Writing Multiple Series in a World: Part Three

Today we are doing the third and final part of my series on writing multiple series in a world.

Why Do I Write Multiple Series in One World? (March)

What Does Writing Multiple Series in One World Look Like? (April)

How Do I Write Multiple Series in One World? (May)

Today's question I'm answering is, how do I write multiple series in one world?

Now, again I'll remind you, this is definitely not blanket advice that fits every scenario. Everybody writes differently and as such don't be afraid to take any writing advice I give and toss it out a window if it doesn't work for you. I can only share what has worked for me. You have to determine if it works for you as well.

Now with that out of the way... let's get on to answering today's question.

How?

 I've found that in order to write multiple series in a world you need to be prepared to do two things.

1. Be prepared to have this world living in your mind 24/7

2. Make certain that your series are all unique in and of themselves

Okay, so these are two entirely separate things. But I think they are both extremely and entirely invaluable and that you can't write multiple books in a series without doing these two things.

You do number #1 by accepting the fact that probably about 25% (this is a low estimation, I probably spend 75% of my brain thinking about Ruskhazar alone, but I didn't want to scare you off) of your thoughts are going to revolve around this story world. The more series set in this world the more it will dwell on your mind (for instance I spend way more time dwelling on Ruskhazar than I do for Amar). Now I know that as an author you probably already have your stories hanging out there on your cerebral cortex. Authors are already expert dwellers, so I don't think I have to explain to you what it is like having whole worlds in your mind. I'm just putting a special emphasis on the importance of focusing on your story world some in the midst of all that plotting. Because sometimes your plot might contradict something you have already developed in your story world, and you are going to have to scrap something.

You quite simply cannot write multiple series set in a single world unless you are intimately aware of the details of history and world building of the whole world. You have to know if an idea for a story will work or if it somehow clashes with your magic system. I mean sure, you could always keep a myriad of notes, but I've never been one for note keeping. So, I actually find it easier to keep it all up here.

(via Pinterest)

Besides, you don't always have your notes with you at all times and what if you get a super awesome idea but you can't remember if it clashes with a rule that you have already established? Like for instance what if you have an idea for a character's backstory, but you can't remember if you already mentioned that character's backstory—now that simply won't do. If you live and breathe this story world, that's not going to happen... just sayin'...

Anyway, onto number #2.

To put it quite simply, you aren't going to be able to write multiple series in a world unless you first distinguish them from each other. If you can't say what makes them different... then maybe they should all be the same series.

Now, I know this kind of seems like I am contradicting one of my reasons for why I write different series all set in the same world (the A new idea is similar in a sense and fashion to a story that I have already developed a world for reason) but I want to point out that there is a huge difference between a similar concept and a story being basically the same as the first just with some minor details changed. For me as a character driven author the way that I avoid this is to make certain that my main characters are entirely different from each other. If you have differing main characters then just like that you have a different story, because they will be making different choices and reacting differently to situations and pretty much nothing would be the same. (imagine the Hunger Games only if Primrose were the MC instead of Katniss, it would be an entirely different book with different interactions between the MC and all of the other characters)

But not having the same plot as yourself is pretty key too.

I'll provide examples from Ruskhazar since I have a wider selection (but my two series set in Amar can't be any more different themselves). So yeah, here's a brief breakdown on what exactly makes these stories different from each other.

Rage Like the Gods: Has five main characters, who all barely know each other (if they know each other at all) and are basically off doing their own thing with their own individual plots. It's about procrastinating stopping the end of the world, oh yeah, and my characters are literally imbued with the powers of the gods so there is that.

What the Gods Did: This series has four main characters (and a cat), they are practical strangers who are forced to work together and become a mismatched family of sorts. It's about criminals (and Conan) forced to take this role of heroes and defend people from the coming end, except they are just regular individuals who are in no way equipped for this. (As you can see, for this one and Rage Like the Gods both the plots revolve around the end of the world, because well, that's sort of a big thing in Ruskhazar during the present age, but while RLtG is about the only individuals who are actually suited to save the world actively ignoring doing just that, WtGD is about far from qualified screwups who are like running around Ruskhazar with duct tape trying to hold it all together to keep it from all falling apart)

The Blood of the Gods Trilogy: This series has three main characters... per book. Because each book could essentially be read as a standalone, each about different characters and telling a different story, but it all ties back to the two themes of this series vampirism and crime. So that's actually nine main characters as a whole, and the main characters in two of the books in this series are actually siblings. Also it features side characters introduced in RLtG and gives them their stroies. Also, these books take place over close to a forty-year span of time with a book taking place before the events of RLtG and WtGD, one takes place after, and the other during the time of the other two series. So yeah, this series is kind of all over the place, but there's a lot of vampirism and criminal activities taking place so it's all good.

Ancient Gods: This series has two main characters, and they basically have no connections whatsoever and actually don't even know each other. This story is a fantasy time travel book, in which one of my main characters goes back in time and lives through past events, the other main character is an immortal who is also living through these past events only she doesn't have the benefit of foreknowledge. And then each book has a sort of "guest" main character two of which are ancestors of some of my other characters (I believe that we have a RLtG ancestor and a WtGD ancestor respectively), or an ancient being (from Blood of the Gods actually). However these "guests" are main characters only in one book sort of like the way Blood of the Gods has a main character only for one book, but it also has the two permanent main characters who are in all of the books like RLtG and WtGD do (if that makes any sense whatsoever, lol).

Verses of the Gods: This one is actually set in the fourth era which means that it is set after the events of RLtG, WtGD, two of the Blood of the Gods books, and way, way after the events of Ancient Gods. This story has two main characters and delves into the mythology much more and is also basically the story of three immortal besties trying to find some way to get their fourth friend to live forever, so yeah. It's a pretty crazy tale of chaotic proportions especially since one of the immortals is so powerful that the gods literally keep meddling with her life and wiping her memories because if she remembers just how powerful she is she could probably destroy Ruskhazar (and my RLtG characters are currently retired, they aren't in the world saving business anymore) so she keeps getting her memory wiped and yeah we might as well add an unstable immortal superpower with amnesia into the mix then.

So, there you have it. Hopefully you see just how different each of these series are and why I needed to have so many. And hopefully along the way I also made you like super hyped for my upcoming Ruskhazar series, because I am definitely excited myself.

I hope you enjoyed this series, maybe even learned a thing or two about writing multiple series in a world. In the very least, I'm sure you now understand why I do it so much. There's just so much potential! As always, I would love to hear anything you have to share about the subject matter. Comment below!