[Discussion] Fanfiction "Pilot Episode"

[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. Yes I know Tricks of the Love Fast is currently running but really, it literally releases new content on a per-year basis. 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 thing I was eyeing was the possibility to do 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 will this story effect two other stories I have planned for the future, and how much those effects change depending on if the full story allows those events to show up and unfold, or if it's going to be condensed into a pilot.

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)

 

[Bay]

Me personally I don't like to treat writing like pilot episodes as what I write I already have an idea where it starts and ends, whether a short story or multi-part. Whether I make progress and not will depend on various factors besides if people are interested in the next of it. If that one 6-8 chapter story you already thought the whole plot I would just go for it and see if you can write the whole thing. Plus 8 chapters isn't too bad, all things considered. If you still feel intimidated by that, you can perhaps focus on one plot arc and go from there.

 

[Palamon]

I've never done this. The first chapter of my fanfiction is always some sort of prologue or prelude to show world building. I'm someone who writes really long chapters that range from ~5,000-10,000 words, usually. Rather than posting a "pilot episode" showing off progress to a beta reader is the way to go. Excerpts to get people excited can be done in a "show off your excerpts" rather than doing a "pilot episode". Just in my opinion, anyway.

 

[Aquacorde]

A pilot episode, sure, maybe. But as you've presented it, if the pilot is "picked up" by an audience, you would essentially re-write the events in an expanded format- is that something you would be interested in doing twice? Is it something that audience would be interested in reading twice?

I may be in the minority here, I don't know, but is not gathering an audience such a huge factor that it would effectively "cancel the show"? I'm of the opinion that you should create the story to whatever extent that you, the author, believe necessary to achieve your goals and fulfill your desires within the bounds of creation. The audience can take it or leave it.

 

[gimmepie]

Here's a question: what if putting out more content for your story is one of the things that brings an audience in? Some people are more inclined to read a story that's actually gone/is going somewhere and would prefer to wait to read until they know it is.

 

[Venia Silente]

If that one 6-8 chapter story you already thought the whole plot I would just go for it and see if you can write the whole thing. Plus 8 chapters isn't too bad, all things considered. If you still feel intimidated by that, you can perhaps focus on one plot arc and go from there.

(emphasis mine)
Yeaaaaah that was a factor I had considered. If this was a plan for a waaay longer story, I feel like the answer of if to start with introducing the setting or the characters with a standalone story or a pilot would be more obvious, as there's more stuff you can get out of press right away with a pilot, but 6~8 chapters is in that limbo of... dunno, "too short to care" vs "too long to work independently"?

There's also a related factor that was more obliquely refered to in the thread, that a pilot can get me some feedback on whether the story earns or loses interest as it goes (that I can also get somewhat from a beta reader, but their closer involvement would distort it a fair bit). Now what would it mean if a pilot or preview garners interests but also suggests that the full story would not... I'm not exactly sure.

Excerpts to get people excited can be done in a "show off your excerpts" rather than doing a "pilot episode". Just in my opinion, anyway.

Thanks for reminding me that! We do have a "share your writing" thread, so at some point it might be worth to show off progress there, yeah.

A pilot episode, sure, maybe. But as you've presented it, if the pilot is "picked up" by an audience, you would essentially re-write the events in an expanded format- is that something you would be interested in doing twice? Is it something that audience would be interested in reading twice?

I would start from the design basis that the pilot is not going to cover the full story but perhaps the first 2-3 chapters, and is going to be more focused on presenting the plot problem than in solving it (other than eg.: showing "these are the characters to solve it"). So in theory it would mean the final release's Chapters 1 to 3 would be re-presented in a vastly extended form, I guess? There should be enough material in the pilot to reuse and other than checking for eg.: flow and pacing, is not going to merit a strong rewrite anyway.

As for audience, I'm not sure if an audience would want to kinda sorta "read twice". It's a complicated data point because the audience might eg.: show interest in the pilot but not in the story further, or show interest in the characters but not in the underlying plot. Since (assuming either still merits the story to continue) any of those would mean largely rewriting the final story altogether, the resulting final would very likely be far removed from a repeat of the pilot.

I may be in the minority here, I don't know, but is not gathering an audience such a huge factor that it would effectively "cancel the show"? I'm of the opinion that you should create the story to whatever extent that you, the author, believe necessary to achieve your goals and fulfill your desires within the bounds of creation. The audience can take it or leave it.

Yeah, I usually am of that mind, but for oneshots. Two cakes theory and all that. Longer stories, an area that I have to try and get re-accustomed to, require a much larger investment on the work tho.

I'm not sure if the pilot not picking up would "cancel the show". It would certainly indicate that there's no merit in developing it as a multichapter story, for one, and I certainly can't fund the anime version, so if my interest is to not let the story go to waste I would probably release it in a vastly different format, such as general worldbuilding and plot notes added to my 'verse in encyclopaedic format or in newsreel / in-universe articles format. Perhaps references and cameos in other stories. Campaign notes in case anyone wants to adapt an RP out of the concept. Dunno. A kind of "this actually happened, you're just not going to see a story about it anywhere" thing.

Here's a question: what if putting out more content for your story is one of the things that brings an audience in? Some people are more inclined to read a story that's actually gone/is going somewhere and would prefer to wait to read until they know it is.

Yeah that's a thing I mentioned — that people no longer pay attention to WIPs, instead only to complete stories, if I understood right. And that's precisely one of the factors prompting me to question if it's work the long work ahead.