In a college class on Fantasy Literature I read a collection of Conan the Barbarian stories by Robert E. Howard (The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian). I was struck by the idea that these separate short stories telling the various adventures of a single repeated character were like episodes of a TV show. And maybe writing a novel of episodic short stories like a “season” of a TV show would be pretty cool…

It’s an idea that still appeals to me, because it combines the instant gratification of a shorter piece (an episode) with the potential for long-term investment like a novel or series.

So I came up with this tool for developing episodic plots (really just a list of questions to spur thoughts and come up with an outline):

More on developing the “pilot” episode tomorrow!