A Series is Born

After writing my previous blog entry "Prequels and Sequels: Are Series More Successful?" I took a great deal of time (about 5 months hehe) to think through and weigh out my options for creating a series out of my novel "The Mechanical Room."  I wanted to see if it were even possible to string together the ideas, plots, and stories from the other novels I had formulated, and it turned out to be very possible.

Having painstakingly gone over the story line of the potential series, I found myself writing the second book (sequel to "The Mechanical Room") in my head already.  My sister once asked me about my writing methods and I told her... "When I feel compelled to write, when it's not an option, but a need... when I HAVE to get whatever is in my head out... that's when I know I've got something," and such is the case with this new novel.  I am currently in the pre-writing stages, but I am excited to add to my world and give my character John Noah a bigger role to play, though he will not be the main character in the sequels.  That is my writing style... I tend to have more than one main character because I believe, in life, we all have a part to play and everyone has a story to tell... no one person can do anything alone, though the stubborn may try.

And so the Side Effects series by Nevada Wolf is born (No relation to the 1994-1996 Canadian hospital themed dramatic television series, which I've never seen or heard of before... thank goodness for Google). The first book is "The Mechanical Room," which will be followed by "Dis-Ease" (working title).

Prequels and Sequels: Are Series More Successful?

The thought came to me the other day, as I was watching something... I can't remember exactly what I was watching, but I remember something that stood out to me.  I remember considering taking part of my novel and turning it into a prequel, and then followed by a series that I came up with a while ago.  The series was going to be a stand alone series based on a totally different storyline and in a different setting and everything.  However, one moment it hit me... BAM!  Why not tie all three together?  It seems to me that the most successful stories tend to be those told in a series of some kind.  I'm not saying that single, one-off, one-shot novels aren't successful, but I do see a trend and in the publishing business trends are important to take note of.

As a creative writer, we have to go with the flow of things and pump out those creative juices in large quantities and wrap it all in a nice little package for the masses to consume.  I'm not sure if mine will be too much of a mind trip for people to handle... it's a pretty trippy rabbit hole I'd be taking my readers down, but guaranteed to entertain I think.  Originally, I had a flashback sequence at the end of my story that took the reader back to relive the story but from another perspective in quick sequences.  I think this might be confusing however, and I've been thinking of ways to clean it up.

Well, I'm considering it and I love the idea especially since it gives me an opportunity to cut down that 100,000+ word count that I have now!  Yikes!  I know, I know, I get it from my mother... bless her heart!  Sometimes we can be a bit long winded.

It also gets me excited an enthusiastic about sitting down and writing again which is very important if you read any of my previous posts on motivation and inspiration.  I love the novel as it is, don't get me wrong, but I think it might work better if I take out some of the confusing bits and pieces that could stand alone as a prequel and help set up the story arch.  What I plan to do is to read the novel through once and then determine if it flows or not.