Tag: time travel

This week at the YA Indie Carnival, the authors are serving up Fiction Pie and giving up their own special recipes for plotting great stories.

With Book #3 of the Midnight Guardian series currently in development, I’m often asked if this will be it…the final one. It’s been a fun series to write and I’m pleased to say that #3 will definitely not be the last one.

I had originally planned it to be a 6 book series. Well, that’s not exactly true. When I released Of Sun & Moon and people asked me how many there would be I would say 4 or 5. I didn’t fine tune the 6 until I began writing Whispering Evil. And although I have planned 6 books (taking the story to Drew’s second vox), Ann and Katie’s timelines have been plotted to the third vox (9 books) just in case I can’t let go.

My time traveling characters have certainly made plotting more complicated. Since Ann and Katie travel back in time, their reality isn’t linear like the other characters. I also quickly realized that not only did I need to keep track of them in time, but I also needed to keep track of them separately. They even have their own Excel spreadsheets with their trips, ages, physical description and emotional concerns at the time of their trip all matched up against points in the linear plot of the whole series. Whew!

Anywho, time travelers aside, here’s my basic no-bake recipe for a great plot:

• 1 strong female mixed with a dash of special ability
• 1-2 villains you love to hate
• 1 bunch of friends, super and non
• 2-4 interesting locales
• pinch of mystery
• stir in unexpected twists
• season with drama to taste
• Simmer with a heaping tablespoon of bad boy hottie until boiling and serve

Collect more fiction pie recipes from these other YA Indie Carnival Authors. BTW – My favorite non-fiction pie is banana creme.