Babel Clash

KATE:

Ken, I had a lot of trouble while writing my Crown of Stars series with the story growing 
longer and longer and turning, eventually, into a seven book trilogy, as I sometimes 
jokingly call it.  There are a lot of good things in that series that I’m really fond of 
(and a number which I’m quite proud of), but I admit I am at some angles disappointed that it sometimes seemed to get away from me.

So I’m impressed to see you make such firm statements about how The Psalms of Isaak is a 
five book cycle.  How can you be sure?  How do you develop your narrative architecture?  
Is there something in the way you built or devised the plot that holds in check those 
plot paths that want to go off into a new direction?  I would love to hear your thoughts 
on how you create a complex cycle and keep it under control.

KEN:

In some ways, the Psalms of Isaak has already gotten quite a bit away from me in length considering it was originally imagined as four short stories that represented snapshots in the midst of the larger story.   [Interpolation by Kate:  I’m laughing hysterically here, but totally in sympathy, mind you.]

I had written the original short story with no clue that there was so much more to it.  When “Of Metal Men and Scarlet Thread and Dancing with the Sunrise” ran in Realms of Fantasy, the art they commissioned from Allen Douglas sucker-punched me into realizing it was a much bigger story.  So I wrote the second in the cycle, but when it didn’t stand alone well enough, I was strongly encouraged by Shawna and Everyone Else to go write a novel in that world.
I resisted but maintained that maybe, once I wrote all four, it could be tied up into an novella that might, someday, become a novel.

But then Jay (Lake) and my wife Jen dare-taunted me into writing LAMENTATION.  When I wrote the initial draft I thought I was looking at a trilogy but by the end, it was just plain to me that it was easily  five books worth of story if I stayed firmly in the driver’s seat.

My process so far in writing the series is to think about the larger story arc, what needs to happen in each character’s life over the course of the series and what challenges they will face.  With each novel, I try to stay in a three act structure that fits into the larger three act structure of the series and I’m told I’m a bit odd in how I tackle that.  I actually start with how long I think the book should be, divide that out by the number of main characters to see how much room they are allowed to have within the book — with the understanding, of course, that it will vary in the drafting.  I write short scenes — one to two thousand words — and typically have three scenes per chapter featuring three of the POV characters.  Some supporting POV characters get a few scenes as well, so I’m not really holding myself to a strict rule here.  Once I know roughly how many chapters a character will get for their story, I look at the three acts — 25% for the first act, 50% for the second and then 25% for the third, give or take.  Then, I set up my manuscript with the chapters and the POVs to be featured and write within the structure, always reserving the right to change my mind.  I find the challenge of fitting my tale into the boundaries and structure I create for it to be part of the fun in the process much like I enjoyed the process of fitting a short story into the size and shape that an editor wanted for their publication.

So in a way, it’s five books largely because I decided five books was a fair enough length for the story I’m telling.  I have a couple of values driving my process for writing the series.

First, I think new readers to the genre aren’t necessarily excited about large door-stopper fantasies in long series.  I like them a lot but there’s often a good amount of detail in those books that aren’t necessary to the story.  Meanderings that might be better served as novellas or short stories to seed the pond for hungry readers…or even stand alone novels that come out later featuring a return to a world and characters that readers are dying to get back to.

Second, I keep the scenes brisk and alternate POV frequently to keep the story moving quickly.  I have lots of characters so that there’s at least one or two that people can love.  I write sparse prose, too, leftover I think from my short fiction background.  Elmore Leonard’s advice “I think about the story and leave everything out that isn’t story” is something I hold to, though I do that leaving internally as a part of the drafting process.  Some have lauded that in LAMENTATION while others have criticized the lack of those familiar, sprawling sequences that many fans of epic fantasy have grown used to.

Third, as a reader I think three to seven books feels right to me for a series and I suspect that a lot of other readers would like to see those of us who write them give them tighter, more contained stories  with a better sense of when they’ll have the entire set on their shelves.  That said, if the Psalms of Isaak needed to be longer, I’ve left myself the room to write longer books (so far, each of these is less than 150,000 words) and the timeline for writing a series, especially when Life Happens, can be hard to nail down.   Add to that the occasional bog-down or burn-out that can show up in addition to Life Happening.  Spending years with the same characters as a writer is an entirely different experience than spending weeks or days with them as a reader,  plowing through the books as fast as they can be read.  So I think it’s very understandable that some series take a while to get into the hands of a reader.

How does your process differ from mine?  Is it more organic?  Do you work from outlines?  How much of the bones of the story do you have before you start adding the meat and muscle?

Kate answers, tomorrow.

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