Alyx Rayer ChroniclesAlyx Rayer’s existence in Atlanta, the eternally bustling capital of Georgia, is one of routine and blending in among the worker bees. But her ‘normal’ life is actually a façade for a higher calling; she's a three hundred year old soul, encased in a human vessel and sent from the darkness between heaven and Earth to capture her Marked when summoned by her superiors.
During the initial, routine stake-out of her Marked, a dream prophet named Isaac Walsh, Alyx is thrown for an emotional loop when his allure captivates her heart from two rooftops away. The event marks the very instance when her sense of what’s right and what’s wrong is brutally challenged as her contact with him is strictly forbidden.
While already trapped between honor and desire, her emotional struggles are further challenged by a man in a black suit who continually pops up when she least expects it, his presence evoking a strange response from the scar she was branded with at birth. The scar tingles like a warning beacon, alerting her that something is amiss. Because her superiors never told her what this would mean, or much of anything except what to do when they summon, she can only conclude to try and keep her sanity, and her life, from completely shattering to pieces.
Top Five Things to Know when Writing a Trilogy
One: Keep your characters consistent. Yes, characters evolve; it would be unnatural and awkward if their circumstances didn’t shape who they are. And while you don’t want them to be cardboard cutouts that just move along though the story unaffected by anything, you also don’t want to lose the essence of who they are – their personality traits, mannerisms, their core beliefs that determine what decisions they make. I’ve read series before where by the second book I wondered if it was even the same character. In book one they would make mature, rational decisions and the next thing you know, they’re acting like they have the maturity level of a three year old.
Two: Before you decide to make it a trilogy, make sure you have the material to support a trilogy. It may be that you could write it all in one book. You don’t want to stop right in the middle of the storyline just so you can sell three books and make more money. Some readers will get pissed off for feeling cheated, rightfully so, and never pick up another of your books again. My books in the Alyx Rayer series aren’t necessarily stand-alones, but there have smaller storyline arcs in each one, and some of the more immediate questions are answered by the end.
Three: Try not to repeat the same patterns/ formulas in each book. Nobody wants to pay for a book they felt like they’ve already read. Each of my books are so different from the others in regard to setting and cast of characters (minus the main thread of characters, of course) and I did that for a reason – it would bore me as the writer, and I also didn’t want to bore my readers. I need to note, though, that not every writer has to go to that extreme; my storyline also called for the different changes in setting/ characters. But you don’t want to get sucked into a carousel of monotonous storylines, either.
Four: Weave in subtle reminders of the previous book. If a reader doesn’t pick up the next book for weeks or even months, you don’t want them to be completely lost. You don’t want to “info dump” the important reminders and stifle the story’s progress, so try and remind them in gentle ways through dialogue, internal thoughts, or brief mentions in the narration.
Five: This is the most important one! Make the end of the series a good payoff for your readers. Speaking of pissing readers off – let them invest in your characters through the span of three books and completely botch the ending. Stay true to the storyline, but also give readers a satisfactory resolution. Make sure things come full circle. No matter how much they loved everything up until the last page, if the end leaves them with a bitter taste, that’s all they’ll remember.
Susan James Pierce has a degree in Marketing Management, works for a Fortune 500 company in Atlanta, Georgia, and devotes her precious, spare time to writing Fantasy and Sci-fi novels. Even though her full-time career has nothing to do with books at all, she has always enjoyed complex storytelling with fascinating characters, and has had a penchant for the written word since grade school. As a matter of fact, her first publishing credit was a poem she wrote at the age of twelve. Why her love for writing never translated into a career, she can only attribute to 'life happens', but her wish is that she can redirect her career path into something that satisfies her creative inner-self.
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