Serial Thinking
I'm thinking about serial fiction. I just started reading The Leopard Mask, Book One of The Guin Saga, a Japanese high fantasy series which is being translated into English by Vertical Inc. The series runs to 100 books and, as I've read, the author is still banging away at them, having reached the 87th book. Now, this is a pretty serious commitment of time and energy, both on the part of the reader and the author. While this isn't too terribly different than other genre serial fiction (all those pulp action novels that I used to read as a kid -- Mack Bolan/Stony Man adventure series, Perry Rhodan, Edgar Rice Burroughs' numerous series) or even comics books, the difference here (I hope) is that Kaoru Kurimoto has a plan and that the 100 book outline encompasses the entire "story" of Guin, the leopard-faced hero. This is what excites me about serial fiction: the idea of a truly epic adventure that has an end and that requires a commitment of time and attention on the part of the readership.
The trouble with the pulp novels and a large number of comic books is that they're set up to be written by multiple individuals and to be accessible at any point by new readership which means that characters can't change from book to book or floppy to floppy because that would restrict entry or confuse the readership by the fluctuations and reversals of change which would occur. Admittedly, serial fiction (and I'm including serial work on television as well) has gotten better about demanding and requiring your complete attention to the work. You don't have to go back and read all of it from the beginning in order to play, but it certainly helps your appreciation of the nuances.
Babylon 5 is a perfect example. J. Michael Straczynski had a five-year plan and, every time I dropped in for a few episodes, I had to play catch up with the changes that had occurred. I passed on the last seasons of 24 and Alias and, if I want to get involved in them again, I'll have to go back because a great deal has changed. There are serial adventures which require constancy and awareness of the entire series in order for participation. These are the ones which are worth my time.
The ones which are written to be accessible at any given point are stagnant and, just as easily as you can enter at any time, you can leave because you know that nothing will ever change.
It was lovely to watch Grant Morrison make huge sweeping changes to the X-men mythology with his run on the New X-men. Nothing was sacred, everything became mutable, and it was possible that no one would survive. Yes, I was there and I had a good time. It's equally disappointing to watch Chris Claremont now attempt to undo everything that Morrison had done, and I think it's entirely symptomatic of what's strangling the comic book industry (and what's wrong with the slavish obsession fans have with their caped crusaders): nothing can flourish where the core axiom is "nothing changes."
So, yes, give me serial fiction that has a point, that has a future, and has an overall plan. What is rolling around my head this morning is how would one go about planning a 100 book series. Say they're each 60,000 words and you churn out four a year. This is still a twenty year commitment of time (Dave Sim did it. How long did it take him to Cerebus? 23 years?). You'll probably need a year or two of planning to ensure that you've got an overall outline and that you know how it ends. You can't draw a line without two points. It's a lifetime of work and the easiest course to follow would be the lifetime of your character. Have you got enough to say about one person's life to fill six million words? Can you keep an audience's attention for twenty years and not get trapped by the same stagnancy which pervades the pulpier serial fiction?
I like to consider the impossible tasks. It's not just enough to want to finish one book; I have to dream about what it would be like to extend an idea out to 100 books, not just because I can but because I like to complicate things unnecessarily. Actually, I consider these things because I would like to read them and, for me as a writer, the first order of business has got to be that the work is something that I want to read. If not, then I'm just hacking away at the page, going through the motions.
Twenty years. Solomon will be in college. Wouldn't that be something? The little dude will just be finishing school and getting ready to start his career. I can turn his room at home into a library. I'll need some place to store the complete series so that I can point to it and say, "This put Solomon through college."
Solomon, on the other hand, will point to the shelf and say, "My Dad is a nut." But, hopefully, he'll say it with pride.