The Evolution of a Series
When I first sat down to write I knew I wanted to write a series. I was compelled by the some of the series that had captured my imagination, like Marjorie M. Liu’s Dirk & Steele Series, Christine Feehan’s multiple series Drake Sisters, Dark Series, Ghostwalkers, and of course her Leopard Series, Nalini Singh’s Archangel and Psy-Changling Series and Thea Harrison’s Elder Races Series. I loved the fact that the story wasn’t over when I finished the first book, and even when I had finished the fifth there was a promise of another on the horizon.
Looking back, I would say that I was naïve when I first sat down to write. I had a belief that the world I was creating would emerge on its own without too much massaging from me. I also thought that the overarching story that tied the Quytel Series together would fall into place naturally. It was at some point, about halfway through the second book, that I realized I needed more of a structure to return to in crafting this series. I struggled with the idea for a while and wondered if it would ultimately be too constraining, but what happened was delicious… Once I sat down and thought through the structure of the world, the stage upon which my characters lived and loved – it expanded. Some of the twists and turns in the story were ones I had been planning for from the start but others were unanticipated and beautiful in their congruence.
What I learned is that I benefit from having an outline for a series, no matter how rough. This is as important for me as having a guide for each other individual story, perhaps more so because there are endless details and characters upon characters to track. Keeping track of characters and their relationships, story arcs, and timing can be tricky. As writers we all have different ways of outlining, or planning a story that keeps our ideas and the direction clear. It’s easy for me to get lost in an individual book in a series and lose track of the overarching progression of the story that ties all the books together.
I’m not a fan of rules. I find I go around them whenever I safely can, especially if they don’t serve me. One of the things I love about writing is that it exists in a place without rules in my mind, and yet there are guidelines of grammar, pacing, description, and characterization that are beneficial to follow. It took me a while to get there, but planning a story, a series, finally sank in as a rule not to be avoided, but a guideline embraced. Oddly I found an unexpected piece of freedom in that process.
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