The family emergency and recent travels of May mean that I missed a lot of the latest blogging brou-ha-has. Lucky me, right? 😉 On the upside, I’ve read some really great posts that developed as a result of the discussions. For instance, Jaci Burton’s love letter to her editors, Lilith Saintcrow’s rant about the myth of “selling out,” and author/publicist Theresa Meyer’s guide to professionalism. And I am late to the announcement that Shanna Swendson’s adorable Enchanted Inc. series might end (prematurely) after book four, since her publisher has passed on book five. Damsel Under Stress (#3) is currently in my TBR pile. If you’re a fan of the series, go out and buy a copy — or buy a copy for a new reader. (Harry Potter fans are a good choice.) If your bookstore isn’t carrying, order it from them, or from Amazon.
As an audience member, it makes me sad when series end prematurely. As a writer of a series, I feel for someone else faced with the prospect of wrapping things up (or not even getting the chance to!) before its time.
Series are a difficult trick for a writer to pull off, because of the triple constraints of story, reader expectation, and market. I’m a big believer that each book in a series should have its own complete story arc. But it wouldn’t be a series* if there wasn’t an overarching story to carry through all of the books. The problem is, how do you satisfy readers that are following said overarching story while at the same time keeping in mind that the continuation of the series may be beyond your control?
Joss Whedon once said that he wrote every season finale of Buffy as if the show wouldn’t be renewed the following fall (except, I think, for season four, b/c they knew they’d get picked up for S5?). But I have a hard time believing that he would have ended the show on the downer that was the season two finale. Still, season five’s finale wasn’t all sunshine and light, either, so maybe it could have ended like that — world saved, but bad stuff went down for it to happen.
With SSG, I want each book to be able to stand alone as well as to fit into the big picture I have for the series. But it’s definitely a challenge to do both. It has helped me to think in terms of “escape hatches” — a story arc may seem closed, only to crop up in a different way farther down the line. A good example of this, to go back to the Buffyverse, is how The First Evil was introduced and then “defeated” (temporarily) in the Christmas episode in season three, then brought back as a Big Bad for season seven.
Hugs, Shanna!
On to brighter topics. Another thing I missed was the release of this music video, starring Paul McCartney, Mackenzie Crook (Pirates of the Caribbean, British “The Office”), and Natalie Portman:
* By which I mean close-ended series. Secret Society Girl is a close-ended series — four books. I know there are also series out there without a major storyline or definitive ending, such as Stephanie Plum.
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