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Writing: Breaking Up Your Story

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    Yes, we all know about the age-old fantasy trilogy.

    However, unlike LotR, for instance, which is not really a trilogy, at least, according to Tolkien, I’m one of those people who thinks about my story in different parts. Partly, it’s just so I can focus on a specific series of events and worry about the rest of the ‘parts’ later and integrating everything. It just makes more sense this way for me.

    Anyway, how do you feel about breaking up a story? Where do you usually break off, and for what reasons?

    (The reason this came up is because I’m thinking of breaking off my NaNo story right where November ended, which is half of the original ‘part’ I was envisioning, and I’m debating the pros and cons. Pros- I can finally get to editing something. Cons- abrupt? I don’t know. I have to think about this.)

    Just wanted to bring this topic up, because we haven’t had that much writing discussion lately.

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      CommentAuthorSpanman
    • CommentTimeDec 10th 2009
     

    I don’t think I’d ever be able to manage writing a series of books, because I’m so prone to revamping an entire story over and over and over again. Also all my stories tend to be more novella-sized anyway. However, with my last year’s November novel, I cut it off directly at the end of the month and since the story was not completely finished (and my mom complained about the plot ending too abruptly), I decided to begin another phase of the story in a separate book-within-a-book. It was just another section, but it was a good way of dividing a story up in order to keep track of the different parts (besides chapters – not a fan of those).

    Anyway, that’s just my own lil’ methods. I’m in continual awe of people who possess the persistence to write trilogies and so forth.

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      CommentAuthorPuppet
    • CommentTimeDec 10th 2009
     

    Most of my stories are usually around the 20-50,000 word range, in other words, they aren’t long enough for multiple books. Also, length doesn’t necessarily mean quality, I respect the writer who can tell a good story in a few words.

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    Despite the terrible odds of even having one story be published and successful, I’m shooting for trilogy just because it’s always trilogies. There’s a truckload of intentional loose ends in my first draft, and I’m probably going to add even more during rewrites. All my sequel protagonists except one either appear in person, in flashbacks, or are otherwise referenced. The two chief antagonists get throwaway references by other characters, and I wrote one of the sub-antagonists in several times just because I think he’s too cool not to set up.

    At any rate, I don’t think there’s any harm in planning ahead like that. If it doesn’t get picked up, or if it does get picked up but doesn’t sell, it will probably be because my prose was terrible or the characterization was poorly executed or the concept itself just isn’t marketable, and not that I put too much effort into sequel hooks.

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    I see what you mean, Puppet. However, the idea I’ve got is pretty ambitious (perhaps too ambitious for my current skill level, but I’m determined to try it if only so I can come back to it when I’m more experienced) and seeing everything as one big huge text document is head-dizzying. It’s easier for me to break things up into little digestible parts.

    Also, the fact that I haven’t even finished my first ‘chunk’ in the course of 50,000 words means that either a) I’m too verbose b) this is a plot that needs more breathing room.

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    Well, it’s possible you’ve just got a really decompressed style. It’s not a bad thing, but it can ruin whatever sort of pacing you’re going for in addition to making the overall size intimidating for prospective readers. I know I tend to decompress things myself, and I have to keep it on a pretty short leash or else it runs away.

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    Plus, it was NaNo, and I was struggling to reach word quota, so I just rambled on weird tangents. XP

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    PG Wodehouse (The Master TM ) always managed his plots in a 180pp book or less.

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    Oh, since I didn’t really answer the question in either of my previous posts, I broke mine up into three parts of roughly equivalent length(although the third is currently somewhat shorter). The first one ends with a big fight followed by a flashback dream, and the second one ends with a flashback dream followed by a big fight. The third one just ends in a fight.

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    Fights R Awesum.

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      CommentAuthorAdamPottle
    • CommentTimeDec 17th 2009
     
    I want to split mine into two, focusing on two characters on the opposite side of a war- the first book will deal with one side rallying from near defeat to taking a clear lead in things; the second will deal with the same turn in events and afterwards from the perspective of an occasionally-mentioned antagonist general from the first book.

    Does that make sense?
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    Yeah, and it sounds interesting to look at things from the opposing side.

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      CommentAuthorNorthmark
    • CommentTimeDec 20th 2009 edited
     

    I have a really huge plot working with tons of characters that has too much information for one book. It’s at least planned trilogy, but I don’t have a definite ending for anything after the first book.

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    I’m thinking a quartet right now, but I don’t know, because I have absolutely nothing planned after part 1.

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