Laying the ground for future stories
Published by on January 19th, 2009 Leave a comment »
I completed writing the latest Persistent Spirit audio chapter over the weekend and realised I had just created the starting points of five associated short stories in the space of a few paragraphs. There seems no end to the possibilities.
The TableRappers book series is planned to have short story collections spread amongst the full novels – every third book, in fact. These collections will be derived from Keynes’ (the primary protagonist) case files covering his adventures both before Persistent Spirit and after.
More than simply short stories, these will colour back story and weave both existing and new plots, new characters, and answer some questions about Keynes’ past – and pose a few more!
Weaving webs
What has become increasingly obvious is the growing complexity of the various long term story threads weaving their way around my central characters, and in particular the need to keep everything properly organised.
I already have the odd email here and there pointing out inconsistencies in the writing – something I love receiving because it clearly demontrates that people are engaged enough in the work to notice! But as the audience for these stories grows, it will become ever more important to keep track of everything.
Where is the solution?
Right now, I don’t have one.
Yesterday I purchased a pack of Extra large Moleskine Cahiers for the very purpose of trying to pull all these initial story ideas and setups into a single location. Why Moleskines specifically? Well, if you have to ask…
The problem is rather more complex than simply making notes about possible future short stories. Any exchange between two characters with a clear back story, can be a potential short story at some point in the future. Each of these have to be remembered, tracked, and interwoven with the growing tangle of character timeline stories. Sounds daunting? Absolutely!
What excites me about this challenge is the end result of a plausible world in which the interrelations of characters is multi-dimensional which, if I manage to handle the storytelling well enough, will bolster plausibility and most importantly, help the reader to be more involved in what I am trying to create.
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