concatenation; plural noun: concatenations a series of interconnected things.
‘A series of interconnected things…’ If you’re a writer, it’s most likely that someone at some time has said: ‘It would be great as a series.’
And the truth is that many writers write copious series. Myself? I’ve written three series and am now in the middle of the fourth.
Why you may ask?
I’m writing a new novel at the moment. It’s tentatively called Oak Gall and Gold and is Book Two of The Peregrinus Series.
The series, like my others, is set in the twelfth century, and inevitably involves the machinations of the trading house of Gisborne ben Simon. This time, there’s an incomplete illuminated manuscript, a monk with no memory, and dealings with the Holy Roman Empire.
Life has a way of intruding upon one’s best intentions.
Sometimes, like birthdays and babysitting, those occasions are craved and enjoyed. Or farm and garden times, when the seasons demand one’s presence.
But then there are other times.
You know, sometimes I wonder how it is that I don’t have an identity crisis.
Mostly, I’m just Prue the Wife … or Prue the Dog Lady, Prue the Stitcher, even Prue the Gardener or Prue the Kayaker.
But then sometimes I’m Prue the Writer…
And when I’m Prue the Writer, I have many other identities because I have to BE my characters, you see.
I have to be a small man who is a medieval minstrel, I have to be an Arab sea-captain or a Saracen physician…
When I was under the editorial direction of Cornerstones at the beginning of The Stumpwork Robe’s life, I read a small power-packed book called How To Write A Blockbuster, by Helen Corner and Lee Weatherly. One of the very helpful details in the book was a little sheet: effectively a character profile sheet. I scanned off a number for the book I was writing at the time and spent profitable hours filling in the detail.
Over the last couple of days, creativebarbwire has had interesting blogs on characters (http://creativebarbwire.wordpress.com/2010/03/17/characters-real-or-not/) and it prompted me to think about my own approach.
This week, Feb 10, on Writer Unboxed, Anne Aguirre discussed the hero vs. the anti-hero. And it fitted in with my thoughts when I saw how many people had visited my blog after mentioning Richard Armitage and including a shot of him as Guy of Gisborne. Patently the anti-hero is alive and well.
