Time and time again

Hey everyone, and welcome back to Too Many Books to Count! I’m so glad you stopped by. As you know, all month long, we’re talking about writing a series of standalone novels—all in anticipation of the release of my latest novel, Anialych: People of Sand (did I mention that it comes out a week from today?!). Anialych is, after all, part of a series of standalones. It’s actually the first, chronologically, and the fifth, in order of release. Which is why I know what I’m talking about, when it comes to this kind of series.

Thus far, we’ve talked about setting your goals and understanding why you’re writing your series in this manner, rather than the traditional chronological setup, and we’ve talked a bit about making sure you have your world and your landscapes settled before you get too far into book two. Now, I have a hard one for you.

Timelines

This is probably actually the most difficult part, throughout the writing process. It’s the part that confines and restricts, but also helps in setting the tone for pretty much everything throughout the series.

Think of it this way:

Coetir: People of the Woods was the first book I released in the Druid Novels. It’s also the third book, chronologically. It takes place after both Anialych and Dwr. Oh, and there are a few characters from Coetir who will be back for the final book in the series.

What does that mean, by way of timelines?

Well, it means that Cedwig and Mynidd have to take place fairly soon after Coetir, otherwise my timeline will be muddled. See, those characters who need to come back from Coetir will be joined by characters from each of the other books. If I don’t want my Coetir characters to be old and decrepit (which really wouldn’t make much sense for a story of this nature), then I need to make sure everything else is actually happening fairly soon after the events of Coetir, just to make sure my timeline matches up.

Those are the things you’ll have to think about, very closely, while you’re writing your series.

With every scene, every story, you need to know exactly when it time this is taking place, in relation to the other stories in your series. I needed to know what was going on with Mynidd while the events of Coetir played out. I had to know that. If I didn’t, Cedwig wouldn’t work properly.

And I know how much of a pain it can be, trying to keep everything straight when everything’s happening so far apart, in a physical sense. It seems almost like it shouldn’t matter, when everything is happening somewhere else in relation to what you’re writing now—but in the long run, your editor-brain will thank you if you heed my advice.

Figure out your timeline. Know it like the back of your hand. Ask yourself the hard questions, like why things have to happen now as opposed to a later date, or what bearing the actions of the characters in book 2 have against the characters in book 5. There will be ramifications of everything you write, upon every other book in the series—it just won’t happen the way you’re used to.

Breathe. You can do this.

Take lots of notes along the way, okay? Even if they seem like insignificant ones.

[love]

{Rani Divine}