I’ve been a fan of multi-book series since I started reading novels. There’s something magical about reading story after story with the same characters developing, following along with them, seeing them overcome struggles and hardship. After reading a whole series with the same protagonists, you get attached to them.
But for the writer, stretching out a story across multiple books get increasingly harder the further you go. At least, if you want to keep it interesting.
When I decided I wanted to write a book series, part of me said “Yeah! Let’s do this!” and the other part of me said “Oh geez, now I have to write plots for all those books!”
And plotting is something I am loath to do. Yes, I know it’s critical, but my brain often spews forth ideas faster than I can capture them. And when I do come up with a great story idea, I tend to not know when to quit, and I hammer it to death, or let it fall apart because I want to cram more stuff in there.
There’s a fine balance between “really good story” and “mind-bending psychological train wreck.” I want to get as close to that line as I can get without going overboard. And of course, there’s the fact that each book needs to be a story in and of itself, and yet still be coherent and open-ended enough to make a broad-reaching story arc. Continue reading “The Plot Thickens”