Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Coming Back For More?


I was thinking to myself just the other night as I was writing book 5 of my what-will-probably-be a 6 part series: what have I gotten myself into?! I'm sure other fantasy writers have gone through this as well.

Is it a lot of hard work to take on a huge project such as a fantasy series as your first writing effort? Probably. That being said, I am having a ton of fun. It's a lot to keep straight, but overall, the experience is worth it to me. And I am sure that many other authors that are writing a series would agree with me on this one.

I look back on it and kick myself sometimes though, thinking that I could have easily just done a one-shot stand alone story that has a finite ending that left readers satisfied. But, instead, I have one major over-arching story line that encompasses the whole series with each individual book having its own self contained plot that comes to a resolution, as many classic fantasy series' do.

on to another group of thoughts now. I know, I'm all over the place today!

Each of these questions might be answered completely differently by each of you, but I believe they are still relevant. Are you as a reader easily able to follow multiple characters in a series throughout the whole book without getting lost? Would it be beneficial to read about one character for a few chapters at a time or do you like to jump around and meet all of them in short snippets? Do you usually come back for book 2, 3, 4, and so on in a series? I know I do.

So, among all of the other questions, what brings you back for more in a series?

As always, I am looking for feedback from my readers, so feel free to jump in and respond! Have a great week every body and happy reading!




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1 comment:

  1. Great post, Gary!

    To answer your question - 'yes'. As a reader, I tend to think I am able to trace the arc of a character (or a few characters) through a series.

    In fact, that's what I'm doing in my own writing. We're in the same boat w/r/t the writer's journey - releasing my first fantasy fiction story as a series, rather than a one-shot, as you mentioned. Actually, The Cloudstone Key (book one of The Rithhek Cage Trilogy) is being released on Friday of this week!

    Darren

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