A Modern Writing Idea for Modern Times: E-serialize

"No, my children, this is not your father's printing press."

One of the fringe benefits of having children who are in college is that you learn new ideas from them you may have missed the first time around while you were in school.  My daughter follows my blog stories and recently she shared how Charles Dickens became a published writer back in the 1800's.  He started as a newspaper journalist, then began publishing his early novels in weekly newspapers.

"I thought I had an original idea," I told my daughter, completely unaware that other novelists were doing this in the Victoria Era.  That's what I get for spending all my time on the tennis courts during high school and college instead of learning more about history or composition.  My senior year in high school, my English teacher asked us to bring in what we liked to read.  I showed up with a Captain Crunch cereal box.  Our assignment was to write a composition about why our particular genre was important.  The good news is that I got an "A."  It was easy -- the material was rather sugary.  The bad news... that's about all the effort I put into my craft.  Thank God for my children who are filling in the gaps for me.

E-serialization, although not an original idea, is publishing a novel in parts on the internet before it is fully composed.  Readers anticipate new chapters at predetermined intervals set by the author.  In my case, this modern writing technique is helping me to acquire new readers from all over the world at a rapid pace.  I offer my stories at my writer's blog every Friday at 8:08 AM, Pacific Time -- free to all visitors and guests.  I call my writer's blog a cyber-bistro because it's an online gathering place for readers and writers.  I'm offering readers a new experience based on what I thought was an original idea.  Charles Dickens beat me to it.  The ghost of Dickens' past is haunting me from the grave.  If he were around today, I believe he would be raving about e-serialization.  I love this idea so much that I'm going to continue doing this with future works.  My web traffic is growing exponentially.  I'm having the time of my life.  And blog readers are coming back every Friday to read new chapters.  Not bad for a Captain Crunch cereal box reader who didn't discover he was a writer until he was almost fifty, huh?

What's your opinion about E-serializing?  Bah-humbug or five stars?  Check out my modern writing idea for modern times at Caveman Reflections Cyber-bistro.  Click here for the link to the free chapters, e-serialized style.  Now if I can just figure out a way to serve you a cyber-cup of coffee or some Captain Crunch e-cereal to go along with the story -- that would surely make the bistro world-famous.  Thank you, my daughter, for giving me a history lesson.  At least I know there's a name for what I'm doing.  Don't forget to add to the conversation below in the comments section.