Tying the threads together

 This week I’ve been continuing with with my re-write of my old novel set on an orbital shipyard.  I’ve been writing about a character who appeared in the original manuscript, who is also a key character in the new book.

I want to get some of his backstory in, because it involves huge trauma that totally changed his life and shaped who he is now.  But I don’t want to tell the reader all the details of that trauma.  Firstly because it doesn’t belong in the story I’m telling.  It took place decades ago.  And secondly, I don’t want to reveal the details here because I plan to write a whole novel about that character as a later book in the series.  That book will recount the traumatising incident in detail, so I don’t want to reveal the story here.

There are other threads I’m weaving through the book too.  Another key character left home when his younger brother threatened to kill him.  Now it looks like the brother had turned up nearby, and my character worries that his false identity has been cracked.  My character left home when his brother threatened to kill him, so the stakes are high if he is discovered.  And it turns out that the brother may or may not be involved with some sabotage incidents. At this point, I’ve decided to have the brother leave the story again.  He’s a loose thread which I plan to pick up in a later book.

In other books too I’ve tied threads together across several books.  In my Auroradawn stories the books were always planned  as a trilogy.  The story follows brother and sister Arrien and Baak through several years.  At the start of the first book Arrien is newly bereaved, having just lost her mother.  At that time Baak is estranged from the family and a drug addict.

During the course of the first book Arrien comes to terms with her mother’s loss and with the duties of a head of a powerful aristocratic family.  Meanwhile Baak gets off the drugs and reinvents his life, claiming the artistic talent he’s always had.

All three of these books have quest formats.  The characters follow seven clues to get an answer.  In book one, the quest involves discovering the history of an alien culture, which Arrien has always been taught never came to her home world.  At the end of the first book she discovers evidence of that alien civilisation.

In the second book, clues in paintings lead Arrien and her now reconciled brother to the location of an alien artefact.  They uncover evidence of alien bioengineering sites on their planet, sites which have been lost to history.  Arrien knows she must destroy those sites if her family is to survive.

In the third book the location clues in the landscapes of the paintings discovered in book two will lead the siblings to discover the bioengineering plants and destroy them.

This trilogy has the strongest set of threads running through it,  There are seven clues in each of the three books, and the same structure of travelling from one place to another to try and match the clues to the right location.  I’ve also tied up the end of each book with the same thread.  I have Arrien and Baak in the meadow at their alpine home.  In book one, Baak is finally able to mourn his mother’s loss.  In book two  Baak stands by his father’s grave and finally forgives him for the denigration of his artistic talent.  And in book three, I plan to have Baak and his love get married on that same meadow.

There’s a satisfying feel to that series of books, and tying threads together over several narratives.  It somehow gives the series more depth and coherence.