I’m running into a new challenge (I won’t call it a problem — not yet. That’s another thing people don’t talk about in the writing biz — it never really gets easier. You trade one set of challenges for another. If you think selling your first novel and seeing it on the shelves is the end of the road, the ultimate prize, and everything after is sunshine and roses. . . um, not so much.)
I’m currently writing an open-ended series. This is not something I had originally planned on doing. As a reader, I have a bit of an aversion to series. My usual pattern is to read the first book, and that’s it. I can even like the book and still not read the rest of the series. Usually, it’s because I can see where it’s going, and I don’t foresee any surprises. I can count the number of series that I’ve been inspired to read more than one or two books in on one hand, and there are only a couple that I’m an actual fan of.
So here I am, writing an open-ended series. Not even a trilogy where the end is in sight. No one is more surprised than I am. I originally thought the Kitty series would be four, maybe five books tops. But the series has been successful, and I keep getting ideas, so here I am, plotting the ninth book. And here’s the challenge.
The series isn’t really open ended. I’ve known since the third book how the series will end, because I think endings are important and I want to at least feel like I’m heading toward a goal, even if I don’t know how long the journey is going to be. What this means is right now I’m in the “messy middle” portion of plotting the entire series.
You know the messy middle — that section in the middle of writing a book where everything feels like it’s in shambles and you have a ton of loose threads and no idea what you’re going to do with them, and you wonder if it’s ever going to come together? I’m there, but with a body of work that could potentially be a million words long. And I can’t go back and fix the first half if I decide to change something. Yikes. So what am I doing about it?
I know where I’ve been — I’ve written eight books so far. I know where I’m going — I’ve got this image of what happens in the last book, and (like J.K. Rowling, who famously was said to have kept the last chapter of the last Harry Potter book in a lockbox) I know what the last scene is. Now, I need to assess. What can I do to draw lines between those two points? What kind of things still need to happen to set up the ending I want? What loose ends are hanging out there that I need to tie up? What plot points can I use that I’ve already set up? What characters should play a part in all this?
This is going to take a lot of brainstorming and list making. I’m hoping that when I’m finished, I’ll have a bunch of plot ideas to fill the next couple of books. The stories will raise the stakes, set the stage, and lead to the big finale that I have in mind.
And I’m very much hoping that when I’m finished, it will look like I had the whole thing planned out this way from the start!
