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Oh, it’s hard to pick a favorite. My current book is set in the gangster era (1930s) and that’s one I love, but I also enjoy 1800-1820 and the mid-17oo’s. And the 1910’s. It’s hard to narrow it down! And I admit, sometimes I pick an era just because of the costumes đ
Read, write, rewrite, repeat. Itâs that easy, and itâs that hard.
Nice to meet you Abby. Btw, great name! I have 3 friends with that name so it must be popular.
Thank you! Yes, it does seem to be popular. I like your name too!
That sounds like a good plan. Glad to be helpful!
Read, write, rewrite, repeat. Itâs that easy, and itâs that hard.
Great question!
First off – if the series is episodic (like Nancy Drew or The Hardy Boys), go ahead and publish the first book! Since episodic series are tied together by the same characters or settings, they don’t need to be planned out to the last volume, especially since they are indefinite. They go on until the author is done! The same with series that are semi-episodic, like the Chronicles of Narnia. The stories share characters and settings and work together to culminate in a climax that ties together the whole series, but they were written one by one because they all stand alone, and are very different in some respects.
However – if your series is one story – told over multiple volumes (Like the Lord of the Rings or Left Behind), even if you don’t write all the books before you publish the first one, they do need to be planned. Depending on your work style, this may mean a detailed outline for every volume, or a rough sketch of the overall story. How complicated the story is also plays in.
For context, almost every author writes one book at a time, and publishes one book at a time. JRR Tolkien created an incredibly complicated plot and story world, and still published one at a time. Ally Carter published the first book in her popular Gallagher Girls series not knowing exactly how the series would end. You need to take a hard look at your project and decide what it – and you – need to know before publishing book one.
Personally, I recommend outlining the entire story before finishing book 1. That way, you have the most control over foreshadowing and chiastic structure. That said, if you are a pantser, you might want to leave it a bit more vague and discover the story as you go along, though you still need to know the big twists. As the author, only you know what you need to know.
When I was working on my recently deceased WIP, I didn’t outline as much as usual (one of the many co-morbidities) and “discovered” several plot twists that forced me to go back and rewrite sooo much. If your first book is published, that option’s off the table. So make sure you’re ready.
Hope that helps!
Read, write, rewrite, repeat. Itâs that easy, and itâs that hard.
Thanks for understanding! Hm, good point. Not sure about that.
Same to you!
Read, write, rewrite, repeat. Itâs that easy, and itâs that hard.
So cool youâre writing a mystery! I write mystery games, so my experience is very hands-on; creating a mystery hard enough to be challenging and logical enough the players donât feel cheated after the reveal. I can say two of the biggest things to know are 1) the answer should not be âwhodunitâ and 2) the deduction must be calculated.
What I mean by âthe answer should not be whodunitâ is that the name of the killer isnât enough of a surprise. Something additional should also be in the twist.
Christie is amazing at this. I canât say titles, to avoid spoilers, but some of her âbeyond whodunitâ twists include:
The killer being more than one suspect
The killer being a victim
The killer framing their victim for framing them for murder to get their victim on death row (bit convoluted, sorry XD)
The killer being the most suspicious person (more of a sleight-of-hand)
I make it a point in my mysteries to never just have the answer be, âMr. X did it.â
âThe deduction must be calculatedâ means making a table of your suspects and doling out suspicious characteristics. The method takes each of the extenuating elements (Alibi, Motive, Opportunity, Access to the Weapon, Mental Ability, Physical Ability) and creates a hierarchy of suspicion.
An example:
Your suspects are (for simplicityâs sake) our beloved Clue characters. Weâll make Miss Scarlet the killer. This means she must check all the boxes: Her alibi canât be proven; she has a legitimate motive; she had an opportunity to commit the crime; she had access to the weapon at the time; she is physically capable of handling her weapon of choice to kill the victim and has the mental strength/weakness to commit murder.
From here, we move to the suspect we wish to be the second most suspiciousâŠletâs do Colonel Mustard. Weâll have him check all the boxesâexcept one. Suppose he doesnât have a legitimate motive.
For our third most suspicious, weâll take Mr. Green and uncheck two boxesâhe didnât have access to the weapon and he isnât mentally capable of killing the victim.
So on until you get to the suspect you need to seem the least suspicious. At that point, depending on how many suspects you have, they should only check one or two boxesâor maybe none.
What keeps readers from immediately following the line of deduction is the difficulty in determining some of these things. How do you know if someone has the mental ability to kill? A lot of this is for yourself, a template to build your suspects off.
Hope that wasnât too complicated!
Read, write, rewrite, repeat. Itâs that easy, and itâs that hard.
Sorry for not getting back to you sooner, my week ended up containing some very big family-life changing events, lol. Â I wish I was able to work on a collaboration at this point, but unfortunately I have a habit of swamping myself. Conversations are still allowed though! Would you mind if we kept our discussion on the forum? (Start a thread or topic or whatever, still not sure how that works, lol.) Anyone else interested in the topic could join, too! Thereâs just not much out there one Making a Musical 101. đ
Read, write, rewrite, repeat. Itâs that easy, and itâs that hard.
Hello, fellow playwright! Among all the pagewriters, us stagewriters can get a bit lost. đ I know Iâm totally late to this thread (is this called a thread?) but I literally joined yesterday and could not help myself from posting when I saw the word theater!
Iâm on the opposite side of the fence from you; most of my experience is in the book-writing side. Iâm still learning as much as I can about music. I recently did sone incidental music for a play, so that was great practice, but Iâve still got a long way to go. If you have anything youâre willing to share, Iâd love to see what youâre doing. Iâve got several musicals Iâm working on, but like you said, itâs a long processâŠ
To reiterate, itâs great to know there are other musical-wrights on here!
Read, write, rewrite, repeat. Itâs that easy, and itâs that hard.
