ALONE OR TOGETHER?

When we go hunting for a new story, are there specific things that we all look for?

We all have our preferred genres that we usually aim for, mine are science fiction, adventure and fantasy, and we also have our favourite authors too, so if they release a new book, we’re all over it, but what else do we have?

How do we collectively feel about stand alone novels compared to shorter collections, say three to five books in a series, compared to series of much larger length.

The single book is a great little pleasure that you can just explore for what it is and enjoy a story that has a definitive end point. The story gets totally completed and beyond the occasional minor loose end, the final page is the end of our time in the story and we get to carry on with our search for our next book. When we read the stand alone there’s no waiting around for the next instalment to get any resolution to threads which are still flailing loose or cliff hangers we have to cling to, it’s tidy.

Then you get the smaller series.

The smaller group of books is a funny little creature in that it has the best bits of an over arching story, that ongoing tug of intrigue that draws you from one book to the next to the next without there being the feeling that any possible conclusion is decades away. Think of the trilogy in the film world, it all fits together and allows you the chance to spread out a bit but not have to do swathes of homework as the series grows and grows and grows. Characters can be fleshed out a bit and we can care more deeply than if we met them in a single story and seeing how these people deal with different issues along the series can be really interesting.

Then we come to the massive series.

I’m a Dresden Files fan and there are currently seventeen novels in the series with the target being twenty two when it’s all completed. The Wheel of Time series has fifteen books and they’re not small works and George RR Martin is still on the case of the Game of Thrones books. These are the books that allow a detailed expansion of almost every detail you can possibly imagine in a universe where all kind of adventures and intrigue could unfold before the people we’re following. We have the chance to see these people grow and change and some could move from heroes to villains and back again. The central story that hangs everything else from it can become fully explored from every possible viewpoint and we have the chance to have enormous world building and characterisation that will put us as the reader shoulder to shoulder with the characters as they go about things. You’ll have to make sure that you keep switched on because there’s so much to keep in mind, you’ll need to be taking notes. This is literature that you earn as you work through.

The reason I ask is about my future work.

I’m on the case with a stand alone novel at the minute, while also being in the middle of a five book series of a different story but I’m interested to know what opinions there are out there concerning the kind of series length or solo stories. Do we all have a sweeping enjoyment of all things because they all give us the chance to explore different types of stories?

I enjoy a stand alone book but when I write different things, I get invested in the people I’m writing so there’s always that little voice that says ‘why don’t you go for another book with these people?’ I wouldn’t need to write the same structure of book because everyone was introduced in an earlier book, so things are just on the story before us rather than introductions, but I can’t just want to force a story that may not really be there onto my characters just because I like them.

What do you reckon?

Do you have a preference?

Stay safe all.

COPY THE COPY?

I’m a massive fan of The Dresden Files series and it was those novels that provided the spark to start me on my own writing journey but as I worked on my own projects, I considered the work that would have to go into building the on going series that I was reading and then got terrified by the idea of having to do it myself.

When we’ve read a huge series of books, we marvel at the sheer range and variety of the adventures that come along and each time the characters are cornered, seemingly without hope of escape, the tension is always there to twist us as we read. It never seems to matter that the book we’re reading is number seven of an on going series, the narrative remains compelling and fresh.

I’m having a breather from The Circle series at the moment while I play about with a different idea but it’s always been a huge worry for me when writing more stuff with dragons, that I do my best to avoid repeating myself or falling into similar grooves.

All of the characters within stories have specific skills and abilities so there’s going to have to be some level of repetition as people use the things at their disposal, but you can’t just have the same thing get them out of trouble all of the time. You chuck in a problem where the original skill would be not only useless, but actively dangerous to use, and you make the characters do something new.

But doing that only takes you so far.

How do the characters do what they do? Do the opposite. What are they like to be around? Change them. How do they feel about certain things or people? Uproot things.

If all I tried to do was effectively write the same story over and over again, I’m sure I’d get bored so that would surely mean that any reader would as well. Making changes as the series progresses, forcing characters to do or experience things they would never usually makes things more compelling as we consider our own position. Would we do the same? Does the unfolding story mean we question the motives and thought process of the hero? Of the villain?

All of these things add together to make characters struggle but make them ask and then answer questions and as we all know, we’re all driven by the hunt for answers.

Stay safe all.

THE LONG GAME

Jo and I are re-watching all of the Marvel films at the moment. I suspect that everyone reading this has seen the films or at least has a pretty good idea of what’s going on but I think that they deserve special mention.

Now we all know that the characters have been alive and well in the comics for years so those making the films could have had a monstrous pool of possible stories to tell but the actual task of weaving all of these potential threads together is something which needs celebrating.

It’s very easy to tell a story, really. Spinning a single yarn is like throwing a single ball into the air, then catching it. Lots of individual events have to work together to allow for the ball to be thrown and caught exactly like the single story, but it’s a single event that all the attention is focused on.

Now writing a larger series of stories, as I’m in the middle of doing right now, means that instead of the single ball being tossed into the air, I’m juggling with three.

Now consider the task of being able to keep up to twenty balls in the air.

Consider the kind of planning that would have to be enacted to make sure that each and every aspect which goes into the juggling act is completed correctly. Not only that but making sure that the move to pass it on to the next stage is completed correctly.

The task of making a coherent story which is made up of multiple smaller parts, where each of those parts has to be treated with care and consideration, is akin to herding cats. There are so many moving parts that, if the right attention isn’t given, all things could come crashing down. You say something as an almost throw away line in book one and without even a ‘by your leave’, you create a gaping plot hole for later in the series.

Whenever you watch an on-going series of films like the Marvel films, or read an on-going series of books, always remember that those putting these things together have to be amazingly proficient at juggling and it’s never an easy task.

THE CIRCLE OF STARS

After the wait to end all waits, I’m proud to present to everyone, the third bod in ‘The Circle’ series – The Circle of Stars.

Available from Amazon and Lulu.com but if you’re interested in a signed copy, just let me know.