Barbara Eberhard's Blog - Posts Tagged "planning"
Continuity
I crossed the 200-page mark last weekend, getting closer each weekend to my goal of 350 pages. Today, I thought I'd talk about continuity. While continuity is something every author needs to be sure of in every book, regardless of topic, dealing with continuity across a trilogy is a level of madness I wasn't sure I could handle.
This is my second trilogy, so I knew more going into this one than I did for the first one, obviously. For example, in the first trilogy, I had broad brushstrokes of a plan for the plot, knowing where it was going to start and stop, and a few milestones along the way. But ultimately, for the Reunion trilogy, it wasn't until I was halfway through that I knew they would end up going to every country and there would be a shadow set of dark mages who thought they could be the next Keepers.
For the Jewels and Gods trilogy, however, part of the premise of the whole trilogy is that there is a Jewel Keeper for each of the seven countries, and that, to find him or her, the quest has to go to that country. The Jewel Keepers don't show up, in other words, until the questors come to them. It's a good plot device to give the quest a reason to take a while, and to give the readers a sense of the whole world, not just part of it.
Along with the trek going to every country, I - of course - had a plan for who each Jewel Keeper was and some biographical information about him or her. That included what kind of familiar they would have and what their magic specialty would be. The prophecy announces their gift with each new Jewel Keeper, though the prophecy never names the Jewel Keepers so as not to put them at risk, for all mages - light and dark - hear prophecies.
So, I started this trilogy with a plan for the quest in terms of going from country to country, city to city, and which Jewel Keeper would join the quest in which city of which country. In doing so, I also came up with some obstacles along the way, including both dark mages - as I had had in Reunion - and the gods themselves playing more of a role in this trilogy, particularly the evil gods. The idea there was to explain why the gods would need to be quelled, and the ambiguity of whether the quest would quell all the gods, or only the evil ones.
Keeping all those plans in mind - or on 3x5 cards, as I do, and outlined at a high level in the drafts of each book, as well - I allow myself the freedom to create scenarios and bring new ideas to fruition as I'm writing. As long as those ideas don't change the overall continuity.
Too much.
This is my second trilogy, so I knew more going into this one than I did for the first one, obviously. For example, in the first trilogy, I had broad brushstrokes of a plan for the plot, knowing where it was going to start and stop, and a few milestones along the way. But ultimately, for the Reunion trilogy, it wasn't until I was halfway through that I knew they would end up going to every country and there would be a shadow set of dark mages who thought they could be the next Keepers.
For the Jewels and Gods trilogy, however, part of the premise of the whole trilogy is that there is a Jewel Keeper for each of the seven countries, and that, to find him or her, the quest has to go to that country. The Jewel Keepers don't show up, in other words, until the questors come to them. It's a good plot device to give the quest a reason to take a while, and to give the readers a sense of the whole world, not just part of it.
Along with the trek going to every country, I - of course - had a plan for who each Jewel Keeper was and some biographical information about him or her. That included what kind of familiar they would have and what their magic specialty would be. The prophecy announces their gift with each new Jewel Keeper, though the prophecy never names the Jewel Keepers so as not to put them at risk, for all mages - light and dark - hear prophecies.
So, I started this trilogy with a plan for the quest in terms of going from country to country, city to city, and which Jewel Keeper would join the quest in which city of which country. In doing so, I also came up with some obstacles along the way, including both dark mages - as I had had in Reunion - and the gods themselves playing more of a role in this trilogy, particularly the evil gods. The idea there was to explain why the gods would need to be quelled, and the ambiguity of whether the quest would quell all the gods, or only the evil ones.
Keeping all those plans in mind - or on 3x5 cards, as I do, and outlined at a high level in the drafts of each book, as well - I allow myself the freedom to create scenarios and bring new ideas to fruition as I'm writing. As long as those ideas don't change the overall continuity.
Too much.
The Beginning of the End
This weekend, I started the beginning of the end.
Because The Confluence of Jewels is the last book in the series, it's important to me to make sure that the loose ends that have been straggling along are tied up. By this, I mean the side stories - not the Jewel Keepers' quest.
It's important in writing a complex story, to have side stories of the people around your main characters. Sometimes they interact with the main characters. Sometimes they have their own story arcs.
In my case, I have several side stories to wrap up. First, the former Keepers - parents to one of the Jewel Keepers in the current quest - have been away from home, helping to keep one of the evil gods at bay, while the Jewel Keepers do what they need to do. In today's writing, the six mages who had traveled to Marjiba to keep an eye on Zyr made it home to Glenfall, in Comhar, where they lived quietly since their own quest in Reunion.
Second, there are mage academies in Comhar, in Glenfall, and in Sodales, in Larchmont. These two mage academies have had a profound role in training many of the mages in both Reunion and in Jewels and Gods. Now, it's time for the older generation - Kircha's grandfather among them - to turn over the leadership of the academies to a younger generation, to train the next generation of mages.
Third, there are other mages we've met along the way. As this will be the last book in this world - as far as I know right now - we need to revisit all the mages whose stories we've been following - some over all six books - to make sure they end up in a finished place. Though some will have small plot tentacles that may or may not ever be resolved.
Finally, Lovro is a healer mage from Larchmont Academy. He's the one who figured out how to heal Adrienne of god's magic, which allows Greysen - her mate and the Skenorite Jewel Keeper - to rejoin the quest. Doing so introduce a new concept in magic - joint magic. In joint magic, several mages come together to work a single spell. In this case, the magic was to heal Adrienne, led by Cara, a young mage from Glenfall Academy. The story of Lovro needs to be wrapped up. He's going to be the one to codify joint magic, by writing a grimoire on the subject - grimoires are how mages learn, along with practice and training. As I wrap up that story, which I haven't done yet, I'll name two other forms of magic - different from everyday magic. One of those is familiar magic, which is magic done by familiars. We haven't seen a lot of this in the trilogies. But it's happened a few times. The third is bonded magic. This the magic Sorcha and Aidan used to defeat evil in Reunion. It's also the magic that Ava and Nolfa, in Jewels and Gods, use. It is important to show these more spectacular forms of magic because they play a role in the final magics of the Jewels and Gods trilogy.
So, today's writing started to complete some of these side stories. Once finished, the tying up of these side stories will signal to the readers that the trilogy is coming to an end.
And allow the final chapters of The Confluence of Jewels to focus solely on the Jewel Keepers' quest to quell the evil gods once and for all.
Because The Confluence of Jewels is the last book in the series, it's important to me to make sure that the loose ends that have been straggling along are tied up. By this, I mean the side stories - not the Jewel Keepers' quest.
It's important in writing a complex story, to have side stories of the people around your main characters. Sometimes they interact with the main characters. Sometimes they have their own story arcs.
In my case, I have several side stories to wrap up. First, the former Keepers - parents to one of the Jewel Keepers in the current quest - have been away from home, helping to keep one of the evil gods at bay, while the Jewel Keepers do what they need to do. In today's writing, the six mages who had traveled to Marjiba to keep an eye on Zyr made it home to Glenfall, in Comhar, where they lived quietly since their own quest in Reunion.
Second, there are mage academies in Comhar, in Glenfall, and in Sodales, in Larchmont. These two mage academies have had a profound role in training many of the mages in both Reunion and in Jewels and Gods. Now, it's time for the older generation - Kircha's grandfather among them - to turn over the leadership of the academies to a younger generation, to train the next generation of mages.
Third, there are other mages we've met along the way. As this will be the last book in this world - as far as I know right now - we need to revisit all the mages whose stories we've been following - some over all six books - to make sure they end up in a finished place. Though some will have small plot tentacles that may or may not ever be resolved.
Finally, Lovro is a healer mage from Larchmont Academy. He's the one who figured out how to heal Adrienne of god's magic, which allows Greysen - her mate and the Skenorite Jewel Keeper - to rejoin the quest. Doing so introduce a new concept in magic - joint magic. In joint magic, several mages come together to work a single spell. In this case, the magic was to heal Adrienne, led by Cara, a young mage from Glenfall Academy. The story of Lovro needs to be wrapped up. He's going to be the one to codify joint magic, by writing a grimoire on the subject - grimoires are how mages learn, along with practice and training. As I wrap up that story, which I haven't done yet, I'll name two other forms of magic - different from everyday magic. One of those is familiar magic, which is magic done by familiars. We haven't seen a lot of this in the trilogies. But it's happened a few times. The third is bonded magic. This the magic Sorcha and Aidan used to defeat evil in Reunion. It's also the magic that Ava and Nolfa, in Jewels and Gods, use. It is important to show these more spectacular forms of magic because they play a role in the final magics of the Jewels and Gods trilogy.
So, today's writing started to complete some of these side stories. Once finished, the tying up of these side stories will signal to the readers that the trilogy is coming to an end.
And allow the final chapters of The Confluence of Jewels to focus solely on the Jewel Keepers' quest to quell the evil gods once and for all.
