Coming to 5 of 5

I'm beginning preliminary work for my fifth book today.

Is this a dream? Is this just some screwed up, sick joke? It has to be. My fifth? really? That's 5 of 5. That's the end. That's the last of the series.

Really?

It's a wonderful and yet daunting thing to experience. There's a lot left to be done and explained, and as I seem to have followed the models of the fantasy genre, I've left the answers to come in the last book. The darkness has fallen on the characters at the end of the fourth book and in theory, the sunrise comes at the end of the fifth book.

In all honesty, I don't know how I feel about this. I don't know how I should be feeling. Times like these lead me to wonder if all authors feel this way when they near their finish line. Did C.S. Lewis feel this way when he crafted The Last Battle? Did J.K. Rowling feel this strange apprehension when she sat down to begin penning out The Deathly Hallows? Did Orsen Scott Card feel this way about Xenocide? How about Jeffrey Overstreet with his Auralia thread? Or J.R.R. Tolkien with Lord of the Rings? What about Christopher Paolini with Inheritance? Or the countless other authors I have yet to read?

Series writing is hard. If you've been following along, I've documented a good deal of it here on this blog. Not all, but a good chunk. You have to be sure that the pieces you've got in your head match up. You have to make sure the bread crumbs you've been leaving behind in the previous books lead to a satisfying conclusion. Is there a plot twist strong enough to give the audience the double-take they're looking for? Is there an ending that leaves them looking back to the beginning? Do they still ask for more, even when the main story has reached its end? Have you given them a rich enough world that they believe in it?

I'm excited and nervous. I'm smiling yet frowning. What happens when I'm done? What then?

Strangely enough...a lot. At least for me. For me, there's a growing number of stories I want to write that might never get published and I'd be okay with that. But I want to explore these stories and write them out. I want to delve deeper into the characters surrounding the main cast.

When you introduce over 50 characters into your ensemble and say, "But really we're only focusing on about 12 of them", the audience probably takes a breath and says, "Good." Some of them do anyway. I like to think there are whole hosts of smart readers out there that are looking for a complex story with a myriad of characters to follow. At the very least, I like to assume that my audience is intelligent and capable of keeping up with my sluggish brain.

So onward I march. There's a finish line out there, somewhere. Right now I'm in fog and can't really see. I'll keep moving forward though. There's a drive in my soul that keeps pushing me forward, so I can't really ignore it. There's a reason for this advancement. There's a reason for this. This story didn't pop into my head for kicks. It means something. I'm adventuring to find out what.

The outline for my fifth book begins and thus the tidal wave will crest and I'll wait in anticipation for the break of it to wash over me.

Let's discover together. Who's with me?

Currently Editing: Alaster
Currently Writing: Revelation Outline
Currently Reading: Eldest by Christopher Paolini
Currently Listening to: "Emergency" by The Vitamin String Quartet