writercises | Entries tagged with series

Original Posting 2021/12/16

Writer's Digest, July 1991, pages 38-39, has an article by Chet Cunningham with that title. It's broken into 14 little chunks, mostly with titles that summarize the points. So, let's walk through his ideas.

1. Want to write novels more than anything else in the world. Unstoppable! You gotta want to do it!
2. Create characters you can't stop writing about. Make them people you really know. He says he uses a big questionnaire to work through each of the main characters, including physical description, psychology, work, hobbies, dreams, etc. Make sure you know your characters!
3. Finish your first novel. Then keep on doing it.
4. Aim at a specific market. Probably not a "mainstream novel." Hit the genres. His idea -- pick the one you like, and read 20 contemporary novels in that genre. Take them apart. What's the story line, how does the writer make it work, what is the pitch. Check characterization, style, structure, viewpoint, suspense, twists...
5. Specialize. Don't jump around, at least to start. Stick to one genre, build a byline. This also lets you reuse your research!
6. Write what editors buy. (hum, this may not be as much of a problem with indy publishing?) Anyway, he suggests analyzing what's on the bookstore shelves to see what the editors bought a year ago. Check the magazines that survey the marketplace (Publishers Weekly, Writer's Digest). Then plan your book for a specific publisher and a specific line.
7. Write series books. Continuing series do great in genre. One great character, one slant or idea, and push out that series.
8. Sell your books with partials. After you have a track record, sell new ones with a partial. 4 chapters and an outline of the rest of the book.
9. Keep the pipeline full. While you are writing current books, send out queries for new books and new series.
10. Write more than you do now. If you do your daily quota, and there's time left... do some more! Write every day. Focus on writing, and keep that writing time first.
11. Have a work space where you write. Try to do your writing (and only your writing) in one place. Write, plan, plot, research. That's your work place.
12. Set a writing schedule. Lay out your calendar, including research and rests.
13. Join a novel writing workshop. Writing group interaction helps you and them.
14. Enjoy the hell out of your writing. "Writing is the most wonderful and thrilling and satisfying job in the world." So enjoy it!

Write!

mbarker

Original Posting 6/28/2019

Writer's Digest, January 1992, pages 36-39, has a piece by John Morressy with the title, "Serial Success: It's as Easy as 1, 2, 3." The subtitle suggests, "Follow this series of tips to write successful series fiction by creating one book or story that will guarantee the sale of the next one - or the next 20."He starts by telling his own story, about having an idea for a story in 1980. A light fantasy tale about a wizard who decides to outsmart the other wizards and alchemists by learning how to turn gold into lead. That story led to a number of other short stories and novels."That's more than I ever expected to write about them, but they've just kept giving me material - far more than I can ever use. That's one of the nice things about writing a series."However, John points out that a series also has some practical problems. But don't worry, John's got suggestions about that, too. So let's get right to it...First of all, every work of fiction has a past, a background history. And John's first suggestion is #1: Build on your story's past. Ask yourself questions, and then see where that leads you. Each new piece reveals more things, introduces new characters and incidents, and it just keeps going.Incidentally, John doesn't recommend starting out with long, detailed plans. "There was no point in planning until I knew where I wanted to go, I didn't know where I was going until I was on my way." He suggests that a series doesn't grow like a Tinkertoy, it grows like a plant, with new pieces coming out in unpredictable places. "Elaborate planning is not only unnecessary, it's probably a waste of time."However, #2: Don't trust to memory. Make notes! With a series, you've got lots of chances to make mistakes. Make those maps, floor plans, timelines. Research, make sure you have your facts lined up. Keep track of your characters, settings, all that stuff!#3: Do not be stingy with ideas. "Ideas generate ideas in writing generates writing." Don't get stuck planning, write! Don't fret about planting things, just see what happens.And, one that is peculiar to series, #4: Make every work in a series stand on its own. "A book or story in a series should not be like a piece of a jigsaw puzzle, unintelligible out of context. It should be like a brick: solid and whole, but capable of being part of something larger." John points out that readers don't read a series, they read one book or story at a time! So that one book or story should make sense. Now, there may be a definite order to your series. Although some series just have a shared setting, or some other connection. Which brings us to the next suggestion.#5: There is no single foolproof right and proper way to organize a series. There are numerous ways to tie things together. Sometimes a group of stories shares an inn, or a pub, but is otherwise told by several narrators. Or you may have a single setting in a common narrator. A recurring character. "How you choose to unify your tales is just that - your choice." Start writing. Don't get bogged down in long-term plans. Write that first book or story, then grow your series from that.There you go, 1, 2, 3... One way to write a series!As an exercise, you might take a story that you've already written, and think about what other stories might grow out of it. Is there a background story, is there a minor character that needs to tell their own story? Or is there a sequel just waiting to be told? Think about what other stories are just waiting for you to pay attention to them, and then start writing.

mbarker.livejournal.com

Original posting 30 November 2009

If you're crunching out the last words of nanowrimo, don't bother reading this yet. Just sit down and write, write, write.

On the other hand, you may have gone over that target and be relaxing, or maybe you're reading this after the end of nanowrimo. Or maybe you looked at your pile of words and that looming deadline and target and just said the heck with it, I'm not going to get there, so I give up. In any case, one way or another, you're looking at the last of Nanowrimo 2009. November 2009, National Novel Writing Month 2009, a chance to write 50,000 words in one month -- or at least to try it, to think about it, to consider the challenge of that kind of a goal.

No matter what you did or didn't do this month, stop at this point and think about it. Take some time to reflect on what you did. If you've written a great big pile of words, you may be starting to think about finishing it up, going back and editing, and that sort of follow-up. But before you start cranking on that, take a few minutes to think about how you feel about it, and what you learned from it, and what you'd like to take away from Nanowrimo 2009. Go back over the month, take a look at your writing, take a look inside yourself.

Maybe you discovered that crunching out like this, grinding out 2000 or 3000 words a day, or maybe doing the write all day marathon sprints, maybe you found that really felt good. If you did, you may want to schedule more free writing sessions for yourself, or maybe make an appointment with yourself to spend Saturdays just crunching out words. That's OK.

Maybe you discovered that you really wanted more planning and outlining, more direction for your own writing. Great. Take the time and build your own support structure the way that you like it.

Maybe you discovered that this kind of crunching out words without really thinking through each and every one was very frustrating for you? After a few days, you gave up. You went back to polishing each sentence, slowly working through each paragraph, developing the characters, the setting, the structure of the story. That's good too! Now you know that you don't want to set high quotas and attempt to grind out the words, that you're going to produce well turned words. Quality, not quantity. And that's just fine.

It's the end of November -- and nanowrimo 2010 is just 11 months away. But that's 11 months for you to do what you want to. If you want to aim at 50,000 words a month, do it. Or maybe you want to spend December planning, with a little writing on the side, and then do another push in January? That's good too. December, clean up the gore from nanowrimo, then in January lay out the next session, and do another sprint in February? Be careful, February is short!

Or maybe you want to back off a bit, just 20,000 words a month for a while? A story a week -- six weeks, six stories?

Or focus on some other part of your writing toolkit for a little while? You've done a one-month marathon of words, pouring them out on the page. Character structure, world building settings, laying out events to build plots, editing -- there's a lot more to writing than just word counts.

Still, congratulate yourself or commiserate with yourself about your writing in November. Think about how you feel about it, and what you'd like to do next. What did you learn, what do you want to take away, what do you want to change?

Write yourself a letter.

Sometimes the end is just another beginning. That's how series get started!

Current Mood: piled

mbarker.livejournal.com

Original posting 27 April 2009

Writer's Digest, September 2005, pages 51 and 52, have an article by April Henry
with the title, "A Series of Details." The point of the article is that especially for mystery writers, a first book often spawns a series, or at least a sequel. And mystery writers who have done this have some suggestions about things to think about when writing your first book so that the series isn't so hard to do. Building in the potential for a series, instead of stumbling and causing yourself problems. Okay? Here are the suggestions.

Pick a strong main character. Some authors prefer a character with a similar background, or at least one that they know a lot about. It makes the research easier. Others create a character from scratch, with the setting and occupation designed to make it easy to bring in characters and events. Other authors plan on a series, with protagonists who move around and are really the only thread holding the series together.
A job. The main character's occupation -- how do they make a living -- is something that's important for life and for your series. Sometimes they simply inherit enough money. Other times the job pushes them into encounters. Reporters, policeman, taxicab driver -- they are guaranteed to be poking into things. Sometimes the job is simply distinctive -- an industry or field that is interesting because most of us don't know much about it. Flower arranging, dog training, whatever you'd like to explore. Sometimes there is a bit of difficulty bringing in the mystery genre corpses, but it's generally possible. Or, your character may change jobs.
Series regulars. Coworkers, cronies, relatives -- they suggest balancing kooky and conflict with some support and warmth. Be careful about details of the characters' lives -- you may want to keep the character file, with eye color, height, relatives, and all that stuff to help you keep the continuity. Love life? And you may want to have a loyal sidekick who's really good at research, or has other redeeming qualities (remember Kato -- from the Pink Panther movies?).
Time and place. Is your series set in real time, in a real place? Are the characters aging normally?

An interesting piece of advice is to leave openings for series potential. You don't need to nail down every detail in the first book. Leave some open ends and threads -- it will let you add things later, and it's more interesting for the readers, too.

Exercise? Take a look at a work in progress, and consider how you would answer the editor who says, "I loved it. Can you make a trilogy out of it?"

Write?

Current Mood: crumbling

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