Forum: Author Hangout

Creating and Organizing a Series

Paladin_HGWT 🚫

I have created a Glossary for my story Aztlan Portal. (It is still a work in progress.) I don't want it as my first chapter, because most readers want action, not pages of notes.

I am concerned that if I post it as my last chapter, it will deter many readers from voting.

Although I am only about half-way through with my "first book" I have already written the outline for the second book.

I am thinking that I could post it as a separate "book" in the series. A "Reference Book" as it were.

Why have a written a book that only a few people who are reading my story would read?

I get some questions about terms, abbreviations, etc. I am using in my story. I am also getting feedback from others that I am including "too much description" in parts of my story.

Of course it is impossible to please everyone.

However, in numerous fiction and non-fiction books I enjoy, they include a glossary. Sometimes just a page or two. A few it is nearly a third of the book.

While I am writing Aztlan Portal as Fiction, to entertain, I am also hoping to inform those who are interested in capabilities of the US armed forces in the second decade of the 21st Century (and to a lesser degree about the Mexicans and other forces too).

So, I am asking for advice on how to create a Series, with my current story as the First Book. I am wondering how to create the Glossary, a single document, but large, running multiple pages, as a separate "Book" without screwing things up and having to ask Lazeez to UnF*ck things for me.

Thank you in advance.

Replies: Dominions Son Ernest Bywater Keet REP Mushroom

Dominions Son 🚫

@Paladin_HGWT

For what you are talking about, I'd go with a universe rather than a series.

Ernest Bywater 🚫

@Paladin_HGWT

aaarrrgggh, much as it frightens me to do so, I agree with DS.

Create a Universe then you can create one or more series within the universe if you want to. That way you can have the technical stuff as one of more books within the technical series, and you can even split the action stories up into a different series based on time frames or locations or units, however you wish.

However, when you post the technical data you should make it clear in the story description it's the technical stuff and not the action, and I'd also clear it with Lazeez first.

Keet 🚫

@Paladin_HGWT

You could use a reader guide like REP did for his D-Hopping universe: https://stories.net/universe/831/d-hopping (See the link in the universe description). No idea how he did that but I'm sure Lazeez can help if you want to do something similar.

REP 🚫
Updated:

@Paladin_HGWT

I could post it as a separate "book" in the series. A "Reference Book" as it were.

Keet mentioned my reference guide. I posted it like a story and Lazeez told me that that type of information was not allowed as a story. He created a link to the information, so my readers could access the data. That is probably the better solution.

Replies: awnlee jawking graybyrd

awnlee jawking 🚫
Updated:

@REP

I posted it like a story and Lazeez told me that that type of information was not allowed as a story.

That's a shame. Speaking from ignorance, it seems a lot neater to package the technical stuff as a separate document than do sizeable expositional brain-dumps in the actual story text. Perhaps Lazeez is concerned about authors getting credit for non-stories.

AJ

Replies: Keet AmigaClone

Keet 🚫

@awnlee jawking

Perhaps Lazeez is concerned about authors getting credit for non-stories.

It's probably to avoid polluting the pool of stories with non-stories. I doubt there's much credit to get from reference documents on SOL.

AmigaClone 🚫

@awnlee jawking

Speaking from ignorance, it seems a lot neater to package the technical stuff as a separate document than do sizeable expositional brain-dumps in the actual story text.

There are several series or universes that have a link to a non-story 'brain-dump' document attached like the d-hopper universe.

Those documents will not accidentally show up in a search or as a 'Random story', but are still accessible via a link in the series or universe description.

Replies: Switch Blayde

Switch Blayde 🚫

@AmigaClone

a non-story 'brain-dump' document attached

I wonder how many times they're read (if at all).

graybyrd 🚫
Updated:

@REP

As a reader, I prefer a footnote type of reference for obscure or unfamiliar content. If the footnote could benefit from additional explanation, it should contain a link to a separate reference document. (Sometimes I'll open a new browser tab to lookup a Wikipedia reference.)

I find over-long technical names and jargon in the body of the story to be tedious and distracting. Once the type and model of a weapon has been mentioned, it's a PITA to see recurring long designations applied each time the weapon is referenced. Same for other items. Perhaps these are excellent footnote/glossary items when first introduced.

My point: I'd prefer reading "automatic squad weapon" or "machine gun" rather than the long multi-digit designation **each and every time** the weapon is mentioned in the narrative.

Also, particularly in military tales, there seems to be a compulsion to condense all and sundry phrases to acronyms, WIISIAHPITATR!! (which in itself is a huge pain in the ass to read!) So please, try to minimize it to only the essential ones common in conversation or reference.

Mushroom 🚫

@Paladin_HGWT

I have created a Glossary for my story Aztlan Portal. (It is still a work in progress.) I don't want it as my first chapter, because most readers want action, not pages of notes.

Well, is it an actual "glossary", or something else?

A "Glossary" is something I have used, especially if it is a period piece and the slang or phrases used are no longer in common use (or unfamiliar to those outside of where it is set).

If it is notes about the story, setting and characters, then "Bible" might be a more correct word to use. Almost all series, be they movies, TV shows, or books tend to use a "Bible" to help develop internal continuity and ensure that the following stories match the tone and setting of the first.

For one of my stories, I did indeed create a "Bible", and update it as needed. And that is both for my own use, and as I opened the universe up to other authors to allow them to get a sense of the style and setting.

Replies: richardshagrin Paladin_HGWT

richardshagrin 🚫

@Mushroom

glossary

"A glossary also known as a vocabulary or clavis, is an alphabetical list of terms in a particular domain of knowledge with the definitions for those terms. Traditionally, a glossary appears at the end of a book and includes terms within that book that are either newly introduced, uncommon, or specialized. Wikipedia"

Replies: Mushroom

Mushroom 🚫

@richardshagrin

"A glossary also known as a vocabulary or clavis, is an alphabetical list of terms in a particular domain of knowledge with the definitions for those terms. Traditionally, a glossary appears at the end of a book and includes terms within that book that are either newly introduced, uncommon, or specialized. Wikipedia"

I am aware of what a glossary is. But it sounds more like this is a collection of notes, which is not really a glossary.

Paladin_HGWT 🚫

@Mushroom

It is a Glossary. An alphabetical listing of terms, abbreviations, and particular equipment not commonly known.

I do use a "bible" for my own reference. Most of the readers here have not served in the US armed forces in the last decade or so. Even people who have served in the 1990's or even in the immediate aftermath of September 11th 2001, there have been significant changes.

It is in effect a "period piece" similar to Tom Clancy's Red Storm Rising; because Mexico has recently undergone significant change, and so too the US armed forces.

This glossary is condensed from the "bible" I am using to help write my story.

Mostly things such as:

E-SAPI: Enhanced Small Arms Proctective Insert. Plates made of ceramic-composites inserted into soft body armor, may stop projectiles up to 7.62x51mm

or

SERE: Survival Evasion Resistance and Escape, training for pilots, special forces, and others who may find themselves behind enemy lines

I do have a couple of paragraphs about the differences of the various "Tiers" of special operations forces.

I also have several paragraphs about Time Zones and Daylight Savings Time, because US and Mexican regulations make things particularly complex during most of the first novel. I didn't know this when I started writing, despite the fact that mistakes are compounded due to miscommunication and misunderstandings some due to time issues. I had to re-write some stuff because I was not aware of changes in Mexican regulations c.2014-2017, and the fact that in Ciudad Juarez (and most of Mexico w/in 50 miles of the USA) flaunt Mexican regulations, and conform to what is done across the border in the USA. Extra confusing because Arizona doesn't follow USA Daylight Savings Time.

I have a separate (and considerably shorter) character list.

I am going to take a look at what REP, and you Mushroom did, and see if I can Stea-- "Borrow" your ideas.

Replies: Mushroom

Mushroom 🚫
Updated:

@Paladin_HGWT

I am going to take a look at what REP, and you Mushroom did, and see if I can Stea-- "Borrow" your ideas.

Feel free to. I admit I stole the idea from David Gerrold who did bibles for several TV series (including "Land of the Lost and Star Trek Next Generation).

But yes, the military can be confusing for those that never served, or served in a different era. I was in from 1983-1993, and again from 2007-2020 and the changes were huge. Especially when trying to explain the "Cold War" to kids that had no memory of it.

For the most part, in writing longer form stories of that type I try to "dumb down" as much as I can, so as to not lose the reader. Of course, I also do not write "military stories", per se. Even though it may evolve around somebody in the military, I more or less talk about it as if it was another job. Just one that gives you little to no choice in where you go, or what you may ultimately do.

:D

But in most cases, I would simply say "body armor", as ultimately trying to describe all the variations of helmets and body armor we have used over the decades is largely unimportant to most that read the stories.

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Forum: Author Hangout

Creating and Organizing a Series

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