Before I say anything else, I have to admit I love series. If I enjoy a book, it's so great to find out there are more like it (or more coming). I don't tend to write the massive tomes--I'm just not someone who enjoys reading huge books, so I would never write one. My longest, Destiny Redeemed, is almost 85K words, and that's about as long as I can go. Since I don't write long books but have big ideas, the series is a perfect structure for me.
I think what I like most about the format of the series is that I can grow characters before and after their own books. For instance, I'm writing Blood Spirit now, and Vasilije is going through some trials that didn't work for his character until the third book in the series. In the same fashion, Saint appears in this new book too, and what he's up to continues to show the kind of man he is. In addition, the series' villain that I introduced in Blood Betrayed, Marc Verrater, is back and readers will get even more of him in Book #3. (I love writing villains, so expect him to be deliciously bad!)
The series format particularly works for the Sons of Navarus because there are eight men in the Sons. All the individual stories wouldn't have fit into one tome, so it always had to be a series. My goal has always been to publish two books a year, meaning by 2015, they'll all be out. Someone asked me the other day if I know how it ends. I do. Everything has been plotted out, overall. Individual romantic elements may change, but the major events in the series won't. I know who dies, who lives, and how it ends.
Writing a series is hard work. Don't get me wrong. Everything might be plotted out, but to know that your complete story--likely more than 500K words--will take years can be a daunting feeling. It's just as daunting to know that some readers who don't stay around won't understand why I include something in one book but leave it a loose end until later. But that's what a series is about. In for a penny, in for a pound.
My editor asked me if I knew what I would do after the Sons series is over. I do. That book sits in the back of my mind and knows it has six men standing in line before it (well, five since Terek is already getting his book). It's not romance, which will mean a complete departure from the Sons and everything else I've ever published. (I write historical fiction in addition to romance.) But until then, I'm a series writer.
I think what I like most about the format of the series is that I can grow characters before and after their own books. For instance, I'm writing Blood Spirit now, and Vasilije is going through some trials that didn't work for his character until the third book in the series. In the same fashion, Saint appears in this new book too, and what he's up to continues to show the kind of man he is. In addition, the series' villain that I introduced in Blood Betrayed, Marc Verrater, is back and readers will get even more of him in Book #3. (I love writing villains, so expect him to be deliciously bad!)
The series format particularly works for the Sons of Navarus because there are eight men in the Sons. All the individual stories wouldn't have fit into one tome, so it always had to be a series. My goal has always been to publish two books a year, meaning by 2015, they'll all be out. Someone asked me the other day if I know how it ends. I do. Everything has been plotted out, overall. Individual romantic elements may change, but the major events in the series won't. I know who dies, who lives, and how it ends.
Writing a series is hard work. Don't get me wrong. Everything might be plotted out, but to know that your complete story--likely more than 500K words--will take years can be a daunting feeling. It's just as daunting to know that some readers who don't stay around won't understand why I include something in one book but leave it a loose end until later. But that's what a series is about. In for a penny, in for a pound.
My editor asked me if I knew what I would do after the Sons series is over. I do. That book sits in the back of my mind and knows it has six men standing in line before it (well, five since Terek is already getting his book). It's not romance, which will mean a complete departure from the Sons and everything else I've ever published. (I write historical fiction in addition to romance.) But until then, I'm a series writer.
1 comments:
This new book idea has me thinking though it's years away... No romance? :o( I'm a romance junkie.
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