How do I make a book or series of books that take place in three different centuries make sense and flow appropriately?

You need to make a very clear distinction between imaginary history and story. It seems to be quite common for aspiring writers to construct elaborate imaginary histories and then struggle to write them down because they are not actually stories.

We can't tell from your question if what you have are actual stories or simply imaginary history, but the fact the you describe your attempts as cliche and predictable is an indication that this may be the issue.

A story has a very specific shape. At its heart it consists of a character who values certain things and has a desire for something else. To attain that desire, they must sacrifice something else they value. They are reluctant to make this sacrifice, so they try different ways to attain their desire, but are rebuffed each time, leading them to have to make a fundamental value choice. The story then proves through action that the choice has been made and shows its consequences, for good or ill.

There are a few basic stories, all of which involve this confrontation of a questions of values in one way or another. We retell these basic stories over and over again. In that sense, every story is cliched and predictable.

What makes a story feel fresh and new, or keeps a classic eternally relevant, is not some novelty of storytelling. It is the freshness and perception of the telling. We don't want to see boy get girl because we have never read a courtship before, but because we want to see this particular boy, who we have come to know as if they were a member of the family, get this particular girl, who we have come to know as if she lived next door. We want Spidey to get MJ and Mr. Darcy to get Elizabeth Bennet because we are interested in these characters in particular, not because we are expecting new frontiers in romance to be revealed to us.

Take your imaginary history. Find the stories in it. Write those stories. Include the parts of the history that are relevant to the story you are writing. Omit everything else. If there is no confrontation with values in the the next 20 years of your characters life, gloss over those 20 years in a paragraph and get to the next confrontation. Make sure that your characters are real enough that we recognize them are real people. Make sure you are writing this boy gets that girl, not just boy gets girl.

The rest will take care of itself.

posted almost 7 years ago

CC BY-SA 4.0

Mark Baker‭

4371 reputation 12 1104 744 58