Three forms of Trilogy

The trilogy (or any group of stories) (specifaclly Sci-Fi and Fantasy) has three forms.
The first, and most popular, is that of a large tale told in three stories. The characters do not change a lot between the books but the plot is signicantly different, though an overlying plot will tie them all together. As stories the later ones can stand alone, though they gain much more from being read together. The first four books of Harry Potter are of this type.
The second most common type is that of the non-unified tale. These stories sometimes involve the same main characters but something has changed them as a person greatly. This also includes any set of tales located in the same world with different major characters, though they are usually in some way related. The Star Wars books are a good example of this kind.
The final type of collection is the single volume. These are essentiually a single story broken into multiple volumes (usually three). Unlike in the others, the sub-plots take less attention than does the major plot and there is little change in time between volumes. This is by far the most complicated version, because it requires the entire story to essentially be laid out by the publication of the first book. The Lord of the Rings is the best example of this type.

World Creation

I was watching some of the special features on X-2 today and got some inspiration on world creation. Even the most detailed world lacks some important things, mainly the stories not told at that time. Every world is full of stories and every character has many stories.

This connects to an earlier though I had about the end of a story. No one's story really ends until the character dies and all the stories of that character can not be told.

True depth comes into a world when characters have stories that outlast them and the current stories. Many comic books succeed in this area because they are serials and stories keep building on top of each other.

Half Right

This post isn't specificaly about writing but more about art in general.

I was on campus today making my way to a study group and trying to take pictures for photo class. I need at least a roll of shots for my final project on the theme of 'Time.' So I was wandering around saying 'time' to myself over and over again and I came across the flagpole with the flag at half-mast for the death of the Pope. The phrase that immediately popped into my mind was 'only so much time.' 84 years. More than most, but not much. So I took a picture of the pole, only without the explination above it doesn't fit my theme. This is one of the big issues in art, that of the creators mindset defining the art. No further comments your honor.

Oh, and I'm wondering if it is still possible to make a movie that is as big a phenomenon as Star Wars.

Invention Theory

I actually had a better title for this phenomenom but I have proceeded to forget it.
Invention theory, at its most basic, is the creation of far more than a single story can support. All authors do this to a degree, I think, but there are some who actually embrace it as part of their writing. When I sat down to write a short (now not so short) story involving five characters I could not just write the story of them at this moment, for it is not the only story they have to tell. Their lives are far more than the one year I show on paper, and in the end I write entire lives out for them.

This is a much larger issue in my fantasy and sci-fi. Not only must my characters have stories (which I have labled World Stories) but I must have nations and groups and languages, and all of those must have a history as well. And each piece of that history can break down into more history. It is not necessarily invented as needed, rather it comes as I think of it or figure out how it works. This is one of the reasons my actual writing does not get done at any rapid rate.

Fanfiction

Fanfiction is an interesting animal. They are not tales in their own rights (by tale a mean a story born in a full form by a independent mine) yet they are very close. They borrow a world and characters (or two worlds, as the case may be) and attach their own story to them. As for me, I'm not sure I would be able to write Fanfic in any serious (as in volume) manner because I lack the freedom. I once joined on online RPG my friend Johanna was running and created enormous backstory (which unfortunately didn't very well). The background to the story is as much or more fun for me than the story itself. I could just sit and create worlds till time died (which it does in a couple stories) but I have to force myself to creat the plot and to a certain degree the characters.