Genres > Series
Any Series writers out there?
Jeff_S:
I'm not sure that's true. Now, there are indeed plenty of series where each book can stand alone, but the two series I worked on/am working on are both intended to be read in order. So much happens that it'd be impossible to make sense of it in the middle -- it's more that each book is part of a greater story than being one whole story unto itself. All the books follow one plot "arc."
One of my favorite series is ANIMORPHS by K.A. Applegate, and while it started out with stand alones based around an overall plot premise, eventually the books were more or less divided into "arc" books and "one-offs." The arc books delved into the big picture, while the one-offs were basically little side adventures.
In Remnants and Dragonlance: New Adventures, there are no one-offs, which is why I find them so fascinating to write for. It's like reading one big adventure, and once you get involved with the books you want to stay involved until it's over.
Also, just want to point out that there are series like Goosebumps where totally different books with totally different characters all fall under the same series title. Think of something like Dear America or Royal Diaries, for instance. I think most series, however, do follow the same characters throughout.
By the way, all my series experience so far has been with books that were always intended to be a series, by both the author and the publisher. I'm not too familiar with the "accidental" series. I actually find that really interesting, as I think I'd need to go into the first book knowing it'd be a series so that I could know to create chaos and leave openings for more plots. I'd probably wrap everything up if I thought it was just going to be one book, and then where would that leave me? I'd feel more like I was creating a bunch of sequels than a series if asked to do that, since, like I mentioned above, my idea of a series heavily involves one big overarching story.
HB:
Jeff, those series sound interesting. So Animorphs is kind of like X-Files where you have the big myth-arc but also monster of the week episodes?
I’m really interested in how the process works. For the series you write for, you are one of multiple authors. But if it’s one long story, how do you keep the story arc consistent? Because I assume that you are writing the first draft of book D while another author is editing book C and book B is at the printers. How do you write your book without contradicting something that came before or that hasn’t yet been written? Is there an overall story arc bible that was mapped out ahead of time that all the authors follow?
And does a single story arc for some series mean that you would include HP in your definition of a series?
LindaJoy:
I'm not sure how Jeff's series works, but when I wrote Sweet Valley Twin, I was sent the manuscript version of the books coming before mine so I would know things that might be changing.
In fact, I had named a character, Melissa, after my own daughter -- but found out that coincidentally a Melissa had been added to the book prior to mine. But the big coincidence was that she had a brother named Andy -- which is my son's name. So I changed Melissa to "Melinda," a combination of our names.
Linda
Jeff_S:
HB:
Yeah, I think that's a good way to describe ANIMORPHS, although I think it's far more character based than X-Files ever was.
I'm actually still figuring out the same thing, re: not contradicting what came before ;) I'm relying on my editor to keep me on the right path. However, we all know the major "plot beats" for each book so we do know where the characters and the plot are at by the time we write the outline. And we get to read the other manuscripts as we go and the new outlines as they're written. So, for instance, I'll get to read the first 4 books before I get started, so I'll know the series voice and the characters and the world pretty well before I dive into writing the book. In fact, it's funny how well I feel I know the characters even just based on reading plot outlines.
However, it's those three books before mine, the ones that are still in various stages of completion, that may cause problems. For instance, I don't even know what happens in book 6 yet because there's no outline. I have to go by plot beats only.
Basically, I get to do the best with what I know, and if I make any mistakes, well, that's what I'll get to fix in the rewrites. Either that or the editors will fix them for me.
REMNANTS was a little different in that the outlines were extremely detailed. Since the same person who wrote the outline is also writing the book itself with DRAGONLANCE, the outlines can be relatively vague. The REMNANTS outlines, however, detailed everything, so I had a really good idea what I was doing when I outlined book 7. (Just to give an example -- my DRAGONLANCE 8 outline is 7 single-spaced pages while my REMNANTS 7 outline was 20 single-spaced pages, although that was long even for that series.) Even then, it wasn't until I read all the manuscripts available that everything clicked -- lots of little details to pick up on. It's a tricky thing, but it's definitely doable. I remember one time reading an e-mail where the author of one REMNANTS book talked about rewriting the beginning of her book because one of the other authors specified that the water the characters were in at the end of her book was cold, whereas the other author had went with warm water. I guess you just have to look at the series as a constantly evolving story instead of everything that you write being set in stone. You also have to be incredibly willing to work off of the ideas of others, otherwise you'll be incredibly frustrated.
Speaking of that, I recently found it's important to look at what's coming next as well. Now, we're all just making this up as we go along -- it was the same with both series, which is why it's so important to leave things open when you're creating a book in a series -- so there's nothing set for future books that must happen. But a friend who may potentially do the 9th book in DRAGONLANCE has been asking for my opinions and whatnot on his own plot sketch. He ended up writing in something that embellished upon the ending of my book that made me entirely rethink how I want to play that scene when I eventually write it -- for the better, mind you. So while he'd be responsible for not contradicting anything I write, I can help out -- and make for a more intriguing and solid story -- by looking ahead and foreshadowing what he will write. It's very much a team effort.
Re: HARRY POTTER, I'm not sure whether to consider it a series or not. I mean, we don't consider the CHRONICLES OF NARNIA a series, though both will have the same number of books in the end. And then there are all those series that we DO consider a series, even though they never made it past six books. Of course, there's also A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS, which we consider a series despite that, like HP, it has a set number of books -- 13. I really don't have a way to clarify what, exactly, makes a string of books a series. Anyone?
Cana:
Question about subbing a series. My book has series potential, but is intended to stand on it's own. The books may be read out of order as the stories told in each book are completely separate. The characters remain the constant. I'm unpublished. When I send my query, should I mention that it can be a series, or should I just let the editor come to that conclusion one his/her own. I'd heard that claiming that you had a series before the first one is published is considered amateur.
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