When writing a long series, it helps to do an upheaval for your characters. It doesn’t have to be all of them, but shaking up the life of a few in a story can help their progress. Even if they take a step back, it will make them stronger as a character. This helps keep them fresh too.
In Sleeper of the Wildwood Fugue, several characters get a shock to their system through revelations and disasters. This brings a few plotlines to a head as well and many of the heroes and villains won’t be the same by the end. I’ve found that this also creates a sense of meeting them again in future books. At the very least, it takes a few stories to repair the damage and bring the characters back to their center. Yet it will never be the same after these kinds of events. This is why I like upheaval sections of a long story because it shakes everything up. I feel re-energized and excited to see what’s going to happen next.
This isn’t something you only find in series too. In a trilogy, this tends to be the the second story with a rough finale. Empire Strikes Back is a good example. The point of such a story is that it sets up the next stage of the adventure, dislodges characters from becoming entirely stable, and closes up some earlier subplots. It’s very important that this is something that answers questions instead of solely making new mysteries. Now I’ve seen this in solitary books too, which can get tricky. These tend to be bigger works to allow for time to gain stability in the main story, lose it, and then regain it for the ending. Many times I’ve read stories that do a final hour disruption that doesn’t give enough time for true closure. So you have to be careful in this situation.
So, what do you think of ‘upheaval’ stories that rock a series? Do you have any favorites?
Legends of Windemere 
Star Wars has to one of the best examples I know. I like the idea of upheaval. This is what keeps the pages turning for the reader.
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Trilogies do make it easy. That second part is perfect for upheavals and you have that last one makes for simple clean up. 🙂
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Reblogged this on Smorgasbord – Variety is the spice of life and commented:
When reading a long series with central characters what is your opinion when they get involved in ‘upheaval’ story lines that change their direction perhaps in the plot? Charles E Yallowitz would like your opinion.
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Thanks for the reblog. It’s a fun topic. 🙂
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Lord of the Rings also spring to mind, with the Fellowship of the Ring breaking up around the middle. Mind you, I know that it’s a trilogy, but I suspect modern authors would have broken up the books to half a dozen smaller novels.
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It does seem like the current trend is smaller books to complete a story. Though I don’t know where the chopping would be done in that trilogy. It’s strange too since fantasy is known for the long, epic novels. At least from what I remember.
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Lol – why do you think I chose it as a genre? 😀
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Same here. Not hardwired to think any other way. 🙂
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It seems like that is pretty common in a trilogy. The second volume is the one where the bad guys win. Maybe it speaks more to my psyche, but it’s usually the best one too.
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It does seem to be the more entertaining and tense story. Sets up the finale very well. Wonder how it works with the ‘2 part finale’ trend.
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You’ll have to ask Hollywood that one when you get there.
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I am constantly upheaving my characters yet I keep them true to their core in essence…I’ve done it in each of my Scrolls novel so far and in my stand alone romance novel one character goes through a major upheaval through chapters 4-7 and another character goes through a major upheaval around chapter 15
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That does seem to work for long books. I put some upheavals in the middle to keep the action moving and bring it to another ‘act’.
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My romance will ring in at around 200 pages so not that long and so far with “scrolls” I’m averaging around 240 pages per book
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Not bad. Makes for a few go ups and downs in the story.
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I like upheaval, especially in a long series. It keeps me coming back for more. Phillip Pullman did it and it really made it interesting for me. Without upheaval, I tend to not stay with a series. I get bored otherwise and feel like I’m re-reading the same story over and over.
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Repetition is tough to avoid in long series. Good point on upheavals undoing that.
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The Harry Potter series was much longer than a trilogy, but upheavals certainly happened at regular intervals. Mysteries definitely require upheavals to keep the excitement going – I usually plan for three to four per book.
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It does happen quite often in ‘coming of age’ stories like Potter. I still need to read that whole series. Friends who read quicker than me kind of spoiled it.
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I, too, like upheavals in a series. Makes me want to read the next book, and the next, and the next…
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As a long series author, that’s good to hear. 🙂
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This is something I’ve noticed as a longtime comic reader. If a series is popular it will go on for a really long time, and the writers do have to shake things up at intervals so that characters aren’t just a little too comfortable with themselves. Sometimes I’m irritated by the change, or a character I like is out of the picture, but I understand why they need to do it.
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American comics definitely need to do that since they’re stories with no real ending. I’ve noticed that modern comics seem to only do upheavals. Wonder if that minimizes the impact.
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I think you’re always going to have things like the death of Aunt May or Gwen Stacy that devastate some fans and leave others cheering. What’s a pain is when the death gets walked back, as it did with Jean Gray.
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Aunt May has been ‘revived’ several times too. Gwen Stacy is back now from what I’ve been told. I think Uncle Ben and the Waynes are the only comic characters to truly stay dead.
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One of the biggest upheavals twists is from The Transformers franchise where in the second movie one of the lead characters is strewn on the dirt with little hope of their revival. The music, the theme of living once again, and the power that comes from the scene where the words, “I love you.” make an appearance is pretty incredible stuff. Great story, even if some folks don’t like it!
BTW, love Linkin Park’s “In the End”. One of my all-time favorites. I once had that song playing on repeat for a couple of hours while I fleshed out a scene from a story I was working on. Great song!
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The music video inspired one of the regions in my book. Though I don’t think I can do the flying whales.
I only made it halfway through that movie. The kid threatened to make an early debut, so we had to run. One thing that confused me about those movies is that I couldn’t always tell the difference between all the Decepticons. Drove me a little nuts.
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