Continuity, it's important.
I've started going over Death God Rising - now renamed Death Toll- having actually finished it a few days ago.
It's funny looking at the beginning of it verses how it ended. There's a lot of continuity errors that need to be fixed.
A big one is the fact that I know who the Bad Guy is. When I first started writing it, I didn't know his identity. I knew what he wanted, but not who he was or why he wanted it. That changed a lot of stuff.
Another one was the fact that Theo, one of the main POV characters, gained a cousin about half way through. That changes a lot of little things in the beginning. With Theo I also changed him from a part-time freelance worker with the FBI to a full time worker about three or four chapters in so that required a lot of fixing in the first couple of chapters.
At one point I say that some character's parents are alive in another later point I say they're dead. While not a major issue for this book, in later books it will be. Still, for continuity it's important to have that down. They'll probably be dead. Must talk to co-writer about it first, of course.
Happily, I've also figured out -loosely- the over arching plot of the series. There will be about nine or ten books and it will involve a huge Xanatos gambit on the part of some of the old god characters. Hence the title of the series "Dawn of the Old Gods". I'm glad I've gotten that one figured out, even if it required me crawling out of bed at at around six thirty to pound stuff out. Because now I can work out things into the flow of the story and hopefully have a good pay off at the end. Isn't that what all writers want? A good payoff at the end?
I have to admit, thinking about the huge over-arching arc and making it fit into the smaller arcs per book, is difficult. I definitely need to work on it, but I'm glad I know at least what the big arc is.
One good thing about this is that I've figured out, at least, how the prologues are going to work. Each one is going to focus on a different member of the team at an important part in their life and generally they're going to be the main POV character for the book. What I would like to happen for the book covers is that each cover features the prologue character on it and then all the covers fit together into one big picture. Kind of like what happens on comic book covers sometimes. If that's going to happen, well, lets get a publisher wanting them first.
It's funny looking at the beginning of it verses how it ended. There's a lot of continuity errors that need to be fixed.
A big one is the fact that I know who the Bad Guy is. When I first started writing it, I didn't know his identity. I knew what he wanted, but not who he was or why he wanted it. That changed a lot of stuff.
Another one was the fact that Theo, one of the main POV characters, gained a cousin about half way through. That changes a lot of little things in the beginning. With Theo I also changed him from a part-time freelance worker with the FBI to a full time worker about three or four chapters in so that required a lot of fixing in the first couple of chapters.
At one point I say that some character's parents are alive in another later point I say they're dead. While not a major issue for this book, in later books it will be. Still, for continuity it's important to have that down. They'll probably be dead. Must talk to co-writer about it first, of course.
Happily, I've also figured out -loosely- the over arching plot of the series. There will be about nine or ten books and it will involve a huge Xanatos gambit on the part of some of the old god characters. Hence the title of the series "Dawn of the Old Gods". I'm glad I've gotten that one figured out, even if it required me crawling out of bed at at around six thirty to pound stuff out. Because now I can work out things into the flow of the story and hopefully have a good pay off at the end. Isn't that what all writers want? A good payoff at the end?
I have to admit, thinking about the huge over-arching arc and making it fit into the smaller arcs per book, is difficult. I definitely need to work on it, but I'm glad I know at least what the big arc is.
One good thing about this is that I've figured out, at least, how the prologues are going to work. Each one is going to focus on a different member of the team at an important part in their life and generally they're going to be the main POV character for the book. What I would like to happen for the book covers is that each cover features the prologue character on it and then all the covers fit together into one big picture. Kind of like what happens on comic book covers sometimes. If that's going to happen, well, lets get a publisher wanting them first.