I finally finished the proposals for the next three Garnet Lacey books last night. And after my partner checks the last one over to make sure it's not full of stupid and/or tons of typos, I'll sent them off.
A lot of writers like to complain about getting stuck in the "never-ending series." But, as I said in a recent podcast, I'd be happy to be writing DEAD & RETIRED fifty years from now. As I was fiddling around with the potential plot skeletons of these next few books, I was struck by the fact that what I like about series writing is getting to bring up little tiny details, half-forgotten in previous titles, and exploit and mine the bejeezus out of them. But I also love TV shows that have continuing story arcs (as opposed to "monster of the week") and comic book cross-overs and never-ending story lines.
When I was a kid (and, uhm, even now when I'm falling asleep at night,) these are the kinds of stories I tell myself. The ones that continue ad infinitum with reoccurring characters and complex interwoven plot threads that span decades. In fact, when I was first starting out writing, the hardest part of writing for me was figuring out how to get to THE END and not leaving all those loose threads hanging.
Though you still have to complete whatever "problem statement" you proposed in your beginning sentence/paragraph, series writing allows for a few hanging bits. Your wrapping has to be tight, but there can be hints of things unresolved.
For me, that's what makes it fun. Though I realized that by chance I've kind of written a "this could be a series ender" kind of finale into Garnet Lacey #8, and I'll have to be clear with my agent that's it's not my intention to be done with that one.
I want to keep writing these. The deeper I probe Garnet's life, the more wacky it is. Kinda like real life. And that's cool.
* x-posted from Wyrdsmiths
