Today I've got a guest post by author Jo Ramsey. Thanks for contributing Jo!
I’ve asked
myself that question a number of times—about my own books. That’s one of the
problems you contend with when you decide to write a series.
I currently have
two young adult series available, Reality Shift and The Dark Lines (both
published by Jupiter Gardens Press, http://www.jupitergardens.com).
I’m currently, at an editor’s request, planning a third series for
Featherweight Press, and just submitted a novel to Featherweight that I suspect
will become a series.
That’s a lot of
series, and the only one that was intended to be one was Reality Shift. The
others just kind of happened.
Writing a series
takes a lot of work, and only some of that work is actually writing the
stories. The rest is all about organization. I’ve been amazed by how many
seemingly minor details in my books have turned out to be necessary for future
books—and how often I’ve forgotten to write those seemingly minor details down
because, well, they were too minor. Like the name of one of my main character’s
brothers, who I thought would only appear in one book but who returned in a
later one, by which time I’d completely forgotten his name.
For each of my
series, I now have a binder. The binder can be kind of fun to put together,
because I get to decorate the covers, which gives me an excuse to procrastinate
writing. The Dark Lines and Reality Shift share a binder because there is some
cross-over between the two series, including some shared characters, and the
binder is divided into sections. I’m not quite organized enough to further
divide things into character information, plot notes, and so on, although I
know several authors who do that. I just keep notes from each book in the order
of the books, so that with each subsequent book I can look back. I plan to do
the same with the other two series, though I’m not quite at the point yet of
having much information.
When I revise
each book, I jot down anything that looks like information I might need at some
point. Even if I don’t think that character will reappear, or that I’ll need to
know what day of the week Jonah forgot his homework, I write it down. If I
don’t, it’s a pretty safe bet I will need to know. I type up my notes, just
because I think it makes the information look prettier, and put it in the
binder.
I have a
timeline, detailing what month and year each story takes place in and the major
events of that story. In Reality Shift, a large portion of each book takes
place during Jonah’s and Shanna’s school days, so I developed school schedules
for each of them and have those in the binder. I have each main character’s
physical and emotional description, and if I describe a secondary character I
include that description as well. Sometimes I have to flip through the binder a
few times to find what I’m looking for, but at least I have the information all
in one place instead of having to reread each book to find it.
Some authors use
index card files. Some use computer programs. I know of one author who has a
wall-sized marker board and keeps track of her series on that. If you write a
series, however you choose to organize, organization is vital.
Jo Ramsey’s latest young adult urban fantasy
release is When Darkness Falls, book
two in her series The Dark Lines. Find out more about Jo and her books on her
website, www.joramsey.com.
Thank you for taking the time to share with us today.
Thanks, Denise. And Michael, thank you for hosting me!
Hi Jo. Always great to read about what you're up to. Thanks to Mike for hosting you.