I'm not obsessive about my Sunday night/Monday morning posting schedule (there have certainly been a few times over the last six years that the post went up Monday night or even Tuesday), but since I have heard a rumor that there is likely to be a bit of heavy weather tonight and tomorrow, possibly including loss of power and/or internet, I thought I would post this now.
I read this article at the A.V. Club website about the Game of Thrones books and the general question of long fantasy series. The question of fantasy isn't that interesting to me since I don't read a lot of fantasy (and I don't write it either, at least the type of fantasy that the article is about). What I was thinking about was the question of publishing a series as you write it, so that with each installment you're stuck with what you've already published.
In one way I know what that's like, since I posted U-town as I was writing it (though I did go back and rewrite the whole thing before it was officially "done"). But the history wasn't a real drag, since I was winging it anyway, with no real idea where I was going.
And now I'm writing a novel that's a sequel to both A Sane Woman and U-town, and there are a few things that I wish were different about those books, but not many. There are still too many characters from ASW that have gender-neutral names, for example, but there's no way around that.
But I don't have any big problems with this (at least so far), and I don't think it's because I'm especially clever. I think it's because my three books aren't a series in the way that the fantasy series are. U-town and ASW are only barely related. They take place in different places, with a few characters in common (two major characters and a few minor ones), and they have no plot elements in common. Neither depends on the other, and they're not even in the same genre (ASW is a mystery; U-town is a gritty, urban, magical realist novel).
For these real series though, where one storyline runs through all the books (Harry Potter, for example). I wonder if one of the big reasons that Tolkien still looms so large is that he did what almost nobody has done since, to the best of my knowledge: he wrote the whole thing before any of it was published (to him, after all, Lord of the Rings was a novel, not a series).
If you read the History of Middle-Earth books, you see how many false starts and wrong directions he tried, but the final product has a very satisfying structure and a terrific ending. If he'd published each part as he wrote it, we might have ended up with Trotter, the wooden-shoed hobbit, rather than Strider the human Ranger and uncrowned king of the West.
Sonje has talked about this on her website, that if she had ended up going the self-pub route she would have finished writing her whole series (four smutty lesbian mystery novels) before publishing any of it. I can see why.
Amusingly, though Tolkien wrote all of LoTR before it was published, he did then feel that he had to go back and rewrite a few things in The Hobbit to bring that book in line with the later one.
On another topic, at one point, when I was about halfway through
U-town, I stopped for a period of a couple of years, since I had hit a
snag that I couldn't figure out how to solve. It wasn't "writer's
block," it was a problem that took time to work through. And I did keep
busy during that time (that's when I started reviewing movies, for
example). Because it's always a good idea to have two projects going at
once.
So, I really appreciated Jo's recent post, "Because it's NOT writer's block, that’s why." Her example of "travel agent block" was very much to the point.
Oh lordy, I don’t think I could write more than three continuous books in a series and be able to keep it all straight, lol. Though, I think it would depend on how densely packed the novels all were as far as detail goes and also the length of the novels. If that makes sense.
As for writing the whole series ahead of time…I can see the benefit to that, as far aligning all the details nicely. Artistically I think it would work out better. Though, for an especially nit-picky writer that might just be more of an invitation to endlessly nitpick until everything fits oh-so-perfectly together, haha.
As for the last point, I don’t have a problem with calling the phenomenon of coming face-to-face with a creative writing challenge and being momentarily stumped “writer’s block” because as long as I’m unsure of the solution I am “blocked” from writing it effectively. (And I think if it were redefined, people would have less of an issue with the concept. The focus should be on acknowledging the presence of a challenge/problem and a need to address it, not necessarily the “condition” of being stumped and oh-that’s-that, imo.)
However, as Jo pointed out, it’s important not to stop there indefinitely or for too long. You have to continue trying to work through the problem–overcome the block, if you will. Even if it takes you a while.
I think I read somewhere that Martin has an assistant who keeps track of things for him. I think the guy was a super-fan who he hired on for the continuity job (pretty much the dream job of any fantasy geek, I would think).
I think the problem with “writer’s block” as a term is not that it’s entirely inaccurate. The main problem is that is carries a lot of baggage at this point, since there’s a lot of thinking that it’s some sort of existential condition, not, as you say, a problem you’re stuck on.
This is interesting to me, especially since I’m trying to write a series. It’s my first series, and I’ve been wondering whether or not I should write them all at the same time or wait. It seems smart to write them all at the same time, and working on two projects would definitely help break the monotony of writing the same story for what would feel like ages! I suppose that I will have to think about it. It’s definitely something worth pondering.
And then again, this series may end up being free on Smashwords or something unless I feel like they’re worth maybe a few cents! haha
Emerald, I don’t think giving things away means they’re not worth enough to sell. Giving things away can be a pleasure in and of itself, after all. I sell A Sane Woman as a tangible book because it costs money to make a book. Other than that, it’s free because it doesn’t cost me anything to make an electronic file. Sometimes I give the book away, too. Which I enjoy.
I don’t mind giving away books. In fact, my novella was free for a short while.
I’m just not sure anyone else will see these novels. It’s kind of a new genre for me to write, and I don’t know if I can do them justice. More or less, I guess I’ll have to see. I’m only on chapter 3 of the first book, and I always get the “beginning story blues” about any of my works.
When I was a teen reader, series impressed me far more than books. I really admired the skill of authors who did multiple books with characters crossing back and forth.
Reading those books made me feel like we were sharing a secret, like they had been written just for me, the person who read the other books.
I am still hopeful that I will be able to finish writing the series before the first one is published–at least the rough drafts of the other three. Since I am a fast writer; I only have one more to write; and book #1 won’t be published for at least a year, I think my odds of doing this are pretty damn good.
You know, right after I finished writing book #1, I sent it off to a publisher, and they quickly asked for the full manuscript. Then I just waited and waited to see what would happen. I eventually got a response for the acquisitions editor that the book had been passed onto the top editor for consideration, and then… I waited and waited and waited for a response. I finally sent an email saying, “Give me a timeline on when you’ll give me a yes or a no or I’m going to submit elsewhere.” I never heard from them again. I did submit elsewhere. And to take my mind off of things, I started book #2.
Now I am so grateful to that publisher for being a dick-wad. It’s allowed me to get so much further in my series and therefore given me the freedom to tweak things. Having had this experience, I know that this is the best way for me to write series: completely before publishing any of it.
Emerald: I think it’s good to stretch and try things, even if all of them don’t work out. And, as you say, you can’t tell right at the beginning anyway. Keep at it, and hope it works out. If not, you’ll have learned a lot.
Tamara: I know that feeling, and I throw in a few things like that, little detals which I know the regular readers will get and appreciate. I just revealed the real name of a character who has always just gone by a nickname, for example, and I know people who have read my earlier stuff will get a charge out of that.
Sonje: I think that’s a big part of it, figuring out what works for you. Even if other people say, “No, that’s not how you do it.” 🙂
Oh, that reveal of the name — cool stuff! You’re right, people do enjoy that.
I’m writing something now that takes place several years after another MS. I took a character who was a hateful person in the first book and have her say something in this one that made me cry for her. Actually, this new WIP may be my most emotionally moving novel yet. For me! Who knows about the readers. I was bawling my eyes out. Definitely the background from the first book gave it so much more depth and resonance.
Drats, I’m getting attached to my work.
I’m going to download A Sane Woman as soon as I can get access to the e-reader!
I’ve never done that with somebody who was actually bad, but I’ve done it a couple of times with characters who first appeared to be just comedy relief, just somebody who popped into a scene for a second. The main character in my WIP started as a four-paragraph walk-on, a foul-mouthed little brat. 🙂
(And she’s still a foul-mouthed little brat in a lot of ways; I don’t want to soften her or lose the things that made her a good character in the first place.)
Hmmm. I used to want to make people laugh. Now I feel like I might want to rip out guts. (Emotional ones.)
I remember when I took Drama, our teacher always said it’s easier to make an audience cry than to laugh. Now I want to do both, at the same time. 😉
My father was a humorist (semi-pro) and he raised me with a series of lessons, the ultimate point of which was always that humor is harder than anything. So, I never try to be funny (there are things in my writing which I think are funny, but they’re always around the edges so that if they flop they won’t sink the whole thing).
I don’t want to rip out guts, except in very subtle ways. I like the sort of scenes where, if you’ve been paying attention, things carry enormous meaning, but if you’re skimming you won’t even notice them. Another thing I learned (or tried to) from Robert Altman. A mother and daughter, estranged for years, abandonment and insanity and abuse and neglect behind them, reconcile without ever addressing each other directly, by a series of very small gestures. That’s what I like.
Oh, and I’m impatient for you to get that e-reader. 🙂