Genre Serials

[Phyrebrat]

Hi,

I'm freaking out. Well, not freaking out but a bit concerned.

Within fantasy (and I presume Sci-Fi), series much longer than trilogies are common - and in fact often warranted. I'm no fan of writing serials mainly because my chosen genre is supernatural horror (not sparkly vampires etc), but I'm getting to a point now when I think my WIP might require two books.

And before I explain, can I just wheedle an apology for talking about my WIP again. I can hear the groans.

I am so far, I would say, two fifths of the way through my first draft of SG. That is a story that comprises five eras in history. I have finished two of them and approximately halfway through the third. I therefore have two more to write.

I'm now seeing that this is probably going to be - even after edits (I'm a tinkerer-as-I-go) - a book that is far too long. Especially as the other two unwritten eras are pretty big. However, I can see a way to split it into two books and still have resolution.

Here is how: If you think of the old Amicus or Hammer film anthologies, they usually have three-to-five stories with a wraparound story. Usually in this model, the wraparound is the weakest and least substantial story. In mine, it is the main.

• I have two medieval periods: 1178 and 1347-9
• Two enlightenment (sort of) periods: 1760s & 1850-60s
• Current time (2017).

I can package the two medievals and half of the 2017 as one book, and then the Enlightenment and 2017 but after a lot of researching online, I've found that horror is not really supported in this format and that it is difficult (bearing in mind that horror follow-ons are usual sequels as opposed to preplans).Also, I don't particulary want to split it. I should say, I can halve the 2017 period without cheating and leaving an annoying cliffhanger.

What is your take on this? Do I play maverick pioneer and tweak my midpoint 2017 period so it ends book 1 or what?

Seeing as the MS is so far 105k (which is 1178, 1760s, and 1/2 of 1347-9) I'd end up with a single MS of 250-300K words. Something a proven horror writer could get away with, but not a newbie.

I was going to tweet the question but wanted to run it by you people first.

Thanks

pH

 

[The Judge]

My advice at this stage is just to carry on writing it as if it's going to be one book. Worry about splitting it in two and/or drastically pruning it as and when you've finished.

Firstly, who knows what might be published between now and when you've finished writing. Supernatural horror might only comprise one 125-150k word novel and its sequels at present, but a huge horror duology might come out next year, or a 250k work by a newbie which goes down a storm, and you can slip-stream behind them.

Secondly, you think you're writing supernatural horror, but what if it ends up being supernatural fantasy or fantastic horror or horrific fantasy or historical fantasy-horror, or... You get my drift. You're trying to pigeon-hole it and there's no point doing that just now. See what it reads like when it's done. Then worry about how to market it when you start submitting.

 

[ratsy]

What TJ said. Just write it. There are a lot of long books in the horror genre too. Every Kootz book, most king books, and many others. If the story warrants that length, let it be that length. Once its written, your betas and you will be able to advise if it works as a single novel or if splitting it would even work. Right now worrying about it will just take away the fun of writing it. So get that damn draft down!

 

[tinkerdan]

A story is going to end up as long as it should be[this is after editing it to death and back].
If you can find a break-point to create two stories it might work.
Chances are that someone will read it and think it is somehow incomplete, which makes sense unless you go through and remove a handful of things that might not get resolved until the next book--and find a place to wedge them into the next book.

I had this agony; however I had over 400k words. I ended up with 250k words in the first book. I think if I could have it might have worked better to get it at least down to 150k words. as it is 250k manages to be some 600 plus pages and is rather intimidating. 150k would have been around 360 plus pages.

Good luck getting it split and making it whole again.

 

[The Big Peat]

What TJ said. Maybe build yourself some good break points, but for the most part, write it and see what you've got afterwards.

The only way this is bad advice is if you're so petrified that you're writing something with no use to other people that you have to break it up now to make yourself comfortable and allow yourself to continue advancing. (Well, probably the only way...)

 

[Phyrebrat]

Thanks. I am writing it and it's going well but there's a bit of what Peat said. I'd like to know if I'm doing one or two books just to make things easier. After all, I've been working on this since 2009 (or, rather, first started making notes then).

I am an awkward cuss because up until a year ago (or thereabouts) I didn't really have any designs on publishing.

Funny that you should mention genre market, TJ, as I think I mentioned that to you in email recently. I think the 2017 strand is the horror bit and the rest are more historical mysteries.

Thanks for the advice all.

pH

 

[Venusian Broon]

+1 for TJ's advice as well.

Although unfortunately the two options you have are a tad mutually exclusive. It seems to me that in the 'final run' for the polished draft either you essentially slim down for a single book, or you arrange/add to the larger story to provide a satisfactory book 1 (at the very least)

However I do think at this moment in time, unless you are very strongly one way or the other, don't worry about it too much because that would take away time and effort you really should spend on finishing the draft you are on.

And I'd say that it's a bit easier to re-arrange a completed manuscript and bend it to another 'format' if your original vision doesn't quite work out, rather than try and second guess and cover all the bases while your still knocking out the first draft.

 

[Amelia Faulkner]

• I have two medieval periods: 1178 and 1347-9

• Two enlightenment (sort of) periods: 1760s & 1850-60s

• Current time (2017).

Looks like five 50k books to me. Nobody's going to argue that The Dark Tower should've been a single book, right?

 

[Phyrebrat]

Looks like five 50k books to me. Nobody's going to argue that The Dark Tower should've been a single book, right?

Stop it right now!

(The 1170s section is only 13k anyway so )

pH

 

[apocalypsegal]

First of all, you're talking about books in series, not serials. Serials tend to be shorter (short story or novella length), written in parts much like a television show. They often have some level of a cliffhanger ending, which picks up in the next episode. There is a difference, and thinking about the wrong one can mess up your publishing plans.

Also, why are you worrying about this now? Finish the dang book. Worry about other stuff after. You've been working on this for eight years. Time to focus and finish.

 

[Dan Jones]

Another uptick for TJ.

Funnily enough I was about halfway through my first draft of Man O'War, and I thought my god, this is going to be way too big, I'm going to need two books. So I floated the idea past Mrs Jones, who said, "just write the bloody book." As usual, she was right, and it came out at the right length once the fat had been trimmed and all the excess storylines had been tidied up or omitted entirely.

So definitely aim for one, and see where you go from there.