Guest Post - Trilogies - Keeping on Course by Matthew Ward

Hellooo!! Over the last few years I’ve been enjoying mightily reading Matthew Ward’s Legacy series starting with the impressive Legacy of Ash by Matthew Ward and then the action packed Legacy of Steel by Matthew Ward Very soon I hope to talk to you about Legacy of Light (out 19/8) but today on the blog Matthew talks about that reaching the final book and what has stood out in the process and look out for the footnotes!.

After three books and some 720,000 words, the Legacy Trilogy is complete[1].

It’s one of those moments where you take a look over your shoulder a wonder how you got there. I mean, writing a book ain’t the easiest thing in the world[2], and writing three books has to be at least three times as hard. More, probably, because readers do expect a certain amount of coherence along the way – especially with trilogies, where there’s an implicit promise you’ll be reading several stories that build into one.

So having passed through the trilogy crucible[3] and emerged into the light, what advice can I offer for those yet to tread the path?

Know Where it’s Going to End …

Having a fixed point to aim for is crucial. I rattle around between intricate planning and ‘well, let’s just see where today takes us’, but I absolutely had to know where I was going – if only in a broad sense.

Let’s be clear, I’m not talking about anything super-detailed (unless that’s how you’re happiest working). A simple ‘X does Y, achieving Z’ is normally enough. Depending on your tastes, it may also be helpful to have that in mind for each volume in your trilogy as well.

As far as the Legacy Trilogy goes? I’ve known how it was going to end for years now (in an X/Y/Z sort of way). The precise details came out in the writing, and they will for you. Trust yourself, and you’ll get there.

… But Know Your Plans Will Change

It doesn’t matter how intricately you plan your series, stuff’s going to surprise you. Fresh ideas will pop into your head while you’re writing and demand to be taken on board[4]. Concepts and conclusions that once seemed unassailably awesome suddenly transpire to actually be little bits of a jigsaw left out in the rain and chewed beyond recognition by something small and furry.

Just … don’t worry about it. This happens to everyone, to one degree or another[5]. I mean, even if you’re writing at incomparable speeds, you’re looking at months and months of graft. You’ll be a different person in so many ways before you reach the end of the process (older, certainly) and your tastes will have shifted.

More importantly, you’ll be more experienced than you were at the beginning. Some plot elements, phrases or narrative beats simply won’t sit right with you any longer. And that’s okay.

Case in point, there’s a whole plot strand in the Legacy Trilogy (running primarily through Legacy of Steel and Legacy of Light) that I originally thought was a separate book, but the more I wrote of Legacy of Ash, the more I realised it was core to the trilogy at hand. Early me was wrong, later me was right.

Having your plans shift beneath your feet can be intimidating at first – and I don’t think I know anyone who actually likes the feeling[6] – but it’s a sign that you’re honing your skills. Embrace it, and be glad.

Give Your Characters Room to Grow …

Related to the above, remember that you’ll be with your core characters for a very long time – if not in years, then at least in terms of page count. Having a goal for their character arcs is super-helpful (especially if it ties into where you see your story ending), but you’ll want to have them change and grow along the way.

Consider how your characters adapt to changing circumstances, the passage of time and the lessons they learn. How do the people they most interact with challenge or reinforce their assumptions?

Sounds like a lot, I know, but the great thing about characters is that once they come to life in your head, they’ll help you figure this part out.

… And the Chance to Surprise You

Characters are devils for taking you on all kinds of detours you didn’t expect. They know what they want, what they don’t, and what they’ll absolutely, hands down, refuse to be a part of, thank you very much. At that point, you’ve got two choices: let them have their way, or backtrack and get out the old word-pruning shears to bring your errant character back on-message.

I’ll always advise the former if for no other reason than the fact that it’s fun. It’s too easy to get lost in a checklist mentality when writing, and there’s no surer way to make it feel like work[7]. Wayward characters are full of surprises. Better yet, they help you discover the plot as you go, almost as if you’re a reader, not the author. Even leaving the whole ‘fun’ thing aside, it makes it much easier to gauge if you’re crafting an entertaining read.

When I look back on the Legacy Trilogy, characters that didn’t originally exist – or else were so thinly fleshed out in my brain – are absolutely my favourites. One, in particular, goes through some stellar development that simply was not in the plan™. Wouldn’t be the same story without them, and I’m glad they didn’t take ‘no’ for an answer.

Don’t Worry About the Word Count

I can’t stress this enough, but bear in mind that I’m not talking about ignoring the word count you’ve agreed with your editor (if you have one). That will only make them grumpy, and a grumpy editor isn’t any good to anyone. No, I’m talking about eyeballing the word count in the bottom corner of the screen as you write, worrying about if you’ve hit your daily quota, whether or not you’ll pack in all the good stuff with the allowance you have left, etc.

We all do it. We none of us should.

Why? First up, the correct speed to write is the one at which you’re comfortable. That’s different for everyone. Hell, it’ll be different for you, one day to the next. Deadlines can – and should muddy these waters – but keep in mind that there’s no prize for writing the most words in a day, even if some folk like to pretend there is.

Second, if you’ve written too many words, there are always ways to cut them down. Leaving aside the Editorial Dark Arts, there are loads of little tricks to reducing word count that don’t involve jettisoning characters or plot. There are too many to go into detail with here, but think of it this way…

By how many words is your manuscript running long? How many chapters do you have? Divide the first number by the second, and you’ll get a good idea of how much you need to trim by chapter, and then by page. This is a lot more manageable than staring at a draft that’s many thousands of words over the limit and wondering how you murder the surplus.

I can talk about Legacy of Ash, if that helps? As drafted, the manuscript was on the sunny side of 285,000 words. That’s a lot. When it went out on submission, it was roughly 235,000 words[8].

Now, there were a handful of scenes I chopped that helped me knock down the total by a couple of thousand words, so let’s be generous and say I killed about 45,000 words during the clean up and condense stage. Seventy chapters gives about 650 words a chapter, or about 50 lines per chapter. Which means pulling back about 5 lines per page. Combined with a thorough pace edit, sharpening of prose and stripping back unnecessary dialogue tags, it goes by a lot faster than you’d think.

And come on – is your draft really 45,000 words over budget? I didn’t think so.

Above All, Have Fun!

As previously touched on, make sure you’re enjoying what you’re doing. Not only is this vital for what sanity you may be clinging onto, a book that’s written with enthusiasm and a spark of je ne sais quoi is always going to land better with readers that one that’s been a burden. They know, man[9]. If you’re having a fun time, so will they, and goodness knows you both deserve it.

Sometimes, this is going to mean walking away from the writing for a day, a week, a month. Occasionally you’ll have to do that anyway because of other work commitments, family, that summons to help save the galaxy from Blarkon the Indefatigable, being on the run from the Overwrought Examples Division of the Essay Police, or whatever. But it’s okay to take a break just for yourself.

Walk in the sunshine, spend way too long playing Dark Souls[10], write something else – think about something else. You’ll come back fresher and invigorated, and the work will be all the better for it.

In the End …

Let’s face it, this only scratches the surface, but they’re pretty deep scratches.

I’ll close with the most important piece of advice I can offer: trust yourself, but be open to changing your mind. The internet is awash with do’s and don’ts when it comes to writing. They’re all guesses, or reliant on context, or just flat out wrong. Some will help you and others will hold you back.

What works for one writer may not work for the next, so you’ve got to get to a place where you can judge for yourself when to listen and when to shrug and walk away. Borrowing from the classics, writing is more a collection of guidelines than it is actual rules[11] and you should engage with it as such. That means figuring out what works for you. Every writer, every book, every agent, every editor, every publisher – they’re all different. There’s no fixed path through the maze. There’s only your passion, and your craft[12].

So yes, it might be everything I’ve said here doesn’t help you[13]. But even if you’re discounting my very fine, lovingly-crafted advice, you’re at least eliminating possibilities. Which means you’re getting closer to what does work for you. And if it turns out that I was right and you were wrong, the advice will still be here, waiting for you.

I won’t even say ‘I told you so’[14].

Matthew Ward is a cat servant, creative consultant and author of the Legacy Trilogy, the final book of which – Legacy of Light – is available now. Follow him on Twitter (@thetowerofstars) or check out his website www.thetowerofstars.com. 

[1] I won’t say ‘finished’, because a good story never ends – it merely relocates in to the reader’s head and builds a nice, cosy nest of emotional highs and quotable lines.

[2] Though it’s not exactly a 12-hour shift in A&E, let’s be honest.

[3] Which in itself isn’t a bad name for a book series, at least if inverted …

[4] It’s rude, really. Bastards.

[5] I’ll lay dollars to diamonds that folk who claim this doesn’t happen to them simply adapted to the new reality without noticing. That comes with experience. Or gleeful abandon. You decide.

[6] No one you’d lend money to, anyway.

[7] I mean, it is work, but one of the tricks to staying (mostly) sane in life is to convince yourself otherwise.

[8] The Character Humane Society confirms that no characters were harmed during this process.

[9] I’m not saying there are secret cameras in your house, but I’m not not saying that either.

[10] Yes, that is a random example. Don’t look at me like that.

[11] I can hear all of my English teachers screaming in horror at this, but screw ‘em. Shouldn’t have pushed me towards the Sciences, should they?

[12] And that tricky bit in Chapter 15 where you’ve written yourself into a corner, and for the love of God, why won’t the king of the pirates simply do what it says in your notes?!

[13] It’d be a crying shame, and a waste of my morning, but them’s the breaks.

[14] I’ll be thinking it, obviously, but why sour the moment?