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In working out the details of the plot of a sensational serial, the beginner should attend to the following points:—

(1) There must be no preliminaries. The story itself must start at once, in the first few lines, and by the end of the first instalment not only must it be in full career, but all explanations must have been disposed of.

(2) It is unwise to have too many interests or too many characters. A main plot and a sub-plot will be sufficient The more completely the main interest is centralised in one or two characters the better.

(3) On the other hand frequent and vividly contrasted changes of scene are advisable.

(4) The sensational serial makes no pretence of realism. Therefore avoid all truthful subtlety of characterisation and dialogue. Draw the characters broadly. Make the heroines beautiful, the heroes brave, the villains villainous, and the conversations terse and theatrical.

(5) Incident must be evenly and generously distributed.

(6) Avoid long paragraphs.

(7) Avoid scenes of squalor or poverty, except as an occasional foil to the atmosphere of wealth and splendour which should for the most part prevail.

(8) Rouse the reader’s curiosity and leave it unsatisfied at the end of every instalment, except, of course, the last.

There is plenty of scope, even within these prescribed conditions, for the exercise of the inventive and constructive faculties, and of the imagination. I can find no reason why the sensational serial should not be deemed a legitimate form of literary art, and I would advise the cultured aspirant not to pour out his scorn upon it. As a training in plot construction and in narrative, the composition of sensational serials is decidedly valuable.1

Sensational serials sell at moderate prices. The syndicates will rise to thirty shillings per thousand when they are “well suited”; but a more ordinary rate of pay is a pound per thousand, and this, having regard to the fact that sensational stuff, after it is planned out, can be written very quickly, is not an inadequate return to an unknown author. It is quite possible for a sixty-thousand - word serial to be written in a month, and I have heard several serialists boast that they compose on the average five or six thousand words a day. A serialist with a reputation will naturally command higher wages than a serialist without a reputation, and his prices sometimes ascend to six pounds a thousand—seldom higher.

The aspirant should note that some of the largest newspaper firms keep a regular expert in serials, whose duty it is to discuss plots with the authors of plots, and to supply ideas, suggest improvements, and generally act as literary uncle to the author. This system is, in my opinion, of doubtful advantage to the newspapers, and it puts the author, who never knows when his work is done, indubitably at a disadvantage.