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Writing a series comprising of two stories from different time periods 200 years apart

Has anyone done anything similar? And how has it worked out for you in terms of writing, and if you’ve had readers how have they reacted?

My stories follow the same family two hundred years apart, over five generations separating the specific families I will be revolving the story around.

The plan is to have it so they can be stand-alone’s as a well as a series.

I also can’t decide wether to dig into writing the sequel first, which will be set in 1920. The earlier time period will be 1720.

Anyone written a ‘sequel’ first, then the ‘prequel’ afterward??
 

pmmg

Myth Weaver
Clearly Star Wars tried the sequel before the prequel. It was not an exact match, but they lived through it. Just don't pull a Jar Jar.

In fact, Star Wars has a whole series of book that are Prequel stories. I am not sure if they are canon anymore.

Amazon tried this with LOTR, and fans don't seem to like it. Isn't House of the Dragon also doing this?

I think Lewis did this. Did he not write Lion, Witch, Wardrobe first, and then some prequel stories later? I think the verdict is they are not an exact match either.

Personally, I ran a D&D campaign that was 200 years apart. Players liked it. They thought it was pretty cool to see how what they did earlier affected things so much later. But....that's an RPG.

In my own stories, I write a story that is present, and a distant past one, and tie them together. I think it works very well, but I don't have the feed back to recommend. Maybe in time.


I think the great risk is, if you write the story, and then try to go back and tell a story before, there will be some type of disconnect, that would cause some type of paradox or butterfly effect.

Thinking on it, BattleStar Galactica also did this. Though I did like their prequels stories, seems the fans didn't.
 

pmmg

Myth Weaver
Actually, now that I think on it, my big story is actually a prequel.

I was writing short stories at the time, and decided to write an origin story which blew up. The end result is that the prequel story overpowered the others and became the story. In fact, in Book 3 is where things catch up to the short stories I had written. I just kind of incorporated them into the large tale and removed their short story aspect.

And....I had a small amount of difficulty with the tone. In some of the short stories, the character seemed more mature than they do in the longer tale, so I could not use them. Kind of like, I over-estimated their growth. But...I do feel I had a good concept of the story before I went for the prequel aspect of it.

But I decided to write the origin because I did not want inconsistencies in the short stories. I think I would choose to write the earlier stories first for this reason. Helps to keep it a cohesive whole.
 
Just don’t pull a what what? 😅

I’m aware of the GOT House of Dragon, Rings of Power and even The Witcher has done something similar over on Netflix, but I suppose they are all high fantasy, and setting something 2000 years in the past in Middle Earth is always going give loads of creative license. Also the same genre overall.

I suppose if I’m setting mine in true to life 1720’s England and then 1920’s England, I’ve really got to think about consistency, but also the genres are quite specific, there’s a whole audience of readers for regency / Georgian novels, and the 1920’s has its own Downton Abbey / Du Maurier / Agatha Christie fan group, so I wouldn’t want them to be too jarring against each other. That’s probably the crux.
 

pmmg

Myth Weaver
I’m aware of the GOT House of Dragon, Rings of Power and even The Witcher has done something similar over on Netflix, but I suppose they are all high fantasy, and setting something 2000 years in the past in Middle Earth is always going give loads of creative license. Also the same genre overall.

Someone has to pick off the low hanging fruit to get it out of the way quickly ;)
 

pmmg

Myth Weaver
That's why it was put there ;) But the harder to get stuff is good too.

I would not expect the tone to be off in the way I was suggesting with a 200 years span, unless the characters are long lived. But I would still like to have the earlier stuff hammered out. That way I can know stuff, like great ancestor Matilda actually had a reputation for biting during bear wrestling, and not for ear pulling as I first imagined. I'd like to avoid setting up stuff I have to go fix because I wrote them out of order.

We are still talking sequels before prequels, right?
 
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A. E. Lowan

Forum Mom
Leadership
We're doing something similar with our next two books, but without the same gap. Both happen over the same weekend, in two different cities and two different groups of characters who are interacting via texts and calls throughout and reunite at the end of the second book. And in our third book we had three different storylines going until close to the end, when our core group reunites for the final battle.

For both projects I'm drafting one storyline at a time, and then my wife braids it all together with an eye on plot and pacing. For the duology, the three of us on Team Lowan are outlining both books together, and then I'll draft one at a time. The trick for us to making this work is detailed outlining. We have to know when all the events occur, so we don't lose any plot points or write in continuity errors. So far it's working well.
 
Wow, that sound like a good system? Though I suppose it’s both the advantage and disadvantage of group work if you’re all needing to be on the same page in terms of outline, plot and continuity.

I think I’m just being eager because the sequel storyline that I’ve come up with just appeals to me slightly more so than the earlier story, but continuity will be the challenge.
 

A. E. Lowan

Forum Mom
Leadership
Be eager. If the sequel is more appealing and the words in your head are pressuring you, go ahead and dig in. You're going to be error-hunting for a while, so don't worry about them in the drafting phase. I avoid them (mostly) by doing a lot of rereading. I polish and edit as I go, which is great for my process but doesn't work for some people. We also outline the cream cheese out of every book. Our last outline was about 100 pages long, and the rest of the series is probably going to look about the same.
 

pmmg

Myth Weaver
I think I’m just being eager because the sequel storyline that I’ve come up with just appeals to me slightly more so than the earlier story, but continuity will be the challenge.

If the motivation is not equal, I would go after the sequel. Trying to do what I dont most want to do starts to feel like a chore.
 

ThinkerX

Myth Weaver
I have something like this going on in my 'Empire' series. There are chapters that take place centuries before the current era, told from the POV of past incarnations (especially Tia). The 'Li-Pang' POV chapters are all set several centuries before the current storyline.
 

Mad Swede

Auror
A. E. Lowan has already said it, but this is like keeping two parallel story threads going in a book. You need to make sure there are hooks and links between the threads and stories, and you need to make sure that time flows at the same rate in both stories even when they're separated by 200 years. So you need to think through the timeline for both stories. When I do this I often find that one thread becomes the "critical path" for both stories, in that it is the one which sets the timing for both stories.
 
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