Today, I have invited Louise Blankenship, to my site to share with us, how she developed her series, "Disciple". With the recent release of Book IV in the series, I believe Louise has an abundance of insightful knowledge and experience to share. Please make Louise welcome and I hope you will benefit from her valuable knowledge.
Carolyn
About this author
L. Blankenship started
writing animal stories as a kid and it's just gotten completely out of
hand since then. Now she's out publishing her gritty fantasy and hard
science fiction adventures. L grew up in New Hampshire but currently
lives near Washington, DC.
Developing a series: plotting plus
pantsing
Whenever I'm asked "Plotter or
pantser?" I can honestly say: plotter. I have a daily writing habit, and I
need to have the night's scenes planned out and prepared before I sit down to
write them. Likewise, I have a fairly detailed outline of the book on hand
which gets filled out with even more details as I work my way through writing
it, day by day.
However, when it comes to developing a
six-book series like Disciple -- I was much closer to pantsing than to
plotting. On the macro scale, at least. Development is an organic process of
story growth, for me. Not trying to chop it down to fit a mould. Not trying to
bend it to my will until it breaks.
When I started Disciple, Part I, I
knew these things for certain: there was a war, there was a love triangle, and
they were entangled enough that they'd follow the same tension rollercoaster
right to the end. I knew that I wanted my characters to be proactive and
capable enough to put up a good fight against the enemy, and that the enemy
would be powerful and ruthless enough to beat them down in spite of that.
Most importantly, I wanted my heroine to
have prime agency in her story. My betas said the same thing: she has to make a
choice, to resolve the love triangle. If one of the two boys were killed, or
randomly turned into an asshole, or was otherwise removed from the equation,
that would not be her making a choice. That would be the author wimping
out on having to write a potentially devastating scene.
What that scene was, I had no idea when I
started Part I. I only had a sketch of what would happen at the end of Part
II, of Part IV, and a vague idea of Part VI which I pretty
much tossed once I got to #4.
In my experience, it's not unusual to get
half or three-quarters of the way into a story and realize the sketched ending
won't work. What's important then is to listen to the characters, both heroes and
villains, about what needs to happen. I was worried about getting my big,
dramatic ending for Disciple but once I sat down with my love triangle
and the villain, and worked out the details, I realized that the drama would be
a quieter moment than I expected, but it still had power.
As I worked my way through the beginning
of Disciple, logical consequences and reactions to events began to
sprout in the future outlines, like stockade forts on a moving frontier. Those
became integral structures as the story caught up to them. When I faced that
re-planning of the ending after Part IV, those landmarks became
especially important.
I worked out the general shape of the
climactic scene of Part VI while I was writing Part IV. Doing
that helped me sketch out the path that would be needed to get there. The exact
details proved difficult to pin down -- as my betas can attest, by the
structural changes that happened to #5 and #6 in the revision process. Things
got a bit messy with all the red ink.
But it all came together. That
potentially devastating scene? Wrote it. That big dramatic climax? Wrote it.
They weren't what I thought they would be, but the betas gave me a thumbs-up.
So while I'm mostly a plotter who works out everything in advance, there's
something to be said for pantsing your way through a series too.
Back cover
of Disciple, Part IV
Kate can’t
avoid the simple truth any longer; as much as she loves Kiefan, he’s now the
king and his duties leave him precious little time for her and their newborn son.
Kate’s husband Anders, the ne’er-do-well knight, is the one who kisses her
cheek every morning and soothes the baby to sleep on his shoulder.
Kiefan’s
protective jealousy still casts a shadow over her life. He would gladly throw
Anders to the wolves if it will keep alliance negotiations from collapsing.
Their homeland desperately needs these allies against the invading Empire. The
kingdom barely survived the first wave of the enemy’s monstrous army and more
is to come.
But Kate
can’t stand by and let Anders become a victim — or let Kiefan suspect she’s
falling in love with her husband.
On sale now
at
New to Disciple?
The Half-Omnibus collects the first
three parts into one meaty ebook.
Or try Disciple, Part I for only 99
cents!
The Moon Dwellers 
