In these trying times, a good book is a comfort to all. And many of our good books these days are a good serial, updating on a schedule to give us a bit more joy, eeked out in increments.
In order to share that joy, and have a little fun, we here at the Serial Novel Advocacy Group present once more: The April Fool’s Serial Swap.
The Serial Swap is a simple idea that has held on strong for over a decade now. Writers that sign up get assigned to the serial of another writer. They read a bit of the serial; if they aren’t already reading it, and then write a non-canon, joke post.
There are a lot of ways to do so, but the idea is to end with an obvious joke, an APRIL FOOLS! (Character dies, dead character comes back to life, someone uses an internet meme, something to make the reader gasp, and then say, waitaminute….)
On April 1st, everyone posts the update written for them, linking back to the joke writer’s serial, and a link to the joke post THEY wrote for another serial. This gets a lot of traffic and motion, lots of discussion, and is generally good fun for all involved. Please sign up if interested, and spread the link around to any serial writer you know who would be interested! The more the merrier.
FAQ!
Q. Do I have to have a long running serial?
A. NO! We do think that having an April Fool post before you have enough of an established story to play with might not work out the best, but that choice is up to you. All serial writers are welcome.
Q. But what if I don’t have the time to READ a huge backlog of an old serial?
A. DON’T! A few recent updates are generally enough to get the gist, and we put you in touch with each other, so you can always ask the writer you are writing for questions about their serial. This year we are also hosting a discord at https://discord.gg/DMq8SRuFCx to support and foster discussion and collaboration.
Q. I have a paywall that has a backlog of updates for supporters. Won’t that interfere with posting on the right day for the public?
A. The best bet is going to be to post the joke update as a “bonus episode” for all of your readers at the same time. The prevalence of Read X chapters ahead paywalls is also a good reason for joke posts to be “interludes” rather than fitting exactly into the current plot.
Q. What if the person assigned to write me doesn’t deliver? Am I screwed to be without an update because I spent my time writing for someone else?
A. It does unfortunately happen that someone drops out last minute. We always have a few volunteers on hand that are able to step up and quickly write a replacement. No worries. No one has ever gone into the 1st without a post.
Sign up at https://forms.gle/f5vrxSXJCsfWTvBU8 and please share the page and the swap with your friends, the more the merrier! please reach out with any questions or concerns at the discord above or to Alexander.Hollins@gmail.com