Janet Gogerty's Blog: Sandscript - Posts Tagged "little-nell"
Sanscript Serialised
Sandscript Serialised
Famously Charles Dickens’ novels started life as serials, in weekly and monthly magazines, but mostly in twenty stand-alone monthly parts costing only a shilling, the final double part being two shillings. We imagine cosy Victorian families gathered around the hearth, eager for Father to read the latest chapter. But I am sure there would also be homes where the family would get behind with the issues; Father late home from work or laid low with a bad throat. The magazines would start to pile up and when the next door neighbour said
‘Have you read yesterday’s chapter? I couldn’t believe it when…’
They would be met with urgent pleas to stay silent.
‘Don’t tell me what happens to Little Nell’ or
‘I don’t want to know who killed Edwin Drood!’
Serialised television dramas have always been popular and until the advent of video recorders Monday morning would see adults around the country discussing last night’s episode of the Forsyte Saga or children at school recounting Saturday night’s episode of Doctor Who.
Press the button videos have been replaced by a variety of complicated technologies; whole series scheduled to record while you are on holiday, televisions recording several programmes simultaneously while you watch another channel.
But there are no more hours in the day and you realise you have six more episodes of Indian Summers to watch and the series has finished in real time. You daren’t read any TV reviews in case the ending is given away.
Sometimes you wish you had not bothered with the stress of trying to catch up when a final episode peters out in confusion. This happened to us recently with BBC’s ‘Undercover’, we were only a few days behind so turned to the modern equivalent of chatting with the neighbours and went on line to see what other viewers thought. We were relieved to know we had not suffered some form of brain malfunction; other viewers were left confused and angry that they had wasted time with a story line that was not very credible at the start and became totally incredible. Oh well, only another three drama series we haven’t even started yet.
But what of Little Nell? When a British ship bearing the latest installment of the story arrived in New York in 1841, Dickens fans stormed the city's piers, shouting to the sailors: "Is Little Nell alive?" alas she was not.
…and who did kill Edwin Drood? Dickens died of a stroke before the final episodes were written so we will never know; it has been a subject for speculation ever since.
For the modern writer there are internet sites where you can post chapters of your novel as you go along and get reader feedback... just make sure you don't let your on line followers down by dying before you finish the book.
Famously Charles Dickens’ novels started life as serials, in weekly and monthly magazines, but mostly in twenty stand-alone monthly parts costing only a shilling, the final double part being two shillings. We imagine cosy Victorian families gathered around the hearth, eager for Father to read the latest chapter. But I am sure there would also be homes where the family would get behind with the issues; Father late home from work or laid low with a bad throat. The magazines would start to pile up and when the next door neighbour said
‘Have you read yesterday’s chapter? I couldn’t believe it when…’
They would be met with urgent pleas to stay silent.
‘Don’t tell me what happens to Little Nell’ or
‘I don’t want to know who killed Edwin Drood!’
Serialised television dramas have always been popular and until the advent of video recorders Monday morning would see adults around the country discussing last night’s episode of the Forsyte Saga or children at school recounting Saturday night’s episode of Doctor Who.
Press the button videos have been replaced by a variety of complicated technologies; whole series scheduled to record while you are on holiday, televisions recording several programmes simultaneously while you watch another channel.
But there are no more hours in the day and you realise you have six more episodes of Indian Summers to watch and the series has finished in real time. You daren’t read any TV reviews in case the ending is given away.
Sometimes you wish you had not bothered with the stress of trying to catch up when a final episode peters out in confusion. This happened to us recently with BBC’s ‘Undercover’, we were only a few days behind so turned to the modern equivalent of chatting with the neighbours and went on line to see what other viewers thought. We were relieved to know we had not suffered some form of brain malfunction; other viewers were left confused and angry that they had wasted time with a story line that was not very credible at the start and became totally incredible. Oh well, only another three drama series we haven’t even started yet.
But what of Little Nell? When a British ship bearing the latest installment of the story arrived in New York in 1841, Dickens fans stormed the city's piers, shouting to the sailors: "Is Little Nell alive?" alas she was not.
…and who did kill Edwin Drood? Dickens died of a stroke before the final episodes were written so we will never know; it has been a subject for speculation ever since.
For the modern writer there are internet sites where you can post chapters of your novel as you go along and get reader feedback... just make sure you don't let your on line followers down by dying before you finish the book.
Sandscript
I like to write first drafts with pen and paper; at home, in busy cafes, in the garden, at our beach hut... even sitting in a sea front car park waiting for the rain to stop I get my note book out. We
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