Jessica Steiner (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
jessicasteiner) wrote2013-04-23 07:58 pm
jessicasteiner) wrote2013-04-23 07:58 pm
Entry tags:
S is for Series Planning #atozchallenge
Here's a subject I don't see talked about a lot in books about writing - how to plan a series. There's a lot of different things I could say about this subject, but just a few little tips. The main goal behind these tips is to keep the series from getting out of hand, and succumbing to the trap many series fall into - power creep and going on too long.
1. Have some idea of how it's going to end before it begins, and shadow the ending in the beginning. You don't have to have a firm and complete idea of how it will end, but you should have a direction, some thought of how the whole thing is going to turn out. If you have some hint of that in the very beginning of the first book, the entire series will have a tidy feeling, and the ending will be more likely to feel as though it fits the series as a whole, rather than spinning off into strange directions.
2. Make some rules, and keep them. If magic can only be performed with ritual in your fantasy story, then it should always be done with ritual, and you should think long and hard before you give your character the ability to do magic without bothering with ritual. If your science fiction hyperdrive uses wormholes and instant teleportation is impossible, don't give your ship a teleportation drive in book 5 to get yourself out of a fix.
If you set firm rules and keep them, you will avoid power creep in your main character and the reader won't get frustrated with you for breaking your own rules. You won't end up in a situation where your enemies have to get more and more powerful every book to counter the cosmic power you gave your main character in book 3. Rather than breaking your rules, find creative ways around the rules and keep them. It'll hold your reader's interest better.
1. Have some idea of how it's going to end before it begins, and shadow the ending in the beginning. You don't have to have a firm and complete idea of how it will end, but you should have a direction, some thought of how the whole thing is going to turn out. If you have some hint of that in the very beginning of the first book, the entire series will have a tidy feeling, and the ending will be more likely to feel as though it fits the series as a whole, rather than spinning off into strange directions.
2. Make some rules, and keep them. If magic can only be performed with ritual in your fantasy story, then it should always be done with ritual, and you should think long and hard before you give your character the ability to do magic without bothering with ritual. If your science fiction hyperdrive uses wormholes and instant teleportation is impossible, don't give your ship a teleportation drive in book 5 to get yourself out of a fix.
If you set firm rules and keep them, you will avoid power creep in your main character and the reader won't get frustrated with you for breaking your own rules. You won't end up in a situation where your enemies have to get more and more powerful every book to counter the cosmic power you gave your main character in book 3. Rather than breaking your rules, find creative ways around the rules and keep them. It'll hold your reader's interest better.
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