All right... explain it to me.
All right... explain it to me. What the hell is magic about the three book series?
Since building a nest here at Goodreads a fair number of years ago, I, like every other of the thousand writers here, have been bombarded by messages linking to those two ecstatic threads from every group on the site; Introduce Yourself and Tell Us About Your New Book. No problem there. It's all good. Welcome! And congratulations on the new book; self-pub, big six, or something in between. Congrats!
The post is usually the same. "My name is Dodie (or Phil, or Bart, or Alice; the name is usually different each time), I'm a writer (I always wonder if that is a proclamation or a guilty confession), and I've just published my (first, newest, greatest) novel (insert name of epic tome.)" But then it comes, the sentence; not always, but often. Way, way, way too often for my taste or understanding. That sentence that I've heard a hundred times if I've heard it once:
"It's the first in a three book series..."
So, explain it to me. What is magic about the three book series that so many writers and would-be writers think they need contribute one to the world's slush pile? With Moby Dick, Les Miserables, Gone With The Wind, Around the World in Eighty Days, and The Pickwick Papers as examples of one-off classics, is your story so epic that uncounted dozens of you know, from the outset, that one book cannot contain it? And, if that is the case, why three? I know nothing about numerology but I did see the original War of the Worlds. Three alien ships, three eyes, three fingers, I got it. Three is mysterious... or something. And, sure, we'd all love to sell a book series, I guess; to have something we're known for that requires the readers to come back to us in order to get their fix. Even I have a character (a wise guy detective) with series potential but, so far, I've only written one book about him. Because I wanted to tell readers about the weirdest thing that EVER happened to him. And I fit that into one book. If something else, weirder yet, more exciting, or more important happens to him, then I'll probably write another one and tell his faithful followers about it. But there is no three book series planned.
That's what I believe... that a short story, a film, certainly a book should be about the most important, most painful, most memorable, funniest, THING that ever happened to a character. And every time I hear, "It's the first in a three book series," though it is clearly just my prejudice, I wonder why. And I can't help but wonder if the writer knows where the nut is. Or if they know their character so well that they also know the three most important things that ever happened to them - in order. But, in that case, I kinda want to read number three first.
If you are two paragraphs in to writing your first three book series, don't let me stop you. This isn't a rant. I'm just curious.
Since building a nest here at Goodreads a fair number of years ago, I, like every other of the thousand writers here, have been bombarded by messages linking to those two ecstatic threads from every group on the site; Introduce Yourself and Tell Us About Your New Book. No problem there. It's all good. Welcome! And congratulations on the new book; self-pub, big six, or something in between. Congrats!
The post is usually the same. "My name is Dodie (or Phil, or Bart, or Alice; the name is usually different each time), I'm a writer (I always wonder if that is a proclamation or a guilty confession), and I've just published my (first, newest, greatest) novel (insert name of epic tome.)" But then it comes, the sentence; not always, but often. Way, way, way too often for my taste or understanding. That sentence that I've heard a hundred times if I've heard it once:
"It's the first in a three book series..."
So, explain it to me. What is magic about the three book series that so many writers and would-be writers think they need contribute one to the world's slush pile? With Moby Dick, Les Miserables, Gone With The Wind, Around the World in Eighty Days, and The Pickwick Papers as examples of one-off classics, is your story so epic that uncounted dozens of you know, from the outset, that one book cannot contain it? And, if that is the case, why three? I know nothing about numerology but I did see the original War of the Worlds. Three alien ships, three eyes, three fingers, I got it. Three is mysterious... or something. And, sure, we'd all love to sell a book series, I guess; to have something we're known for that requires the readers to come back to us in order to get their fix. Even I have a character (a wise guy detective) with series potential but, so far, I've only written one book about him. Because I wanted to tell readers about the weirdest thing that EVER happened to him. And I fit that into one book. If something else, weirder yet, more exciting, or more important happens to him, then I'll probably write another one and tell his faithful followers about it. But there is no three book series planned.
That's what I believe... that a short story, a film, certainly a book should be about the most important, most painful, most memorable, funniest, THING that ever happened to a character. And every time I hear, "It's the first in a three book series," though it is clearly just my prejudice, I wonder why. And I can't help but wonder if the writer knows where the nut is. Or if they know their character so well that they also know the three most important things that ever happened to them - in order. But, in that case, I kinda want to read number three first.
If you are two paragraphs in to writing your first three book series, don't let me stop you. This isn't a rant. I'm just curious.
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Kevin
(last edited Jul 01, 2014 06:36PM)
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Jul 01, 2014 06:35PM
I recently wrote a book that took over 20 years to finally figure out; once I did, the first draft took three weeks. When I tried to move on past the finished book, I found that I couldn't. While I had answered all the important questions, I found myself thinking about what might happen to those characters in the future...no, NEEDING to know what would happen next. Maybe I created too much or got too involved - who knows. Fans started asking the same thing: what happens next? In trying to answer that question, something very odd happened; I didn't have a new idea...I had three. As clearly as I finally could see the original book, a flash of insight told me how many books I needed to finish the story I wanted to tell and why it would take that many books. I cannot answer why others choose to arrange their books in trilogies, but I did discover that a four-book series can be called a tetralogy.
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Thank you, Kevin, for the insight. I know your great writing but confess I am not an expert on your series work. This inspiration, was it for the Spooky Chronicles? Or are several more books on their way in The Matriarch series?How about you other writers dropping by? Why a three book series? Or why the notion of a book series before the first novel is written?
Readers, is that what you want; characters you can return to again and again?
