Types of Creative Media (That Aren't Novels)
September 4th, 2023
Writing seems a lot more straightforward when you begin, or even think about beginning. When the going gets rough, a lot of frustration can build up. You can be looking for novel writing advice, courses, the whole nine yards bc your favorite project is getting NOWHERE and it is such a pain. But you may be trying to fit a square in a round hole.
Novels are a diverse medium. Traditionally they tell one story, or a bundle of related stories, from start to end. But sometimes your story isn’t that linear, or you don’t have enough focal components of a novel for it to really be written (this is, loosely speaking, a series of events to happen, some characters involved in them, a setting, and symbols and thematic ideas). As a beginner writer, you might not have been exposed to the wider range of literary and creative scenes besides novels. Ergo, instead of endlessly revising your novel, maybe your story isn’t designed to be a novel.
I’ll list these options branching further away from a traditional novel option. The further out they go, the more likely they are to use another skillset. These are all possible as completely independent works, meaning they can be built by one person with free resources and then self-published. For some of the things listed, there are publishers one could potentially work with. But, your mileage may vary. SO if you have an idea but it doesn’t fit well within the confines of a novel, here are some adjacent options:
Short Fiction
Instead of one big work, breaking it into smaller stories, or character narratives. If you have scenes that are really important then you could just do vignettes of those and not worry necessarily about connecting them in any way.
PROS: Easy to adapt from what you have, you can focus only on what parts you actually want to write and not the chaff in between.
CONS: This still counts as a conventional writing project, which may not be different enough.
Webfiction
Basically, written works posted online in a fanfiction type format. Neovel or Royalroad are some of these sites. Generally I see people post works chapter-by-chapter, or whole works if they’re short stories.
PROS: Get feedback as you write, won’t feel pressure to have a finished product before putting it out there.
CONS: Not ideal for everyone, some people feel more pressure when doing this. Plotters probably won’t enjoy publishing work they consider unfinished. And I’m not sure who the legal copyright protection goes to here.
Light Novels
These are regular novels interspersed with some drawings or comic panels. You could either draw or produce these yourself or take graphics from somewhere else, such as the public domain (I do this a lot!)
PROS: Easy to adapt from your current work, uses artistic skill
CONS: Maybe not different enough
Visual Novels
Basically, small video games. Simple in style, they offer art, sometimes with simple animation, and an interactive story tree. Many also use systems like money or favor with NPCs. itch.io has a lot of examples
PROS: Can mix writing, art and game design. Good for non-linear stories, Choose Your Own Adventures, or stories designed to be more interactive (the player could take on the role of a character). Good as a group effort.
CONS: Need skill in writing, art, and game design. Will take longer to make alone because there are more parts to come together. As with anything tech, you'll need a high tolerance for dealing with technical problems.
Audio Fiction
Audio fiction is any storytelling done in a solely audio format. This encompasses both the reading of a written work (audiobooks), or stories specifically adapted to be told in this way. Sound editing, voice acting, and musical abilities all lend themselves well here. These are /typically/ released in an episode format. You can find examples on sites like this or anywhere podcasts are.
PROS: Using sound helps to create emotion and immersion adds an extra layer of detail to your story. Hearing the voices of each character will help to imagine them stronger.
CONS: You will need access to decent audio equipment and software, which may cost quite a bit and take a while to research (as for equipment you can try buying secondhand or contacting a local library or media center, as for software, ahem, hoist your sails). If you don't feel confident performing your work in this way or wish you had more voice actors to help out (even though there are creative ways to tell an audio fic with only one VA), those will be obstacles.
Webcomics
The old-school version hosted on a site or like, a webtoon. Hiveworks has many examples.
PROS: Art can add a vibe, become a creator in a more niche art space, doesn’t use written word outside of brief description and dialogue. Visual storytelling really can add a lot of beauty and expression in a way literature can't.
CONS: Much more labor intensive due to the art. Unless you're already experienced and/or have a team of people helping you then it likely won’t be sustainable as a long term project. If you’re gonna do this, definitely look into techniques to save time: you can make progress without making your shit look like ctrl+alt+del. For starters, watch this video.
Project-themed Site
A website themed around either your story or all of your work following a theme! Different areas of the site can be a basic introduction of yourself or your world, a character gallery, a lore page, and then galleries for art and writing. This can very well just be a worldbuilding wiki if you want it to be. M0r1bund, Suppe and The Gaslight Chronicles are all different webfiction projects that go in very different directions side note: yes this also counts as webfiction, since it is fiction.. on the web, but to avoid confusion I didn't want to label two things as webfic
PROS: Very flexible, can add and subtract info as you go, much more room for artistic presentation and mixed media projects
CONS: If you want a less conventional looking site, you need to learn some basic webdev skills. technical problems will abound!
Animation
Animating full or partial scenes, character sprites, and gifs of people or images.
PROS: Really cool, uses visual storytelling, you can see your characters move!
CONS: by far the most time consuming. More manageable if done in tandem with the website, VN or webcomic approach.
So, there might be something in here you haven’t thought of, or something I missed! It’s always worth it to check out your options for more niche and experimental art scenes.
If you're considering a switch:
Make a detailed pros and cons list based on what matters most to you. I changed Oracle Bone from a graphic/light novel idea into regular novels because I wanted a shorter timeframe and to work with the skills I already had(while i do draw, i'm not as much an artist as I am a writer). Ask yourself about what skills you have, which you are willing to put serious work into learning, what time and energy commitments you can have, whether you like the act of writing or just want a way to tell your story, etc.