Legends of Windemere

Discworld Series by Terry Pratchett

I’ve talked a lot about writing a long series and done many a guest post on it.  Character development over the course of several books, world building, rejuvenating a series that goes beyond a trilogy, and so much more.  I’ve learned a lot by starting off on something that will take a few years to finish.  Though I should answer a question I rarely get answered.

Why?

Interesting how people ask about my inspiration for the stories, but never ask why Legends of Windemere is 15 books long.  With the upcoming release of Sleeper of the Wildwood Fugue, I hit the halfway mark.  I think.  Maybe Book 8 is a better one for that, but I feel like I’m hitting a milestone.  Anyway, I love winding tales and grew up reading some lengthy series.  A trilogy was fun, but I found myself going to books that would go beyond that.  These weren’t small books either. All of them were 300-400 pages each.  So that’s the school of story that I’m stepping out of here.

Now, why did I start with the big series?  Nothing I write later will come to the series length of Legends of Windemere.  The one rival it had has been cut apart and may only have tentative connections.  Yet, it still wouldn’t come first.  It goes back to when I was only outlining, planning, and following every story in my head.  EVERYTHING will come off of this series.  Releasing anything first would spoil a few things because survivors of LEGENDS will have cameos.  Actions done in this series will cause new heroes to rise and hints in this one will send readers into the past to see what was being talked about.  That’s the ‘curse’ I put on myself with this and it’s not an easy one to walk through for the next 2-3 years.  It’s also something that appears to be impossible to explain to anyone else and I never understood why.  Guess I always had a problem thinking small.  There’s the other goal too, but not sure I should mention that.

Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan

What have I learned now that I’ve nearly published half of my series?

1. Later books will not have the same debut impact as the previous ones.  Not everyone will be jumping on the book immediately.  They might still be reading the older ones and you shouldn’t demand that people keep up your pace if you’re putting out 3 books a year.  This is why aiming for consistent sales is a good idea instead of trying to top the previous release.  You need longevity for a series that goes beyond a trilogy.
2. Not everyone will continue after the previous book.  Many will stop after Book 1 because they weren’t that invested.  Happens to every author and I’m sure every reader has a series they started and stopped.  Other reasons will be the dislike of a new character, the death of an old one, romantic plotlines, a villain goes too far, a hero turns dark, and any number of plot events.  This is the nature of writing anything that goes longer than a single book.
3. The author knows exactly what is going to happen, but the reader doesn’t.  So a setback that is resolved later or a foreshadowing event can have a negative response.  This could be from readers who have followed along and created their own sense of what the story should be.  I think we all get like this when we’re invested in fiction.  You ever yell at a character for doing something stupid and swear that the writers are being lame to get a plotline going?  Well, there’s a lot to that.  I’ll go more into detail in another post, but I believe it stems from us being invested.  We tend to forget that characters in a story don’t realize they’re characters in a story.  Hence why teenagers are always having sex and going off alone in horror movies.
4. Change in cover style will confuse people.  I still don’t know why since the series title is the same.  Yes, I’ve received a question or two about if people should start at Beginning of a Hero or Family of the Tri-Rune.
5. Some readers start in the middle of the series and get lost.  This is solved by having a little bit of introduction and references to the past in each book.  Previous heroes still come up when the opportunity arises.  Isn’t that life?  We talk about people and events in our past, so why can’t our heroes?
6. Never give up and keep pushing forward with your series the way you want to. Changing the direction of a plotline because outside forces are pushing you is obvious in the writing.  At the end of the day, you’re the one left with your stories, so you really shouldn’t do anything to them that you’ll regret.
7. Even when you say that you’re not sure when the next book is coming out, somebody is going to ask.  If you say, ‘Spring’ then people expect late March/early April.  Take this as a compliment.  Otherwise, you’ll be crying at least once a month.
8. Have fun and seek that silver lining.