FanFiction and the Power of Serials (Article)

How fan works on the Internet show the underrated power of serialization.

The Last Promise by Blazer

Introduction

A lot of great works of literature come in serials. Off the top of my head, I can think of The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky and A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Serials had great appeal from the 19^th century throughout the early 20^th century. But at some point, serialized fiction had disappeared from the mainstream.

Wikipedia has a good summary on the history of serialized fiction. Though with Wikipedia being Wikipedia, I suggest you take some of what they say with a grain of salt.

Growing up in the 2000s, the idea of serialized literature was foreign to me. Of course, TV shows and comic books (I include manga here) introduced me to episodic and serialized fiction. But the idea of a series of prose fictions that you read in magazines wherein the stories would advance with each publication didn’t ring a bell for me.