Writing a Trilogy

My story, Deeper into Danger, is a part of the Danger Trilogy I’m working on. I actual wrote the second book already. I know it doesn’t make sense, but I did not intend on making this a series. As I stated in my very first post, I lost a flash drive with all my stories and poems on it in 2012. What I am working on now is the story I lost on that flash drive. After finishing the “second book” I felt like the story was incomplete because I did not mention what happened before. So, I made the decision to turn it into a series! The only problem is, I’m not sure how to effectively write a series…
               
        The plots for all three books are set in stone. I know how everything is going to play out. Even still, a lot of planning goes into writing a series. The books must stay consistent in terms of the characters, maybe the setting, and definitely time. My books occur within months of each other. Since I wrote the second book first, I need to reread it and make sure I add details from there into the first one. It doesn’t make sense for something to first come up in the next book. For example, my character makes note that his best friend name means ‘queen’ in Jamaican. That needs to go into the first book.
               
        Sometimes authors write series because they cannot let go of their characters and the story lines. When I finished Our Father, I thought about making a sequel. That story has been with me (through many drafts) for years and it’s hard to let go. For this series, the story has so much within it that I could expand. There are some books that can stand alone, and others that can endure a couple more books.
               
         The titles are a work in progress, though for the second book I’m going to name that one Deeper into Danger and the first book will be Danger. The third book is called Vengeful Ambitions and that will be an exciting story to write and I can’t wait. Unfortunately, it will have to wait in line. I have a huge list of books to complete, but who knows! If I complete Danger next year or the year after, I will work on the Vengeful Ambitions.
               
​         Next Wednesday’s post is an update for September.

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