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Getting Bogged Down By Details

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Dallionz

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My WIP is about 50% done and I'm very comfortable with the main characters, the story and where everything is going.

Here's the problem: It's the first book in a series of three. I had decided I wanted these following books to continue within a few months of where the previous book ended. Each of the new books is about a different sibling in the family. That said, they all live in the same town and you learn more about the first couple's lives through the story in the second book, and so on.

So now I'm finding myself feeling very bogged down. I feel like I need to have all three books ironed out and that's not the way I work. I'm also seeing why people write a series and use a character that is a very minor character in the previous book, or choose a sibling that doesn't live in the same town, etc.

I have a lot of people I'm dealing with. I want to do them all justice, make them seem real and likable even if I don't go into too many details about them in this first book.

Am I taking on too much? Am I overthinking it?

Should I just move forward with this first book and figure the other two out when I'm done?

For those of you who have written a similar series or are working on something similar, what did you do?

TIA!
 

zarada

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i can only answer at the general level.

when i hit a glitch and i get blocked, i jump over the fence and see where i land (there's always a fence to jump over, keep that in the front of mind).

if it's about details, i zoom back out to take in the bigger picture, then pick another detail or chapter to work on. eventually the block erodes itself down, and when you go back you'll find the way clear.

hope that helps :tongue
 

areteus

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Finish book one, keep the details that don't immediately apply to book one to one side until you need it. Once you have finished book one you can go through and see if any of those details need to be in there or not but for now focus on what is important for the initial story and maybe hint at the details for future books.
 

Dallionz

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i can only answer at the general level.

when i hit a glitch and i get blocked, i jump over the fence and see where i land (there's always a fence to jump over, keep that in the front of mind).

if it's about details, i zoom back out to take in the bigger picture, then pick another detail or chapter to work on. eventually the block erodes itself down, and when you go back you'll find the way clear.

hope that helps :tongue

That makes sense. I've done that on an individual book level, but hadn't thought about that with regards to the series. I think that's exactly what I'll do and see if that helps with this block! Thank you!

Finish book one, keep the details that don't immediately apply to book one to one side until you need it. Once you have finished book one you can go through and see if any of those details need to be in there or not but for now focus on what is important for the initial story and maybe hint at the details for future books.

Good advice, thank you. I'll do just that. I think I am way overthinking the overall picture instead of taking it one book at a time.
 

cmhbob

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Take notes, too! When you get to a point and say, "Man, that'd be a great scene/line/whatever for the second book," write it down. trust me, you won't remember it when you need it.
 

Dallionz

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Take notes, too! When you get to a point and say, "Man, that'd be a great scene/line/whatever for the second book," write it down. trust me, you won't remember it when you need it.

Excellent idea. I've got a notebook I use for my first thoughts on a book to keep characters straight. I'll make sure I have that right by me for moments like that.
 

namid

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Absolutely think only of finishing Book 1 and concentrate on making it successful. If it isn't, Books 2 and 3 won't be worth writing anyway.

If Star Wars had bombed there'd have been no Empire Strikes Back.
 

wampuscat

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Also, I'd start a "series bible" of details about your characters and world. That was when you get to book 3 and you can't remember the color of so-and-so's eyes or a street name, you have all those details already written down in an easy-to-find place.
 

Dallionz

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Absolutely think only of finishing Book 1 and concentrate on making it successful. If it isn't, Books 2 and 3 won't be worth writing anyway.

If Star Wars had bombed there'd have been no Empire Strikes Back.

VERY good point!

Also, I'd start a "series bible" of details about your characters and world. That was when you get to book 3 and you can't remember the color of so-and-so's eyes or a street name, you have all those details already written down in an easy-to-find place.

Good suggestion! I do have a little journal I write information down but I mostly did that in the beginning. I'll get it out and jot other details in there as well.
 

Sinderion

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Just get it down on paper. That's what I'd say. You can't work with what you don't have yet :D I keep learning that lesson over and over. A carpenter can't make a beautiful cabinet unless he has the lumber first. Grow some trees.

I'm a rough outlliner type though. I plan out broad strokes of the book through the three acts and "required" features of a novel, then follow my general plan. If I come up with a cool enough idea I change my plan.

It doesn't sound like you do much planning though. Just get something down first, you'll be going back over it a bunch anyways. You can't make good something you don't have yet.
 

Jinsune

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Just get it down on paper. That's what I'd say. You can't work with what you don't have yet :D I keep learning that lesson over and over. A carpenter can't make a beautiful cabinet unless he has the lumber first. Grow some trees.

I'm a rough outlliner type though. I plan out broad strokes of the book through the three acts and "required" features of a novel, then follow my general plan. If I come up with a cool enough idea I change my plan.

It doesn't sound like you do much planning though. Just get something down first, you'll be going back over it a bunch anyways. You can't make good something you don't have yet.

I'm not an outliner, but I agree. If you're not sure about creating likeable characters and things like that, you're overthinking things. Write the stories the way you want them, and not to please the readers. I think this will help make your work stand out and appeal to readers, otherwise it might come off as stilted.
Draft up a couple of outlines and plan what you want to happen to who, and go from there. I'm saying this because it sounds like you only know the basis of what your series will be about, and not the actual plots of the book. I think that might be why you're struggling.
 

RN Hill

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Keep going with the first one -- you're only halfway done. See where it takes you first. For all you know, the person you thought would be the focus of Book 2 might die before Book 1 ends!

I heard somewhere that Stieg Larsson wrote all three of his books for this exact reason -- he wanted to be sure that there was continuity between them all.

And if it makes you feel better -- I'm sort of there myself at the moment, feeling my way through a series.
 

Threak 17

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Great advice all around. Concentrate on finishing the first, while keeping important notes/ideas in a separate journal. If you plant the seeds now it is easier to harvest them later.
 

Dallionz

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There is a lot of fantastic advice here and you've all given me a lot to think about. Thank you so much!

I think I did finally realize that I have no real hook for this first book. I have likable characters and some things that happen in the story, but no real focus. I think I'm going to put it on the back burner and turn to a different one I've got a hook for and work on it instead.

Then maybe either come back to the first if the idea changes, or maybe just take those characters that I like and merge them into a different story in the future.
 

blacbird

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I think I did finally realize that I have no real hook for this first book. I have likable characters and some things that happen in the story, but no real focus.

FOCUS is the most important operative word. We hear a lot about the "hook", but that's nothing more than an arrestingly noticeable gargoyle peering over the edge of the cathedral's roof. Any successful story needs a focus, a central core of literary gravity around which all the other stuff orbits.

I use the word "focus" a lot in my English composition classes. This very week I am going to examine how good, effective sentences and paragraphs are composed, with a strong emphasis on each of them having a focus. For a sentence, that isn't the technical subject, necessarily; it's a bit more nebulous, but it is certainly important. My class will look at some pieces of writing with a particular focus on determing the focus of any given sentence or paragraph.

caw
 

Dallionz

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I really like your point about focus versus a hook in the story. I think you're right, if you have a good focus, that is the most important thing. The idea that the focus ifs the central core and everything else orbits around it is one I will remember.

I really need to find that focus because I don't want to abandon this book. I'm 33,000 words into it. I just can't seem to find that focus.
 

Dallionz

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I'm so relieved to say that I found the focus of my book! Yay! Now it means some rewriting of the first half, but I can do that and I'm just so happy to be back on track again. Thanks!
 
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