Writing Wednesday: Don't Tell Me What Happens in Book Three

I have often found myself in the situation of a writer telling me that my critique can't be right because of what happens in book three. The part of the book that I am suggesting a change in can't be changed, because the whole rest of the novel depends on it. Say I am only reading chapter one, and in chapter one, the main character is completely unsympathetic and kills a child. The scene is graphically described and turns my stomach, and even in an adult publishing world, this is going to be a hard sell. But even if the rest of the novel is written superbly, I suspect that getting readers to do anything other than close the book after that description is unlikely.

But, but, says the writer. This is an important moment in the protagonist's development. On page 85, he sees someone else kill a child and at that moment, sees the child's pain and begins to change. And then, on page 352, the protagonist turns around and becomes a champion of children, a superhero who protects all children everywhere. And then, in book two, he meets his nemesis who kills children by the dozen. And in book three, there is a triumphant moment where he turns his nemesis to good and together they become champions of children. So that moment in chapter one is really important. It establishes what the rest of the series is all about.

Or, say that I argue that chapter one is not the right place for a ten page long explanation of the history of the animated snowmen from ten thousand years ago. At the beginning of the first chapter, I want to get to know a couple of characters or maybe even just one, and I want to care deeply about something moving forward, a goal or a threat to be warded off. I don't want to have to spend a lot of time thinking carefully about the history of a kingdom whose people I do not know.

But, but, says the writer. If I don't put the history of animated snowmen in here then the appearance of the snowmen in chapter five will make no sense. And the whole climax where the army of animated snowmen attack won't be set up with enough gravitas. And also the the lost king who has been frozen by the animated snowman a thousand years ago and returns a la King Arthur when he is revived by the woman in white will not seem to come out of the blue.

Or I want you to change the section in chapter one where two characters we never meet again in the novel are caught in a torrid embrace and declare undying love to each other, after which they are killed dramatically by a masked man, who will later be the villain for the rest of the novel. If the characters I am reading about die at the end of chapter one, I say, there is no reason for me to keep reading. I feel cheated by the author and sure that any promises I feel are offered at the beginning of the next chapter are bound to be broken by the end of the novel. Everyone I start to care about will die and nothing will matter or be explained.

But, but, says the writer. If I don't set up the villain as truly evil from the beginning, readers won't be truly afraid of her. And in order to understand why the protagonist is on a mission to find who killed his parents, I have to show them being killed in chapter one (or the prologue). And in addition, in book two, the protagonist has to kill the villain's parents and there is this cool moment of mirroring. And in book three, the heroine's mother is rescued by the protagonist from the evil villain, but her father has already been killed. When she weeps in his arms, it will make no sense unless the villain has already been established as a parent killer for both of them from the first.

No.

Just, no.

No one is ever going to get to book three if you don't make book one absolutely riveting, compelling, heart-wrenching and appealing. No one will get to book three if you don't make it a rip-roaring adventure, with an appealing voice and a main character people love. Write book one first. If you are talking about book three, you've lost focus. Book one is the one that matters. You can't sell the whole trilogy until you sell book one, and focusing on making a good trilogy is taking your attention away from making a good book. One good book is better than a mediocre series. You're missing the trees for the forest. Sometimes--a lot of times--you end up changing what you thought would happen in later books because of what needs to happen in book one. So focus on that and you might end up being able to write the rest of the trilogy someday.