sorry if this isn't exactly what you're looking for but hopefully this helps a little.