Rambling about writing and series books
There's a funny kind of push-and-pull going on in my head as I write any book. On the one hand, there's the part that measures wordcounts, thrills to achievement, and thinks, wow, I'm going to have a whole draft in just a few more months! That's awesome! Then there's the other part that thinks: But I looooove writing this novel! Why can't it just go on forever? Because the truth is, I am never more miserable and ill-at-ease than when I'm between novels.
I guess this is part of why I naturally gravitate toward writing series rather than standalone books. (Well, that and also the fact that series books are always, always my favorite books to read.)
As I write my dragon book, too, I'm reminded of what a great feeling it is to write Book One in a series. This is a difficult thing to talk about well, because I'm afraid of short-changing my other books.
The thing is, I absolutely loved writing Kat Books Two and Three (A Tangle of Magicks and A Reckless Magick). I wrote most of A Tangle of Magicks before I'd even sold the series or had any sales in sight - I wrote it knowing that it was a crazy thing to do, that the smart thing would be to write something totally different, which I could market even if A Most Improper Magick (Kat, Incorrigible) didn't sell. But I loved Kat and her sisters way too much to stop writing about them after just one book, especially when I knew how much fun their next adventures would be. Tangle and Reckless were both books of my heart every bits as much as AMIM was, in every way.
But, but, but...here's the other thing. Later books in a series are HARD. Hard in a way that Book One just never is. In Book One, you're leaping off a cliff. It's easy to fall. But in the next few books (especially when you have an overarching arc, like I do in the Kat books), you have to figure out how to land safely, without breaking any bones...and that's much more difficult. You have to follow all the rules that were set up in Book One, even when they bring difficulties with them that you never foresaw. You have to make each book work on its own even as it builds on every earlier book in the series.
It's difficult and fascinating and challenging work...and it is not-so-coincidental that every book in the Kat trilogy took me longer to write as I progressed. I finished the first draft of Book One in 4 months, Book Two in 8 months, and Book 3 in, er, um...I think it was 14 months? (That one had the added complication of having a new baby in the mix.)
With Book One, the opening that first occurred to me is the same one that's still in the final version, despite many layers of rewriting. For Book Two, I wrote three completely different openings before I found the one that worked. With Book Three, it took me five tries (of about 50 pages each!) before I got it right.
I loved writing those books, I put everything I had into them, and I really, really hope that each of them is better than the last (and so far, that is the feedback that I've gotten for them, thank God)...
...but I have to admit that, now that I'm writing my dragon book, I am really enjoying how much easier it is to be back in Book One mode again. It feels like flying...which, I guess, is only appropriate.
As readers, what are your favorite book series?
Here are some of mine: in kids' fiction, Hilary McKay's Casson Family series (which has a new book coming out next year, woooot!), Caroline Stevermer and Patricia Wrede's Sorcery and Cecilia series and also Caroline Stevermer's Magics series; in adult SF and fantasy, Lois McMaster Bujold's Chalion series (starting with The Curse of Chalion) and her Miles Vorkosigan series (especially Barrayar and A Civil Campaign); in adult romance fiction, Nora Roberts's Bride quartet, Julia Quinn's Bridgerton series (except for Book 1, which I threw against a wall), and Eloisa James's Duchesses series.
What about you guys?
I guess this is part of why I naturally gravitate toward writing series rather than standalone books. (Well, that and also the fact that series books are always, always my favorite books to read.)
As I write my dragon book, too, I'm reminded of what a great feeling it is to write Book One in a series. This is a difficult thing to talk about well, because I'm afraid of short-changing my other books.
The thing is, I absolutely loved writing Kat Books Two and Three (A Tangle of Magicks and A Reckless Magick). I wrote most of A Tangle of Magicks before I'd even sold the series or had any sales in sight - I wrote it knowing that it was a crazy thing to do, that the smart thing would be to write something totally different, which I could market even if A Most Improper Magick (Kat, Incorrigible) didn't sell. But I loved Kat and her sisters way too much to stop writing about them after just one book, especially when I knew how much fun their next adventures would be. Tangle and Reckless were both books of my heart every bits as much as AMIM was, in every way.
But, but, but...here's the other thing. Later books in a series are HARD. Hard in a way that Book One just never is. In Book One, you're leaping off a cliff. It's easy to fall. But in the next few books (especially when you have an overarching arc, like I do in the Kat books), you have to figure out how to land safely, without breaking any bones...and that's much more difficult. You have to follow all the rules that were set up in Book One, even when they bring difficulties with them that you never foresaw. You have to make each book work on its own even as it builds on every earlier book in the series.
It's difficult and fascinating and challenging work...and it is not-so-coincidental that every book in the Kat trilogy took me longer to write as I progressed. I finished the first draft of Book One in 4 months, Book Two in 8 months, and Book 3 in, er, um...I think it was 14 months? (That one had the added complication of having a new baby in the mix.)
With Book One, the opening that first occurred to me is the same one that's still in the final version, despite many layers of rewriting. For Book Two, I wrote three completely different openings before I found the one that worked. With Book Three, it took me five tries (of about 50 pages each!) before I got it right.
I loved writing those books, I put everything I had into them, and I really, really hope that each of them is better than the last (and so far, that is the feedback that I've gotten for them, thank God)...
...but I have to admit that, now that I'm writing my dragon book, I am really enjoying how much easier it is to be back in Book One mode again. It feels like flying...which, I guess, is only appropriate.
As readers, what are your favorite book series?
Here are some of mine: in kids' fiction, Hilary McKay's Casson Family series (which has a new book coming out next year, woooot!), Caroline Stevermer and Patricia Wrede's Sorcery and Cecilia series and also Caroline Stevermer's Magics series; in adult SF and fantasy, Lois McMaster Bujold's Chalion series (starting with The Curse of Chalion) and her Miles Vorkosigan series (especially Barrayar and A Civil Campaign); in adult romance fiction, Nora Roberts's Bride quartet, Julia Quinn's Bridgerton series (except for Book 1, which I threw against a wall), and Eloisa James's Duchesses series.
What about you guys?