Series Business
Sorry it?s been a couple of days since I last blogged. I was on the road through Wednesday night for business, then took part in a wonderful Salt Lake City writers? conference Friday and Saturday. All in all it was busy, but a lot of fun. At least the conference part?I love getting the chance to talk to other writers. This business is way too solitary otherwise. The business travel?not so exciting. Although I always like Boston, even when it?s raining.
First let me just pass on a lesson to all you other writers out there. If you get back a Q&A from your editor just before you jump onto a plane, wait before posting to your blog. Don?t just think, ?Hey I?ll whip off a couple of lines and post this baby before my flight leaves.? Editors are notoriously picky about typos on blogs about them. Especially when all of their smiley faces get turned into capital J?s. Enough said. Fortunately, Lisa was also at the conference and she doesn?t hate me for life. Also, I came back from the conference fully energized and excited about new blog ideas. So let?s get to it, hey?
Early on the first day of the conference, one of the attendees asked me about my new book. When I told her it was the first book in a five books series, she wrinkled her nose. Assuming she didn?t have to sneeze and relatively confident I hadn?t passed any unpleasant odors, I asked her what was wrong.
?I hate series books,? she said. ?You have to wait a whole year to find out what happens next, and by then you?ve forgotten what happened before. I won?t read them until they?re all out.?
I thought about that much of the conference, because in general I really like a good series. It makes me not feel so bummed out when I come to the end of a book I really like. I have four kids ranging in age from 7 to 20, and we all excitedly attended the midnight releases of every HP book from 4 on. Not sure if they had those before that, but if so, we didn?t know about them.
So what makes a series bad or good? In my mind there are several things. A series is bad if each book leaves you hanging in the middle of the action. A series is good if each book wraps up one storyline while leaving several others to be solved in future books.
I think there are two kinds of series. The first is where there is an ongoing character, but each book is a standalone with an entirely new plot. That would be like Fablehaven or Twilight. You could read just the first book and be totally satisfied. Of course you want to read more, and the next book picks up where the last one left off, and there are overarching elements to the story, but you aren?t left hanging per se. Then there are series like Harry Potter, where each book is its own story, but you would be very unhappy if another book didn?t come out, because there are many, many threads left hanging. Finally, there are books like the Wheel of Time series, where it?s essentially one long story broken into parts. Yes certain things get wrapped up, but many more are opened.
In my Farworld series, each of the first four books deals with a quest to find the next elemental, but there are lots of other ongoing storylines. You clearly understand when you go into the series that you must read all of the books, and read them in order. But it?s not so bad that you throw the book on the floor and scream curses at the author when you finish each volume?like, say Terry Brooks? ?Armageddon?s Children? where it ends with a couple of kids falling off a tall wall. Talk about a cliffhanger. So I?d say I?m somewhere in the middle.
A series is bad if the story is so convoluted you can?t remember what happened a month later, no less a year or more. A series is good if the story is clear, exciting, and at least somewhat organized. It?s good if the reader doesn?t have to go back and reread the previous books (unless they want to) before the new book comes out. It also helps if you stick to a yearly release. At the conference, Lisa said that I should quit complaining about waiting for my book to come out and get writing number two. I promised her I?d have it ready before book one is released in September.
A series is not necessarily bad, but at least not as good if the characters don?t learn and grow. A series is good if the characters progress. It may be in how good they are at magic, or how they deal with other people. They may fall in love or out of love. They come to understand themselves better. But they need to change. Nothing is more boring for me than a series where the main characters are exactly the same in book three as they were in book one.
A series is bad if the only recurring characters are the main ones. A series really gets me pumped when a character I liked but almost forgot suddenly reappears. The red tipped arrow flies through the air, or you hear a familiar whistle, or see a white stallion, and you go, ?Oh my gosh, that?s old so and so. . .? It?s like when you?re a kid and you rediscover a favorite old toy at the bottom of your toy box.
A series is bad when it feels like the author had no idea where it was going when they wrote the first book and is just making it up as they go along. I hate it when the storyline feels forced. I love it when a story surprises me?when clues that were placed clear back in book one show up again in book four. Or when a pattern emerges that I didn?t see until I?d read several of the books in the series. It makes me happy when an author really delivers with a plot that was well thought out from the very start.
Last of all, I really like a series to stay with the same artist. I know the author has no say in that, and sometimes the publisher doesn?t either. But I like to line up my books side by side and have them match. I like to compare covers and maps. I really, really, like when covers convey something. Like when how Shadow Mountain is going to have the jackets of Farworld 1-4 actually look like the elements, water, land, fire, etc.
Okay, so I?m easily amused. How about you? What do you like and dislike in a series?
First let me just pass on a lesson to all you other writers out there. If you get back a Q&A from your editor just before you jump onto a plane, wait before posting to your blog. Don?t just think, ?Hey I?ll whip off a couple of lines and post this baby before my flight leaves.? Editors are notoriously picky about typos on blogs about them. Especially when all of their smiley faces get turned into capital J?s. Enough said. Fortunately, Lisa was also at the conference and she doesn?t hate me for life. Also, I came back from the conference fully energized and excited about new blog ideas. So let?s get to it, hey?
Early on the first day of the conference, one of the attendees asked me about my new book. When I told her it was the first book in a five books series, she wrinkled her nose. Assuming she didn?t have to sneeze and relatively confident I hadn?t passed any unpleasant odors, I asked her what was wrong.
?I hate series books,? she said. ?You have to wait a whole year to find out what happens next, and by then you?ve forgotten what happened before. I won?t read them until they?re all out.?
I thought about that much of the conference, because in general I really like a good series. It makes me not feel so bummed out when I come to the end of a book I really like. I have four kids ranging in age from 7 to 20, and we all excitedly attended the midnight releases of every HP book from 4 on. Not sure if they had those before that, but if so, we didn?t know about them.
So what makes a series bad or good? In my mind there are several things. A series is bad if each book leaves you hanging in the middle of the action. A series is good if each book wraps up one storyline while leaving several others to be solved in future books.
I think there are two kinds of series. The first is where there is an ongoing character, but each book is a standalone with an entirely new plot. That would be like Fablehaven or Twilight. You could read just the first book and be totally satisfied. Of course you want to read more, and the next book picks up where the last one left off, and there are overarching elements to the story, but you aren?t left hanging per se. Then there are series like Harry Potter, where each book is its own story, but you would be very unhappy if another book didn?t come out, because there are many, many threads left hanging. Finally, there are books like the Wheel of Time series, where it?s essentially one long story broken into parts. Yes certain things get wrapped up, but many more are opened.
In my Farworld series, each of the first four books deals with a quest to find the next elemental, but there are lots of other ongoing storylines. You clearly understand when you go into the series that you must read all of the books, and read them in order. But it?s not so bad that you throw the book on the floor and scream curses at the author when you finish each volume?like, say Terry Brooks? ?Armageddon?s Children? where it ends with a couple of kids falling off a tall wall. Talk about a cliffhanger. So I?d say I?m somewhere in the middle.
A series is bad if the story is so convoluted you can?t remember what happened a month later, no less a year or more. A series is good if the story is clear, exciting, and at least somewhat organized. It?s good if the reader doesn?t have to go back and reread the previous books (unless they want to) before the new book comes out. It also helps if you stick to a yearly release. At the conference, Lisa said that I should quit complaining about waiting for my book to come out and get writing number two. I promised her I?d have it ready before book one is released in September.
A series is not necessarily bad, but at least not as good if the characters don?t learn and grow. A series is good if the characters progress. It may be in how good they are at magic, or how they deal with other people. They may fall in love or out of love. They come to understand themselves better. But they need to change. Nothing is more boring for me than a series where the main characters are exactly the same in book three as they were in book one.
A series is bad if the only recurring characters are the main ones. A series really gets me pumped when a character I liked but almost forgot suddenly reappears. The red tipped arrow flies through the air, or you hear a familiar whistle, or see a white stallion, and you go, ?Oh my gosh, that?s old so and so. . .? It?s like when you?re a kid and you rediscover a favorite old toy at the bottom of your toy box.
A series is bad when it feels like the author had no idea where it was going when they wrote the first book and is just making it up as they go along. I hate it when the storyline feels forced. I love it when a story surprises me?when clues that were placed clear back in book one show up again in book four. Or when a pattern emerges that I didn?t see until I?d read several of the books in the series. It makes me happy when an author really delivers with a plot that was well thought out from the very start.
Last of all, I really like a series to stay with the same artist. I know the author has no say in that, and sometimes the publisher doesn?t either. But I like to line up my books side by side and have them match. I like to compare covers and maps. I really, really, like when covers convey something. Like when how Shadow Mountain is going to have the jackets of Farworld 1-4 actually look like the elements, water, land, fire, etc.
Okay, so I?m easily amused. How about you? What do you like and dislike in a series?
posted by J Scott Savage @ 5:28 PM
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