Writerly Ways

[cornerofmadness]

Before I get into it, I wish one of the authors on my group had linked to the article (or was it a class, it wasn't clear) But not only are epithets on the outs. So are adjectives.The new rule, verbs and nouns only to keep sentences simple. Apparently we now have to dumb down writing to Run Dick Run levels to make it manageable for people with cognitive damage from facebook and twitter. I think I'll pass on that until the editors insist. I don't want to write like Hemmingway. His prose was dull and boring and I'm not sure how he ever ascended to where he did. Venting over.


What I wanted to talk about is sequels and series. Technically my Soldiers of the Sun is part of a series. I definitely want to do a sequel to Kept Tears Heck, the reviewers want me to do a sequel. I had so much fun with Triskelion and Nothing But Himself (both out soon) that I wanted to write more in those universes. Even as I work on Behind Blue Eues, I know it's a min. duology if not more.

I love series. I love come back to characters and settings again and again. Yes, sometimes series get stale and you lose interest but that usually takes a while. Could you imagine Harry Potter as only one book? How about your favorite mystery series? Would Harry Dresden be so beloved if it was only one book? Graphic Novels and manga would be totally different medias without a series.

And yet I'm seeing tihs a lot both on goodreads and elsewhere, a push back against a series. I didn't realize there was a sizable faction who hate them. Now I do dislike a series/trilogy that doesn't have at least some subplots wrapped up by the end of the book. The biggest complaint, I see, however is that there is too long to wait. A year is too long and a lot of that is still coming from people who actually write. I'm stunned. They should know how hard it is to ready a GOOD novel. But more over is a year really that hard to wait? Have we gotten that demanding and self-centered that it all has to be 'now!' It's interesting to me. I find it vaguely disappointing.

How do you feel about series? Do you write them? Do you plan on them or do they just happen somewhere in the middle of book one? It's a little of both for me.

Yearly Word Count-


Soldiers of the Sun - editing

everything else I'm supposed to be doing I'm not.

Comments

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

I'm with you. We're dumbing down the language to ridiculous levels. Books aren't going to be worth the reading if it continues.

Well I can see your issue and that is a legimiate reason for maybe favoriting stand alones or trilogies to the long series (more so than I don't like to wait for it.) If you like mysteries, I wouldn't think that long series are a problem since they're essentially stand alones.

well that's cool about the OFC. Yeah I'll be honest more of my original stories fizzle than don't.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

ah well then not for you. It's my favorite genre. It's romance and contemporary that don't do it for me.

Yeah you've mentioned that. That's too bad.

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

I'm okay with series, but I want the same thing you do, some sort of wrap up each time, and not being left completely hanging at the end of each book until the final denouement. Also, I have to continue liking the characters. Personal growth? Okay. Radical character changes without any real explanation? Absolutely not. And that also goes with some 'single novel' stories, as well.

I also don't mind series where you can pick up a book later in the series and not have to read everything up to it (looking at you, mysteries).

I like description. And some adverbs. And adjectives. And a lot of what they want to get rid of - but it does explain how I'm getting through really large books so fast - there's no description, paragraphs are only four or five lines long, and there are no identifiers in conversations any more. We won't go into how many novels I've read this year alone that are all 'present tense'.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

We are of one mind for what we want in a series.

Yes that is what I LOVE about mystery series. Yeah you do miss some things but for the most part, since they're stand alone, you're good.

Nope identifiers in conversation are going away. Pretty soon my talking head first drafts will be perfect. head desk.

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

No action, just stream of consciousness...

UGH.

Watch me read more and more fanfic.

:\

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

soon there won't be anything worth making fanfic of

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

Maybe, maybe not. There are always interesting tv shows and movies. Maybe not my type, but, eventually, another one will come around.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

If their writing reflects novel writing...

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

But the medium is more visual; actors have to act.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

true but it's been almost 15 years since I've seen a tv show I'd want to do fanfic for (even the little I did for TBBT was just drabble)

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

Well, yes, the only thing I've done that isn't a drabble is for FMA. Though I have done close to 1K words for Iron Man, Leverage, and Burn Notice. I think.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

yeah you've found more things to write for than I have but I've never written all that much for TV

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

*nod*

[marlex.livejournal.com]

I have absolutely no problem with series. Most of my favorite books are series: Harry Potter, Dresden Files, Young Wizards, Redwall, Otherland.

Now each of these treated its individual books differently. Otherland was essentially a four-part novel rather than a series. Redwall had interconnected stories set in the same location, sometime generations apart. The Young Wizard books were more or less self-contained (although references, of course) but they've lately become more interconnected. The same could be said for the Dresden books, which were more episodic until the Vampire war began, and then they were pretty serial. (Of course, the one book to end on a cliffhanger, "Changes," was the one I caught up on the series with.) And Harry Potter has each book set around a year in school, each one telling its own story while advance the larger one.

With the exception of Otherland, each book in the other series felt like whole and complete books, even if they were on a large level a chapter in a larger story. As long as they don't feel like only a chapter, then a series is perfectly fine with me.

It's what happens with a lot of movies where they film the two sequels together. Any other complaints aside, The Matrix Reloaded is simply not a complete movie without The Matrix Revolutions. The same could be said for Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest isn't complete without At World's End.

The Dark Knight, however, is a complete film with our without The Dark Knight Rises.

To anyone who doesn't like series, I'd just say don't read them and leave them to those who do. And if they don't like that, they can bugger off.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

skip series and read something else, ohI wish they would. I've seen them hector authors on goodreads (it's amazing how rude we can be removed as we are via the net.)

I never thought about it that was with the Matrix but you're right and that's the kind of thing I don't like in book series. It should have some kind of finish to the story, like each HP book. I don't like it when book 2's ending is in book 3