I cheated. I wrote a whole book, split it into three, and voila! A trilogy was born.
When I started The Colour of Her Magic in 2006 I did not intend for it to be a trilogy. Most of my writing takes the form of standalone novels. By the time I got to the third draft my book was over 180,000 words and I panicked. Nobody was going to publish this. Hadn’t I read all those articles about how first novels should be less than 120k words?
But what I could do was split it. There are plenty of articles out there saying “oh, publishers like it more if you have two or three books to sell them”, or “make sure you have a sequel or a trilogy” especially if you’re working in Young Adult Fantasy, which generally I am. Easy, I thought. There are three towers in Erin’s journey. Let’s make them into three.
The Colour of her Magic, the first tower, is a whirlwind introduction into Erin’s world and her quest. She charges at her mission with the energy of a puppy chasing a ball for the first time. (Available on Amazon and here on my website).
A Winter of Intent, the second tower, was harder to write, but no less satisfying. How do you keep someone’s attention to a story without losing their dedication to finding out what happens next? How do you add character depth and bring the reader deeper into the world? What kind of conflict and tests must Erin perform before she’s ready to take on an army of sorcerers to rescue her princess?
The gold standard of sequels is The Two Towers, in my opinion. Tolkien opens the world around him, splitting his party into groups, introducing the Rohirrim, the Ents, and honestly making his poor characters run to a battle. But it’s my favourite. I love the way it builds, the way it has a powerful payoff in the battle of Helm’s Deep, and the way Frodo and Sam toil their way forward, step by painful step, making their way to a place they know they don’t want to go.
I’m not comparing myself to Tolkien. How can anyone? But I am more than happy to learn from his teaching, and A Winter of Intent (releasing soon!) takes, I hope, a leaf from his tree. Erin’s journey takes her south to Horncastle, to face the erstwhile hero Sir Lorrus, a man who was supposed to be the King’s Champion but betrayed his oath, turning instead to work for the High Sorcerer and stop anyone from winning the tower and rescuing Princess Daphne. This time it is not magic or monsters that Erin must face, but a man as human as she is – and will this be the hardest task of all?