HOW TO DETERMINE IF YOU WANT TO WRITE A SERIES

I would like to take a few posts to discuss the elements of composing a series of any kind.

I say of “any kind” because we are all aware of the trilogy, but there are always sagas and epics and adventures, and blah, blah, blah.

This is just my advice from my experience, as some people may and will disagree.

I’ll begin this series of posts by explaining why I like the idea of a series versus the single book, though there are certainly some disadvantages to my method.

I’m the kind of guy who tends to wear his emotions on his sleeve, though I may not be as vocal about it. I spend a lot of time investing in my relationships with my friends, and it’s disappointing whenever my efforts are not reciprocated.

So why does that matter? I came to this realization as I neared the end of the trilogy that I was writing called The Pioneers. I had developed such a deep connection (not in a weird way) with the characters, and I wanted to show the best and the worst parts of the characters.

I wanted to see how they progressed over time, and I wanted to see the good characters triumph and the bad ones crumble.

I feel that this is done best in a series only because each book has a different challenge, and the characters must find ways to overcome each challenge, meaning that there will be new parts of their personality that get explored because each character is affected by these adversities differently.

Can this be done in a single book? Of course! But, practically, a series typically will have a greater word count than a single book, which allows for more character development, and since I have a bent towards character-driven narratives, this is how I write.

Keep in mind that I did not set out to write a trilogy. I only intended for The Pioneers to be one book, but as I developed the characters and the world, I discovered that there was so much more to tell with feats that had not been explored.

This gave me the opportunity to take a look at my characters and force them to blossom in ways that I never expected after my first few pages of book one, entitled Extracted.

The novel that I am currently writing, which I am 40% of the way through, is the first book in a series that will probably be called The Connection Saga.

This second series has come with a new set of difficulties that I will explain in the next post.