Update: Walker Universe

Phew, what a day for updates.  But I do have one more to make on Walker Universe.  I've been busy this week, especially this four-day weekend, working on the outlines of Walker Novels 1 - 4 and two side-stories/novels.  I have a rough outline for novels 3, 4, and side-story Harem.  I need to flesh those out and do a firm write up on key plot points and events for all of those.  I also need a firm outline on novels 1 and 2, which mostly need organized into a clean outline.  Finally, I need to start the rough outline of side-story two, Valor's Tale.  Valor is the vampire who once owned Walker, which is shown in Harem.

I am cutting it close, but I feel I can get enough to start working on the key plot points at least starting in March and complete the lesser events later if need be.  I'd prefer the whole six story series to be plotted and ready to write come next month.

But either way, this is a great learning process.  Not only do the novels play so much off each other--a change in one necessitates a change in another to make both novels work--but the more I work with these outlines, the more I get the sense of the story lengths.  Novels 1 - 4 are going to be short novels, ranging from just under 70k to just above 40k (aka 70,000 words to 40,000 words).  The earlier novels are longer; the latter ones shorter.  Harem and Valor's Tale are more iffy.  I intended them to be about 20k a piece, true novellas.  However, they may rival the shortest of the proper novels.  But that is the power of ebooks:  freedom of story length. 

These novels would be doomed by NY traditional standards, every single one of them.  Electronic publishing, especially self-publishing, is a far more open-minded world.  Now, I have the freedom to tell the story in the length it wants to be, for I don't believe a story has to be a certain length to be complete and compelling in and of itself.  Whether Novel 4 is 40k or 400k, it will work as it stands.

But you know what this means?  If the series turn out close to my expectations, I will end up writing (and with all hope, publishing) somewhere around 250,000 words this year.  That is close to three traditional fantasy novels worth!  Wow, don't you think?