Three Book Series That Won Planning Ahead

Canva

A Jack Russel sitting on a pool float where chic sunshades and accompanied by a rubber duckie

Spoilers ahead for Babylon 5, Harry Potter, and Lord of the Rings. 

I needed a blog idea. Sometimes the well runs dry. I asked my guy for a topic. I was watching Babylon 5 for the first time this year, and he told me, write about B5. Apparently, I’ve said “write what you know” too often. He’s taken it to heart. 

My mother is a sci/fi nut. I’ve seen Babylon 5 many times. She introduced it to me, and I’ve been finding solace in the space station spinning in the stars for years. 

There are some franchises that kill it with story. Babylon 5, Harry Potter, and Lord of the Rings all come to mind. Want to know what they all had in common? 

Photo by Pixabay: https://www.pexels.com/photo/orange-mason-jar-in-body-of-water-462030/

A sunset over the beach waves and the sand with a mason jar filled with tiny lights sparkling.

The authors knew the entire story before they sat down and wrote the first words. The complete story. Maybe some details needed to be fully fleshed out, but Harry was always going to rebury the elder wand, Babylon 5 would be central to the war, and Frodo would carry the ring all that way. 

I’ve written the first draft of book one in a trilogy. More of an experiment. In my mind, I pictured the stories and where the whole thing would end and must admit, that’s some hard stuff to do. I stand in awe of writers who are creative enough to pave their own yellow brick road. 

Back to my love of Babylon 5. In the first episode, we see Sinclair finding out more about the “hole in his mind.” That builds for an entire season and is the building block for everything Valen does as he makes sure everything happens as it should. 

The series shines on the second or third run through. You see all the pieces laid out. The beauty of the story is how it builds. Shadows are there from the start. You see Londo’s greed and G’kar’s anger and how each is locked in mutual destruction. It's a tower of Legos and most everyone is in place for what follows. 

The publisher of Lord of the Rings cut it into three books. Tolkien wrote one book. He planted all the seeds that bloomed into a cohesive story filled with adventure and the cost of doing nothing and letting evil win. Things that happen in book one pay off in the later books because he wrote it all at the same time. Brilliant. 

I'm convinced Harry Potter became a phenomenon because of the connected stories. We watched these kids grown up with each turn of the page. Not only Harry, Ron and Hermione, but the others as well. Like a group of friends or a family of sorts. Rowling wrote notebooks filled with details and arcs for her characters. That meant she could ground the goal, motivation, and conflict. Delicious story. 

Photo by Kübra Arslaner: https://www.pexels.com/photo/brown-wooden-book-shelves-with-books-13095904/

Library book shelves with light shining on them.

Reader’s love finding out an object mentioned in book one has a purpose in book 3. Talk about deep point of view. The people you’re writing the story for connect to it on another level. 

I love stand-up comedy. Comedians do this all the time. They’ll have a joke in the first half that doesn’t pay off until the third act. The audience laughs even harder. They’ve been on the inside of the joke. They’re connected. The comedian has built a relationship with the audience. Powerful stuff. 

Do you have to know everything before you sit down and write? No. In fact, I would argue most writers might have a beginning and an end in mind, but it morphs once the writer sits at the keyboard. Pantser’s might have no idea at all besides a character they want to play with on the page. 

My readers want the connective magic. Who wouldn’t? 

There are many books and/or movies that were written this way. I chose these three because they’re my favorites. Plus, I’m always going back to them for comfort when the world gets to be too much. 

I would love to hear about more books/movies that you find with the whole series planned out. Please let me know what you think. Happy Writing.