Young Writers Society

Well...at the moment, I've reopened my work on an epic six-book series I've been planning for some time, but stopped working on when I decided the project was too ambitious. Now, I've decided to tackle it again, and it's going alone much more smoothly than I'd dared to imagine.

But then I started to wonder about a potential problem--quite simply, the story encompasses both science fiction and fantasy genres. Even more specifically...the first book is by and large a science fiction story, while the second book is by and large a fantasy story. The other books will incorporate both scifi and fantasy aspects in a much more fluid way, but it's always been important to me that the first book is scifi and the second book fantasy.

Is that too big a shift, though? For example, if I get readers for my first book, will they stick around for the second book if it switches to a mostly fantasy setting? I'm trying to "soften the blow", so to speak, by keeping key characters from the first book, as well as insert a few subtle fantasy references in the first book...but I'm not sure how well that would work.

Sooo...does anyone have any suggestions for how to handle the switch more naturally? Or any examples of genre shfits that have been carried out well? Or am I just worrying over nothing?

That would depend. Are you going from a space opera to a LOTR-styled fantasy world? But really, you shouldn't have to change anything vital just so someone will continue reading and caring about your character's story.

If a reader puts down the second book just because it's fantasy, then making any changes won't do much. If someone liked your writing enough to go through the first book, the only real reason I could see them suddenly not wanting to read the second would be of an intense dislike of the fantasy genre in general, in which subtle refrences, and a few returning characters aren't going to change his mind.

It shouldn't be much of an issue- the line between sci-fi and fantasy has been blurring for a while now. It would help if there was identifiable framework in either of the first two books, say if the reader could identify with some of the cultural elements.

Keeping characters is a must though.

I wouldn't worry about it. If people love your first book, they're probably going to read your second one, even if it turns to fantasy. So what if people that love sci-fi hate fantasy? Make them change their mind with your second book! Don't be so focased on pleasing the readers, though, concentrate on what you want your story to be. As a saying from someone goes, write what you would want to read.

That probably sounded like a bunch of ramble. What I'm trying to say is to stay true to what you want your story to be but still keep the readers in mind.

I agree with whoever said to keep the key characters.

-alwaysawriter

I don't think it matters that much. If you first book is really good, than the readers will continue to read the series to see what happens next. You shouldn't write for the readers, you should write for you. At this point, the readers don't even matter. Forget about them, at least, for now. When you're sure you've got everything as good as it's gonna get, then show it to some people.