The Power of Words. The Power of Words was delayed from publication on Wednesday, Dec. 3 because of unexpected problems. The issue is timely. The Providence Journal began publication of a 32-part serial narrative, The Family Way , by Maria Miro Johnson on Sunday, Nov. 30.
Serials are different from a series.
They tend to be longer, and they're structured differently from a large Sunday story. Bob Wyss, at his own initiative, proposed doing a series about a gas-station owner who learned that his business was a potential time bomb. The challenge was to get the reader to tomorrow's story, and then the next day's. A series has the potential to make us better writers, to develop drama, character, narrative to pull readers along. I thought I had to have a tremendous, great story idea to do it.