SEQUELS AND THE SCARRED SAGA

If you're one of the two, maybe three people that regularly read this blog and have been paying attention to the marketing and promotion for The Worth of Scars (which should be about to significantly ramp up - watch this space!), you may have noticed that the novel is prominently advertised as 'Book One of The Scarred Saga'. What is The Scarred Saga you (probably don't) wonder? How many books will it be? Will I need to read the rest if I decide to do Gabe a favour and slog my way through the first one? Isn't one far-too-large tome enough already??

To those imaginary people I say this: while The Worth of Scars is a self-contained story in its own right (that one needn't continue on with if one does not wish to), it is, as you might have gathered, the opening to a longer series featuring the same characters and world and following the over-arching tale of the renewed conflict between humanity and their ancient enemy the Serafin. How many books might that series be made up of? I have no idea. Well, I do have an inkling, but I'm not willing to share it in case plans change. I can think of half-a-dozen fantasy authors purely off the top of my head who have promised a certain number of books in their series (typically a trilogy) only to have to extend it by a book or two (or four - looking at you, Mr R.R. Martin). Needless to say, if completed, The Scarred Saga will not be a trilogy, but I'm also not willing to put an exact number on it yet either. As a ballpark, think something structurally similar to Stormlight Archive or Red Rising, with two 'parts' or 'eras' each made up of a shorter, more manageable series of books, between which I plan on taking a bit of a break from the endeavour.

Speaking of breaks from the series, this leads me on to the inspiration for this blog post. I had initially planned to write something very different (well, still grimdark/dark fantasy, but different enough) in the brief periods of respite I have (and have had) between writing, editing and publishing The Worth of Scars. I hit a bit of a wall with the project I was focused on last year, however, and have decided instead to start planning the second book in The Scarred Saga. This makes sense for many reasons, keeping my head in that world and meaning that I have a clearer idea of where the characters and story will go as I come to do my final edits on The Worth of Scars this summer.

The upshot to all that is this: after some hesitancy and a definite sense of 'aw shit, here we go again', I've loved taking my first tentative steps into Scarred Saga's next instalment. It's a very different book - much more challenging in many ways than The Worth of Scars, particularly when it comes to structure. This is both daunting and inspiring as I consider how I am going to go about planning and then drafting the new novel. Unlike many, I do not have one single approach to writing. Or, at least, I do not yet have enough experience that I have found a method that I stick by. With The Worth of Scars I took the 'gardener' or 'pantser' route (as opposed to 'architect' or 'plotter'), doing very little planning and outlining and really just diving into the draft, going where the characters and story took me as I wrote. This time, with the lack of a more solid, standard quest narrative as a framing device (sorry, spoilers!), I feel I am going to have to outline each chapter and story beat in far more detail (at least until I begin itching to be done with the boring planning start writing properly). This is going really well so far, and I have a definite sense of the opening moments of each character's story. What's more, I can't wait to write those scenes. Of course, crafting the beginning of any story is usually the easiest bit, and as things get more intricate further along I may well eat my words. Thus far, though, the freedom that comes from a potential reader already 'knowing' the characters and their backstory allows the story to get going much more quickly, as well as enabling me to instantly take the characters in interesting and different directions - something I'm really appreciating. With the first book not even published yet, it will be years before anyone gets the opportunity to read any of this, but it gives me confidence (as I hope it does you, dear potential/imaginary reader) that I am on the right track, and that The Worth of Scars will be but the beginning of something greater.

As mentioned above, news and information about The Worth of Scars is going to start coming thick and fast very soon! If you want to be the first to receive content and opportunities like cover reveals, chapter previews, ARC requests and other sneak-peeks, make sure to sign up to my newsletter here. Give me a follow on all my social media, too!

Cheers,

Gabe