that time I wrote an apocalyptic Disneyland ride novel
“You’re a great writer, and your world-building is fantastic, but your story is episodic.”
As a total newbie writer, I sure as shit had no clue what Miss New York Editor was talking about.
The only episodes I knew were weekly TV episodes of Moonlighting.
Miss New York Editor and I were sitting across from each other at a folding table in the exhibition hall of Denver/Atlanta/Dallas/Portland/Seattle/San Francisco writing convention center.
(Eventually, all exhibition halls look alike.)
I had come to the conference with grand visions of sucking all that sparkling mystical writing knowledge flowing in that hall up through a giant crazy straw and walking away An Enlightened Writer.
I’d paid extra to have Miss New York Editor give my pages a professional once-over stamp of approval.
This was my first major conference. I didn’t want to be that writer who asks stupid questions, but if I was going to learn anything, I had to ask.
“What does episodic mean? You say that like it’s a bad thing … ?”
“It is.”
“Why?”
“Because it’s episodic.”
“But what does that MEAN? Why is it bad?”
“Because it’s episodic.”
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!
Had I blackout during the part where she explained what episodic meant? Was I that stupid?
So much for being an Enlightened Writer.
This was during the dark age of information before Google, when we had to get our info from cave paintings. I couldn’t just run home (uphill both ways) and ask the interwebs.
I dissected everything she had said six ways sideways and upside down and back again to see where I had missed the Secret Knowledge.
I wish I could tell you that I went on a grand Indiana Jones adventure into the jungle to uncover the hidden lore, but as with most writing craft, I spent a lot of time sitting on my butt doing research and making a mess of my own writing.
Important: Episodic stories are not episodic series. Law & Order is an episodic series.
Episodic stories happen when you have a series of incidents, with little or no connection to the incidents that came before and come after.
What ends up happening is the story doesn’t advance. Characters don’t evolve, the plot doesn’t thicken, no problem is resolved.
I often think of episodic stories like the Disneyland ride, It’s a Small World.
Your character sits in the boat, cruising through all those beautifully painted foreign countries, listening to an ear-worm song. If you get off the boat and go through the ride backwards, it doesn’t matter. If you close your eyes for the first half, it doesn’t matter. You can shuffle all the pieces, it doesn’t matter.
Miss New York Editor was absolutely right -- I had written an episodic apocalyptic It’s a Small World. My protagonist rode around fallen America observing all the disturbingly painted dystopian scenarios I’d written.
2 Components of an Episodic Story
Your protagonist reacts instead of acts
Stuff happens to your protagonist. It can be really interesting stuff, but it’s still just a series of stuff. And your protagonist reacts. Like a ball in a pinball machine.
Your protagonist has no goals
There’s no question or want to drive the protagonist into action. Without a goal, there’s no plan or motivation to overcome obstacles and make things happen. Stuff just happens. (See above.)
Add these two components to your Writer Toolbox. You may want to come back to them someday.
Does this mean you can’t write an episodic novel? That it’s bad?
No, of course not. There are some very famous very well-loved episodic novels out there.
One of my favorites is Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.
Alice follows a rabbit, travels from incident to incident through Wonderland meeting all sorts of strange and interesting characters. She’s not out to save the world, solve a major problem, or reach a goal.
Hint: A lot of travel stories are episodic.
There are tricks to writing episodic novels. The first is knowing that’s what you’re doing.
My apocalyptic Disneyland ride novel wasn’t bad because it was episodic, it was bad because I didn’t know what I was doing and consequently it wasn’t interesting enough to hold it together. It didn’t work.
And we’re here to make sure your story works and gets read.
Hello!
My name is Jocelyn.
Story warrior, book lover, day dreamer, gardener, and creative. I help serious writers roll up their sleeves, get their novel ready for publishing, and reach readers. When I’m not elbow-deep in the story trenches, I’m outside world-building in my garden and battling weeds with my three criminal mastermind cats.
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