After a brief haitus of Marredbury episodes through the holidays, I just wanted to provide a brief overview of the project I am working on. I am calling it a “serial anthology.”
What is a serial anthology?
So anthology series may be a more familiar term. It is used to refer to tv, film, and video games that “presents a different story and a different set of characters in each different episode, season, segment, or short.” Think Black Mirror, American Horror Story, or The Twilight Zone.
(It was interesting as I was looking through the different anthology series out there and noticed how much of it landed in the horror genre. There are a plenty of these series outside of horror, like The White Lotus (couldn’t even tell you what genre that show belongs in. IMDB calls is a comedy drama, I guess…) and the heist series, Kaleidscope, as well as True Detective. But there is still an overwhelming amount of horror related options. I wonder if it has something to do with horror fitting so nicely in shorter mediums. Full length films and novels are challenging with horror! Got off on a tangent there, back to serial anthologies.)
I didn’t want to call my project an anthology series because it is not on the screen, so it’s not a series. A written story that is designed to be presented to readers in parts is called a serial. An anthology is a collection of short stories. So I came up with serial anthology.
While I don’t see the term around much, I am not claiming to have come up with any ground breaking ideas here. Radio has a long history of anthology series which has transformed into podcast series today. Series like the Magnus Archives and Palimpsest play around with shorter forms of storytelling. Digital Folklore is doing some really cool blending of fiction and nonfiction (speaking of groundbreaking ideas!)
There are plenty of written serial anthologies out there too. I’ve enjoyed The Gulp by
. There is also C.B. Jones’ Rules of the Road, and so many more! (Compiling a list of these serial anthologies is on my never ending to do list… I’ll get to it… eventually…)It’s all about the worldbuilding. In all of these story collections, there is a strong sense of place, like the strong sense of place that you would get in a novel. When reading a novel, you can sink into a world, get to know the characters and the setting. Short stories don’t give you the space to get comfortable. When reading a story collection, you get to enjoy a snack-sized tale. Just as you begin to get comfortable with the people and places, the story ends and you have to settle into the world of the next story.
I promise, I am not bashing the short story. I love writing them, enjoy reading them. There are so many cool things writers can do in a shorter medium that isn’t possible in a novel, including creating a strong sense of place in a short amount of time.
A serial anthology provides the reader with the same sense of place as a novel. It’s the thread that connects the collection of stories. That’s what I have been playing with, in a fictional horror-themed town that I named Marredbury.
Presenting Marredbury
I am sharing the 6th episode of Marredbury in a couple weeks. I wanted to provide a super brief overview for those who may need a recap after the holidays. This is a draft of a new kind of storytelling that I’m trying out. I’m looking for feedback! What are you enjoying, what don’t you like?
The first story is a kind of prologue, introducing you to the world of Marredbury.
Asa and her husband have just moved into a beautiful old home, but old homes have a history, especially in Marredbury.
In Episode 1 you are introduced to Carla through her ColbyStream (I explain what a ColbyStream is here, think a social media feed but for all of your digital viewing). Carla lives in the town of New Marredbury. The original Marredbury had been buried under an erupting volcano.
Carla is asked to work on a special project at work, uncovering encrypted documents. The first document ends up being a short story. “The Happening on Little Valley Road” is that short story.
Alex can’t explain what happened on her drive home. Either guilt drove her to hallucinations or she saw something she was never meant to see.
In episode 2, you learn more about the town of New Marredbury. Carla can’t make sense of the files she needs to decrypt. They seem to just be short stories, but the files are too large to only contain a document. She uncovers “Hydrocortisone”
While mourning the loss of her mother, Moira gets a visit from her mother. She wants her to go to the store for hydrocortisone.
In episode 3, you start off with the short story Carla decrypt’s next, “Gigi Talcon’s Award Winning Gardenias”
Gigi has a strong connection to her gardenias, has been there since she was a girl…
Carla sees evidence of the stories she’s been decrypting in New Marredbury. She begins to question is the stories are actually fiction.
In episode 4, Carla continues to question how the documents she’s encrypting relate to the present world. The reader also learns a bit more about the company that founded New Marredbury, Colby Corp. Carla uncovers “Horror Shop”
The employees at the Ugly Dog Coffee Shop experience a Halloween night they will never forget
In episode 5, Serena Shelton reaches out to Carla on her social media feed. Carla has no idea who Serena is. Other people in New Marredbury are also experiencing strange phenomenon. Carla uncovers “Happy and Fortunate.”
A night of experimental drugs has heavier consequences than a group of friends could ever imagine. The consequences may last forever and the friends share all in an exclusive interview.
Episode 6: Coming in 2 weeks!
Carla’s mystery continues as she uncovers another short story, “If a Tree Falls.”
Ooooh - interesting idea!
I look forward to reading Marredbury when I get the chance to! 😄
Out of curiosity, would you call something like my Retelling Myths series, which was a collection of short stories that came out monthly, all based around retelling older stories, a serial anthology? Or would it be excluded because it was based around a theme rather than the same world?
Would something like the Sherlock Holmes short stories count? Or would it be excluded because they were more centered around a set of characters rather than a place?