BEGINNERS
Thinking ahead
Bear in mind that the characters you create might well return in another book,
says Adrian Magson
Have you ever found yourself in the midst of writing a book and thinking, this could be more than one book – maybe even a series? If so, don’t panic. You’re not suffering delusions of writerly grandeur; it’s more likely a natural sense of creative growth. It happens more than you might think. Embrace it.
Many writers see their first book as nothing more than one story, a standalone, a singular tale, to be completed before moving on to a new setting, characters and plot – maybe a different genre altogether.
Others – and I’m talking about potential series writers – get a feeling that their character creations could do with another journey, a fresh adventure that will spin them off into new dangers, bursts of tension, vivid melodrama, a panoply of loves and discoveries about themselves they never knew that had. It could be you. First, however, you have to get your current book finished. Then you can set to work on something new. Don’t run before you can walk kind of thing.