Does Anyone Ever Plan 4 Book Series?

Well, the only four book series I can think of off the top of my head is the Twilight saga. So....take from that what you will.

Trilogies are usually an expansion of a 3-act structure, so I would think that to get a 4-book series you should start with a 4-act structure.

I've never planned a 4-book series, but I have planned a saga, which is looking to be about 10 or more, so I guess you could call that a serial.

Apart from Twilight, I know the Evernight series is supposed to be 4 books, but only 2 are out so far, so it's hard to comment on the overall effect.

Also, there's The Legend Of Drizzt - a D&D series - that is split into 4 sections. Two trilogies, and 2 sets of 4, making 14 total. I think the first trilogy was written after the second trilogy, like Star Wars, and so the only consistent thing I've noticed in the plot is from books 4-14, and then it's diluted by more pressing stories.

As per my 10 book saga, I've realised the 2 written so far are too short, so I was thinking maybe I'd put 3 at a time - like a trilogy per volume - for the first 6 books, which works out well enough even if it might be like epic long because of it, and then do 2 at a time for the remaining 4, because those ones will be longer anyway.

Which would make it 4 volumes. And yes, I do believe the only consistent thing will be the main characters after 10 stories...

I'm so not helpful.

The Enchanted Forest Chronicles, by Patricia C. Wrede. I think it was MG or YA fantasy.

There might have been a bit of plot decay in the fourth book (it's been a while) but I remember enjoying all of them. It helps that I think Wrede is a pretty strong writer overall. What I do remember of the fourth book in the series (and why I don't remember it quite as fondly as the first three) is that while it keeps the main character from the first three books, by that time, the character had not only grown up and gotten married, but she'd had kids by them.

The four books were cohesive, I think they were split into appropriately sized chunks, but at the age I read through them, I just wasn't ready for the maturation of the MC. Given that the books did target a younger audience, the inclusion of offspring as active characters made sense, but it also forced a bit of distance with the MC.

So those are things to consider as well. The Star Wars trilogies are held together by Vader, but separated by time. Twilight Saga covers a pretty small range of time, and while the MC (presumably) ages and matures over the course of a few years, she's still young enough to be identifiably the same from beginning to end. [Presumably, because I haven't read them.]

A Series of Unfortunate Events is similar. Each book in the series covers a small enough span of time so that by the time you're on book 2 or 5 or 10, the characters are still near enough to the same age as they started. The growth comes in increments.

I hope that helps. Sorry that it got kind of rambly.

My YA series is and always was a four-book series. The story arc takes place over a year, each book in a different season. Each title includes the relevant season's name. Four-book series aren't all that common and often are 'created' when a fourth book is tacked onto a trilogy, but there are some that were planned to be four. In my case, it helped that the story was structured around something that is naturally four-fold.

I'm getting the jitters just thinking about that. I have enough trouble planning ONE at the moment.

Why would five be acceptable but four not?

Rhys Cordelle said:

Why would five be acceptable but four not?

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Its not that 4 is unacceptable.... 5 is just more common. There aren't many 4 book series, he was just noting that fact and pondering why that is the case.

I think a 4 book series would be difficult to do because even numbers after 2 (a single sequel) tend to be a problem. With an odd number such as 3, 5, 7, etc. you can set up a story in the traditional procedure with a beginning, middle, end. With a 4 book one...where is the turning point? In which book does the falling action begin, the middle, etc.

It works sometimes though. All I can think of is Twilight and The Inheritance Saga (which was a trilogy that got out of hand as you mentioned). Since that one isn't finished its hard to tell what his plan is.

But I know from the Twilight saga.... 4 books worked because you basically have Twilight, which is a stand alone....and then the latter 3 which are all codependant on one another and can not stand alone. Like instead of a sequel to Twilight, she wrote a trilogy/sequel.....trilequel ?

Well, when I think of a series, I think of standalone novels that use the same characters over and over. Rpbert B. Parker's Spenser novels, or Lawrence Block's Matthew Scudder novels, etc. These usually happen because the first novel sells well, and readers want to keep seeing the same characters, so the publisher says, "Give me another Scudder novel."

A duology, trilogy, and so on, is, to me, something else entirely. But I'm not sure I'd start wrting a trilogy, or anything longer, until after I'd sold a few standalone novels, or until I already had a pubisher's interest. That's an awful lot of work for something that's pretty darned tough for a new writer to sell.

I think "Wings" is on its way to being a 4-part series.

I was planning a trilogy once, and then noticed how many trilogies there already are, and made it a 4-book series just to be ornery. It already didn't really have the expected structure and unity of a trilogy anyway.

But I abandoned that project, so it's kind of moot.

Mercedes Lackey actually has several 4 book series. There's the Five Hundred Kingdoms which actually will probobly grow, and they're not specifically related books, just in the same world, and sometimes mention previous characters. Then there's the This Sceptere'd Isle books (I've not finished that one but they were really good), and the Heirs of Alexandria (again, not read all of them yet) which not only were 4 in the series, but massive books to start with. The last one I can think of was the Dragon Jousters series, which I thoroughly love, and I'm so glad she wrote the fourth one. Obviously I have no idea if it was planned, but somehow when I first started reading the series (As it was being published) i got the impression that it was a trilogy, and at the end of the third book I was mildly disappointed, because some things seemed left a little up in the air, even though the big-bad seems to have been taken down.

Anyway, appologies for the wall of text.

Maxinquaye said:

I'm getting the jitters just thinking about that. I have enough trouble planning ONE at the moment.

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You and me both! By the time I've finished one novel I want to meet new people I can torture.

No. I have enough trouble planning a one-book series.

caw

Why stop at 4? Tarzan lasted 24 books. The Shadow lasted 325 books. Write until the readers get sick of it.

There are lots of great quartets, or tetralogies, out there -- perhaps the greatest of them all being THE ALEXANDRIA QUARTET by Durrell (brilliant literature).

In terms of genre fiction, David Peace's RED-RIDING quartet is pretty darn good.

I think the problem is that you're using the word "four". Four of something doesn't sound right, I agree. Three sounds great. Five does too. But a quartet? Fabulous.

Laurell K Hamilton's Merideth Gentry (sp?) series is something like 9 or 10 books and the last one is supposed to be released this december. Karen Moning has many books (something like 15?) the first 7-10 could be stand alone or if they are all read they all sort of intertwine in one way or another (best if read in the order they were written) and then she has a new series (fever series) that is 5 books long the last one should come out next summer I'm guessing.

And as to what I'm writing.... well my character's haven't told me how many books they're planning....

The Eragon series has gone from three to four. Paolini reported that there was just too much material to squeeze into Book Three. Too bad -- it throws off the primary colors theme (blue-red-yellow) of the covers. Maybe he should go to six books, so he can squeeze in orange-purple-green covers.

In garden design and flower arranging and bonsai, groups of odd numbers are indeed considered more aesthetically pleasing than groups of even numbers. Interesting if the principle extends to book series.

Barrie Summy's YA mysteries look to end up as a four book series (but that's more of a publisher thing, from what I hear, since the publisher usually only does 4 books or something to that end.)

I don't think their's any reason NOT to do a four book set, as oppposed to 3 or 5, but that it's one of those things that may be dictated as much by story as by anything else (such as the desire for milking it for one more book.)

I'd like the novel I'm working for Nanowrimo to be the first in a four-book series. I'm basing it around the four seasons, so book 1 takes place in fall, book 2 would take place in winter, book 3 in spring, and book 4 in the summer. But it does also take place during my main character's senior year of high school, which I think is a time when there's a lot of change in one's like to begin with.

Yttar

I planned my book to be a quartet. The first three books are in a particular time frame while the last is set twenty years later. As far as them falling off, I don't really see it. If most quartets were to "fall off" I'm pretty sure the agent/editor would tell the author to wrap it up in three and sell it as a trilogy.

David Gerrold's The War Against The Chtorr series is a 4-book (with at least 1 more at least 20 years overdue) "trilogy". It might be safe to say at this point that the 5th book will never see the light of day.

A Day For Damnation
A Rage For Revenge
A Matter For Men
A Season For Slaughter
A Method For Madness (unpublished)

My own work Hatchings is planned as a 4-book series (Hatchings, Larval Stage, Pupation, and Final Instar).

Yes, my WIP is planned as four books. However, I can merge it into one if necessary. But it'll be too long, though...

I am still trying to wrap my head around the term "one-novel series".

*goes off to munch on jumbo shrimp*