Three books from one - trilogy-making

This week I've returned to a stand-alone novel I wrote a few years ago and titled Geneship. I originally wrote it as a young adult novel, but when I read it through I see it's too simplistic.  It was too shallow for the depth of engagement needed in a young adult novel.   But we now have the emerging New Adult book category, and I want to make this book into a new adult/adult crossover, and extend it into a trilogy.  

I've spent the last few days creating chapter outlines for the first two books from the material of the original standalone.  I have enough material in that book for the first two, and will only have to create new ideas for the third.  That will involve heroine Aris finding out what has happened to her father, and should round off the trilogy nicely.

So how can I turn one book into two?  Several ways.  First, I've added two extra viewpoints, giving the antagonists' side of the story.  I've added two antagonists, each with their own motivations, goals, and baggage.  Secondly, I extended the emotional depth of the characters. My original story didn't go deep enough, skimming the surface of the characters' emotions.  Going deeper is a lesson I've had to learn for every book, and constantly have to remind myself to do.  

Making my characters suffer has to be a conscious process for me.  This is one of the things I've been paying special attention to in my chapter plan.  I've given Aris the baggage of feeling guilty for her first love's death.  And as I get towards the end of what will now be the second book I have a very dark scene that I hadn't handled well in the first version.  I'd had my young adult heroine bursting into tears at that point.  But the injustice revealed there needs stronger emotions.  She needs to feel rage and shock, and perhaps despair that humans would sink as low as that.  And big fear that the Ur-Vai might kill her when they discover the truth.

Having finished my plot plans for the first two books, I can't wait to get going on writing the books.  They will be totally different from the shallow original I started with. I will have let my characters suffer properly, and let their baggage and petty fears and worries drive their actions.

Wendy Metcalfe is the author of Panthera : Death Spiral and Panthera : Death Plain and the short story collection Otherlives.