Monday Musing: Sequels and Series

A question I have been asked often after I mention that I’m writing a book is what will happen in the sequel. I am in two very distinct minds about this issue as I both love and loath sequels. As we are soon to be in 2014, the sequel to 2013, this seemed like a good time to talk, vaguely and without resolution, about Sequels and Series.

To me there the two things are different. And I don’t particularly like sequels.
By and large a sequel is a copy of an original idea that largely repeats those story beats but choses to subvert existing expectations to keep it interesting. I’m not saying that sequels are bad. I own a whole heap of them. Silence of the Lambs is a very good sequel to Red Dragon, though I confess to still liking RD more. Silence follows largely the same formula as Dragon, but with added Lector.

This is a difficult topic to write about because some of my favourite books are parts of series, yet I would class them as sequels. I don’t think I necessarily agree that because one particular thing becomes popular that it should lead to it being repeated. I have, I think, three of the sequels to Blade Runner, which is a whole heap of weird because it’s part sequel to Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep, largely a sequel to the movie that had little and less to do with the book, and also a sequel to a movie that had its ending changed. Weird. And I don’t think those books were necessary.

This is in opposition to my feelings about Series which tend to have one large story deliberately told over a number of books. George RR Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series is an example of this that I’m enjoying. I like long sprawling narratives that were designed to tie in to each other. The Lord of the Rings is a series not sequels.

I’ve spoken before about enjoying Ben Aaronovitch’s Rivers of London books. These books are definitely sequels, taking the parameters of the original and stamping that template of the subsequent books. The same can be said for Malcolm Price’s Aberystwyth books.

Joe Ambercrombie had a series in the First Law Trilogy and that was followed by a number of sequels set in the same world with overlapping characters. In this instance the first sequel Best Served Cold is my favourite book he has written. (I’m currently reading Red Country.)

Actually, I don’t really know what my point is here. I guess, based on the question as to whether there will be a sequel to my book (there won’t) is that there is interest in creating something that will breed further narratives, people want to visit a world and see it expand. This is both a desire from an audience, a financial consideration of people buying the next book because it’s the next book. I have Aaronovitch’s Broken Homes pre-ordered in paperback. I don’t even know what it’s about. So I’m not passing judgement.

I think maybe it’s odd that there is an assumption or expectation that something cannot exist in and of itself, there it must breed further stories. If there are more stories to tell then this is great and exciting. Yet if it is just cashing in on something that worked, I’m more reluctant to become engaged.

And to blur my already muddy thoughts on the matter, yes, I have an idea for a series of books.

 

I’ve not even scratched the surface of my book collection, and have no idea what I would class Iain M. Banks Culture books as. What are your favourite sequels or series? What next book of a story are you looking forward to? Do you wish there was a sequel to your favourite book – what is that book?

I’d like to hear your thoughts.

– Andrew

 

Monday Musing: What’s In A Name?

I have a terrible time naming characters. I always have. I was reminded of this the other day when I decided to play Mass Effect 3 again using my second character. I played through the previous two games twice, once trying to do it properly, the second time just being the galaxy’s biggest dickbag. If someone asks nicely for something, I tell ’em where to stick it! If I have the choice of saving someone or letting them die, it’s adios unnecessary baggage. If I’m trying to extract information from someone, they are gonna get a broken face. Throughout the second game in the series I worked hard to maintain the deep red scarring that was representative of being a total dickbag. As the first name of Commander Shephard is never said in the game it’s irrelevant what you call the character, my second character is called Girl’s Name Shephard (the other version was called Fucknut).

This naming fiasco is as a result of putting no thought into it at all, and not representative of my usual naming process. The problem is that my usual naming process is part of the reason why it takes me so long to write anything. To me, the name of a character is defined by who the character is, not the other way round. I don’t write for a while and think, “Well, she feels like she’s a Trish.” It gets to the point that I can’t write anything for the character until I have named them.

Admittedly I will name ancillary characters after friends and family, and whenever I made a short film with the actor Darren McAree (from Autumn Heart onwards) his character’s name always started with a J. I wish I could tell you there was some great story behind that, but there isn’t.

I struggle every time, and I hate it. I hate that I have to trawl through name books every time I start writing because I can’t do anything until the character can identify themself. Yet, and this is what’s important to me, once I have named the character it is easy to write for them, I feel a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction having named them. The process is hard and seldom instantaneous, but it is worth it.

I don’t think that a reader should notice or think much at all about what the character is named. I don’t believe that I’ve ever felt that a character in a book I’ve read, a movie or television show I’ve watched, has had the wrong name. I’ve never spoken to other writers about this so I can only speak for myself, but the name of a character to me defines who they are, what they represent in the story, and only when their name fits them like a thing that is really well-fitting, can I begin to let them live.

There is power in a name. As long as that isn’t “Girl’s Name”.

– Andrew

(oh, just leaving this here… http://www.kabalarians.com/m/andrew.htm)

Monday Musings: The End

Hello,

For my first Monday Musing I thought I would start with the question most frequently asked of me: “Do you have an ending?”

Endings are regarded as the most important part of a narrative experience. You can afford to start weak if your ending is strong. The ideal would be to have a strong start, a great middle and a fantastic end. I loved Joe Abercrombie’s Best Served Cold because I was instantly hooked from the opening chapter. It’s his best writing and his best characters.

A story simply can’t afford a limp ending that readers feel cheated by. I’ve just finished reading Kate Mosse’s Citadel which I thought had a deeply satisfying ending. Emotional, truthful and, importantly, right for the characters. Conversely I threw David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas to the floor when I finished it. I loved the individual elements but felt no sense of completion at the end.

Those are my opinions on the aforementioned books, you may share them or not.

With my story I actually started with the ending and tracked back from there. The inception of the story goes back about four or five years and has changed a lot over that time. I eventually found an interesting hook for the story and it has grown into what it is now. That’s not to say that the ending I started with will be the ending that the book will have. I’ve been toying with variations of it recently. I’m not locking myself into anything at this point.

I have told some of my closest friends what this ending is and their reactions have varied so far, I think it depends on their personality. Don’t read too much into this next statement, but I like a certain amount of ambiguity in my work. I think it was the director Adrian Lyne when talking about his film adaptation of Lolita who said that he wanted the audience to figure out for themselves how they felt about the characters and what happened, rather than being told what to think. I’m paraphrasing there. My point is that I like to create a story and draw attention to the plot, characters and themes and then go: “And you decide what that means.”

Excuse my horrific self promotion here as I use a short film I made 10 years ago for demonstration purposes. I feel we said everything that we wanted to in the story, explored and re-explored the central theme and left it at a point where the audience has to think how they choose to interpret what has happened and where the character goes next.

There tends to be a 50/50 split between people rationalizing the events and those that want to see something else. I argue that both are correct and both possibilities are accounted for in the film.

Upon explaining the ending of my book, many people nod sagely and say “Yes that makes sense.” Others agree that the ending works but are concerned that there may not be the clarity that they want. I think that is the key to any ending. I can be as vague about the specifics as I like but if people don’t feel that the threads of the narrative are adequately tied up it will feel like a cheat. So, again, I’m sort of catering to different groups.

This isn’t to say that it works with every story. Some stories need to be tied with a bow and pronounced complete. I will write those stories for sure. That’s just not this book. That’s not who this character is.

It’s hard to talk specifically about what the ending is because I don’t want to spoil it, I haven’t told you what the story is about yet (that’s coming very soon), and where the main character ends up may not be where I think she is supposed to find herself. I have explained my intentions of how I will wrap up the story to people and hope that I will be able to deliver. It’s certainly the right ending for the character and what happens to her.

I think what I’m keen to achieve is that I want the ending to be talked about, to be debated, I want people to have different interpretations of the events (all of which, and more will be correct), but for the finale of the character’s journey, of her experiences, of who she is at the end to be satisfying and rewarding.

– Andrew

 

Healing The Heartache

Hello,

At the beginning of the week I blogged about the loss of 74% of my writing. That was 25,000 words lost in an instant because I was being a little careless. I can’t blame the computer, it only mindlessly did what I asked it to do. Ironically I get peeved at computers when they double-check meaningless activities: ‘Are you sure you want to print that?’

I had a rough night sleep on Monday, I was angry at myself for wasting a lot of work. I joked to a friend that I was more upset on Monday night at the loss of my book than I had been the last time I broke up with someone.
At least I think I was joking.

When I got up for breakfast on Tuesday morning I was sore and tired. My back hurt and my eyes felt foggy. I was still in a bad mood and didn’t want to think about my book and writing any more. The task of starting again seemed too great. I didn’t think that I would be up to the job.

This made me more angry at myself. Now I was angry for daring to think of letting this moment of idiocy ruin what has been one of the most enjoyable and fulfilling months of my life in a number of years. Yes, I was scared of re-writing what I had already done. Of course, I was worried that I would not be able to recreate what it had been. Obviously, I was anxious about the moment I would start again. I’m not a good starter of things, I rarely have that planned out. As it stands the first paragraph of my book is:

I think the exact words I said to my mum were, “Don’t fucking tell me what to fucking do.” I’m sure that the second ‘fucking’ was lost to her by the thunder of my door slamming. I’m not proud of it and in hindsight it was probably not a proportionate response to her saying encouragingly, “Evin, you really should be doing more to get a job.”

So, yeah.
I don’t think that will last beyond editing, but at the time it was all I had to get the ball rolling on the book.

The same principle applied to the rewrites. I had made a bullet point list of what I remember the key moments of the plot were and the order that they came in. I sat at my desk, took a deep breath, and started typing. It was difficult at first, I was conscious that I was trying to recreate something while trying not to copy exactly what it had been. I finished the day having written 5,000 words. I have been hitting that as a standard target each day since. I wrote 6,000 words yesterday because I had to finish what was happening.

I am currently at 18,000 words and in most places I am pleased with how it’s coming together. There are definitely places that are more concise now than they had been previously, and there are some moments that have been stripped right back and are less overwritten.

In essence I’m pleased that I didn’t wait, that I didn’t allow myself to become overwhelmed by rewriting. I’m pleased that I got straight back to it.

I would not recommend this process of writing.

– Andrew