Filling in Missing Pieces
In putting together Vitamin F, I've found myself at a point where I have several large holes in the storytelling. Over the past week, I've been patching these holes one by one. This should get me to a point within the next week or so where I've got 98% of the text in place for a first draft. After that, I'll just put it into chapters and go from there.
I know I've mentioned this before, but I thought I needed to say what was going on again. Why? While I patch these holes, I constantly ask myself, "What am I going to work on next?"
I'd been putting together a loose plot outline for The Silent Covenant. By itself, that's not a problem, but when viewed as part of The Golden Hollow, it's a big problem. How many novel series start with one of the later books that get published? I can only think of two, the Patternist books by Octavia E. Butler and the Hawkeye books by James Fenimore Cooper. Since I'd be going in a random order, only Bulter's series would work as an example (Cooper's series moves chronologically backwards from book to book).
I've been reading Grave Peril, one of Jim Butcher's Dresden Files books. Those go in order, sometimes filling in tiny specks of past detail as they arise in the story. Grave Peril even includes one of Dresden's closest friends and fellow try-to-do-gooder, Michael. No introduction for Michael is given; we're just thrown right in the middle of their latest battle against the legions of invading ghosts.
All these things have been running around in my mind, trying to sort out what I should do about the various stories I have about Commander and his warped world. I put together a draft of a Commander novel about ten years ago and have done little with it. There are some characters I need to swap in and out for various reasons, all of which resulting in a major rewrite.
Initially, Commander's motivation was going to be to stop The Organization and its associates from attacking his friends, but that's a loose and melodramatic reason. Last night, I thought of a better reason. Instead of attacking his friends, maybe The Organization snags one of them. Maybe they snag Kathryn Angel--the Golden Hollow herself--and hold her hostage. Sure it's been done, but it's a lot more active a motivation than a generic threat. It also has the benefit of tying everything into the overall series plot instead of being an introduction to that world and its inhabitants.
I've also been experimenting with titles for the old novel once I get it revised. I don't have any big contenders yet, but I'm going to change it to something not Life is Pain. I didn't realize it at the time, but the class I was in was right; that's a crappy title.
I know I've mentioned this before, but I thought I needed to say what was going on again. Why? While I patch these holes, I constantly ask myself, "What am I going to work on next?"
I'd been putting together a loose plot outline for The Silent Covenant. By itself, that's not a problem, but when viewed as part of The Golden Hollow, it's a big problem. How many novel series start with one of the later books that get published? I can only think of two, the Patternist books by Octavia E. Butler and the Hawkeye books by James Fenimore Cooper. Since I'd be going in a random order, only Bulter's series would work as an example (Cooper's series moves chronologically backwards from book to book).
I've been reading Grave Peril, one of Jim Butcher's Dresden Files books. Those go in order, sometimes filling in tiny specks of past detail as they arise in the story. Grave Peril even includes one of Dresden's closest friends and fellow try-to-do-gooder, Michael. No introduction for Michael is given; we're just thrown right in the middle of their latest battle against the legions of invading ghosts.
All these things have been running around in my mind, trying to sort out what I should do about the various stories I have about Commander and his warped world. I put together a draft of a Commander novel about ten years ago and have done little with it. There are some characters I need to swap in and out for various reasons, all of which resulting in a major rewrite.
Initially, Commander's motivation was going to be to stop The Organization and its associates from attacking his friends, but that's a loose and melodramatic reason. Last night, I thought of a better reason. Instead of attacking his friends, maybe The Organization snags one of them. Maybe they snag Kathryn Angel--the Golden Hollow herself--and hold her hostage. Sure it's been done, but it's a lot more active a motivation than a generic threat. It also has the benefit of tying everything into the overall series plot instead of being an introduction to that world and its inhabitants.
I've also been experimenting with titles for the old novel once I get it revised. I don't have any big contenders yet, but I'm going to change it to something not Life is Pain. I didn't realize it at the time, but the class I was in was right; that's a crappy title.
Labels: Writing Progress
posted by LEN! at 2:15 AM
2 Comments:
Regarding series of books that weren't in chronological order, I know Clive Cussler's Dirk Pitt books, at least the first half-dozen, weren't in any chronological order.
Pacific Vortex, which was released in 1984, is ostensibly the first Dirk Pitt novel, as it establishes a loss that haunts him through other books, but he'd already published five Dirk Pitt novels prior to that.
I can't recall whether any of the earlier novels hinted at that loss, but I'm pretty sure at least one of them did (either Vixen 03 or Night Probe, probably)
So that's a little more precedence for it, if that helps at all.
Most of Tom Clancy's books, while set in the same general universe, aren't in chronological order, either. Not the greatest precedent, but a precedent.
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