This is number seventy-four in the blog series, “My Life in Erotica.” I encourage you to join my Patreon community to support my writing.
LOTS OF PEOPLE (more than thirty) have asked for another volume in the Photo Finish series that shows what happens to the family of Nate Hart in the future. Maybe of his success and business fifteen years down the line. Maybe of Toni, Alex, and his future children, and the two children of Jane and Peter. When I think about this, I think of all the things that are on the horizon for them all—some light and some dark.
1. Nate’s father has been battling cancer for the past five years now. When will he succumb?
2. How will the conference deal with Rev. Mother Superior when she is a widow and all the other preachers are staying away from her at the urging of their wives?
3. Uncle Nate Mayer is fifteen years older than his sister, Rev. Mother Superior. He suffers still from PTSD. Will he last much longer?
4. Will Nate ever have any more patrons?
5. Adrienne and Nate’s ‘sponsor’ has been ill and deteriorating for a long time. What will happen to Adrienne when the sponsor dies?
6. Chris is in an unhappy marriage to a man who fools around and might be carrying diseases. How will she end up, and can she ever be part of the family again?
7. We are about to enter the era of the AIDS epidemic. How will that affect Devon/Dora, Peter, and Derek?
8. Will Nate and family choose to continue in Stratford, or try to find a more profitable place in the US?
9. Will Nate manage to teach at Columbia without getting in trouble with a student?
10. What does Nate’s business look like in the growing conservativism of the late 20th century and early 21st? (He’s a prime ‘Me Too’ candidate.)
11. How much do I need to learn about color photography and processing?
12. When do things start turning digital? (My magazine photographer was battling whether or not he should even investigate doing digital photography as early as 1987.)
13. How does the computer start affecting Nate’s business?
14. Does Sandra finish her degrees and publish her book on female sexuality and development with the pictures Nate took?
15. What was the big change happening in Nate’s photo style that he was struggling to understand or even describe?
16. Can Kat and Julie stay together and really make a life of it?
17. What will happen when Kat brings Julie to Nate to make a baby?
18. How many children will Nate have before he says “No more!”?
19. How will his wives continue to hold together? Will any leave or be left?
20. How does Xian blend into the family, especially with Patricia?
21. Does Xian meet up with her father? How does that go?
22. What happens to Elizabeth and does she ever re-enter the picture?
23. Can Nate and family maintain a relationship with Jordan and Nadia?
24. What good things are going to happen down the road? Births. Weddings. Celebrations. New Movies. Awards. New photo style.
25. Does Ronda continue working for the State Department? Does Nate return for “special missions?”
Overall, I think one of the most important things that is overlooked in planning any story, not just a sequel, is to answer, “What’s the point?” In other words, what is the story?
When I wrote Devon Layne’s Photo Finish series, I had a very specific story in mind for the books to tell. It would span approximately nine years, from 1966-1975. I knew what the beginning and the ending of the story would be and decided to fill in much of the minutia from my own life growing up in the Midwest. The story wouldn’t be my life, but would have the background of my life.
It was the story of a young man growing into adulthood in the Midwest. It would include the latter part of his high school years, his college years, and his first job out of college. There would be an ongoing conflict between Nate and a racist cop who becomes a member of his draft board. In the end, Nate would be sent to the exact place he was trying to avoid, and without firing a shot, would become a kind of hero.
Thinking about going beyond the point I planned is a daunting task, for all the reasons above. But beyond that, I continually ask myself, what would the story be?
Starting with Full Frame, all the books of the Photo Finish series are available as individual books or as a collection on Bookapy.
I find I am having the same problem with the potential book I’ve been exploring regarding the singularity. I have some effective world-building. I have a state of humanity and an evolution of humanity. But I don’t really have a storyline. I look at what I’ve captured so far and have to say, “What’s the point?”
I edited a manuscript for a hopeful author a few years ago. I knew we were worlds apart politically, but I determined not to let that interfere with my objective evaluation of the story. When I received the manuscript, he warned me that it was a very dark story. I braced myself.
It was a dark future history statement. It wasn’t a story. There was exactly one line of dialog near the end of the 60,000-word manuscript. The lead character was really only there to advance the world-view of what a catastrophe the nation was headed toward in the next twenty years. I called it futurism, not fiction.
Author Lance Winslow wrote a 2009 article titled “What is the difference between science fiction and futurism?” The brief answer is in this quote.
Futurism is predicting the future without the use of characters and a storyline. Science Fiction is a literary art, where a story is told and characters are involved. You see, some things you cannot say in real life, as it is not politically correct, but you can tell of it in a storyline.
(ezine link no longer available.)
While there was a character in my client’s manuscript, the whole thing was ‘merely’ a recitation of the events that would lead to a specific future. It was really all world-building.
I’m sorry to say that I have not heard one word from that author in the three years since I returned his manuscript and my notes. It’s too bad. If he’d had a story to go with his world-building I think it could have been a very good book. I wish him luck.
I’m striving to not let that happen in my own new writings. As I think back on some of my abandoned manuscripts, I believe that was the problem. I painted a world and maybe even a good character, but I didn’t have a story. My novel about the singularity is likely going to wait a while before I get the story in my mind.
I’m about to head south tomorrow. If all goes to plan, I’ll follow the Pacific Coast and have a leisurely drive enjoying nature’s beauty. Ah yes: a journey without a point, other than getting me back to Las Vegas eventually. We’ll see what next week’s post reveals about my state of mind. Something’s brewing.