A trilogy is a huge investment on the part of author, publisher, and reader, and I'm grateful that so many people were willing to invest along with me.
— Rae Carson
I love the trilogy form. I like the idea that you can establish a character in book one. And then in the second part, you can take the characters down to their darkest point. And then in the third part, you have total freedom either to give them redemption - or just to kill them.
— Adrian McKinty
In writing a series of stories about the same characters, plan the whole series in advance in some detail, to avoid contradictions and inconsistences.
— L. Sprague de Camp
So . . . last week I talked a bit about how I’ve been writing a series but doing it wrong, this week I’d like to explore how I should have been doing it.
Okay, I’m going to assume you have a brilliant idea that you can sustain across a multi-volume series. But to make sure, you need to plot it out. This is the hard part, if you’re a pantser like me. It’s not that you can’t write a series without plotting it out first, but you need to know how the whole thing is going to end so that all roads lead to that resolution. And even a sketchy, point form outline will keep you on track.
If you’re a plotter, you need to have a basic plan for the entire series, and then you can plot the individual books one at a time. This let’s you understand not just how each book fits together, but how it fits into the series as well so you can tie it all together in the end. An organized structure will help you keep track of what happens and when, especially important when the action is spread across multiple books
Don’t be afraid to include subplots. Subplots can be fun and liven things up for your readers. The ups and downs of one (or more) subplot can provide a rise and fall in the overall action to help keep the reader interested.
While all four of my Elemental books can almost stand on their own, they’re basically subplots to the larger story that makes them part of the whole. Now the Moonstone Chronicles on the other hand, are all a continuation of the same story, but also have subplots – sort of a story within a story.
Plotting it out ahead of time will also help you figure out how many volumes your series is going to be – don’t drag it out just because you think you can sell more books. It weakens the overall story.
Next you need to think about setting and characters. Are you using the same setting for the whole series? A different setting for each book? Whichever you decide, your setting needs to be vivid and intriguing enough that your readers aren’t going to get bored.
Characters need to be interesting, likeable, and multifaceted. They’re the reason your readers will keep coming back – to see what happens next to their favorite character. It’s important to introduce your character’s desires and goals early, so your reader will become attached to them. But reveal their details slowly, so there’s something new to learn with each volume.
Make your secondary characters count, don’t just have them pop in and out for no good reason. They should have purpose. Maybe they help your main character, or maybe they’re there to get in their way. They could even trigger a subplot.
One thing that’s really helpful is a story bible. I wish I’d done this with my series, and I fully intend to do them going forward. This is a dedicated notebook that contains everything you ever wanted to know about your book series – characters, actions, subplots, settings, maps (if you’ve got them).
The story bible is something you can refer back to when you’re not sure if a character’s eyes are blue or green, or if he’s left-handed or right-handed. Or you’ve forgotten what time of year it is, or what city they were headed for. Maybe you’ve used a particular subplot already.
Your final book should offer a resolution to the minor conflicts as well as the big one, otherwise your readers are going to feel cheated. Perhaps your story needs to come full circle, ending where it began, or maybe your hero(s) ride off into the sunset. But one way or another, if the series is done, the story should be done.
* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *
WORDAGE REPORT
This has been a week, I tell you what.
There were a lot of outside influences, all converging from keeping me from getting ahead with my writing, but that which does not kill us makes us stronger, right?
My stitchery group had their Christmas luncheon last week, I had a poetry group meeting, the pleasure of the granddaughter’s company due to a snow day, and there was a death in the family.
Sadly, the only one that didn’t really affect my time was the death in the family. My mother-in-law passed away, but this was not unexpected as she was in a nursing home for a number of years and her health wasn’t good. The husband’s family is large, and somewhat dysfunctional, and the real drama won’t be happening until next week when all the drama llamas begin converging for the funeral.
The good news is, despite the big chunks of my time being sucked up by social obligations, I still managed to tread water with the writing. And, of course, this being the time of year it is I’ve being doing a lot of thinking and reflecting on what lies ahead and what I want out of the year to come. I haven’t come to any conclusions, but I’m working on it.
NEW WORDS:
Blog Posts – 1756+292+259+841=3,148
Extra poem – 123 words Total words = 3271
UP 141 words from last week
Goals For Next Week:
Get my blog posts done early.
EDITING:
0 pages
Due to time constraints and social obligations, it never even occurred to me to try and do some editing, although I do have a folder with the files for Elemental Spirit on my desktop now. So maybe that counts as progress?
Goal For Next Week:
Start work on An Elemental Spirit.
MARKETING:
Well, hell. Maybe I was a little premature putting marketing back on the table.
I made no inroads in making an Amazon page, and I’m sure it’s easier than I think it is. Nor did I start filling out the paperwork to be included in the book promotion site. I’m starting to think this is going to be something to attempt in the New Year.
Goal For Next Week:
Look into developing an author page on Amazon, work on the book promotion form.
TECH & TRAINING:
Incentive or no, I did not look into doing anything with Dropbox. It keeps getting lost in the shuffle of the minutiae of life.
Goal For Next Week:
Start backing up files to Dropbox. Set up external hard drive.
POETRY WEDNESDAY:
I did the last of the Chazz Combs forms last week, the Jay’s Way form. Which was kind of fun in an annoying, on drugs kind of way. I read all three of the forms to my poetry group Wednesday night and there was some lively discussion on whether Mr. Combs picked the syllable counts he did on purpose, or if he just arbitrarily picked them out of a hat.
I also wrote a bonus poem last week that I shared with my poetry group (but not on line). It was created from the prompt we were given for the month of December. At last month’s meeting the four of us who showed up were asked to write the beginning of a sentence. These sentence fragments were then to be incorporated into a poem for this month. It was a fun exercise.
Goal For Next Week:
Share a new poetry form.
CRAFTING:
Looks like I’m on my own as far as crafting goes. I can’t compete with kitten cuteness. LOL
I was really hoping to include home made crafts in my Christmas packages this year, and thanks to the return of the crafts I made that didn’t get sold at the craft sale, I was able to include a small sampling in my two outgoing parcels, but it’ll be up to me to make them myself if I want to include any more.
Goal For Next Week:
Keep going on the Christmas crafts for gifting.
WHAT I’M READING:
Last week I didn’t have a lot of time to read, but I did manage the 2-in-1 volume, A Wish For the Season, which included A Season For Grace by Linda Goodnight, and Heart of the Family by Margaret Daley. Once again I didn’t realize until after I’d bought it that it was a Love Inspired book. Not that there’s anything wrong with them, it’s just usually I like something with a little more bite to it.
And I started reading Unnatural Creatures, which is an anthology of stories not written by Neil Gaiman, but selected by him.
Goal For Next Week:
Start paying better attention to what kind of book I’m buying.
GOAL REVIEW:
Some of them may have been late, but I got all my posts done last week, and considering the week I had, that’s saying something.
It’s not surprising that I did no editing and no marketing, because that’s just the way things have been rolling lately.
I did a new poetry form, plus an extra poem for my poetry group meeting. Seven members showed up, which is almost twice what it’s been the last few months, so that was nice.
The crafting was a big, fat bust. I’d bought all this pasta so the granddaughter and I could make pasta snowflakes, and then she opted to play with the kittens instead of crafting. I did make a half-hearted attempt to make them myself, but all I had to go by was a picture, and I’m not sure what they used to stick the pasta together. Obviously not a glue gun. So . . . we’ll be eating a lot of pasta in the new year. LOL
The mother-in-law passed quietly last week, without fanfare or drama. The real drama will begin when the hypocritical drama llamas all gather for the funeral this coming week.
This will obviously make for a stressful week, but I’m still hoping to at least get my blog posts done.
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