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WRITING LESSONS, January 2007 THE EPIC SERIS, HOW TO PLAN AND WRITE ONE, PART I
So you want to write an epic series. Good. First, though, get at least one, preferably two or three single books written using:
At least one of these should be a plot-driven story, rather than a character-driven one. Next I would suggest tackling an episodic series before trying the epic series, but many of you will not wish to postpone your date with destiny that long. But, please, at least do write single books as recommended above before you contemplate an epic series. Why do I suggest this? Well, you can jump right in to the deep end of the ocean, of course, but it will be much easier for you if you have completed one to several books first, because then you will know
This self-confidence is crucial, in my opinion. Additionally, the experience of having successfully learned how to handle POVs, their transitions, as well as how to write a plot-driven story, rather than a character-driven one, will be of immeasurable help in dealing with an epic series.
PLOT-DRIVEN OR CHARACTER-DRIVEN Plot-driven stories are harder to write. Character-driven stories are much easier, but, for an epic series, much harder to gain enough of the significant depth required for a series. Better to write the episodic series if you want to write a series based upon a characer, (Conan, Mrs. Polifax, etc.). "But I WANT to write an epic series based upon a particular character." It is possible, but mapping out a cohesive stream of what-if's and what-happens-next for a minimal three books using one character only as the engine requires significant complexity and life history to be impeccably apprehended. Even for just the first book, you must have a very interesting character with a complex personality whose psychology you comprehend completely, whose motivations you unerringly know, and whose every quirk and trait you can identify. (Hannibal Lector is an excellent example of such a complex character. So is the historic figure known as Jack the Ripper.) You must also know your complex character's complete life story from pre-birth through death as well as the consequences to everything and everyone he or she affected within their world. In essence, since most character-driven books are semi-autobiographical or biographical in nature, the saying, Know Thyself, is essential. In point of fact, most epic series are plot-driven at their founding line. While there are character-driven epics and plot-and-character-driven epics, plot-driven are the most common. Now, yes, of course they use character as their delivery vehicle, but it is the PLOT that dictates story. Sky's L'Oracle series is plot-driven, even though the delivery is via one main character throughout the three-book series. Because the story delivery is via one main character, it seems to be character-driven, but it isn't. How do I know that? By its construct, its theme, and the significant events that drive the books from onset to terminus. The books are ABOUT conflicting ideologies and that conflict's effect upon the societies and peoples and the future societies and peoples of its world and cosmos.
PLOT DRIVEN EPICS What does "plot-driven" mean? There is a struggle, conflict, or difficulty that affects the story world and that story world's future reality. How that ultimately resolves is the epic's inherent message (theme) and the whole story's purpose for being. PLOT DRIVEN EPICS
CHARACTER-DRIVEN EPICS These are about a genome/personality. They will follow one or several character's(') choices, the results of those choices, to outcome. That outcome will be significant to that character's personal inner psychology, regardless how small or large. In the case of a familial epic, one follows the initial character(s), then the get (offspring) of that or those character(s), but the focus is ON CHARACTER CHANGES AND REALIZATIONS, ON EFFECT TO THE FAMILY DYNASTY, not significant world-changing eventualities, which may or may not happen as result of their movements and interactions with surrounding reality. Conrad Richter's Awakening Land series, The Trees, The Fields, The Town, with its main character Sayward Luckett Wheeler, exemplifies this. That series is a character-driven epic series where the changes and realizations are Sayward's, delivered in extraordinary story and prose by a very able author. Chances are, the epic you write will be plot-driven. If you by chance wind up attempting to write a plot-and-character-driven epic, you are, of course, requiring yourself to do a very tricky feat, which, again, is possible, but it requires very careful use of what I term the silent hub...something I will try to elaborate on much later. The trickiest epic series is the plot driven/multi-character driven epic, and that truly requires a thematic hub wherein all significance is directly and proportionately dependent upon a resolution based upon the theme's penultimate implication(s).
PLANNING THE EPIC First comes INSPIRATION INSPIRATION is the spark, the vision, that erupts in the writer, in all its glorious and complex culmination. The epic's Muse delivers the feel of it, the significance, the glory of it in one fell "thwoop." It rises within the author like a phoenix, arching and spreading its DEMANDS FOR CREATION'S SPARK. Usually INSPIRATION will erupt in a grand outpouring of prose so omnisciently versed, so potently filled with authorial passion, that, while the writing itself might be "saturated" with laden emotive ramblings and bruised prose, the might and weight of the energy within that prose holds forth a beacon for that author...and for anyone keen enough to perceive it. Next, after INSPIRATION, comes sporadic flashes wherein the author madly writes within immersion (writer's trance), in passion, the beginning as they then perceive it. They are riding the wave of the energy. But, soon, regardless of how far they get into the work, they begin to flounder in the complexity. They should write on as far as they can, never going back, just getting to the end of the entire epic series if they can. At least, they must know the ultimate end of the epic. (The ultimate end -- what happens LAST.) If they don't know that, they cannot write even the first book successfully. BUT, YOU SAY... There is no "but." Yes, authors begin series spontaneously with one book and then go on to write a complete series. Unfortunately, sooner or later, they usually wind up writing themselves into a corner. Sooner or later, they are going to have to write something that conflicts with something previously written in a preceding book. Don't do that. There are ways to allow yourself an infinite story epic that can go on forever, but still allows you to never have to cross yourself up because of something previously written. That key is knowing your ending and having enough of a skeletal plot and story map outlined to recognize what limitations are imposed and what possibilities exist. Suffice it for now to just find the penultimate end of your epic. Know how it will end, even if you never write that end, or, if you write that end, but don't want an end to occur until your death, then simply archive the final manuscript and give instructions to your agent or attorney that, upon your death, this book is to be released, thereby terminating further books from being spawned by other authors (a wise thing, by the way).
AFTER KNOWING YOUR EPIC'S END... Once the author knows the penultimate end, then it is a matter of getting the scenes down that they know, regardless of whether they recognize and can connect the characters, scenes, and incidents to any given point in the epic's/world's time line and/or the epic's/world's story line. Only AFTER an author is "written completely out," do they then sit back and simply STOP. So, now what? Now begins the outlining, plot diagram, scene and story mapping, but only AFTER theme is discovered...uncovered...revealed...and, MOST OF ALL, grasped, comprehended, and understood in all its implications and all of its potentials, leading through all possibility, as applied to the epic's main plot. But let's digress a moment and examine what has throughout the course of my teaching career proven to be that most difficult of concepts for an author to apprehend: theme as related to plot and plot as related to story. THEME IS THE MEASURE OF PLOT How many times have my students heard me say this enigmatic phrase? Over the years, perhaps a million and one times. And here comes one-million-two: THEME IS THE MEASURE OF PLOT. EVERY PART AND SEQUENCE OF PLOT MUST ADHERE AND REINFORCE THEME(S), be it counter perspective, contrasting perspective, simultaneous dissertation, demonstrative exploit, parallel dissuasion/persuasion, or simple/complex exploration. AND PLOT IS THE MEASURE OF STORY...which means that, ultimately, theme(s) and COUNTER THEME(S) is the measure of story. So what IS theme, plot, and story? Get those mixed up, do you? Get fuzzy ideas that seem to merge and blend? Then you aren't quite ready to tackle the epic. Really. Write another plot-driven novel, preferably multi-POV, for practice. THEME/COUNTER THEME DEFINED: The underlying substantial precept(s) and its counter(s) that found the entire aggregate of world views, life views, and critical arguments/sequences driving the plot. The underlying ideological, philosophical, or existential perspective the author proves with his/her story...either successfully or unsuccessfully.
PLOT: the causative catalyst, action/response generator(s) that brings theme(s) in conflict with its counter theme(s). All of them can be fit into the three categories that follow:
STORY: The expressed reality, acted out through characters and the incidents which affect them within the story world, its sequence and culmination as dictated by plot as directed by theme. Get these straight in your mind, for only then can you go on to effectively plan and organize your epic series.
NEXT: PLOT DIAGRAMMING AND OUTLINING THE EPIC SERIES © Copyright 2006 zentao |
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