Pulling back the layers and re-working plots

[Cli-Fi]

Many people have told me that my current time travel WIP has too much going on and people will not really connect with it. It was my original idea to have the WIP divided into a trilogy. I soon realized that there was just way too much material for only three books, and that in my writing I keep referring back to a history of things that have happened before, but was never actually in the books. Namely, I keep referring to the childhood of the main character. Now, in the first of those novels she is a young adult who gets sucked into a conspiracy plotted by her fiance, but I have discovered that she has a pretty important childhood that directly ties into the development of time travel. I think to simply add that to the first book, without making it a book on it's own will be way too complex for a book/plot that already is. So it may be a prequel of sorts, or I could make this book the first book and the one I was writing the second book?

That leads me to think that I need to have a book that focuses on these main events so that the formation of the time travel world which incidentally is formed around her, is clearer in reader's minds.

Thus I have outlined a new book essential to the series that I am very excited to get writing about. Has this happened to anybody else? Where you thought you had a plot only to have it ruined by wanting to write about a totally different one to connect the two?

 

[VinceK]

Each book of a trilogy should be a standalone story, i.e. have a acts 1, 2 and 3, but also be part of a larger story. Book 1 will be the starting point of your character's journey, they overcome conflict and achieve their goals, only they haven't really, they have just opened up new conflicts which leads them into book 2.

Book 1 - 2 in 1. Within the story of book 1 something happens that leads to book 2 which is part of the main plot.

Book 2 - The broken bridge. There's no going back, the character has to move on to book 3 to find the solution.

Book 3 - The resolution, all that has been carried through the trilogy is resolved.

Plan, plan, plan. You must never lose sight of the end goal for each character or the multitude of sub-plots that will intertwine with the main plot. If you do, so will the reader.

 

[zmunkz]

I think @VinceK really hit it. Unless you are writing a more episodic story (which is harder to sell to readers IMO) you really want to make sure you are telling a contained an interesting character story in each book.

I've sort of been in your situation with too much going on, and a huge amount of highly relevant backstory, and I actually considered starting the book 100 years earlier to cover that, and tell my original story second. The thing is, the story I was excited about was not the original story, that was just backstory. In my case, I ended up just leaving almost all of that out. While at first I really believed I was losing something, the resulting story was actually a lot stronger. So my readers might not understand the implications of a couple little things here or there, but that was a small price to pay for a tighter spun adventure.

So in my case, the solution was to think really long and hard about what served the storytelling best, and to chop out a lot of things. NOT saying that is the same solution in your case, but since you asked, that was my experience with a similar conundrum.

I would not start your story earlier unless the story actually starts earlier, so to speak. Don't do it just to get in backstory, certainly. But if you are finding that really, that is where your story begins, I'd do what you said and shift the books around (or tell it non-linearly with flashbacks).

 

[EJDeBrun]

Perhaps the question to ask isn't about the character, but what you are trying to say with this story. If you can focus to what you're trying to convey with the overall plot, then it will be much easier to figure out where you want to start your story.

Characters are people. We don't have to know them from birth in order to know who they are. You could meet someone in a high school, college, work place, wedding, or retirement place, and still learn who they are at any given point. If I'm old and meet someone in their 70s in a retirement home, I can learn about who he/she was as a child, in his/her 20s, 30s etc based on what that person tells me about their personal history. And what that person tells me vs doesn't tell me also speaks to their experience and personality! I could learn about that person from a brother, sister, wife, old aquaintance, enemy.

In other words, there is no need to follow a character from the time of character building event in order to feel that in their character. Who they are is determined by what decisions they make! And those decisions often stem from experiences in previous events.

Personally, I find books talking about a character before the main story to be dull. They're fillers and really only there to satisfy a readers voyeuristic tendencies to want to KNOW EVERYTHING about a character. But in actuality is it relevant to the main plot line of the original story I met that character in? More often times not. I don't need to be along the ride for Aragorn's entire 70 years of life to figure him out when I meet him with Frodo and Sam. Or to figure out that he and Arwen met ages ago and harbor a deep passion for each other.

So perhaps, rather than focus on the character and his/her backstory, ask how his/her story is relevant to the main plot you are trying to get across. If it's one of those "follow the life of this character" pieces (ie: Memoirs of a Geisha, David Copperfield) then sure, start with the beginning of beginning. (Assassin's Apprentice does this) But if this character is the focal point of your overlying story (Hunger Games, Ender's Game) go from where the story actually starts.

Using those examples:

Hunger Games starts JUST before the event (the Hunger Games) happens and Katness is involved because her sister was chosen.

Ender's Game starts with the monitor being taken off because this is the main event to determine if Ender goes to the school or not.

Both characters have their histories explained in a way that's important to the ways they make decisions through their various crisis. So it's ok to refer back to childhood events, so long as it pertains to current events!

Sorry this is wordy and I might be totally dogmatic about things but this is how I operate when dealing with characters and I'm only offering my two cents on the matter. Always thinking iceberg for my own work. 10% visible, 90% not, but if you'll feel that 90% if you run into that 10%!

 

[RX-79G]

The idea of an additional novel that makes the other novels understandable doesn't sound like a good idea, if I'm understanding the OP correctly.

 

[cyprus7]

The idea of an additional novel that makes the other novels understandable doesn't sound like a good idea, if I'm understanding the OP correctly.

It seems that way to me too. Maybe, OP could write this as a kind of story bible for his own research and enjoyment?