"Our Own Stuff"

"Writing gives you the illusion of control, and then you realize it's just an illusion, that people are going to bring their own stuff into it." ~David Sedaris

I found that quote this morning and it made me stop and go, "Huh. How true is that? Each of us does bring "our own stuff" into what we read."

Don't agree? How many times have you started writing something and had to scrap it because the characters just weren't speaking to you? How many times have you started reading a story and put it down because you just couldn't relate to the character?

We DO bring "our own stuff" into what we're reading or what we're writing. As writers, when something interesting happens around us, we frequently stop to think, "how can I use that in a story?" We see something, hear something, and BOOM! We HAVE to use that.

Then, when we're reading something someone else has written, we tend to identify with one particular character. If something bad happens to that character or they do soemthing that we think is 'out of the norm' for them, we can get angry with the creator of that character.

We've all heard stories of authors getting letters from 'fans' angry with them for having a character do or say something that they feel is 'not right' for that character. Even though that character sprang from the author's imaginaion, not the reader's, the reader feels they "own" that character. One of our readers swatted Cai with the second book in our Lusting Wild series because the hero of that book was the villain of book one. She was angry that we made her love him. The first book in that series is Changing Times and the second is Changing Hearts. Luckily, the hero in Changing Focus was never a villain, so we didn't get bruised for writing his story.

We agonize over our stories. We strive for perfection. We work our tails off to get everything right in our work. We hope people will become invested in our characters, our plots, our little worlds. We wait anxiously for that first review, the first time someone says, "Oh, I read your book!" We obsessively check our email for fan mail.

What we don't do is stop to think about others bringing their "own stuff" into our world. And quite possibly, we shouldn't. If we stopped to try to please everyone else, we'd never be able to please ourselves. We need to embrace our characters, give them life, and then turn them loose into the world to see what life they take on for themselves in the minds of our readers.

So what do you think about this issue of control? How does it affect your writing?

What to do when your Characters WON'T behave...

You know what I'm talking about. You're writing along, happily involved in your plot, perfectly content with your hero and heroine and everything is going smoothly...

Then that one character, the one you had fully intended to be a secondary, sort of throw-away character, pipes up...

"Hey you. You there with the serious look on your face. Yeah, you. Writer. What about me?"

"What about you? your story line ends in another chapter."

"Oh no it doesn't! I'm not going to go quietly!"

"What does that mean, 'you're not going to go quietly?' I created you. If I say your storyline ends in the next chapter, then it ends in the next chapter. Now, go sit over there and be quiet. I'm at a pivotal plot point and need to concentrate!"

"Oh yeah? Well, concentrate on THIS!"

And that character does something you hadn't really planned for him to do and suddenly your story has changed. Oh, not that he's going to come in and take over completely, but let's face it - he's made a difference and now you're going to have to deal with that.

Sometimes that is more than an author can handle and they allow that secondary character to take over, to become another hero in their story line. Sometimes the author solves this problem by killing that character off. That's all well and good - IF it fits in with the plot. Then again, some (most) authors try to develop that secondary character into his or her own story - promising them the sequel if they'll just behave long enough for the first book to be written.

That's what happened with my first book, Changing Times, where the very bad guy suddenly got a heart. What was I going to do with him now? I had planned on a bloody massacre where the hero got to pummel him into a pulp, but now what? I had to go back and ease up a bit on his villainy, but I've still been smacked by readers.

No, really! I mean someone walked up to me and HIT me with my second book, Changing Hearts, because I made them love the villain they had hated.

Handling unruly secondary characters is a fine art. You want to develop your plot and your main characters to the point that they seem like real people To that end, they need friends, families, co-workers and not just as plot devices.

Keeping a tight rein on those characters without totally stifling them means walking a very fine line. You have to make them believeable and you have to make your readers care about them - just not as much as they care about the main characters. At the same time, you cannot allow them to take over your story. What do you do if that starts to happen?

You can let them have their moment in the sun, let them take over for a little while and see how that works for your story. You can stifle them, pushing them to the background and ignoring their pitiful cries to be heard. You can also open a new document, start writing their story, and see if that will keep them quiet long enough for you to finish what you started.

What do YOU do when those secondary characters try to take over? How do you handle them?

So you want to write a series…

Whether with another writer, a group of writers, or just your very own special series just for you (well, and your readers!), there are certain things you must be prepared to do. World building is a must – whether you’re working by yourself or with others. Your first consideration should be continuity. What time period will you be writing in? If you’re working with other writers, you must decide on what commonalities your works are going to have – are you going to set all your stories in the same town, in the same hotel or restaurant, or nightclub? Are your characters going to interact with the characters of the other stories? If so, you have to come to some understanding of the other author’s writing process and figure out how your characters are going to interact and how often.

You need to track when a character mentions parents, hometowns, siblings, etc. A series is really a type of soap opera when you think about it. Characters in the same place who may or may not interact with one another. An interesting example of a crossover is J.R. Ward's new Covenant series. In the first book, a character from her previous series makes an appearance. It's subtle and you have to have read the first series (Black Dagger Brotherhood) to get the reference. But trust me, if you have readers who have read the other books, they will notice when the heroine of your fifth book is the sister of the hero of the first book who said in book one he only had brothers.

If you’re doing your own series, there’s still plenty of world building that must be done. You have to decide on the “rules” of your world and then stick to them or the readers WILL call you out on that. Want to write a vampire story with a twist? Better use that twist but don’t forget what it is! Want to set all your stories in the same town? Don’t move any building from one story to the other unless it’s part of your plot to have disappearing buildings or blow something up!

One thing to do to preserve continuity is to have a character from a past book do a cameo in another book. This will do two things at the very least. It anchors your new book in your world. Plus if someone is reading out of order (and we all do that at some point), it will alert them to past books hopefully encouraging them to pick up some backlist.

Series shouldn't try to reinvent a wheel that was created in the first book. That's why a bible is important. No, not that Bible. In this case a bible refers to important story pieces that you need to remember.

In our Lusting Wild series, we have a several groups of shifters. Our bible includes listing who is in which Pack. For instance there's the Compound Pack who cause quite a bit of trouble in Changing Times and Changing Hearts, books one and two in the Lusting Wild series. But by book three, Changing Focus, the Compound Pack has shifted (you should pardon the pun) towards a more law-abiding pack although they still have one or two control issues that the hero of Changing Focus, has to deal with.

When you are writing a series, you really want to make sure that you provide enough clues for the next character's story as well. We recently got a comment on our publisher's page regarding a supporting character from book three. The reader was hoping his story would be next. We have good news for that reader. Gareth's story is definitely one we will be working on. Book three also re-introduced a were-leopard lawyer character who had a small role in book one and a minor character from book two, a member of the Compound pack, who is a wolf as well as a lawyer. The interaction between them intrigued us enough to start plotting their romance as well.

Currently, we are working with a group of fellow Ellora's Cave authors on a new multiple-author series. This particular series will have only two common elements-a phone number and a private club. The stories will be contemporary erotica with a BDSM twist. We have all worked on the concept and common characters as well as shared our synopses for each of the books. The next step is putting a proposal together to pitch to The Powers That Be aka our Editor-In-Chief. Our hope is that she will like the series idea enough to give it the thumbs up. Then we have to write the books individually. The process will be the same in that we have to submit them to an editor, but because they will tie into one another, we plan to have a group marketing effort.

A good example of this type of multi-author series is the Crimson City series. Authors Liz Maverick, Marjorie Liu, Jade Lee, Patti O'Shea and Carolyn Jewell all wrote manuscripts within this world. Their paranormal world featured a cast of races that allowed the authors to delve into their favorites while pulling in cameos from other characters in other books. It was so well-done that there is a rumor that Crimson City may be making a comeback.

So do you read series? If you do, what do you like best about them? Do you catch small mistakes from a secondary character's emerald green eyes suddenly becoming ice blue in the fourth book? Why do you read series? Do you prefer single titles to series? Considering all of this will help you become a better series writer if that is your goal.