This week: the necessity of a series “bible”; an update on my writing; The Spike-related links; and the mad genius of Jonny Greenwood.
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I long ago had the idea that I wanted all my stories to be in one connected universe. I hadn’t considered how difficult that would become.
It’s relatively straightforward to carry forward the big things from one book to the next. I of course remember the names of the main characters, for example. But there are a lot of potentially small details in a book that might seem unimportant yet give life and texture to the characters and the world.
There’s no way of knowing what will resonate. If a reader shares a favourite drink with a character, for example, that can create a connection the reader will remember. If the character later chooses to drink something else, without explanation as to why they didn’t pick their favourite, the character seems less real.
Noticing any inconsistency ruins the believability of the story and characters, and breaks trust with the author.
Keeping consistency within one book can be hard enough. A character hurt their ankle two days ago – does it still hurt? How badly? Do they limp? Do other characters notice? Does it hinder them when running, or even just walking? At a minimum, it needs to be at least referenced in the following chapter, even if only to say it’s now healed.
Consistency becomes exponentially harder when a book is part of a series.
The Spike Volume 2 follows on directly from the end of Volume 1. What from the previous book is still relevant? I’m not going to spoil anything here, but there are a multitude of minor and major things that need to be kept in mind.
To do this, I’ve decided to keep a series “bible”. This includes:
- a summary of every chapter including where it takes place, which characters appear, and some meaningful quotes;
- a page for each major character, which rather than giving facts (e.g. has grey eyes) includes the description as written in the book;
- a list of all minor characters, along with their descriptions as written and which chapter(s) they appear in;
- a list of all locations, along with descriptions as written and which chapter(s) they appear in.
I decided to include the descriptions as written so that a) there’s less chance of contradiction, and b) I can include a tweaked version of the same description next time around if necessary. Reoccurring characters and locations need to be re-introduced in each new book, and they won’t change much physically from one to the next, so rewriting a completely new description each time would be unnecessary.
It can be difficult to ascertain what will be relevant later. For instance, during Volume 1, it’s mentioned one of the characters can’t swallow tablets. It could be easy in the next book to have them throw down some painkillers when they’re hurt, but that would be out of character for them.
So I’m recording a lot of information. Small details can make a big difference.
Hopefully all this work will pay off to create a living, breathing world the reader can invest in.
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After several consecutive weeks of beating the prior week’s word count, it was inevitable it couldn’t continue. Not because of a lack of effort, but because I ran out of stuff to write.
Draft 2 of The Spike Volume 2 is finished!
The three parts all together total 202k words, which is more than I originally expected, and the draft took thirteen months which isn’t too bad considering I work a full-time job.
I know I want to add more chapters to part 1, and probably trim a bit from part 2. I feel like part 3 needs the least amount of work, but I’ll have a better idea once I’ve read through them all. Before I can do that, I need to take a bit of a break from them, get a bit of distance, so I can return with fresh eyes.
During this break, I’m combing through The Spike Volume 1 and creating my series bible, as described above. I’ve already made notes of a couple of things to change during editing of Volume 2.
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The Spike Volume 2 will contain three separate books from the perspective of seven characters.
Draft 2 is complete!
I’ll go through my revision plan in a future blog.
The ultimate aim is to have Volume 2 finished by the end of 2025 for publication early 2026.
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The Spike is set in our world, incorporating real events; the links below are relevant to the themes and overarching storyline, and may or may not provide clues to the direction of the series.
I do not necessarily agree with or endorse any of the views within.
Over half of UK businesses who replaced workers with AI regret their decision
Amazon launches 27 satellites to begin building huge ‘Project Kuiper’ internet constellation
Ministers to amend data bill amid artists’ concerns over AI and copyright
New study compares growing corn for energy to solar production. It’s no contest.
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Every week I share something that’s inspired my creativity.
This week, I’ve been marvelling at the genius of Jonny Greenwood. Yes, Radiohead again make an appearance here, but this time it’s much more centred on one particular deranged guitar solo.
Their song “Go to Sleep” ends with Jonny making the kind of noises I didn’t know it was possible to create with any stringed instrument. It’s messed up and original, and different every time, and I love it. Improvisation can easily be edited out of writing, but this is a reminder that sometimes things need to be ugly.
If you want to skip straight to the solo, it’s at about the 2:30 mark.
What’s inspired you this week? Please share in the comments.
See you next week.
Arrowmaker Books 