Moby Dick by Herman Melville

I really am Ahab with this idea, but I’ve been tackling it for so long that it feels ridiculous to simply give it up.   I still firmly believe that I can work with it and make a series out of it.  The issue has always been of scale.

It began as a trilogy with a handful of heroes, but more began coming to my mind.  So, I built more stories and the team grew.  Eventually, I had over 20 heroes in this series and many of them were sitting on the sidelines after their initial book.  It was too crowded and I couldn’t find a way to do justice to all of them.  Many personal stories were forgotten because I couldn’t fit them into the overall stories.  This just lead to frustrated and various heroes were junked, never to be remembered again.  I think there was an alien in the original line-up, but she kept jumping sides and I eventually let her wander off.  Still, I was left with a large crew of heroes that made writing it nearly impossible.

Then there was the global threat idea that I had to create.  I had demons, aliens, war between humans and superhumans, a time rewind, and just your basic superpowered maniac.  Again, the problem of too many heroes reared its head even when I combined some of these ideas.  It also led to the series being close to 19 books long and leading into a 5 book close-up series.  That’s rather epic, but I wasn’t sure if it should be that long.

After years of rewriting, changing paths, and cursing various entities for giving me the idea in the first place, I moved it into Windemere where some things stabilized.  I had an abandoned city that I never made a backstory for and a past event that had no real consequence.  So, the fall of Mylrix created hundreds of superpowered beings that would be known as the Mylrixians.  They created the city of Varlis City and acted as superheroes for the continent.  Then one went mad and threatened the gods, so they were all turned into powerless beings.  The stories take place when these beings’ current incarnations awaken and try to go back to living while the gods watch them carefully, especially the one that went mad before.  This is the over-arching story because there is a prophecy of a global threat coming from the Mylrixians that has been festering since they were sealed.  The series is going to end with a giant battle with a high body count and many sacrifices.

The issue that still plagues me is how to do this with all of the surviving 21-23 heroes still clamoring for attention.  By surviving, I mean that after all this time, I still remember them.  The current plan is to have the major story with a few central characters that get the first book, an indy book each, cameos throughout the series, and then everyone is in the finale.  Other books will focus on the adventures of the other characters as their powers awaken and they make their way to Varlis City.  I will have some of these characters make cameos too if I can do it.  There is a handful of young heroes (majority are female oddly enough) that I want to do a team story with, but that can also revolve around the appearance of another hero/heroes.  Maybe do the old idea of a force that captures the older heroes, so the younger ones have to save the day.  Still not sure about that one, but maybe everything will appear as I write character origins and bios.