Tools for Series Continuity
After work on several other projects, I’m returning to complete the draft of book 3 in the Terra’s Guardians series. Book 3 presents a lot more challenges for me as a writer, not only as compared to the previous two but also as compared to the other projects I’ve done this year. This is a major factor in why it’s taken me so damn long to complete!
HEART’S SENTINEL was my debut novel. I’d created a world with series potential and had a story element that could arc over several books while the main plot line focused on my hero and heroine. And then I had RED’S WOLF, written in the same “world” but set in a different location in that world, introducing a new hero and heroine and an entirely new supporting cast, with small mentions of communication with the characters in the first book as well as carrying through the common story element.
Book 3, tentatively titled FULL DISCLOSURE, will have a lot of things going into it. I’ll be interweaving the elements from both the River Gap Pride and the Glacier Valley Pack, as well as adding much more information on the mysterious “hunters” in this book. I want to make this book enjoyable for readers new to my series, so the main story arc between my hero and heroine will stand alone. However, I want to have continuity in the world I built and also some ties back into the previous books that readers of my previous books will enjoy.
I have plans, I tell you, Big Plans.
And with plans, it’s best to map things out. For the first time, it’s not just about the outline for the book, it’s about keeping track of key details from the first two plus adding the new details from the third. I need a way to track my series, a series bible, some might call it. There’s examples out there on the internetz for those of you with strong Google-fu.For me, I’m sitting here with a few examples and trying to decide what things I personally want to track as I build my own.
Here’s my list so far:
Book: Title and placement in the series
Character profiles – names, basic descriptions, pack/pride affiliation, and key defining aspects of their personalities. (eg Jason of RED’S WOLF was a lone wolf)
Secondary Characters – names, basic descriptions, pack/pride affiliation, key defining aspects of their personality I wanted to develop and any notes on what I wanted to do with their own story (eg. Mack of HEART’S SENTINEL, my editor really wants to know Mack’s story and I want to write it too)
Setting – where? pack/pride territory? city?
Hunter Development – what key information was revealed about the hunters in each book, and to who
Notes on things readers mentioned they wanted to learn more about
If you’re a writer, do you keep a series bible? What things do you track from book to book?
