Roy Peter Clark's well-written series of short articles - generally 1,000 words or less - proved so popular that thousands called in to find out what they'd missed

But in 1996, journalists are talking about Clark's writing, not his teaching. Last February, the St. Petersburg Times ran Clark's serial narrative, "Three Little Words." For 29 consecutive days, in short chapters, Times readers experienced the story of a family struggling with AIDS.

Clark followed that experiment with another, "Sadie's Ring: A Journey of the Spirit," an 11-part series that ran to great acclaim in the Charlotte (N.C.) Observer and the Miami Herald. In a story that combines memoir, literary analysis, reporting, and light theology, Clark describes his experience as a young Catholic man exploring his family's Jewish roots.

Clark's experiments have been discussed and debated in newsrooms and classrooms across the country. Returning to his role as writing teacher, Clark is beginning the process of describing what he has learned - and what editors might learn about the potential of what he calls: "The Breakfast Serial."

Q. You've written two serial narratives this year. What have you learned?

A. I've learned that people will come back day after day to follow a good story - if you give them a reason. One reader wrote that she only subscribed to the Miami Herald on Sunday, but bought the paper every day for 11 days to follow the series. I heard dozens of accounts like that.

Q. Reporters have been writing series for a long time. What makes yours different?

A. The chapters are short, about 800 to 1,000 words. That's a five-minute read. A cup of coffee. Your breakfast serial. In more traditional series, the chapters are much longer. The reader is forced to treat the newspaper like a magazine: Put it aside and get to it when you have time. But many readers, including many journalists, never get to it - and then they feel guilty.

Q. Talk more about the chapter lengths.

A. "Three Little Words" ran for 29 days. Every day, except for the last day, the chapters ran on the top of page 3A. It ran with a small piece of art. No jumps. How can you run a 30,000 word series - a small book - without jumps? By breaking it into small chapters. Most people can run a marathon - 26 miles - if you give them 52 days - a half-mile a day.

Q. Why do the short chapters work?

A. They are tight - focused on one important scene or key issue. The dead limbs are pruned. They have a stand-alone quality. And yet, when possible, they end with a cliffhanger. It's one of the oldest tricks in the book: "To be continued..."

Q. Where did you get your idea for this form'?

A. It can be traced to the serialized novels of the 19th century. As a kid, I was fascinated by stories in parts - the Flash Gordon serials, or Davy Crockett, or the Hardy Boys. I read many different models to find what I was looking for. In no case were the chapters short enough. You can say that I inherited a form and squeezed it tighter.

Q. Why should newspapers experiment with "the breakfast serial."

A. First, to build readership, to get people to return to the habit of reading the paper every day. That helps fulfill our mission - and it's good for business. Just as important: you can tell different kinds of stories using this form - and the community winds up having a different kind of conversation.

Q. What do you mean by "a different kind of story?"

A. It's hard for me to say what my narratives are "about." I find it impossible to write nut graphs for them. "Three Little Words" is about a family struggling with AIDS - but it's also about sexual culture, denial, and community. "Sadie's Ring" is about a Catholic man with a Jewish grandmother - but it's also about faith, intolerance, and justice. When readers meet narrative, a new transaction takes place. Readers bring their autobiographies to the experience of the story.

Q. Does this form of the serial narrative seem to be catching on?

A. I've read about a dozen this year - some were influenced by "Three Little Words." I found them to be excellent stories, and what excites me is the different subjects that were covered: the harrowing journey of a Mexican man coming illegally into the United States; the collapse of a young basketball player; a dying Vietnam veteran in need of an organ transplant. What would happen if every newspaper ran one of these a month?

Q. What would happen?

A. More reading would happen. Here's my prescription: Run one serial a month.

Start it on the first Sunday of the month, and run it for eight consecutive days. The eight-day series will help convert Sunday readership to the daily habit. Then give readers a three-week break, and come back with a new serial. Expectation, anticipation, surprise. You don't need to be a "special writer" to pull this off. The St. Pete Times has at least two dozen reporters who could do it - with a bit of coaching. Writers will enjoy working with this form, and, more important - readers will love it.

Q. What evidence do you have that readers will love it?

A. Almost 8,000 phone calls by readers seeking updates to "Three Little Words." on the Times' audiotext service. Countless messages. A community meeting with 300 folks. In Miami, more than 500 readers left phone messages in support of "Sadie's Ring." When people left town, they continued to follow the series on the Web site.

Q. It is striking how different "Three Little Words" is from "Sadie's Ring."

A. Yes, but the form is flexible enough to contain both. In the first one, the story builds on "what will happen next" - will one character become HIV positive? In the second, the issue is "what will be learned, or understood next" - what does it mean to be Jewish? It almost reads like a series of essays.

Q. What criticism have you received?

A. Not everyone likes the form of "Three Little Words." I heard from inside and outside the newsroom that the chapters were too short, the series was too long, the topic too sensational, and that the story was "not news." I agree that this form invites the writer and reader to bend traditional definitions of news, but not in a negative sense. In the way that a musician bends a note to achieve a certain sound.

Q. You are a writing teacher. How did you come to write these narratives?

A. I got tired of telling writing anecdotes from years ago. I felt a need to get back in the fray. And since I work for a school that owns a newspaper, why not try something truly experimental? When someone reads my story and says, "I was surprised to see that in a newspaper," I always take it as a compliment.

Clark is a writing coach at The Poynter Institute for Media Studies in St. Petersburg, Fla. E-mail him at roypc@poynter.org.